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Cary Academy

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Cary Academy is a private middle and upper school in Cary, North Carolina established in 1996. In September 2004, the United States Department of Education named Cary Academy one of 255 public and private schools that had won its No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon award since the inception of the program. This award is given to high performing schools and to schools that show significant improvement in performance. The motto of Cary Academy is "Discovery, Innovation, Collaboration, and Excellence." The school's mascot is the Charger; the school's colors are blue and gold. During the 2006-2007 academic year, Cary Academy will be commemorating its tenth-year anniversary. Cary Academy was founded by James and Ann Goodnight and John and Ginger Sall. Dr. Goodnight and Dr. Sall were co-founders of SAS Institute. As such, the school places a heavy emphasis on the use of technology in the classroom.[1]. Starting in the 2006-2007 school year, the school will transfer to Tablet PC for all students. Architecture for the school buildings is neoclassical, with ornate columns at entrances. It was modeled after the University of Virginia, and was designed by Cherry Huffman architects of Raleigh, North Carolina. Several buildings make up the campus: Middle School, Upper School, Administration, Fine Arts, Student Center (cafeteria), Fitness Center, and the Sports and Education Annex. Approximately 300 students are in the middle school and 400 students are in the upper school. Faculty-to-student ratio is approximately 1:15.

1 Academics
- 1.1 High school
2 Unusual schedule features
3 Tablet PC program
4 Athletics
- 4.1 Cross country
5 Arts
6 External links and sources

Academics

The middle school curriculum includes required course sequences in science, math, social studies, English, foreign language, and PE; students are also required to choose an elective in the arts. Almost all classes meet each day; the exception is art classes in sixth grade, since sixth-graders choose one class to have three days a week and are rotated through the other arts on the other two days to expose them to different disciplines. Math levels offered are Math 6 and Math 7 (more or less based on the standard North Carolina curriculum), Transitional Math (i.e. pre-algebra), Algebra I, and Geometry. Students are initially placed into either Math 6 or Transitional Math, based on previous grades and test scores and on the Iowa Algebra Readiness Test, which is given to interested students the spring before entering; later placements are based on performance in the previous year. Most students do not take Math 7, going straight from Math 6 to Transitional Math and thus moving one year ahead of the standard North Carolina curriculum. Science, social studies, and English (officially referred to as Language Arts) consist of three-year integrated sequences, though English and social studies emphasize ancient civilizations somewhat in the sixth grade, Europe in the seventh, and the United States in the eighth. Foreign language classes are emphasized more than is generally the case in middle schools; levels from Novice to Intermediate-Low on the ACTFL scale are offered in Spanish, French, German, and Chinese. There has been some discussion of adding an Italian program. Arts offered are visual arts, band, orchestra, chorus, drama, and modern dance. Some middle-school students take advanced courses in the high school, but otherwise there is little mixing of the middle and high schools, with the exception of a few extracurricular activities (these are also mostly separate).

High school

The high school offers an extensive range of courses, both required and elective; they include many AP classes, for which college credit can be earned.[2] Most students take at least one or two of these in their junior and senior years, and many take as many as five each year; there are enough AP classes to offer an AP option in nearly every subject for juniors and seniors. The foreign language program is again a particular emphasis, with comprehensive instruction offered from the novice to the most advanced level; in most cases 3 years of the same language are also required in the high school curriculum. The same languages are offered as in the middle school. The school organizes a two- to three-week exchange program with schools in countries with these native languages; the program takes place in the junior year, and approximately 90% of students participate.

Four years of English are also required, including two years of World Literature and one of American Literature. Three years of science, including Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, are required as well, and several year-long and single-term courses ranging from Anatomy and Physiology to AP Biology to Forensics are required as well. Three years of math are required, though almost all students take four. The majority of Cary Academy students are one year ahead of the standard curriculum, as befits the middle school math curriculum described above; they take Geometry as freshmen and Algebra II as sophomores, and then choose from an array of other options ranging from Probability and Statistics to AP Calculus BC (the school does not offer multivariate calculus although a few students take advanced math courses at North Carolina State University). The fifth core requirement is three years of history and/or social sciences, including two years of World History and one of American History. There are a few other requirements such as PE (which is generally waived for athletes participating in two or more varsity sports) and a World Arts program in 9th and 10th grade. All subjects are taught with heavy use of technology, using the school's computer-for-every-student policy and more recently the tablet PCs. Other areas of strength include the AP Chemistry[3] [4] [5] and European History[6] classes. The success of Cary Academy's academic program is reflected in the successful college admissions of most students, with more than a quarter of the class of 2006, as well as similar percentages in previous years, attending University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and many others going to other colleges such as North Carolina State University, Wake Forest University, Duke University, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Average score of SAT testing for members of the graduating Class of 2006:

Critical Reading	Math	Writing
660	675	659

Cary Academy also known for its strong Speech and Debate Team, participating in regional and national competitions of the National Forensic League. Past titles include 2003 & 2004 Tarheel East District Tournament Sweepstakes Winner (District Champions), 2004 Tarheel Forensic League State Tournament Sweepstakes Champions (State Champions), and 2003 TFL State Tournament Sweepstakes Runner-Up. [7]

Unusual schedule features

Cary Academy has a few unusual schedule features. The first is its trimester schedule, in which the year is split into three terms rather than two or four, split up by two-week breaks approximately at Thanksgiving and mid-March. The intent is to maximize the ability of students to learn and to give faculty time to prepare adequately. The winter term is split up by a one-and-a-half-to-two week holiday break. The second feature, which is used only in the high school, is its double block daily schedule; two days of the week, only half the classes meet (the other half meeting on the other day), but they meet for twice as long. This feature is meant to accommodate longer in-class activities and, in some cases, homework assignments, as well as to reduce the time taken to move between classes (though most classes have a break between the two normal class periods unless they are doing an activity that impedes such a break).

