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$14,980

FES-UA, FES-EO, FTC, Step Up & Center Academy Scholarships

Along with our small school settings, the structure of the classroom is a critical component of education. Center Academy’s unique classroom design allows for both group instruction and quiet, individualized study. Our classroom design and management have been refined over the course of five decades. With our small class size and extensive curriculum, we provide all students with a friendly, safe learning environment. Center Academy has specific and deliberate classroom expectations that ensure order, consistency, and motivation throughout the day.

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Our typical student teacher ratio is 9:1. Our classrooms have a qualified teacher and a teaching assistant. This class size is optimal to allow individualized attention to students' needs and still allow for quality interaction among students. We believe one should not limit a child's potential for growth. We approach each student with the confident attitude that he or she will grow and prosper in our program.

Various clubs, activites, and aftercare

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Based on our assessment of each student, we develop an individualized program that incorporates appropriate academic levels and prescriptive strategies which recognize processing strengths and weaknesses. Students may receive accommodations or work on remedial materials to address attention, thinking skills, memory skills, or other processing avenues.
Students with more significant processing deficits or dyslexia may use programs such as Lexia’s PowerUp or Core5 (personalized and adaptive reading programs based on Science of Reading principles), Learning Ally (audio books to help students dealing with dyslexia), IEW (a scaffolded approach to teaching the art of writing essays) and a specified math remediation program.  
 

Chrome books are used to support our special learning programs

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Various clubs, see website for details 

Student interview, school records review

Rolling Admission

The mission of Center Academy is to provide students with a learning environment that facilitates the development of self-confidence, motivation, and academic skills, and gives students the opportunity to achieve success in life. To accomplish this mission, Center Academy is guided by the following principles and goals:

01
Center Academy will improve its students’ self-esteem, self-concept, and self-confidence.

02
Center Academy will improve student motivation levels and inspire students to give their best efforts in all tasks they undertake.
03
Center Academy will provide a “third place” for the student. A place beyond the home and school. It will provide a community of support for the young person. The community relationship will promote student, parent, and staff cohesiveness.
04
Center Academy will prepare students for post-graduate studies while emphasizing the essential skills of reading, writing, and mathematics.

05
Center Academy will remediate specific learning disabilities and other neuropsychological weaknesses, and at the same time teach compensatory strategies so that students can be successful as adults.
06
Center Academy will develop staff loyalty by ensuring that all staff members, part-time and full-time, understand the significance of their work and share the goals and values of the school.

Center Academy began in 1968 with the vision of its founder,
Dr. Mack Hicks, who saw the need for a specialized,
full-day school for students who were falling through the cracks in traditional schools.
 

Center Academy began in 1968 with the vision of its founder, Dr. Mack Hicks. Seeing the need for a specialized, full-day school for students who were falling through the cracks in traditional schools, Dr. Hicks established one of the first schools in the United States to focus on the needs of students with Attention Deficit Disorder and other neuropsychological processing difficulties.

With a team of professionals in the fields of neuropsychology, education, and individualized remediation, Center Academy opened its first classrooms in a small church and then expanded to the Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. The school focused on remediating learning disabilities and providing a small, focused, and positive learning environment for students who had experienced academic frustration, and for whom tutoring and other part-time programs were not successful.

The prescriptive learning program at Center Academy was initially developed by our team of psychologists, neuropsychologists, remedial clinicians, and educators. We were one of a very select group of United States schools to receive a $325,000 NIMH grant from the federal government to develop and measure our prescriptive learning program, which has evolved to meet the needs of our students.

Based on our assessment of each student, we develop an individualized program that incorporates appropriate academic levels and prescriptive strategies which recognize processing strengths and weaknesses. Students may receive accommodations or work on remedial materials to address attention, thinking skills, memory skills, or other processing avenues.

Students with more significant processing deficits or dyslexia may use programs such as Lexia’s PowerUp or Core5 (personalized and adaptive reading programs based on Science of Reading principles), Learning Ally (audio books to help students dealing with dyslexia), IEW (a scaffolded approach to teaching the art of writing essays) and a specified math remediation program.  

In addition to the individualized system that addresses learning styles, our high school course offerings align with Florida’s graduation requirements leading to a standard diploma.  Our approach to education is to focus on essential academic skills that will allow students to be successful in the workplace, college, and everyday life.  Students that are advanced in particular subjects may take advantage of dual enrollment at local colleges, which enables students to simultaneously earn high school and college credits. 

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Center Academy is accredited by Cognia, the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the National Independent Private Schools Association. Students receive credit for each academic course completed. Graduating seniors receive a regular diploma recognized by the Florida Department of Education and accepted at all Colleges and Universities.