The TPS Program - Classical Roots

Temecula Preparatory School: A California Charter School

Less than ten-percent of charter schools in California are certified charter schools. Temecula Preparatory School (TPS) is one of those. Founded under California’s Charter School Act of 1992, TPS is a non-traditional public school open to the public, is tuition-free, participates in state tests, employs credentialed teachers, and does not discriminate.

In short, charter schools are opened under a sponsoring public school district or county school board, Temecula Valley Unified School District for TPS. Charter schools receive their funding in the same manner the other public school districts receive funding and the majority of this is through “average daily attendance” (ADA) funds. However, many charter schools receive a lower amount of ADA funding than the traditional public schools. Therefore, for charter schools to maintain growth in excellent service to their student bodies they must look to fundraising opportunities.

Despite the significant difference in ADA funds allotted to charter schools there are over 600 charter schools serving over 200,000 students in California. Over the past 10 years, charter schools have consistently grown by an average of 50 schools a year. With such growth charter schools serve a balanced mix of students mirroring demographics in California’s public schools.

According to a 2007 USC field study, charter school parents cited "challenging curriculum and individualized student attention” as key reasons for their high level of satisfaction.

Research shows charter schools do a better job increasing student achievement than traditional public schools. Specifically, research based on the California Department of Education’s Academic Performance Index from 2004 – 2007 indicates that 11% more charters than traditional public schools show substantially higher student achievement by the end of the school year.

Temecula Preparatory finds itself among the best of those charter schools in the state and among the best public schools in the nation.

Temecula Preparatory School: A brief history

Temecula Preparatory School opened on September 6, 2000 as a public charter school for grades K-8 modeled after Hillsdale Academy in Hillsdale, Michigan. With this model in mind TPS features a classical education which includes “a highly traditional, values-centered curriculum stressing basic skills and critical analysis”.

Temecula Preparatory School has grown from 180 students scattered amongst the Lower School grades to a full-fledged K-12 school with over 500 students enrolled and over 600 students on the annual waiting list. After three moves in the first five years, TPS has been granted a permanent location and has already begun building its permanent facilities.

TPS is now fully WASC accredited, is one of only a handful of schools certified by the California Charter Schools Association and has been recognized as a top school by US News and World Report. In addition to core classical curriculum, the Lower School and Upper School offer classical education in language, a wide variety of student activities and athletic activities as well as the performing and visual arts.

Classical Education: Teaching virtue and training students to think

“Classical Education” can be traced back to the civilizations of Greece and Rome. The “primary education”-- grades K-12 -- is based in classical education’s “trivium” which covers grammar, logic and rhetoric in the proper developmental stages.

Classical education was lost during the dark ages but was rediscovered during the Renaissance. It was the prevailing model when our Founding Fathers were being educated. Unfortunately, classical education was almost extinguished as “progressive” educators have “dumbed down” much of America’s curriculum and followed various educational fads such as "whole language" and "new math."

In the past several years, however, classical education has been revived and is having a huge impact on education once again. Why is this? Because classical education has two simple goals: teach students to be virtuous and teach them how to think, not what to think.

The End Result: It Works!

Temecula Preparatory School has quickly become one of the leading classical schools in the state and the nation. Most recently TPS was awarded the bronze ranking by US News & World Report placing its Upper School among the top ten percent of high school’s in America. This ranking is based on California proficiency standards and student preparation for college-level work.

The success of TPS is not difficult to pinpoint. We choose not to underestimate what students can learn or how well they can think. We believe that through classical education a student’s natural curiosity can be developed into a great analytical mind. We also believe that this development should not be done in a vacuum, but instead it should be built upon a strong foundation of virtue so that a student’s analytical thinking can be directed toward the benefit of humanity.

Why expect less from a student’s education?

The TPS Curriculum: Classical at Heart and Practical for Today

Lower School - Grades K-5: smaller class sizes, strong teacher-parent communication, classical language program including French and Latin, music, art, and a solid volunteer program.

Lower School - Grades 6-8: smaller class sizes, strong teacher-parent communication, classical language program including French and Latin; music; art; ASB; numerous competitive intramural sports, and a solid volunteer program.

Upper School - Grades 9-12: smaller class sizes, strong parent-teacher communication, challenging core classes; a broad range of AP courses; a classical language program including French, Latin, music, art, ASB with numerous opportunities to serve the community and others, and competitive CIF sports.

The Trivium: Three Essential Stages to Good Education

Classical education recognizes and builds upon the three natural developmental stages a student experiences from early on in life to the time he or she becomes an adult. In recognizing that these three stages do exist, classical educators are often much better at teaching students because they are basing their teaching methods on the natural development of the child as opposed to forcing the child into yet another model of educational reform.

This is why, as we look back, we find that many of the great thinkers in history have come out of a classical model of education: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Aquinas, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Bacon, Burke, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin. This is also why classical education has made a comeback today.

As a whole, these three developmental stages are refered to as the “trivum”. The individual stages within the trivium make up a student’s “primary education” (grades K-12) and are known as the grammar, logic and rhetoric stages. But what does this mean?

The Grammar Stage

The grammar stage recognizes that children in kindergarten through fourth grade have minds that are almost “spongelike” in that they are capable of absorbing a large number of facts through a rote or repetetive method. Classical educators use this natural stage to build a foundation of universal truths and focus on the solid basic language skills such as reading and the mechanics of writing including the study of French and Latin. This emphasis on reading and writing is vital to the next two stages of development for the student. It is the foundation upon which the rest of the classical approach to education is built.

The Logic Stage

The logic stage appreciates the developmental change that students are experiencing between the fifth and eighth grades. It is during this time period that students are beginning to question the facts, concepts and ideas they have been taught as well as the authority of those around them. These students truly enjoy a debate or an argument. A good classical environment relies on the strength of its grammar stage in order to encourage students to critically examine the arguments of others as well as their own. However, students are also taught the importance of doing this virtuously, in an environment of respect and care for others.

The Rhetoric Stage

The rhetoric stage is the last of the three stages and it is in this stage that the toil and labor of the grammar and logic stages bears fruit. From the ninth grade to the twelfth grade students are taught and guided to take that which they have learned is fact, as well as those things which they believe to be true, and to express them in such a way as to convince others that their positions are well-founded. Aristotle himself is quoted as saying, “Rhetoric is the counterpart of dialectic (logic)” because students learn to utilize "all the available means of persuasion".

Once a student has successfully completed these three stages they are able to think for themselves, speak for themselves, educate themselves for the rest of their lives, and, most importantly, they are able to teach others to do the same.

The Hillsdale Model: Looking to the Best

Temecula Preparatory School’s charter is based upon the “Hillsdale” model. Hillsdale College was founded in 1844 and has become a very well-respected and renowned independent liberal arts college with the educational mission of academic excellence. Hillsdale College has not only a history of excellence in education, but virtue as well, being one of the first educational institutions in America to welcome both African Americans and women inside its classrooms. Adjacent to the campus is the primary and secondary school, Hillsdale Academy, whose comprehensive Reference Guide is used in hundreds of schools throughout the country, including Temecula Preparatory School.

Hillsdale Academy opened in 1990 with a similar pattern to TPS. The academy started with students scattered amongst grades K-8, but today has students from grades K-12, and its program has gained national acclaim.

Hillsdale Academy has three primary objectives: teach students necessary skills to be productive citizens; nurture children to appreciate moral qualities and habits of mind that they need for good citizenship; and provide America with an educational model that can be useful nationwide. Hillsdale has been highly successful in implementing a classical approach to meet all three objectives and it is for this reason that our school’s founders chose Hillsdale as the model for the TPS.