Tablet PC program

For the 2006-2007 school year, the school issued Tablet PCs to each student, replacing the desktops that had been present in every room while continuing the one-computer-per-student policy that had been used in most classes. Tablet PCs are small laptop computers that can be used in "tablet mode," in which an electronic stylus is used to write on the screen. This shift was accompanied by an increase in the classroom use of computer technology, which was already very high; some classes have nearly eliminated the use of paper and textbooks. The Tablet PC program is one of the first of its kind in the country; it was financed by school founder Dr. Jim Goodnight. The main difficulty has been the distraction associated with having computers open in every class; many students use them to play computer games and communicate by instant messaging or social networking sites with other inattentive students or with individuals who are not in class. To combat this, the school has enabled parents to view a student's internet history both in class and at home.

Athletics

Cary Academy is a member of the Triangle Independent Schools Athletic Conference and the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association[8]. Cary Academy has seventeen different athletic teams participating in fourteen different sports. The teams are as follows. Boys Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Cheerleading, Golf, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Track, Wrestling Girls Basketball, Cross Country, Cheerleading, Field Hockey, Golf, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Track, Swimming, Volleyball In 2006, the Varsity Girls' Cross Country team won the state championships, and the Varsity Girls' Basketball team came in second.

Cross country

The Cary Academy Cross Country program is widely recognized as the leading program in the Triangle Independent Schools Athletic Conference (TISAC), in which they have been highly successful since the departure of North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics from the confererence at the end of the 2005-2006 school year. The Cross Country program has won many awards for the school, including five state runner-up titles and one state champion title for the girls' team. [9][10] The Cary Academy Chargers began competing in the fall of 1997. Their conference, TISAC, is one of several 3A conferences recognized by the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association (NCISAA). The team trains on the trails of the SAS campus in Cary, since SAS founded Cary Academy and shares some of its resources with the school, as well as in nearby Umstead Park. The team typically trains and races together from August until the end of October; summer and winter training are individual commitments sometimes informally organized by the captains or by alumnus coach Bryan Fisher, since per NCISAA regulations official summer and winter training are strongly limited. At the end of summer training Cary Academy has historically sent some athletes to the All-American Cross Country Camp held in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. The fall is Cross Country season, and Winter training takes place on the Cary Academy trails in small, individually organized groups. In the spring most Cross Country athletes participate in the Varsity Track program, although several female runners are members of the Women's Varsity Soccer team instead. Individual records for the 5k (3.1 mi) course, which is typically run by high school athletes, are held by Ryan Jamiolkowski (16:27 at the SAS Soccer Park) set in 2004 and by Rachel Park (19:09 at Hagan Stone Park in Greensboro) set in 2006 for the men's and women's teams respectively.[11] Head coach for both the women's and the men's teams is currently Conrad Hall, who has held the position since 1998. He also teaches American History at Cary Academy. He is assisted by Coach Kim Jones, a French teacher who has worked with the program for the past three seasons (as of 2007). Joining the coaching staff for the first time in the fall of 2006 was Bryan Fisher. Fisher graduated from Cary Academy in 2003; he was the fastest team member at the time, winning the 1600 meter run at the 2003 NCISAA state championships. He was part of the Class of 2007 at UNC. The Cross Country team is known for the many alumni, who come back regularly to run with the team, as well as to work meets, run in the annual Alumni Meet, or simply cheer the athletes on. The 2007 men's team competes at the elite level of all high school Cross Country teams in North Carolina. At the end of their 2007 season, they were ranked 15th out of all of the schools in the state in any division. They most recently finished third at the NCISAA state meet finishing only 10 points out of first. [12][13] The women's team took the 2005, 2006, and 2007 TISAC championships as well as the 2006 NCISAA runner-up title and the 2005 NCISAA champsionship. Most recently, the women's team took the NCISAA 3rd place title at the 2007 state meet. [14]
The men's team is well recognized in the state among all high school teams, and were in the top 3 at the state championship in 2005, 2006, and 2007. In 2006, they stepped up their performance in the NCISAA state meet when they lost their #2 runner but still ran a strong race to beat Charlotte Latin by a very close 3 points. The men's team took the 2005 and 2006 TISAC championships; the 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2006 NCISAA runner-up titles; and the 2005 and 2007 NCISAA 3rd place title. For more information, see the team's website at www.carunning.com.

Arts

Cary Academy's Fine and Performing Arts department has put on multiple theatrical productions, instrumental and choral music concerts, visual art exhibitions, and modern dance performances since its initiation. Past theatrical performances include: