FAQs

We are continuing to receive many follow up questions about our support for schools and co-ops.  We want everyone to be able to see the questions and answers and will continue to regularly update this FAQ as we receive them.

 

Do we have the ability to advertise the partnership with Angelicum and/or Great Books Academy?

Yes.  Angelicum and the Great Books Academy are unique and well known so marketing with their names should be a big plus.  One of the reasons they are so well known is that we have formal college credit recommendations for the high school Great Books courses (up to 75 credits).  This is important for students in our College and Associate’s Degree tracks.  Thus, we would need you to incorporate a reference that you are using the “Angelicum Great Books Program” or similar attribution that we agree on.

 

Are there any membership fees for Schools or Co-Ops? 

No.

 

Does the Angelicum Academy require strict adherence to its programs, curricula, etc.?

Generally, No.  Our core program for the last 20 years has been to support homeschooling parents with the very best educational support both in terms of curriculum, lesson plans, study guides, grading, transcripts, etc.  Our philosophy is to be a resource for the parents’ decisions regarding what works best for the children.  That means we are not very bureaucratic or stuck to a rigid set way of doing things.  Instead, we tend to be as flexible as possible and listen to the voice of the parents.  We would do the same for schools and co-ops.  Whether a parent, school, or co-op, our approach or philosophy will remain the same.  Our whole program from K to 12 is custom-tailored to restore the Great Books to education in High School with the Socratic method (see e.g., The Paideia Program by Mortimer Adler).  Thus, even the Socratic Discussions and Philosophy courses in elementary school prepare for that.

 

Would we be able to only include our high school program in the Association?  

Yes, we have several online students who only participate in the high school program and we also have students who only participate in the Great Books program.  Of note is that the Great Books program covers four years (Greeks, Romans, Medievals, Moderns).  The readings are chronologically sequential with the first, Greek year being foundational.  Normally, high school students begin with the Greek year regardless of grade or age.

Are co-ops within your Association going to have the flexibility to offer only some of your courses or to choose different textbooks?  Or will they all be required to use your exact resources?

There is flexibility for you to select your own courses from other providers or to use a mix of Angelicum and other providers (e.g., math).  The only program that does not offer this flexibility is the Great Books program.  The books for the Great Books program at Angelicum mirror that of the many college Great Books programs.  They are widely accepted as the greatest books of all time.  Each of the four years consists of thirty 2-hour live seminars conducted by two experienced moderators in a Socratic format.  There is a final, oral examination each semester.  There is also weekly written work and two essays per semester, all of which we grade.  In.  To maintain the college credit recommendation for the Great Books courses (6 credits per semester), we need to adhere to the Great Books curriculum as it is.

Can we use our own teachers and learning materials, and what is the tuition?

You can use your own teachers or other providers for elementary grades and for high school courses other than Great Books.  There is flexibility for you to select your own courses from other providers or to use a mix of Angelicum and other providers (e.g., math, history, religion).   You can also purchase your texts from Angelicum or another source.   At the elementary level, if you are mixing some of our courses with courses from other providers, we would discuss an appropriate tuition charge for what you use from the Angelicum.  Other than the training for the Great Books program discussed below, we do provide free consultation.

For our high school Great Books courses, our tuition includes the cost of two moderators for the 30 classes per year and oral exams for each semester, and weekly written work and two essays per semester, all of which we grade.  It does take training and experience to conduct live Socratic discussions effectively.  After training by us, you could substitute one of our moderators with your own teacher. That would save about $200 per class.  You would have to factor the cost of us sending a trained moderator there to train your teacher(s) who, after training, would serve as a co-moderator(s) with one of our experienced moderators.  Although that can work, we would recommend using our experienced moderators (at least for the first few years) who have been doing this for many years and have also read and studied substantially all the Great Books (well over 20,000 pages) via a classroom monitor or individual computer.  A list of our moderators can be found at:  https://www.angelicum.net/associates-degree-by-12th-grade/great-books-program/overview-of-the-program/moderators/.

Also, of note, is that our students enjoy and look forward to the weekly online Socratic discussions that are hosted using an easy-to-use but robust system that allows for oral discussion, online chat, and a virtual whiteboard for sharing selected portions of text and other relevant illustrations.  If you have at least 15 students all enrolled in the same Great Books course, we could schedule a dedicated online session for them.  We do find; however, that students enjoy interacting and getting to know students not only from throughout the United States but throughout the world.  This enriches the Socratic discussion and provides a broad perspective.

