Learn Everything. Go Anywhere.
Apex Academy is the accredited Pre-K–12 virtual school that meets every learner exactly where they are — and builds the skills, transcripts, and confidence to take them wherever they want to go.

Every learner who walks into Apex walks out bigger than when they arrived — and that's not a promise I make lightly.— Pauline Smith EdD

What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Earn accredited, transcript-ready credit in every core subject — including mathematics, language arts, science, social studies, and foreign language — across all grade levels Pre-K through 12.
- Apply International Baccalaureate inquiry frameworks and Common Core Standards to think critically, argue with evidence, and solve complex, real-world problems across disciplines.
- Demonstrate social-emotional competency — self-regulation, empathy, collaboration, and growth mindset — embedded throughout every course and grade band.
- Design and execute challenge-based STEM projects aligned to MESA and the Standards for Mathematical Practice, building a portfolio of engineering, science, and innovation work.
- Access fully differentiated instruction through Universal Design for Learning, ensuring gifted (TAG) learners are extended and students with diverse needs are fully supported without separate tracking.
- Graduate college-, career-, and innovation-ready — with a completed IB-aligned capstone, Odyssey of the Mind creative problem-solving experience, and a verified academic transcript accepted by universities and employers.
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
8 modules · 32 lessons

Foundations of Learning: SEL, UDL, and the Apex Learner Identity
This foundational module is intentionally placed first to establish the academic identity, emotional toolkit, learning strategies, and virtual-school fluency every student needs before engaging rigorous content. It draws on SEL competency frameworks, UDL principles, and the IB Learner Profile to create a shared culture of inquiry, inclusion, and self-advocacy that persists across all grade levels and all subsequent modules.
- 1.1Know Yourself as a LearnerIncluded
- 1.2Growth Mindset and Self-Regulation in a Virtual ClassroomIncluded
- 1.3Community, Collaboration, and the IB Learner ProfileIncluded
- 1.4Navigating Apex Academy: Tools, Schedules, and AdvocacyIncluded
Language Arts and Literacy Across the Grades
This module delivers accredited, transcript-ready English Language Arts credit from Pre-K through Grade 12, fully aligned to Common Core ELA Standards and IB Language and Literature frameworks. It develops the full literacy continuum — decoding, comprehension, written argument, creative voice, and oral discourse — ensuring every student can read, write, and communicate with precision and power across disciplines. SEL is embedded through empathy-building literature choices and collaborative discussion protocols; UDL ensures multiple means of representation and expression at every grade band; TAG extensions deepen critical analysis and independent research.
- 2.1Foundational Literacy: Reading and Writing as Meaning-Making (Pre-K–Grade 5)Included
- 2.2Disciplinary Reading and Text-Based Argumentation (Grades 6–12)Included
- 2.3Creative Writing, Voice, and Multimodal StorytellingIncluded
- 2.4Oral Communication, Debate, and Public DiscourseIncluded
Mathematics: Reasoning, Practice, and Real-World Application
This module delivers accredited mathematics credit across all grade bands (Pre-K–12), fully aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and all eight Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP). Every lesson integrates MESA engineering challenges and IB Mathematical inquiry to ensure mathematics is experienced as a tool for understanding the real world, not merely a set of procedures to memorize. UDL ensures multiple representations (visual, numerical, algebraic, contextual) at every stage; TAG extensions include competition mathematics and advanced modeling; SEL is woven in through collaborative problem-solving norms and mathematical discourse.
- 3.1Number Sense, Operations, and Mathematical Discourse (Pre-K–Grade 5)Included
- 3.2Algebraic Thinking, Proportional Reasoning, and Functions (Grades 6–9)Included
- 3.3Geometry, Measurement, and Spatial Reasoning Across Grade BandsIncluded
- 3.4Advanced Mathematics, Statistics, and MESA Engineering Challenges (Grades 9–12)Included
Science: Inquiry, Engineering Design, and Global Challenges
This module delivers accredited science credit across all grade bands, aligned to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) disciplinary core ideas and IB Sciences inquiry frameworks. Every lesson treats science as a practice — observation, modeling, experimentation, analysis, and argumentation — not a body of facts to memorize. Challenge-based learning drives each unit: students identify real-world scientific problems and design solutions. MESA competition pathways are embedded for Grades 6–12. UDL ensures multimodal lab experiences (virtual labs, simulations, physical investigations); SEL is embedded through collaborative inquiry norms and ethical science discussions.
- 4.1Science as a Way of Knowing: Observation, Inquiry, and the Scientific MethodIncluded
- 4.2Life Science: Ecosystems, Biodiversity, and Human Impact (All Grade Bands)Included
- 4.3Physical Science and Chemistry: Matter, Energy, and Forces (All Grade Bands)Included
- 4.4Earth and Space Science: Systems Thinking and Global CitizenshipIncluded
- 4.5Independent Science Research and MESA Competition Pathway (Grades 6–12)Included
Social Studies, History, and Global Citizenship
This module delivers accredited social studies credit across all grade bands, aligned to C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards and IB Individuals and Societies. It develops historical thinking, geographic reasoning, civic knowledge, economic literacy, and global citizenship — the skills students need to participate in and improve a complex, interconnected world. Challenge-based civic projects are central; SEL competencies of empathy, perspective-taking, and responsible decision-making are embedded throughout. A prerequisite gap in the original draft — the absence of Grades 3–5 and 9–12 overlap in world history — has been corrected here.
- 5.1Community, Belonging, and Our World (Pre-K–Grade 2)Included
- 5.2U.S. History, Civics, and Democratic Participation (Grades 3–8)Included
- 5.3World History, Global Economics, and International Perspectives (Grades 9–12)Included
- 5.4Geography, Sustainability, and Environmental JusticeIncluded
World Languages and Global Communication
This module delivers accredited world language credit across all grade bands, aligned to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and IB Language Acquisition framework. Students develop communicative competence — listening, speaking, reading, and writing — in at least one world language (Spanish, French, Mandarin, or another offered language), with cultural competency woven throughout every lesson. The progression moves from sound and meaning (Pre-K–5) through intermediate proficiency (Grades 6–10) to advanced academic and literary use (Grades 11–12), ensuring students can demonstrate measurable proficiency gains documented on their transcript. SEL is embedded through cross-cultural empathy; TAG students may pursue dual-language accelerated pathways.
- 6.1Language Foundations: Sound, Meaning, and Cultural Curiosity (Pre-K–Grade 5)Included
- 6.2Intermediate Proficiency: Conversation, Grammar in Context, and Cultural Comparison (Grades 6–10)Included
- 6.3Advanced Language, Literature, and Global Competency (Grades 11–12)Included
The Arts, Physical Education, and Whole-Child Development
This module delivers accredited arts and physical education credit aligned to National Core Arts Standards and SHAPE America Health and Physical Education Standards, ensuring whole-child development is given equal status alongside academic subjects. The arts develop creative thinking, cultural literacy, and emotional intelligence — SEL competencies made visible. Physical education develops lifelong wellness habits, body autonomy, and self-regulation. UDL ensures adaptive pathways for students with physical differences; TAG learners pursue advanced portfolio and performance work. This module connects directly to the SEL foundations in Module 1 and enriches the creative problem-solving capacity cultivated in the Capstone module.
- 7.1Visual Arts: Observation, Creation, and Cultural ExpressionIncluded
- 7.2Music: Listening, Creating, and Cultural ConnectionIncluded
- 7.3Drama and Performing Arts: Voice, Empathy, and StorytellingIncluded
- 7.4Physical Education, Health, and Lifelong WellnessIncluded
Challenge-Based Learning, Odyssey of the Mind, and the Capstone Experience
This culminating module synthesizes every prior module into a rigorous, integrated, graduation-readiness experience. It is deliberately sequenced last because it requires students to draw on the academic knowledge, SEL competencies, collaborative skills, and creative problem-solving developed across all preceding modules. Challenge-based projects are the vehicle; Odyssey of the Mind provides the creative problem-solving methodology; the IB-aligned Capstone is the individual scholarly summit; and the Launch Preparation lesson ensures every graduate has the tools, credentials, and confidence to pursue college, career, or innovation pathways. A critical addition to the original draft — explicit portfolio documentation and transcript verification — closes the credentialing loop.
