Welcome to Calvary Preparatory Academy

Thank you for choosing CPA for your student. This orientation will walk you through how our program works, what to expect, and how you can best support your student’s success here.

Who we are

Calvary Preparatory Academy was founded in 2009 by Director Jared Beck as a Christ-centered, college-preparatory online school. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit serving students in grades K–12 across all 50 states and internationally. CPA is WASC accredited for grades 7–12, UC a-g approved, and NCAA approved.

We are not a self-paced video school. We are not a credit-recovery program. CPA is a rigorous, relationship-driven school where your student has a credentialed, California-certified teacher assigned to them personally — one who also serves as a Christian mentor and role model.

What makes CPA different

Your role as a CPA parent

Parents at CPA are partners — not observers. You have 24-hour access to your student’s grades and progress. You are welcome at every scheduled teacher meeting. Your feedback and involvement make a real difference.

This orientation is for you. By the time you finish it, you will understand exactly how the grading model works, what your student is expected to do every day, what the scheduled meetings are and why they matter, and how you can support your student’s success in practical ways.

What Your Student’s School Day Looks Like

CPA gives students flexibility — but flexibility is not the same as freedom from structure. Here is what a healthy CPA school day looks like and what your student is expected to do each day.

Daily expectations

How much time per day?

Full-time students are expected to spend approximately 4 hours on schoolwork each day, though some days may require more or less depending on the week’s assignments. Some families set specific school hours and treat CPA like a traditional school day. This approach works very well.

What you can do at home

The first week

Almost every new CPA student finds the first few days challenging. New systems, new routines, a new way of being in school. This is completely normal. If your student is frustrated early on, encourage them to email their teacher rather than waiting. Teachers expect more contact in week one and genuinely want to help.

Attendance — What You Need to Know

Attendance at CPA works differently than at a traditional school. Please read this page carefully — it is one of the most important things a CPA parent needs to understand.

How attendance is measured

At CPA, attendance is measured through participation in the Daily Discussion Forum (DDF). Every school day a devotional or discussion prompt is posted. Your student must respond with a genuine, complete post. That response is their attendance record for the day.

A student who does not post in the DDF on a required school day is marked absent. A student who is excessively absent — defined as failing to log instructional time for more than 10 consecutive school days — may be withdrawn from CPA.

What counts as a valid post

Not every post counts as attendance. A valid post must genuinely respond to the prompt with complete sentences and thoughtful reflection. One-word responses, agreement-only posts ("I agree" or "Nice devotion"), and off-topic comments are flagged and corrected.

The first time this happens, the teacher corrects the student and gives them the opportunity to improve — no immediate penalty. If it becomes a pattern, the post is treated as absent and the grade reflects it.

Attendance and the grading model

DDF participation feeds into the Regular Engagement category of the holistic grade — worth 5% of your student’s overall grade across every course they are enrolled in. Regular, genuine engagement also feeds into Meeting Attendance through the preparation component.

Summer school attendance — stricter policy

If your student is enrolled in summer school, please be aware that the attendance expectations are more demanding. Summer sessions run approximately 3.5–4 weeks with a faster daily pacing. The DDF is 100% required every school day with no exceptions.

For students taking 2 or 3 courses simultaneously in summer school, the per-absence deduction is proportionally smaller (−2% or −1% per course), but it adds up quickly across multiple courses. The best approach is simply never to miss.

What to do if your student misses a day

If your student misses a DDF post for any reason, they should contact their teacher the same day and explain the situation. While the policy does not allow late DDF posts (the forum locks at midnight), communication with the teacher goes a long way. Teachers know that life happens and they appreciate families who communicate proactively.

The Scheduled Teacher Meeting

The scheduled one-on-one meeting between your student and their teacher is the heart of the CPA experience. Understanding what it is — and what it is not — is one of the most important things you can do as a CPA parent.

"Think of it less like a check-in call and more like a thesis defense. Your student presents their learning. Their teacher examines it. The grade is earned live."

What the meeting actually is

Once each section, your student meets with their teacher via Zoom for approximately one hour. During that meeting, your student presents completed work from the section and their teacher asks them to explain, defend, and discuss what they learned. This is not a passive review — your student is expected to talk, reason, and demonstrate genuine understanding in real time.

The teacher scores your student across four components during the meeting: how deeply they understand the material, how well they respond to unexpected questions, whether they are self-aware about their gaps, and whether the teacher is convinced the learning is genuine. Together these components make up 30% of your student’s overall grade — the largest single category in the class-specific tier.

Why the meeting matters more than it used to

In the past, grades at most schools were based mainly on submitted work. Today, AI tools can produce a finished essay or completed worksheet in seconds — and a grade based purely on submitted work cannot tell the difference between a student who genuinely learned and one who used a machine.

The scheduled meeting solves this. No AI tool can sit in a one-on-one session with a credentialed teacher and defend a student’s learning on their behalf. The meeting is where genuine understanding proves itself, every single section.

Your role in the meeting

Parents are always welcome to attend scheduled meetings — either sitting beside your student or joining from a separate device. We genuinely encourage this. Watching your student defend their learning live with their teacher is one of the most rewarding experiences CPA offers parents.

Even if you cannot attend regularly, asking your student what they presented and how the meeting went keeps you connected to their learning in a meaningful way.

