Educational Program

Central to the design for Hemispheres Academy is the notion that there should be a strong connection between the four components in a balanced education system-- standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Curriculum. The educational programming curated by Hemispheres Academy includes English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education and Health, Music, Art, and optional World Languages (Spanish, Chinese, French, German, American Sign Language). Hemispheres Academy is partnering with Edmentum™ to utilize their digital Calvert Learning project-based curriculum for grades K-5 and Edmentum™ Courseware for grades 6-12 and electives for grades 4-12. Partnering with Edmentum allows Hemispheres to offer families more than 500 course options.

Instruction. Hemispheres Academy is partnering with Edmentum’s EdOptions Academy to deliver instruction by fully-credentialed teachers for core content courses and electives for grades 4-12. EdOptions Academy ensures that Hemispheres’ students acquire credits that will transfer to other institutions and provide diplomas recognized by schools, colleges, and universities across the U.S. and around the world. Hemispheres Academy complements the EdOptions Academy instruction with oversight from our own Teacher Coaches and small group instruction that covers music, Virginia-required standards not addressed in the Calvert/Edmentum curriculum, and content areas where Edmentum and EdOptions Academy provide curriculum, but not instruction (eg. Art, Music, PE, Health).

Integrated Learning. Hemispheres promotes an understanding of academic content by connecting to interdisciplinary themes within and across subjects, and by incorporating the following skills into the teaching and learning framework.

  • Learning and innovation skills, such as creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, and collaboration. 

  • Information, media, and technology skills, such as information literacy, media literacy, and ICT (Information, Communications, and technology) literacy.

  • Life and career skills, such as flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, and leadership and responsibility.

  • Student Supports. We partner with Global Education Therapy to provide additional services to address specific and exceptional student needs, or can also coordinate with another provider selected by the parent. These services include, but are not limited to:

    • Individual Learning Plan development

    • Speech and Language Therapy

    • Occupational Therapy

    • Reading Intervention

    • Tutoring & Educational Supports

Assessment. Hemispheres Academy utilizes Edmentum’s ExactPath diagnostic interim assessment to understand where students are at in terms of progressing toward course expectations and grade level standards. Exact Path enables teachers and teacher coaches to identify unfinished learning and progress students toward mastering standards and learning objectives. The ERB assessment, which is utilized by many American international schools, will be provided to students at the end of the year to provide a comprehensive, comparative snapshot of each students’ abilities. The ERB assessment is often useful for students to have in their records when transferring out of Hemispheres Academy programming.