Great Hearts Academies is a non-profitcharter school management organization that operates a network of primary, middle, and high schools in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan area and in San Antonio and Irving, Texas. In Arizona, Great Hearts Academies had 7,469 students enrolled for the 2013-14 school year.
Curriculum
Great Hearts is a K-12 charter school that offers a humanities-based liberal arts education to the public, tuition free. It focuses on a core reading list filled with Great Books called Classics to Keep. The Archway campuses, the elementary schools of the network, teaches phonics, spelling, handwriting, and grammar as a part of their classical curriculum. Additionally, they use the Core Knowledge curriculum for teaching in-depth and chronological world history and American history and geography as well as studio art and music. They use Singapore Math as their math curriculum and offer foreign language such as Spanish, French, or Latin. At the prep school level, students are required to study literature and composition, humanities, laboratory sciences, and mathematics. Great Hearts only offers one track of studies, but allows students to select from language courses including Spanish, French, Latin, and Greek, depending on the school. Great Hearts Academy graduates proceed immediately to college or university at a rate of 98 percent, with 54 percent pursuing STEM courses of study. Six of the top 20 charter schools in Phoenix are in the Great Hearts system, and Great Hearts students achieve SAT scores more than 300 points higher than the national average.
Controversies
Policy on transgender students
In June 2016, the Great Hearts corporate Board of Directors adopted a policy that requires their transgender students to align all school activities with their biological sex, rather than the student's gender identity. The student's participation in extracurricular clubs, sports, and the use of facilities such as restrooms all must align with the sex of the student as printed on his or her birth certificate. This requirement extends further to Great Hearts' gendered hair cutting standards, school uniform requirements, "girls line/boys line" classroom management, and daily pronoun usage. Great Hearts' policy on transgender students is strongly opposed by local LGBT organizations and transgender advocates. Opponents to the policy argue that Great Hearts has chosen to ignore clear guidance from the medical and psychological communities regarding how best to support their transgender student population. Great Hearts argues that, since the civil rights of the transgender population is not yet a matter of settled law in the United States, the Board of Directors will define school policy in line with current statutory guidance and use the birth certificate as the official document that defines a student's gender.
Local reaction
On April 25, 2017, the city council of Scottsdale, Arizona discussed whether to move forward with exploring a land agreement between the city and Great Hearts Academies to build an athletic complex near the community of DC Ranch. The City Council cited concerns they have before finalizing any agreement with Great Hearts, chief among them the Great Hearts policy on transgender students. The Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union issued a strongly worded press release opposing the city's partnership with Great Hearts until the discriminatory policy is replaced. Great Hearts abandoned the land deal with the City of Scottsdale in favor of purchasing land adjacent to their already-established high school.
Haircut standards
In February 2018, Teleos Preparatory Academy in Phoenix, part of the Great Hearts charter school system, notified one of their students that his hairstyle did not conform to the school's policy standard. The child's family argued that he was targeted because he was not white. Great Hearts responded with a statement reinforcing their policy of no braided hair on boys and that Great Hearts was "sorry to see this family leave the Teleos Prep community... we fully respect their decision to do so." The Arizona chapter of the ACLU together with Black Mothers Forum, a local advocacy organization, called on Great Hearts to eliminate their discriminatory grooming standards. Eight days later, Great Hearts offered to make a policy exception and readmit the family. The family refused.
Homework assignment on slavery
In April 2018, Great Hearts apologized after one of their teachers in Texas assigned homework in which students were to list the pros and cons of being a slave. Social media spread the story of the homework assignment nationwide, sparking outrage. In response, Great Hearts issued a statement condemning the homework assignment. Although the same homework assignment had been given in the past, the teacher who gave the assignment was reprimanded and briefly placed on leave. He was reinstated after remedial training was complete. Response to the Black Lives Matter protests In June 2020, the Great Hearts instagram published a short to the worldwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. It was met with backlash from many students and alumni for its vague commentary. In response to student and community criticism, Great Hearts deleted the option to leave comments on their Instagram page. In response, community members created an account with screenshots of commentary on the statement, along with posts outlining concerns regarding racism within Great Hearts schools, institutional homophobia, and handling of sexual misconduct, among other issues.