What your student needs for every meeting

Helping Your Student Prepare for Their Meeting

The students who do best in their scheduled meetings are the ones who prepare intentionally. Here are practical strategies you can share with your student — and ways you can support the preparation process at home.

The end-of-section reflection

Before each meeting, your student completes an end-of-section self-reflection. This is not graded on its own — its purpose is to give the teacher a clear picture of where your student stands before the meeting begins. It covers what they learned, what they plan to present, how confident they feel, and any questions or concerns they have.

Having this reflection open and ready at the start of the meeting is part of the preparation score (which is worth 4 of the 10 meeting attendance points). A student who does not have it open has already lost points before the meeting even starts.

Strategies for meeting preparation

What not to do before a meeting

• Do not let your student rush to finish assignments the morning of their meeting — that work is due at the start of the meeting, and last-minute completion usually shows
• Do not let your student enter the meeting without having reviewed what they studied — even a 10-minute review the night before makes a real difference
• Do not encourage your student to use AI tools to complete assignments they will then be expected to explain — this creates a gap that shows up dramatically in the meeting

After the meeting

After each scheduled meeting, ask your student how it went. Not just the grade — what did their teacher notice? What did they do well? What do they want to improve for next section? This conversation turns the meeting into a genuine growth moment rather than just a grade event.

The Holistic Grading Model

CPA grades students differently than most schools. This page explains the model so that when you look at your student’s grade, you understand exactly what it reflects — and what it does not.

Why CPA changed its grading model

AI tools now allow students to submit polished essays, completed worksheets, and correct quiz answers in seconds. A grade based purely on submitted work can no longer reliably tell the difference between a student who genuinely learned and one who used a machine.

Rather than investing in AI detection tools — which creates an adversarial relationship between teachers and students — CPA redesigned its assessment model from the ground up. The new model makes it very difficult to fake genuine learning, because the primary assessment happens live in a scheduled meeting with a credentialed teacher.

Six categories, two tiers

Your student’s grade is calculated from six categories organized into two tiers.

What a grade really means under this model

An 85% under this model means your student showed up prepared, engaged consistently with their coursework and community, completed their assigned work, and was able to explain and defend their learning live in front of their teacher. That is a more meaningful and trustworthy grade than a score based purely on submitted work.

The Holistic Tier — Engagement and Faith-in-Action

The holistic tier is what makes CPA’s grading model unique. These three categories measure your student as a whole person — not just their academic performance in any one subject.

How the holistic tier works

The three holistic tier categories — Meeting Attendance, Regular Engagement, and Faith-in-Action — are scored once and applied equally to every course your student is enrolled in. A student taking five courses does not have five separate engagement scores. Their character, consistency, and faith engagement follow them across all their classes as one unified measure.

Regular Engagement — 5% of overall grade

This category measures how consistently your student engages with their schoolwork throughout each week. The goal is not just whether work gets done — it is whether your student is showing up regularly and distributing effort across multiple days rather than cramming.

For full-time students, engagement is assessed through both Daily Discussion Forum participation and digital textbook login activity. DDF is required daily. Missing posts may reduce the engagement score at teacher discretion even if textbook activity is strong.

Faith-Based Community Values in Action (Faith-in-Action) — 5% of overall grade

Each section, as part of the pre-meeting reflection, your student identifies one of ten ESLR faith-in-action standards and describes a specific way they put it into practice that week — at school, at home, or in the community. This is the applied expression of Faith-Based Community Values in Action.

This category is designed to be accessible to all students regardless of faith background. Non-Christian students can earn full credit by demonstrating genuine character, ethical behavior, and community values in practice. The scoring is simple:

How you can support these categories at home

Three Students — What the Grade Really Reflects

These examples show how the holistic model works in practice across three very different student profiles. Each one tells a story that a single test score never could.

Pacing, Late Policy, and Academic Integrity

Three policies that every CPA parent needs to understand before the semester begins.

Pacing and sections

Every course at CPA has 18 sections. Most students complete one section per week in a regular semester. In summer school, the pacing is approximately 5 sections per week. Your student’s teacher tracks their pacing and will flag concerns early — but the most common reason students fall behind is waiting too long to ask for help.

Late work policy

All assigned work is due at the start of your student’s scheduled meeting time — not when they feel ready, and not if they miss or reschedule the meeting. The appointment time is the deadline.

This policy applies even if your student misses their scheduled meeting. The missed meeting is a separate issue — the work deadline does not move.

Academic integrity and AI

CPA takes academic integrity seriously — and the holistic model makes it harder than ever for AI misuse to go undetected. A student who submits AI-generated work will struggle to explain it in their scheduled meeting. That gap shows up in the Teacher Conviction component of the Learning Verification score.

That said, the policy is clear and parents should know it:

How to talk to your student about AI

The most effective thing parents can do is have a direct conversation: AI tools are powerful and will be part of your student’s future. Using them to do work they should do themselves is not just against school policy — it shortchanges their own learning. The scheduled meeting will expose the gap every single section. The honest path is also the smarter one.

Staying Connected — Your Role All Semester

Your involvement in your student’s CPA experience makes a real, measurable difference. Here is how to stay meaningfully connected throughout the semester.

Your ongoing role

The grading scale

Key contact and resources

Thank you for choosing CPA

You chose a school that cares about your whole child — their faith, their character, their intellect, and their future. CPA has been doing this since 2009 because families like yours believed in a different kind of education. We are grateful you are here.