You can use your own resources for the Great Books texts themselves.  They are available from a wide array of sources including local libraries, used paperback editions at bookshops or from online bookstores, and as downloads from the Internet (we provide the links).  We do not require specific translations, but we avoid abridged versions of the Great Books.

Do we hire and train teachers or would our students simply be a part of your current online classes?

As mentioned above, you can use your own resources or other providers for general other high school courses.  You can also use your own resources for the Great Books texts themselves.  They are available from a wide array of sources including local libraries, used paperback editions at used bookshops or from online bookstores, and as downloads from the Internet (we provide the links).  We do not require specific translations but do not allow abridged versions of the Great Books.

As to teachers, our high school tuition includes the cost of two moderators for the 30 classes per year and semester oral exams.  It does take training and experience to conduct live Socratic discussions effectively.  After training by us, you could substitute one of our moderators with your own teacher. That would save about $200 per class.  You would have to factor the cost of us sending a trained moderator there to guide your teacher.  Although that can work well, we would recommend using our experienced moderators who have been doing this for many years via a classroom monitor or individual computers.

Does the Angelicum Academy provide support for grading, testing, etc.?

We do offer support for grading and testing that varies based on grade level.

Elementary:

Our full tuition for elementary is $250.  This includes Lesson Plans (daily lessons) that are quite detailed and tailored specific to each subject.  The Lesson Plans include quarterly tests that we can grade if you send them in or that your teachers are free to grade themselves. Tuition includes free consultation and transcript maintenance.  We will incorporate work from other programs in our transcripts that you send to us.  Acceptance of transcripts is important and is up to the receiving institution.  Our transcripts have been routinely accepted for school transfers or enrollment in high school (as well as for college credit in the high school program).

 

For schools and co-ops that only wish to use portions of our elementary curriculum (e.g., math only), we will charge less than $250 per student (we not allow this for those who homeschool).  The exact tuition would be a matter for discussion between us based on what you use from our curriculum.  Students who are enrolled in one grade may, after enrollment, choose to pursue a higher level of a particular course such as math.  We allow this at no extra charge (students would communicate their request via email).  There is a multi-student discount for students from the same family as well.  With enrollment, students also receive the Good Books Study Guide. https://www.angelicum.net/homeschool-program/good-books-program/ and https://www.academybookstore.org/searchresults.asp?Search=good+books&Submit=.  The Good Books is a large list of 140 books compiled by Professor John Senior and are widely accepted as the best literature for students in the elementary grades. Students do not have to read all the 140 Good Books during their elementary years and instead teachers or students can select from the list.  The Good Books are a great preparation for the High School Great Books program.

High School:

Courses other than the Great Books courses:  For courses other than the Great Books courses that you purchase from Angelicum, we have curriculum lesson plans (daily lesson plans).  We are also available to answer questions and provide advice.  There is flexibility for you to select your own courses or curriculum guides from other providers or to use a mix of Angelicum and other providers (e.g., math).

Great Books Program:  The only program that does not offer the flexibility to use other books or curriculum is the Great Books program.   The books for the Great Books program at Angelicum mirror that of the many college Great Books programs.  They are widely accepted as the greatest books of all time.  We need to adhere to the Great Books curriculum as it is.  Each of the four years consists of thirty 2-hour live seminars conducted by two experienced moderators in a Socratic format.  For the Great Books program, tuition includes an oral examination each semester, and weekly written work and two essays per semester, all of which we grade.   Students from school and co-ops will attend Socratic discussions online and pay the same tuition as all other students.   Of note is that the Great Books program covers four years (Greeks, Romans, Medievals, Moderns).  The readings are chronologically sequential with the first, Greek year being foundational.  Normally, high school students begin with the Greek year regardless of grade or age.  Students who complete the program can earn up to 75 college credits.

What sort of leadership support will be offered, for example, monthly video conferences or training resources? 

For courses other than the Great Books that you purchase from Angelicum, we have curriculum study guides.  We are also available to answer questions and provide advice.  As mentioned above, for the Great Books program, tuition includes an oral examination each semester, and weekly written work and two essays per semester, all of which we grade.

