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Sora faculty create world-class learning expeditions designed to establish relevance to today’s world, generate discussion and inquiry, and meet the core requirements necessary to open doors after graduation. Part of our innovative approach to education is to encourage students to take ownership and responsibility for their own education by helping to map out their learning journey. This means that students have the flexibility to take subjects when they want to and plan for graduation on time.
At Sora, students progress academically in two parts: through Projects and Learning Expeditions.
Students have the opportunity to pursue their own lines of academic inquiry through two ways at Sora. The first is through the Individual Study Program (ISP), which is optional and designed for students who want to propose an alternative way to earn academic credits through a specific project.
While an ISP is optional, Capstone projects are not. Each student at Sora is expected to complete a Capstone project before graduation. We’re continually ensuring students are learning a well-developed and guided curriculum, even in their independent work, to receive academic credit that transfers between institutions.
As students progress through their projects, they regularly meet with faculty who are available to discuss, troubleshoot, and help guide them towards their end deliverables.
Our academic calendar is divided into 6-week cycles, wherein students take a selection of learning expeditions to explore specific topics and skills. Instead of lectures, these learning expeditions are Socratic discussions, projects, labs, and other active learning formats.
The content of these courses is not only informed by the areas of expertise of our faculty, but designed to be engaging, interdisciplinary, and relevant to today’s world.. Recent popular expeditions include “The Science of Marvel,” “Engineering Rollercoasters,” and “Philosophy, Logic, and the Art of Argumentation.”
Students earn academic credit based on the material covered in the learning expedition by presenting deliverables to faculty that will be evaluated according to our mastery-based scale.
The learning expeditions meet synchronously at select times throughout the week, so students are able to share ideas with their classmates.
As both an accredited school and a mastery-based program, our curriculum is assessed according to specific academic standards, which include all of the traditionally-required school subjects like math, English, history, and more. These subjects are split into more granular units to evaluate students on their individual competencies, not their average ability to retain information.
As students progress, they demonstrate their level of mastery in these areas. Through this system, we are able to evaluate students holistically and fairly, and students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter.
0 (Not Attempted) means that student has not been exposed to the subject yet.
1 (Emerging) means that student is generally aware of the concept and can call it by name but has yet to apply it.
2 (Developing) means that student can explain the concept meaningfully in their own words.
3 (Demonstrating) means that student is applying the skill to new situations and real-life circumstances.
4 (Extending) means that student has applied their learning in a nuanced way, multiple times.
Our program packages all of the individual areas of mastery back into their academic subjects and produces a mastery-based transcript for colleges and other institutions of higher education, complete with a GPA and details about the student’s academic strengths. This format is informed by the Mastery Transcript Consortium’s approach and is used by hundreds of other innovative schools across the United States.
