About Us

Our Mission

In a nurturing, small-school environment, and through the use of an academically accelerated and enriched curriculum, Nova Classical Academy will offer its learners a rigorous, thorough, systematic, challenging, K-12 college-preparatory education in the classical tradition.

Our History

Nova Classical Academy is a parent-initiated school. We began as a small group who felt that public school students should have access to the same quality of education as many private school students. We wanted a school that was academically rigorous, that valued scholarship and individual excellence as well as self-discipline and virtue, that taught students to think and reason from a solid foundation of knowledge and skills, that allowed all students to study at an appropriate pace, and where parents, staff and students all shared a unity of purpose.

We looked into a number of different curriculum models. When we discovered the classical model of education, it struck a deep chord, and we knew without a doubt that it was not only what we wanted for our children, but it was also the education we wish that we had received.

We have been greatly influenced by the book The Well-Trained Mind, A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer and Classical Education, Toward the Revival of America Schooling by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. and Andrew Kern. The second largest, and fastest growing, group of home schoolers today comprises parents whose children simply cannot get the academic challenge they need in existing schools and who have experienced the great leveling pressure that schools bring to bear on children who are “too well prepared.” Once we got past the nearly overwhelming urge to pull our children out of school and teach them at home, we had to ask “Why can’t our children get this kind of education in a public school?” While home schooling is a great option for those who have the time, inclination and financial resources to do so, the reality is that the vast majority of children in this country will continue to be educated outside of the home, 90 percent of them in public schools. The kind of education that a classical curriculum provides must be made available to them.

Our Future

Nova Classical Academy has a K-12 charter. We opened in St. Paul in the fall of 2003 with grades K-6 and we have added grades yearly toward our goal of providing a complete K-12 education. We believe strongly that an effective K-12 education must be systematic and comprehensive and must have continuity from year to year. The resounding success of classical charter schools in other states shows that many parents agree with us. We provide many volunteer opportunities for parents to contribute to the success of the school. Parents of Nova students are expected to participate actively and support the school in its mission.

Our Goals

Nova means new, and we offer parents “a classical education for a new century.” At Nova Classical Academy staff, parents, and students share a unity of purpose and consider themselves members of a community of learners. We believe, with the late Mortimer Adler, that a complete education is the work of a lifetime and that the K-12 years are only the beginning of a lifelong educational journey. We also believe that the purpose, goals, content and method of classical education will allow us to achieve our goal of producing intelligent, literate, curious young adults who are able to read, write, calculate, think, understand, solve problems and follow through on a wide range of interests; who are self-disciplined, compassionate and moral; and who have the skills and passion for thinking and learning that will allow them to teach themselves for the rest of their lives.