How CN Prepares Your Child for College

Strengthening Academics

If we want to be sure that students are ready to graduate from high school and move on to college-level work, we must see to it that they are academically strong. How can we do that?

High Expectations

When students don't do well in school, it doesn't necessarily mean that the material is too hard. In fact, the opposite may be true; students often rise to a challenge.

We want our courses to make students reach for understanding. In doing so, they will build their inner resources and their concrete academic skills.

Many high school students can do college work.

Careful Course Sequencing

Of course, we realize that not all students will be ready for college-level courses right away. For that reason, many of our programs have students take their courses in a specific order. The following is a typical course sequence:

The noncredit and College Now sections don't give up the idea of being challenging. Rather, they build in extra academic and social supports ("scaffolding") to help students achieve their potential.

We hope that a student who has taken a noncredit psychology class, for example, will be able to draw on that experience when later taking Intro to Psychology at the college level.

Interesting Subjects, Dedicated Teachers

Another way to strengthen academics is to teach kids what they want to learn in ways that they are open and receptive to. We encourage our programs to design courses that have students do things and go places. We encourage our teachers to continue their own educations by participating in ongoing staff development.

Help, Where Needed

Sometimes the material really is too hard. Fortunately, most of our programs can offer students access to college tutors and learning centers.