A School Where Educational Excellence is the Top Priority

Starting in the fifth grade, Troy Prep fosters outstanding student achievement and ensures that all students develop the skills, knowledge, and character necessary to reach and succeed in college.

At Troy Prep every teacher and administrator believes that every child can succeed so every teacher and administrator cares enough to help students work hard and work right. There's homework every night at Troy Prep and every teacher and administrator-and ultimately every student-understands that academics come first.


More Time for Learning

Because we believe in the importance of diligent and rigorous study, Troy Prep offers an extended school day and an extended school year. The school day goes from 7:40am until 4:40pm. The school year runs 195 days, plus summer work as necessary.


Focus on Literacy and Math

Troy Prep's academic program emphasizes two academic disciplines above all others: English and math.

Every student at Troy Prep will benefit from two 75-minute English classes every day, one focusing on reading comprehension and literature, the other on mechanics and writing. And since skills are not enough without a passion for reading, students will also participate in twice weekly book clubs led by a faculty member. Troy Prep's academic program will double the time a typical student spends studying English to 13.5 hours per week or more than 525 hours in the course of the academic year.

Every student at Troy Prep will also benefit from two hour-long classes in math every day, one addressing math procedures and the other math problem-solving. The result will be roughly 10 hours a week of math instruction- enough to ensure that Troy Prep students are prepared for careers and colleges that emphasize quantitative skill.


College... and Character

Troy Prep not only prepares students to succeed in college, it prepares them to succeed when judged, in Dr. King's words, by the content of their character. Students at Troy Prep are expected to demonstrate the core virtues of diligence, integrity, responsibility, compassion, perseverance, and respect in everything they do. They adhere to a strict but supportive daily regimen that makes respectful treatment of one's teachers and peers a non-negotiable. Students also learn from an ethics curriculum that will help them use their knowledge and skills to do what is right.


Investment in Master Teachers

At True North Troy Prep, we think great teachers make great schools, and we invest heavily in teachers as a result. Professional development at Troy Prep means shared, faculty-wide collective inquiry (discussing lesson plans, watching videotape, examining student work) every Friday. Before the school year begins, teachers participate in a two-week training program and receive extensive instruction in standards driven instruction, classroom management techniques, and curriculum design. Rather than just hoping that every teacher succeeds, Troy Prep provides the tools and training to ensure it.


High Academic Standards, Constant Support

Troy Prep employs a teacher-tutor model to increase the quality of academic support. All core academic teachers teach three, rather than the traditional four, sections of students. The fourth "class" is a daily tutoring block during which teachers work with students pulled from their own classes to reinforce and re-teach key skills. This increases the effectiveness of tutoring and ensures that students most in need of extra help are tutored by the most qualified teachers in the school. The design of this teacher-tutor model is typical of Troy Prep's relentless focus on more effective implementation of its learning philosophy


Safe, Supportive Structured Environment

All students at Troy Prep follow the school's unique code of conduct at all times. We believe in a warm, caring, supportive school that is also firm, consistent, demanding, and even strict with regards to behavior. We see no contradiction between these attributes and no reason why we can't have fun while we're at it.

As a result, Troy Prep students wear school uniforms and conduct themselves with dignity and honor. Parents are expected to support this code as well. Faculty, staff and students meet as a community three mornings a week to discuss the progress of the group and, often, individuals.

Parents Are Empowered

At Troy Prep, we recognize that a strong and effective partnership between families and the school depends on our ability to work with parents to monitor and support students' academic performance and development. We seek to establish consistent communication and shared expectations at school and at home in the following ways:

• Data on academic performance will be communicated regularly to families using weekly progress reports.
• Parents are asked to sign each week's progress report for their students to return to school.
• Advisors will communicate with each student's family regularly to discuss the student's progress and will serve as a designated point-of-first-contact when parents have questions of their own.
• Each student will be responsible every night for a mandatory homework folder that will contain all homework and thus allow teachers and parents to mutually monitor assignments on a daily basis.
• The school will use a homework hotline to ensure parents' ability to monitor homework effectively. On the hotline, parents will be able to call and receive clear direct information on what homework their students have that night.