| Tempe Preparatory Academy | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Verum, pulchrum, bonum "Truth, beauty, goodness" |
| Established | 1996 |
| Type | Public (charter) secondary |
| Students | 340 |
| Grades | 6–12 |
| Location | Tempe, Arizona, USA |
| Accreditation | North Central Association, American Academy for Liberal Education |
| Mascot | Knights |
| Website | tempeprep.org |
Tempe Preparatory Academy is a charter school in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona in the United States. Founded in 1996, Tempe Preparatory Academy (also known as Tempe Prep or TPA) offers a Great Books curriculum centered around Western culture, history, language, and literature. Its motto is Verum, Pulchrum, Bonum, meaning Truth, Beauty, Goodness. It is also the founding model for the Great Hearts Academies schools, but is not a part of this Charter Management Organization (CMO). Tempe Prep is an independently governed charter school.
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As a charter school Tempe Prep offers a Great Books education centering around fundamental texts in the Western pantheon. Tempe Prep's philosophy includes small class size (no classroom has more than 22 students) and education using the Socratic method.
As a public school in the state of Arizona, Tempe Preparatory Academy has no entrance requirements. Interested families must apply for the school's annual admissions lottery, which takes place in the spring of each school year. However, if a family has one child enrolled, any other children automatically receive a spot.
Because the academy is a charter school, it has the right to cap its enrollment, and does so at 360 students with no more than 20 students per section. However, starting in the 2008-2009 school year, Tempe Preparatory Academy will cap each class at 22 students, allowing two more students into each class. Another addition in the 2008-2009 school year is one class of sixth grade.
In 2008, the school was awarded the Blue Ribbon Award.[1]
Tempe Prep earned ratings of "excelling" from the state of Arizona in 2008 and 2010.[2][3]
Tempe Preparatory Academy offers few choices in its academic curriculum. 9-12th grade students may choose to study Latin/Greek, French, Spanish, or German. The rest of the curriculum is fixed.
Tempe Preparatory Academy has recently added a 6th grade to their school.
Senior students at Tempe Preparatory Academy must complete a written thesis and defense before receiving a diploma from the school. Students are required to write a fifteen page thesis based upon three texts, one of which must be a TPA curriculum text. They are advised by a faculty member and must appear before a defense committee.
Tempe Prep offers many extracurriculars in fine arts and academics. Although Tempe Prep is a small school, the Speech and Debate team and Odyssey of the Mind teams are competitive, regularly placing in the top 5 at tournaments with many schools over 10 times the size. Tempe Prep is the has won the Arizona 123A State Champion in Speech and Debate every year from 2006, through 2011. The Odyssey of the Mind teams won the State Championship between 2002 until 2007 with a World Final Placement of 5th place in 2004, 4th place in 2007, 2nd place in 2008, and 5th place in the 2009 World Finals Competition.
The school also offers numerous musical groups, such as string ensemble, wind orchestra, percussion ensemble, and Cantamus, a choral ensemble, which sang at Carnegie Hall in the summer of 2007.
Tempe Prep competes in the AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Association) in the 2A Conference's Central Region. As of summer 2008, Tempe Prep is the four-time defending state champion in girls' high school track and field as well as the defending champion in men's high school track and field. In women's high schsoccer, the school won the state championship in 2008. In total, Tempe Prep athletics have win a total of 11 state championships. Tempe Prep is also a member of the smaller Charter Athletic Association (CAA), since the AIA does not administer sports for junior high students.
Tempe Preparatory Academy offers the following athletic teams:
During spring break, senior students join faculty members on a trip to Washington D.C. The trip regularly lasts several days and sometimes includes visits to Philadelphia and historic sites in Virginia.
Currently Tempe Preparatory Academy's demographic cross section consists of 83.4% white, 1.5% black, 7.1% Hispanic, and approximately 8.0% miscellaneous.race.While [5]