- 8.1Challenge-Based Learning: Framing Real Problems and Generating Big IdeasIncluded
- 8.2Odyssey of the Mind: Creative Problem-Solving as a Competitive and Collaborative ArtIncluded
- 8.3The IB-Aligned Capstone Project (Grades 10–12)Included
- 8.4College, Career, and Innovation Readiness: Launch PreparationIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
The Gifted Learner
A TAG student who's been bored and under-challenged finally gets MESA engineering pathways, IB inquiry, and a capstone project that demands their full intellectual horsepower.
The Diverse Learner
A student whose learning differences made traditional classrooms a daily struggle thrives inside UDL-designed courses built for inclusion — no separate track, no lowered bar.
The Homeschool Family
Parents who want rigorous, accredited, transcript-ready learning across multiple kids and grade levels without stitching together a dozen different curricula on their own.
The College-Bound Senior
A Grade 11–12 student completing the IB-aligned capstone, advanced mathematics, and world language coursework to build a competitive, verified academic record for university admissions.
The Young Explorer (Pre-K–2)
A four-to-seven-year-old ready to fall in love with reading, numbers, and the world through playful, concrete, meaning-rich instruction designed for curious early learners.
The Global Citizen
A family prioritizing international perspectives, world languages, and cultural competency for a student who will live and work in a connected, multilingual world.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Pauline Smith EdD
Dear families and future Apex learners,
I know where you might be right now. Maybe the traditional school down the street never quite fit your child — too fast in some places, too slow in others, too rigid for a kid who lights up when they're given a real problem to wrestle with. Maybe you've been patching together curricula, worrying about transcripts, or wondering if a virtual school can actually be as good — or better — than what's down the road. Those are fair questions, and I want to talk to you honestly.
Apex Academy was built because we believe every learner deserves a school that sees them fully — the gifted reader who needs to be challenged, the student who processes differently and deserves full inclusion without a separate, lesser track, the family with multiple kids across wildly different grade levels who needs one trustworthy, coherent place. We built the Pre-K–12 curriculum from the ground up, threading IB inquiry, Common Core rigor, Universal Design for Learning, and genuine social-emotional development through every single course. This isn't a collection of video lectures and worksheets. It's a school — with a learner identity, a community, a competitive MESA engineering pathway, Odyssey of the Mind, a capstone project, and a transcript your student will be proud to hand a university admissions officer.
Here's what I want you to know about how we teach: we meet students where they are, and we take them somewhere bigger. In the early grades, learning is concrete, playful, and meaning-rich — your kindergartner isn't memorizing; they're making sense of the world. In the middle grades, we scaffold exploration into argument, inquiry into evidence, and curiosity into disciplined thinking. By high school, our students are working at a seminar level — reading complex texts, building engineering prototypes, presenting original research, and completing an IB-aligned capstone that demonstrates everything they've become. Every grade band is its own world, and every one of them is rigorous.
The piece I'm most proud of? The fact that we never separate students by potential. A TAG learner and a student who needs more time and scaffolding can both thrive in the same Apex course because UDL isn't a workaround — it's the architecture. And our SEL foundation means that before we ask any student to do hard academic work, we help them understand who they are as a learner, how to regulate themselves in a virtual environment, and how to advocate for what they need.
If you're looking for a school that will take your child seriously — all of them, not just the parts that fit neatly into a standardized box — I'd love to welcome you to Apex Academy. This is the full journey, Pre-K through graduation, and we're honored to take it with you.
— Pauline Smith EdD
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- 8 modules, 32 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed