High School
Grades 9 through 12
High school brings the Porter Hill academic progression toward synthesis, research, clear communication, and responsible independent work. Students are expected to use the knowledge and reasoning developed in earlier years to investigate questions, defend conclusions, communicate with purpose, and complete increasingly substantial academic work.
The culmination of a coherent Kindergarten through Grade 12 path
The Curriculum Framework describes the later years as a stage in which students are increasingly expected to synthesize what they know, conduct research, write and speak for an audience, defend conclusions, and communicate with clarity and grace.
High school therefore builds on both knowledge and reasoning. Students continue learning substantial academic content while being asked to use that content thoughtfully, communicate it well, and exercise increasingly mature judgment.
Read the complete Curriculum Framework →What high school students are developing
Upper school work asks students to integrate knowledge, reasoning, research, communication, responsibility, and character as they prepare for graduation and the work that follows it.
Research
Students learn to locate, evaluate, organize, interpret, and use information responsibly in increasingly substantial academic work.
Clear communication
Students strengthen written and spoken communication through explanation, analysis, argument, presentation, and attention to audience and purpose.
Disciplined reasoning
Students examine evidence, assumptions, relationships, competing perspectives, and the strength of claims before reaching conclusions.
Independent scholarship
Students learn to manage longer assignments, assessments, deadlines, research, revision, and academic responsibilities with increasing maturity.
Depth of knowledge
Students continue building subject knowledge while learning to connect ideas across disciplines and use what they know in more complex ways.
Character & purpose
Integrity, responsibility, wisdom, service, and thoughtful judgment remain central as students consider how knowledge should shape the way they live and work.
Growing through the high school years
High school expectations deepen over time. Students begin by strengthening upper school habits and progress toward more sustained research, synthesis, argument, and independent academic responsibility.
Grades 9 and 10
Strengthening upper school habits
The first years of high school establish the habits needed for more advanced work. Students are expected to read carefully, write with greater structure, reason from evidence, manage multiple courses, and respond constructively to feedback.
- More sustained reading and written analysis
- Stronger organization and assignment management
- Increasingly complex mathematical and scientific reasoning
- More developed use of evidence and sources
- Greater responsibility for academic communication and follow through
Grades 11 and 12
Synthesizing knowledge and communicating with purpose
In the later high school years, students are asked to bring knowledge and reasoning together in more substantial work. Research, argument, presentation, synthesis, and responsible independent study become increasingly important.
- More sustained research and source evaluation
- Clearer argument, analysis, and presentation
- Independent planning for larger assignments
- Greater synthesis across ideas and disciplines
- Preparation for graduation, future study, work, and service
What students study, and how they learn it
The Curriculum Map provides the grade by grade course sequence. High school courses use the Porter Hill learning model while placing greater emphasis on synthesis, research, evidence, communication, and responsible independent work.
Language & literature
Students read substantial texts, strengthen composition and analysis, examine ideas and arguments, and communicate increasingly well-supported interpretations.
Learn: Study significant texts, language, rhetorical choices, models, and ideas through instruction and close reading.
Practice: Annotate, plan, draft, revise, analyze, and strengthen written communication.
Discuss: Examine interpretations, arguments, evidence, assumptions, and competing perspectives.
Demonstrate: Complete essays, examinations, projects, presentations, and other assessments that require clear communication and reasoning.
Mathematics
Students develop increasingly sophisticated mathematical reasoning, problem solving, precision, and the ability to communicate mathematical thinking.
Learn: Encounter new concepts through direct instruction, worked examples, models, and guided notes.
Practice: Apply procedures and concepts across increasingly complex and unfamiliar problems.
Discuss: Explain methods, justify steps, analyze errors, and compare approaches.
Demonstrate: Complete assessments and applied work that show accuracy, reasoning, and sustained understanding.
Science
Students study the natural world through increasingly sophisticated concepts, evidence, data, models, investigation, and scientific explanation.
Learn: Encounter scientific concepts through instruction, reading, demonstrations, selected sources, and course materials.
Practice: Work with data, models, scientific vocabulary, calculations, observations, and written explanations.
Discuss: Examine evidence, limitations, patterns, relationships, and the strength of scientific explanations.
Demonstrate: Show understanding through analysis, projects, written work, examinations, and other course assessments.
History & social studies
Students examine historical and civic questions with increasing attention to chronology, evidence, sources, causation, perspective, argument, and interpretation.
Learn: Study people, events, institutions, ideas, geography, and selected primary and secondary sources.
Practice: Organize evidence, compare accounts, trace causes and consequences, and develop supported explanations.
Discuss: Evaluate claims, consider perspectives, test interpretations, and defend conclusions with evidence.
Demonstrate: Complete essays, projects, presentations, examinations, and other assessments that require analysis and communication.
Christian worldview across the curriculum
Faith remains part of the whole academic experience. Students are encouraged to consider truth, human dignity, responsibility, creation, culture, wisdom, vocation, and service within a Christian understanding of the world.
As students approach graduation, they are increasingly asked to exercise judgment, communicate convictions with clarity and grace, and consider how knowledge should be used with integrity and responsibility.
How a high school course is built
Porter Hill courses continue to move students from first exposure toward genuine understanding. In high school, each part of the learning cycle asks students to work with greater depth, independence, and precision.
Learn
Students encounter substantial ideas through instruction, reading, guided notes, Scripture, primary sources, demonstrations, and carefully selected materials.
Practice
Students apply skills through problem solving, annotation, drafting, research, revision, analysis, and repeated academic work.
Discuss
Questions and Socratic discussion require students to explain reasoning, examine other perspectives, test claims, and support conclusions with evidence.
Demonstrate
Exams, essays, projects, presentations, research, and other assessments show what students can understand, apply, synthesize, and communicate.
A school week with structure
High school students retain the flexibility of learning at home while working within defined courses, assignments, assessments, expectations, and term schedules. The goal is increasing independence within a real academic structure.
Instruction
Students begin with the week’s lesson, reading, guided notes, source work, or demonstration.
Application
Assignments, practice, research, and written work require students to use new knowledge in meaningful ways.
Conversation
Discussion, questioning, and periodic Socratic webinars provide opportunities to test ideas and communicate thoughtfully.
Assessment
Exams, written work, projects, presentations, and other assessments provide a clear picture of academic progress.
The Learning Steward’s role in high school
High school students should carry much more of the daily responsibility for their own coursework. Family partnership remains important, but the role increasingly centers on oversight, communication, consistency, and support rather than directing each academic task.
The academy provides
Curriculum, instruction, assignments, assessment, feedback, academic expectations, school communication, and the structure of each course.
The Learning Steward supports
Consistent routines, appropriate oversight, communication when concerns arise, and a home environment that supports sustained and responsible study.
The student owns the work
Students are increasingly responsible for planning, meeting deadlines, using feedback, preparing for assessments, asking for help, and completing their work with integrity.
A clear path through graduation
The Curriculum Map shows how high school study continues the academy’s Kindergarten through Grade 12 progression. Each year is intended to build on prior knowledge and prepare students for the demands of the next stage.
New families complete an initial evaluation before enrollment. Students remain connected to their grade level program, while supplemental work may be assigned when specific gaps need to be strengthened.
Explore grade level progression and placement →Explore high school at Porter Hill Academy of Arts and Sciences
Review the full curriculum path or begin the enrollment process for Grades 9 through 12.