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Home >> Frequently Asked Questions |
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Frequently Asked
Questions |
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Can't find the answer you are looking for? Our
staff members are available
year-round to help! |
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Registration |
| Q. |
What happens once we sign up with St. Thomas Aquinas Academy? |
| A. |
Once we receive fees and registration, we mail a welcome packet
that includes a student skills assessment for each of your students. This is a
set of very informal tests addressing reading, grammar, composition and math,
and we advise you to take two or three days at your kitchen table at an easy
pace to complete them. When we receive your completed assessments, we sketch out
written remarks about each child’s academic strengths and weaknesses and basic
learning style and make recommendations for starting points in subject areas. We
mail our written remarks and a simple questionnaire to you to help you start
focusing in on academic goals for each child in general and the coming year in
particular. Immediately following that packet, we post our program packet to you
which includes our recommendations for organizing your year, records and daily
routines. It also includes our standard curriculum guides for each of your
students’ grade levels, and a quarterly reporting packet for submitting grades
and progress to earn quarterly report cards, transcripts and diplomas from our
school. Next we work with you over the phone to personalize our program to your
family, then to each of your students. We move skill levels up or down per
subject, organize the whole family into the same science, history and religion
cycle, combine the students into the same or compatible texts, help you find
central focuses for each of the students in each of the subjects according to
their academic needs and styles, make recommendations and comments on
alternative choices, and the like. After the phone interview, you will be ready
to order your books, using the ordering forms attached to the curriculum guides
that list the easiest to use source for each book or program, its price and
order code. Books take two to eight weeks to arrive, depending on the time of
year and—voila!—you are ready to school, with confidence and competence (or at
the least with a firm starting point, a clear set of goals and a friend to help
you along the way!) Following the planning appointment you are welcome to set
appointments with your advisor as often as you need throughout the year.
Of course, you are always welcome to call or email our staff with quick
questions. |
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Registration |
| Q. |
How long does it take to get started with St. Thomas Aquinas Academy? |
| A. |
The assessment process can take as little as four weeks if the assessments are completed and returned within the week you receive them. The later in the homeschool high season (June to September), the longer it can take. |
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Registration |
| Q. |
Can we sign-up in the middle of the school year? |
| A. |
Yes. You can join us for the last part of the year, or sign up early for the coming academic year. (Indicate which is the case on your registration form.) |
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Registration |
| Q. |
What methods of payment do you accept? |
| A. |
We accept checks or money orders by mail, PayPal over the internet, or Visa, Mastercard, or Discover by telephone or the internet. Enrollment may be paid all at once when you submit the enrollment application or you may utilize our four-month payment plan. See the "Enrollment Information" page for further details. |
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Registration |
| Q. |
I don’t live in your state. Will that be a problem? |
| A. |
We have families from most states and a number of foreign countries and have experienced no problems. Individual state laws vary, but basic expectations for academic accomplishment and even subject placement are very similar everywhere. Too, we encourage you to get in touch with your local homeschool support group and/or join Home School Legal Defense Association to become aware of the particular laws of your state. |
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Registration |
| Q. |
My family is not Catholic. Can we still join STAA? |
| A. |
Yes, you are welcome to join our program. A number of our families are non-Catholic. We caution the non-Catholic family strongly, though, that the goal of our program is to produce beautiful Catholic character in the student. Texts and materials are chosen to accomplish that end—and do so beautifully. Further, we cannot issue grades and credits for anti-Catholic content and non-Catholic religion units. |
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Registration |
| Q. |
I have an APO address. What rate do I sign up? |
| A. |
There are no additional mailing fees for APO addresses. |
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Registration |
| Q. |
What would be the total cost for registration and books for an 8th grade student? |
| A. |
Our annual fees for an 8th grade student are as follows:
$50.00 Family Registration Fee
$150.00 per Grammar School Student
$25.00 per family if you would like to participate in our quarterly reporting option.
Book costs usually range from $250 - $500 per student depending what the family already has and the recommendations made by your advisor. If there are budget concerns your advisor will be able to make suggestions about how to keep the book costs down. It has been our experience that math usually is the most expensive subject to put in place.
