Organizations that advocate for classical charter schools, like Hillsdale College, sometimes focus their arguments for classical education on the development of “moral and intellectual virtue” in students.
But it turns out that Florida’s classical charter schools seem to be doing a good job of preparing their high school students for college majors in fields like engineering and the sciences by convincing them to take courses in chemistry, physics, precalculus and calculus. Many of the state’s traditional district schools struggle to do this.
Course enrollment statistics for the Spring of 2023 (from the Florida Department of Education website) for six classical charter schools that host high school grades show that if these schools formed a district that this “classical school district” would have:
-Florida’s third highest chemistry course enrollment rate (In the spring of 2023, 22.5% of high school students in Florida’s classical charters were taking chemistry);
-Florida’s fourth highest physics course enrollment rate (11.6% were taking physics);
-Florida’s fourth highest calculus course enrollment rate (4.4% were taking calculus); and,
-Florida’s second highest precalculus course enrollment rate (12.1% were taking precalculus).
The six classical charter schools that host high school grades for which I was able to find course enrollment statistics are Pineapple Cove Classical Academy in Brevard County, St. Johns Classical Academy in Clay County, Mason Classical Academy and Naples Classical Academy in Collier County, True North Classical Academy in Miami-Dade County and Classical Preparatory Academy in Pasco County.
All six have small high school programs. The largest in the fall of 2022 was Pineapple Cove with 271 students, and the smallest Naples Classical Academy with 126.
In fact, classical school enrollments in chemistry, physics, precalculus and calculus are likely better than the rankings above suggest. For privacy reasons, the FLDOE does not list numbers of students for courses that have fewer than ten students, a circumstance that is common in small schools like these. For example, Pineapple Cove had fewer than ten students in AP Chemistry in the spring. Because the FLDOE didn’t give the number of students, I couldn’t include those students in the calculation of the chemistry course enrollment rate. That doesn’t occur very often in the generally larger traditional school district high schools.
Furthermore, some small schools don’t teach a course like Honors Physics every year. Pasco’s Classical Preparatory Academy didn’t offer Honors Physics in 2022-23, but 108 students took the course at Classical Prep in 2021-22.
So what can we learn about the success of the classical high schools in coaxing students into upper level math and science classes? Perhaps the most important lesson to take away is the importance of central leadership in setting school culture. Three of Florida’s six classical charter high schools (Naples, Pineapple Cove and St. Johns) are members of the Hillsdale College classical K-12 school initiative. Hillsdale sets curriculum for its member schools. In math, it is Algebra 1 in 8th grade, Geometry in 9th grade, Algebra 2 in 10th grade, Trigonometry and Precalculus in 11th grade and Calculus in 12th grade. For science, Hillsdale prescribes Biology in 9th grade, Chemistry in 10th grade, “Physics or Other Advanced Science” in 11th grade and “Astronomy or Other Advanced Science” in 12th grade. That is, chemistry is pretty much mandatory and physics is encouraged.
What do Florida’s classical charter schools teach in their high school science classes? Hillsdale recommends textbooks, providing a window on the science curriculum. The text recommended for 9th grade biology is Biology by Kenneth Miller and Joseph Levine. Miller is well-known for his advocacy for evolution education. In 10th grade, Hillsdale recommends the chemistry text by Mickey and Jerry Sarquis. The 11th grade physics text is Serway and Faughn. In 12th grade, Hillsdale recommends an astronomy text by Eric Chaisson & Steve McMillan. These textbooks present the scientific consensus in each field.
Classical schools aren’t Florida’s only examples of the influence of central leadership on upper-level math and science course-taking. Seminole County’s school district leadership plays a very important role in setting STEM culture in its high schools – leading to the district’s preeminent position of STEM leadership in Florida. A few years ago, Hillsborough County’s district high school science leadership decided to implement an opt-out scheme for the main high school science sequence of biology-chemistry-physics. That is, students completing biology were automatically enrolled in chemistry and had to specifically unenroll to avoid chemistry. The same was true for students completing chemistry – they were automatically enrolled in physics. As a result, enrollments in chemistry and physics rose dramatically.
For now, there are relatively few students in Florida’s classical charter high schools – only 1,269 in total during the Fall of 2022. And their emphasis on the Western cannon and spin on US history is a turn-off for many K-12 educators in traditional district schools.
Nevertheless, there are lessons to be learned from classical charter schools about how to improve the preparation of high school students for college STEM majors.
Bridge to Tomorrow 