We have a robust orientation process for all new students and their families to understand how to excel in our unique program. This includes a series of informative workshops, “foundations” expeditions, guided registration planning with your student’s advisor, and icebreaker events for students to bond with their new housemates.
Welcome to Sora
Sora is the private, online, 6th-12th grade school that ignites curiosity and equips students with essential skills for the future.
Our mission
School is traditionally built on repetition and rote memorization. But now machines and Artificial Intelligence are very good at that. If students are to thrive in the new world, they need a fundamentally different skill set. They don’t need to compete with machines; they instead must become more human.
Innovative curriculum
Every six weeks, we offer over 400 interest-based classes and a mastery-based assessment system that rewards trial and error, your student will fall in love with the world we share while developing essential 21st-century skills.
Is Sora a good fit?
Answer 10 short questions around your educational goals, learning preferences, and interests, to learn more about how Sora would work for your family.
Sora students are accepted into top college choices
The best online school in America
Parent Every interaction with Sora, from fact gathering before applying to the day to day life, has been excellent. The staff works hard with families and individual students' unique situations. The information for parents is presented intuitively and in depth. My daughter is more engaged in her work than she was at the previous on site private school. I really appreciate that Sora's curriculum is rigorous, has real world applications, and is preparing my daughter to be a life long learner through developing agency and learning from missteps, trial and error, and finding it's not the end of the world to make a mistake. The feedback from the teachers is frequent and actionable. My daughter can use the feedback to deepen her understanding of the topics. The socialization is unlike other online schools, there's no isolation factor at Sora. Other families are open to in person meetings. I wish Sora had been available when I was in school
Parent Sora Schools has been a transformative experience for our family. Transitioning from homeschooling, we were looking for an educational environment that maintained the same personalized and engaging approach. Sora exceeded our expectations. The school offers a variety of innovative programs that actively involve students, making learning both fun and deeply impactful. What truly sets Sora apart are the incredible teachers who bring project-based learning to life, ensuring each child's educational journey is rich and tailored to their interests. We wholeheartedly recommend Sora Schools to families seeking a nurturing and intellectually stimulating educational environment. It's more than a school; it's a community where young minds thrive.
Parent We have a precocious student that would get bored at school. We were looking for engagement at a deeper level and we have honestly found very few schools that branch out of the traditional learning to test approach. Sora’s multidisciplinary and project based curriculum truly transformed our schooling. There is no limit to how deep a student can go while being supported and encouraged by the teachers. Our child is now seeing connection between topics in humanities and science, looking at more advanced topics in each, and adding to it by going down rabbit holes of philosophy, psychology, history, art, and music, to name a few. The same can be said for math. The concepts are followed by the practical applications, such as math art or stock market investments. A huge and equally important point is that Sora is a very close knit community and incredibly social. I would even say that friendships go deeper and are formed faster because of the way the school is set up. Another win.
Parent Our child, previously at Los Altos High, found true joy in learning at Sora. While she was doing really well at her previous school, she was not happy. Sora’s progressive approach resonated with us, especially given our background in education. Joining Sora marked a significant shift: our child is now genuinely excited about school, eagerly awaits class resumption after breaks, and has flourished socially, even online. Yes, she’s making friends. She’s deeply engaged in her ‘expeditions’ (unique courses), thriving in project-based learning and mastery-based assessment makes so much sense to us. You’re not chasing A+’s but truly building your muscles and get better step by step. One day she said “dad i’ve learned more in Sora in two months than in a whole year at LAHS”. She just LOVES her teachers and dynamic curriculum. We love how Sora is radiates positive energy for us parents too. We absolutely recommend Sora - and nice plus we can take trips, as she can attend school anywhere:)
Parent As I write this on the day before Thanksgiving, the results have been incredible to this point. As parents, we have been extremely impressed with the level of engagement and communication from the school. we are very impressed with how well thought out everything has been. They always seem to be ahead of things and do an incredible job. They consistently ask for feedback on ways to improve, but I honestly struggle to provide much. Maybe once we're here longer some things will come up, but to this point, it simply continues to exceed my expectations. The most amazing thing is seeing how little resistance there is on his part. The first day he chose to not engage and tried to check out via YouTube. We had a talk that evening and YouTube access was removed for the next day. That left him no option other than to engage with the class. That first day was the last day that I felt any significant reluctance on his part.
Parent My child has been having a great experience at Sora. It's an online school but there is a strong culture of community that the administrators work hard every day to foster. We love the fact that most of the classes are taught in an interdisciplinary fashion, emphasize mastery over letter grades, and are attuned to students' interests, yet also manage to keep an eye on ensuring that students are exposed to a wide range of subjects and are ready for college when they graduate. We also appreciate that the school has partnered with another organization to make flexible in-person learning opportunities possible. If your student is a strong independent learner and wants a high degree of agency over how and what they learn, then you should definitely check out Sora!
Parent Sora is a welcoming and supportive environment for students' growth both academically and personally. My daughter is neurodivergent and has always struggled in the traditional school structure. Even though she has always tested in top percentile, she struggled to focus while in class and complete assignments, which lead to a severe drop in confidence. The Sora environment has allowed my daughter to renew her interest in learning and regain self-confidence as a student. The teachers are accessible and provide feedback that guide learning instead of just providing grades. Their classroom time is spent in engaging learning opportunities and discussion and not just completing busy work. I feel that the approach to learning at Sora is helping to prepare her for college and life without the anxiety of the traditional school approach. Sora is a safe place to for kids to try and fail but then learn how to soar. We feel blessed to have found them. ❤️1
Parent Although we are very new to Sora, we are finding it to be just what we had hoped for in a high school for our student. We came from a private Montessori school that used a project/mastery based curriculum. We had feared we would not be able to find a similar learning experience as we entered into the high school years, and then we found Sora. We believe this school will help our student continue his path in learning how to think, not what to think. He will continue to learn problem solving and life skills, rather than simply memorizing and testing. We had some concerns around possible feelings of isolation while transitioning from in-person to online schooling, but those quickly went away. Our student has made some great friendships and connections already. The staff and families at Sora do a great job at creating opportunities for building the Sora community. We look forward to continuing with Sora and all it has to offer for our child’s growth, both personally and academically.
Parent We are happy that we found Sora! The Project-Based learning and autonomy have been a very welcome change for our daughter. We find the teachers innovative, engaged, and dedicated to student growth, and we are excited to be part of a community dedicated to academic evolution.