Additionally, if you are enrolled in our quarterly reporting option and intend to make substitutions in certain subjects we do charge a small paperwork fee of $5.00 per [what we call] "Home-Generated Course Plan" to cover the costs of reviewing the course and registering it for the report card system. |
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Academic Needs |
| Q. |
What if my student has learning disabilities? |
| A. |
Though we do not have specialized or professional training for working with learning disabilities, the flexibility of our program accommodates the student with disabilities very well. |
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Academic Needs |
| Q. |
What if my student needs remediation? |
| A. |
About one third of our new students require some sort of remediation. (No student excels in every subject. We move skill levels up and down for ALL of our students.) Usually, the remedial student joining St. Thomas Aquinas Academy reaches standard skill levels within two years. |
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Academic Needs |
| Q. |
What if my student has advanced skills? |
| A. |
Our program is very satisfying to the committed scholar or natural academic. Our assessment process helps us match them to the academic levels that fit them most naturally. |
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Advisors |
| Q. |
How often do we get to talk with our advisor? |
| A. |
STAA staff members are available Monday thru Friday year-round for quick, general questions from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., California time. Your family's personal advisor is available for lengthy questions and curriculum planning by appointment, as you need.
Advisor time is available by appointment as often as you need throughout the
year. There are no additional charges to speak with your advisor and no limit to
the number of times you may speak with your advisor during your school year.
However, keep in mind that advisors are in high demand during the busy planning
months of April – August. Please be prepared for appointments to be anywhere
from 2 – 4 weeks out and plan accordingly. |
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Advisors |
| Q. |
Why does it sometimes take so long to speak with an advisor April – August? |
| A. |
During the homeschool planning months of April – August advisors are hard at
work evaluating assessments, designing curriculum guides for students, taking
curriculum planning appointments, and helping member families wrap up their
previous homeschool year which makes for a very full schedule!
Advisor appointments are usually available within a few days, often even the
next business day, during the regular season months of September through March. |
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Advisors |
| Q. |
What if I just have a quick question? |
| A. |
STAA staff members are available Monday thru Friday year-round for quick, general questions from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., California time. Your family's personal advisor is available for lengthy questions and curriculum planning by appointment, as you need.
Our staff members are very well-equipped to answer general questions about
homeschooling, recordkeeping, book ordering, and more. If the question requires
your student’s files to be pulled or your advisor’s familiarity with your family
and curriculum plan our staff members will let you know. Arrangements will then
be made to answer your questions as soon as possible by either having you set an
appointment with your advisor or relaying your advisor’s answer to you via email
or phone at a later time. |
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About the Books |
| Q. |
Can I see your books? |
| A. |
The main books for each grade level are listed on our website. Our primary catalogue providers are linked to our site. Please feel free to click through to the catalogue providers and order catalogues, or preview their comments regarding the materials on-line. Too, you might watch for a homeschool conference in your area; most of our books are mainstream homeschooling material, easily available and widely used, and are displayed at most larger homeschool conventions. |
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About the Books |
| Q. |
Do you provide books? |
| A. |
No. We refer you to the least expensive, easiest to use providers we can find. Many of the books we recommend can be ordered through our Online Bookstore which is run in association with Amazon.com. |
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About the Books |
| Q. |
How much do the books cost? |
| A. |
Books can cost as little as $200 for one child and as much as the moon, depending on your family’s interests and income. We recommend a beginning budget of $250 per student for the smaller family, and less per student for the larger family. The average cost is about $250 per student. |
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About the Books |
| Q. |
Where do we buy the books? |
| A. |
We refer you to four primary providers, listed above and on the Homeschool Resources page on our site as well as our Online Bookstore. We list the provider name, identify the cost and order numbers for the texts we recommend in our curriculum guides. Of course, families are always welcome to obtain books from any source they would like. |
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About the Books |
| Q. |
How long does it take to get the books? |
| A. |
Once ordered, books can take two to eight weeks to arrive, depending on the time of year. Check with the provider for more details. |
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About the Books |
| Q. |
Can we use books that are not on the recommended core curricula list? |
| A. |
Without departing wholesale from our core programming, we do negotiate a wide variety of subjects and materials with our families. Documentation and the quarterly reporting system for these courses are discussed in our program packet and during your curriculum planning appointment. |
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Curriculum |
| Q. |
"Does your music program include classical pieces? "Kid's music"? Does it cover music notes and annotation?" |
| A. |
We study music practice and music appreciation, art practice and art appreciation each year. Families are also welcome to contract with tutors, teachers or local classes in their own communities. Our primary recommendation for music practice teaches sight reading, basic music theory and vocalization. Our music appreciation is oriented to classical music. The family is welcome to add other types of music to their curriculum. |
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Curriculum |
| Q. |
"Am I encouraged by your organization to stick with one grade level per year, or can I, for example, let my 9 year old use reading material from a higher grade, and writing material from the grade below him?" |
| A. |
That's the nature of homeschooling, fitting the curriculum to the child rather than the other way around. EVERY child is strong in one subject, weaker in another. |
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Curriculum |
| Q. |
Since I am new and very nervous about starting my kids in homeschooling, I feel I need a written lesson plan. Do you offer such a thing? |
| A. |
A daily lesson plan is simply your list of proposed goals for the day, week, month or year. In the homeschool, these goals should be planned in response to your child’s actual academic needs so as to avoid over-anxiousness and burn-out. Using a one-size-fits-all lesson plan can be damaging at worst, artificial at best. We issue each book in our curriculum a pace and plan of study, so you can mix and match books in your curriculum. In our curriculum guides we discuss how to use each book, so you know what you are doing and why. In our assessment process we identify specific skills to focus on for each student and note learning styles for you, so you know how to work with your student. In our program packet we recommend daily routines and schedules, including how much time to spend in each subject, so you can speed up or slow down in your texts and materials as your student needs to acquire mastery. With that kind of foundation to work from, personalized lesson plans are a snap! (Well…almost.) |
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Grading Student Work |
| Q. |
Who does the grading? |
| A. |
Grading is controlled by the family. Most of our materials include answer keys and/or grading instructions. Additionally, our program packet outlines a variety of grading methods to motivate students to greater accuracy and accomplishment. |
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Grading Student Work |
| Q. |
Do you grade the students’ work? |
| A. |
No. Content, work load and grading is left firmly in the hands of the parents. Grading is an art rather than a science, especially in the home school where we do not have the luxury of grading “on the curve.” Our programming gives clear instructions on how to start developing your own grading style with regard to your student’s aptitudes. We do “eyeball” quarterly work samples and standardized testing as they come in and contact the family when we see obvious difficulties, i.e. student achievement is too low to merit the grades given, Mom is too demanding, the level of mastery is set too low or too high for the student, etc. And our families are always welcome to call for feedback regarding a student’s quarterly reporting as they feel the need. |
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Grading Student Work |
| Q. |
What about grading student compositions? |
| A. |
The materials we use were chosen because they clearly state the assigned objectives for writing, making the work much easier to accomplish, making the grading much easier to do. Also, many of our materials have specific evaluation methods included, and we include a number of recommendations and options for evaluating written work too. And always, your advisor is available to work through these kinds of questions during regular office hours or by appointment. |
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Quarterly Reporting |
| Q. |
Do I have to submit reports to you? |
| A. |
Quarterly reporting is optional, required only if you want transcripts and diplomas. The reporting process is clearly and simply outlined in the program packet that accompanies the curriculum guides. It is simple to do and easily read by other learning institutions that your student may attend in the future. |
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Quarterly Reporting |
| Q. |
Can I buy the assessment separately? |
| A. |
The assessment is designed specifically for our program, specifically to match our students with our materials and is not available separately. |
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Diplomas |
| Q. |
What is required for diplomas? |
| A. |
We have outlined the requirements for earning high school diplomas in detail on our "High School Diplomas" page. |
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Accreditation & COLLEGE |
| Q. |
Are you accredited? |
| A. |
No. We issue quarterly report cards, high school credits, transcripts and diplomas as a “private, religious, non-church-affiliated school registered with the State of California.” |
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Accreditation & COLLEGE |
| Q. |
Has your lack of accreditation been a problem? |
| A. |
No. Our high school graduates are on college campuses across the country (ver-r-ry successfully, we are proud to add). So far St. Thomas Aquinas Academy graduates have had no difficulty qualifying for colleges of their choice. |
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Accreditation & COLLEGE |
| Q. |
“What should we do to prepare our children for college?” |
| A. |
Here are some pointers for the college-bound homeschooler:
- We strongly recommend that you contact the colleges your student is
interested in attending and request a copy of their admissions policy for
homeschooled students. Mailing a copy of the policy to your STAA advisor is
also recommended so we may outline a course of study that will help you meet
the college's academic requirements. (Of course, our standard College
Preparatory and Catholic Liberal Arts Diploma programs far exceed most
universities’ admissions requirements.)
- Follow the course plans laid out for you by your STAA advisor. Minimize
your course substitutions as the Academy has a comprehensive College
Preparatory and Catholic Liberal Arts study plan.
- College-bound students will want to focus on taking College Preparatory
(CP) and Catholic Liberal Arts (LA) courses through St. Thomas Aquinas
Academy.
- Take the SAT and/or ACT. Check to see which your favorite colleges
prefer.
- Minimally, students will want to have completed a year of Algebra I and
a year of Geometry before taking their SAT and ACT tests.
- Study Latin! Why Latin? Consider these reasons excerpted from the
article by Andrew Campbell Why Study Latin and Greek which
appeared in
Classical Teacher, Spring 2007:
"#1 Knowledge of classical
languages increases English vocabulary. About half of all English
vocabulary comes from Latin and another 20 percent from Greek. These
words tend to be the difficult, polysyllabic ones—“SAT words.” A
thorough knowledge of classical languages will increase the
student’s English vocabulary tremendously.
#2 Classical languages aid in the
understanding of English grammar. Studying a highly inflected
language—that is, one that marks grammatical changes with a fully
developed system of case endings—gives students a better grasp of
English grammar. In fact, generations of teachers have observed that
Latin teaches English better than English by requiring students to
accurately identify each part of speech for every word!
#3 Latin is the key to modern languages.
Knowing Latin makes it much easier to learn the grammar and
vocabulary of the modern Romance languages (e.g., Spanish, French,
Italian, Portuguese, Romanian), since they take about 80 percent of
their vocabulary from Latin. Both classical tongues (Latin & Greek)
greatly aid in learning other inflected languages, such as German or
Russian.
#4 Latin students perform exceptionally
well on standardized tests and are sought after by competitive
colleges. As a result of increased vocabulary and facility with
English grammar, students of Latin consistently outperform their
peers—including those who have studied modern languages—on the
verbal portion of the SAT. Between 1997 and 2006, Latin students
outscored the average by 157 points. Higher scores open doors to
competitive colleges and scholarships.
#5 Several careers require knowledge of
classical languages. The technical vocabulary of the medical and
legal professions and the hard sciences rests on the foundation of
Latin and Greek. Latin is still a required subject for some higher
degrees, as is Greek for many entering the ministry." |
- Collect words! An avid interest in understanding the words encountered
in STAA CP and LA course readings will go a long way towards improving
English and reading comprehension scores. Energetically develop a scholar’s
vocabulary and use the words in your daily life.
- It is important for the student to develop neat, fluid penmanship. The
written aspects to tests like the CHSPE, SAT, ACT, and college entrance
exams require hand-written essays – and there will be many in-class essays
to write in college – so make sure the student is not held back by sloppy or
slow penmanship skills.
- Focus on completing the STAA course plans for Formal Composition I,
Formal Composition II, Research Papers, and Critical Reading complemented by
strong grammar and punctuation labs like our Punctuation A-D and Grammar
I-III courses. If your student is not ready for these courses, be sure to
ask your advisor about the plan to get there.
- Consider a class or two at your local junior college starting at age 16.
Classes to consider are advanced math, science labs, art, music, theater,
speech and debate, or introductory computer skills.
- Develop relationships with your local priests, professors, coaches,
instructors, professionals, or other individuals who interact with your
student in academic, athletic, vocational, charitable, or community service
activities -- and then ask them to write letters of reference about your
student to submit with college applications.
- Stay on track with your quarterly reporting so your four-year transcript
from St. Thomas Aquinas Academy will always be ready for sending off with
college and scholarship applications.
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Accreditation & COLLEGE |
| Q. |
"Which colleges have accepted St. Thomas Aquinas Academy
students?" |
| A. |
Here is a part of the ever growing list of colleges that have accepted STAA
students over the years: Arizona State University
Ave Maria University
Benedictine College
Bethany Lutheran College
Christendom College
Davenport University
Franciscan University of Steubenville
Idaho State University
Louisiana Technical University
Magdalen College
Marquette University
Missouri Southern State University
Missouri State University
Montana State University-Bozeman
Mt. Saint Mary's University
Northwestern Michigan College
Redeemer University College
San Jose State University
Southwestern College
Stanford University
The University of Dallas
The University of Montana
The University of Texas at Dallas
The University of Wyoming
Thomas Aquinas College
U.S. Naval Academy
Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Univ. of Wisconsin - River Falls
University of California-Santa Cruz
University of Florida
University of Minnesota
University of Oklahoma
University of St. Thomas
University of West Florida
Villa Maria College
Washburn University
Wichita State University |
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Miscellaneous |
| Q. |
Is it possible to get in touch with families enrolled in your program? |
| A. |
We jealously protect our families’ time and privacy. Instead, we invite you to call and speak to one of our advisors about your questions and concerns regarding our program and its suitability for your family. On our website we have comments from member families posted. |
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Refund Policy |
| Q. |
What is your refund policy? |
| A. |
If you determine from our initial mailing, the assessment and welcome packet, that our program isn’t for your family, return the packet within 14 days and request a refund in writing. We will return you a check for the amount of the student enrollment fees. The $50.00 Family Registration Fee is not refundable. |
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