A Parent’s Experience: Transitioning to ACCA for Middle School

Dear prospective middle school families,

When we were exploring middle school options, we had a lot of questions—about academics, workload, community, and whether our child would truly thrive. I wanted to share our experience in case it’s helpful as you consider ACCA.

I’ll just say it right away; I am absolutely in LOVE with ACCA!

We have two very different kiddos. Our son is 15, incredibly bright academically, but autistic and sometimes struggles with emotional regulation. Our daughter is 12 and basically his flip side! She is incredibly emotionally intelligent, so kind and intuitive, but has to work a bit harder academically to feel successful.

She attended her previous school through the fifth grade before coming to ACCA this year. She usually earned 3s and 4s on her report cards and I had lots of open, honest conversations with her teachers. We were always told she was doing fine. A couple of years she had some pull-out help for math and reading (not part of a 504 or IEP, just extra support), but overall, we weren’t unhappy.

Our bigger concern was middle school, and we really hoped to get her into ACCA for 6th since those are considered middle school grades at ACCA. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. Latin? Logic? Diagramming sentences? Real literature and writing beyond just identifying nouns? HOMEWORK?!?!?! We expected a challenge! But after touring a few different schools, what truly won us over was the people. It always comes down to the people. Their hearts. Their belief in children. Their commitment to teaching through a classical, Christian lens and the way they intentionally recognize qualities like empathy, courage, and kindness.

We decided to trust the process. Within the first quarter, we were called in to review progress reports. It was hard at first. She was adjusting to real number grades and a more structured homework system. She struggled. But the academic dean and her teacher had such thoughtful, practical ideas to help her get her on track quickly. We added tutoring focused mostly on organization and making sure assignments didn’t slip through the cracks.

She went from failing to all passing grades by the end of the quarter! We are talking weeks, not months or years. Just weeks. Now she just received her second quarter interim grades: five A’s, one B, and one C (in Latin which we knew would be tough). I truly feel like she is already leaps and bounds ahead of where she would have been. My husband thought she would respond when pushed to do "real" schoolwork, and she’s doing things we never imagined she’d be able to do this quickly. ACCA doesn’t lower the bar. They set a high standard and then walk alongside your child to help them rise to it.

Now here’s our big caveat: she does competitive cheer year-round. She practices five days a week for two hours each day. And she is still managing school beautifully.

The homework structure has actually been such a gift. Daily reading and summaries (sometimes done in class), and other subjects like math, science, social studies, theology, grammar, and Latin are assigned with about a week to complete. That flexibility has allowed us to work around practices and use weekends wisely. They don’t assign new homework over the weekend, but you can use that time to catch up if needed, which we sometimes do.

It took some adjusting to at first, but now she completes her work much more independently and efficiently. It’s honestly been amazing to watch.

There are parts of ACCA that I truly don’t think I could give up now:

• The most thoughtful, encouraging human beings caring for my sweet girl who thrives on positivity and words of affirmation.

• The Classical Christian model that weaves faith naturally into every single day.

• Two 30-minute recess breaks even for middle schoolers! They still need to run, play, and be creative.

• The small class sizes. It feels like a little family.

• No computers. I did NOT think I would love this as we are a very tech-dependent family. But watching her use pencil and paper all day? It’s glorious. No screens. No spellcheck. No distractions. Just thinking and writing.

And then there are the unexpected, magical things I didn’t even know she needed:

• She gets called out regularly not just by her teacher, but by other staff for her kindness and sweetness — they value values and that matters!

• She is demonstrating the ability to think critically.

• She receives handwritten notes highlighting specific things her teacher appreciated that week or even that day. I have a whole box of them that I will absolutely keep forever (yes, I hoard them!).

• She gets to be a role model for younger students because they actually spend time together daily in chapel, recess, and buddy reading.

• They pray and sing throughout the day before tests, before lunch, heading to PE. Faith isn’t separate; it’s woven in.

• And they have creek parties where the kids go outside, get dirty, be creative, and just be kids.

It’s just…special. Truly special. We went in hopeful, and we’ve been blown away. Last week, we went for a meeting with other sixth grade parents, and my husband took the opportunity to thank the leadership for talking the talk and walking the walk — the way the school was presented to us in our first meeting has been completely accurate to our experience this year.