Do the Lesson Plans and Study Guides include the structure (focus questions for discussions, vocabulary, references to literary styles and context lessons for the literature books, reading comprehension questions, answer keys, etc.) of the Great Books program?

Our study guides and lesson plans are quite thorough and well-regarded.  They vary depending on course content.  Significant financial investment and much labor by experts went into developing them and we offer them at low cost to facilitate their use.  For example, the Great Books Study Guides developed by us at significant cost over many years may be purchased directly for a nominal fee without enrolling.

Right now, our High School Lesson Plans are designed for homeschoolers and do not come with the answer keys (although we have them).  We do not give them out to homeschooling families to preserve the integrity of the testing process.  They were developed at great expense and are proprietary.  The families send the work to us for grading.  If a school or co-op wants the answer keys for their own teachers to grade, that could be part of the support we mutually agree to provide your school. Of course, we would want to have a formal agreement that protects the integrity of the answer keys.

Many of our high school subjects (e.g., Saxon Math) have tests and answer keys.   We offer a wide array of high school courses (e.g., handwriting, literature, Great Books, Greats Honors courses – Curriculum – Angelicum Academy), and thus the nature of what is included with them varies.  Of note, is that for Fall 2021, we are changing our Science curriculum to Novare and all the other science textbooks developed as part of the Catholic Textbook Project.  These materials will have their own associated materials.   Reviewing the sample Lesson Plans and Study Guides on our website will help you get a very good idea of what we provide.  Over the last 20 years, experienced teachers and professors developed these materials for us at our great expense.  I trust that you will find them to be the best available and that the minimal cost is quite a bargain.

We would like to explore in greater depth the curricula for each grade. However, each curriculum costs $250/grade. Is there a chance we could get them to review, and then return them if we chose not to use them? Do you have a refund policy, should we choose not to use them?

It is not necessary to enroll to obtain copies of Lesson Plans and Study Guides.  Anyone may purchase, at minimal cost, the Lesson Plans and Study Guides without enrolling.  Free sample curricula for each grade from nursery through 12^th grade can be found at:  https://www.angelicum.net/curriculum/.  Sample lesson plans can be downloaded after clicking on the icon for Lesson Plans at the bottom of the page.  Full lesson plans for each grade can be purchased for the nominal cost of $50 for each grade from our Bookstore at https://www.academybookstore.org/category-s/2296.htm.   The Lesson Plan Binders offer easy-to-use plans that correlate with the Great Books Homeschool Program curriculum. Click on each grade level for links to sample pages from the Lesson Plans.  Study Guides for each of the four years in the Great Books program are available for $49.94 at https://www.academybookstore.org/category-s/2153.htm.  The Great Books study guides comprise over 2,500 pages and were developed by experienced college professors.  At the time of purchase, you will have the option to download the PDF or have the Lesson Plan or Study Guide mailed to you.  The Lesson Plans and Study Guides are subject to copyright and may not be copied or reprinted.  Our refund policy is 14 days and there is a 15% restocking fee.  Full details on our copyright and refund policies can be found at https://www.academybookstore.org/terms_privacy.asp.

Would calling the program “The Angelicum School” or “The Angelicum School of Rhetoric” or something along those lines, be acceptable?

Angelicum is unique in that it has formal college credit recommendations for its Great Books courses.  This is important for students in our College and Associate’s Degree tracks.  Thus, although we can work with you on the title, we would need you to incorporate a reference that you are using the “Angelicum Great Books Program” or similar attribution that we mutual agree on for that portion of your curriculum. This should be a marketing plus as our programs are quite well known.

 

Are the curriculum materials and costs reimbursable in my state?

Some students or schools can get reimbursed from their state for various costs.  We have several California charter schools that have used the Great Books Academy successfully for reimbursement particularly for independent students registered with those California charter schools.  A full listing of these and other charter schools can be found at: http://greatbooksacademy.org/charter-schools/.   Although we do not give advice on California law and the requirements for reimbursement, these schools have been successful in getting reimbursement.  A great resource for you on the legal requirements for each state can be found at: https://hslda.org/legal/california.

 

How do I get in touch with other interested families in my area?

We do have a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greatbooksprogram/) and you can contact us to let us know you are looking for a school or co-op in your area that works with the Angelicum Academy.