Academics
The Parisi Academy academic curriculum has been developed by an Advisory Board of Ph.D.’s and experienced educators to meet and exceed New Jersey academic standards. In addition to the important core subjects, our program goes well beyond traditional education by providing learning experiences that will benefit student-athletes throughout their entire lives.
In order to support the academic curriculum, we have established an infrastructure to maximize a student’s ability to excel. The Parisi Academy maintains small classes and individualizes coursework as needed. Learning is also supported through advanced educational platforms and technology, like Google Classroom.
I N D I V I D U A L I Z E D
I N S T R U C T I O N
12:1 Student/Teacher Ratio
Google Classroom
Small Core Classes
Learning Lab
Math
Algebra 1 introduces student-athletes to relationships between quantities, linear relationships, exponential and quadratic relationships, advanced functions/equations, and data analysis, along with all of their supportive content representations. In this class, students will apply and explore real-world mathematical applications in 21-century contexts. This serves as the foundation for mathematical comprehension, which will help student-athletes in everyday life and future mathematics courses.
Course topics will be directly aligned and correlated to the New Jersey Common Core Standards that all teaching and learning must adhere to specific lessons will be designed upon student-athletes’ prior knowledge of 8th grade pre-algebra concepts and will accelerate to advanced algebra content based on students’ individual learning needs. This course will be heavily integrated with technology driven lessons, interactive activities, project-based learning, and both collaborative and differentiated instruction.
Language Arts
The Language Arts Program places an emphasis on building writing composition and literary analysis skills and is integrated with other courses to emphasize similar writing, reading, and research goals. Students explore a variety of writing genres such as literary response, personal narrative, creative writing, screenwriting, journalism, and the persuasive essay, and extend their vocabulary knowledge through exposure and assessment. All literary study is supported by composition.
In addition, students are introduced to the essential components of research and information literacy to help them navigate today’s complex information landscape. The aim of the course is to ultimately improve upon students’ ability to read critically, write persuasively, and debate ideas through both written and spoken word. This course, like the others, includes preparation for both standardized assessments and school entrance exams, including high school application essays.
Health Science and Physiology
Our Health Science and Physiology program is centered on the body of an athlete and it’s physiology. The course will cover the systems of the human body, food preparation, supplements, as well as proper nutrition for student-athletes (pre, during, and post-activity).
Additionally, subjects such as chemistry and biology will be integrated into the subject matter within the context of physiology and student athletes will learn not only science from an academic stand-point, but from an athletic point of view focused on helping them within their chosen sport.
History & Current Events
Our History and Current Events program takes the elements of traditional history and ties them to current events from which student-athletes can relate. Beyond its significance as a core subject, the aim of this program is to teach student athletes to think critically and conceptually. It also includes review of and experience in local culture and history with research and site visits to historical places of interest in the tri-state area. A weekly discussion of current events fosters an interest in the state of affairs in the world and includes important discussion of sources of news and influences, as well as how it relates to US and world history.
Foreign Language
The Foreign Language Foundations program exposes students to the basics of multiple foreign languages so they can be more confident in choosing a language for high school and college. The program covers the basics of vocabulary, sentence structure and communication for several of the most popular languages.
Personal Development
The Personal Development program is intended to “round-out” the student-athlete by teaching self-discipline, responsibility and productive interactions with the world around them, as well as many other skills. Personal Development delivers new dimensions to student-athletes. They will experience “mini-series” courses during this class period on subjects such as study habits, critical thinking, personal responsibility, exploring personal brand/reputation, financial literacy, digital fluency, and more.
Project Lab
The Project Lab is a twice per week program that combines interdisciplinary topics together in a project based curriculum. Beyond more comprehensive learning from the combination of subject matter, student-athletes will learn skills such as team work, long-term assignment planning, leadership and contribution, and group responsibility. Each faculty member will contribute to these projects, but the program will be delivered, taught and graded by a designated instructor to ensure The Project Lab experience is rich and contributes to student-athlete learning depth.
Intersession
Our intersessions curriculum takes place three times per school year. The aim of the intersession week is to focus learning in all subjects on a specific topic or project. In the fall, our first intersession is HSPT prep. During this intersession, each class focuses on a different section of the exam and includes practice testing.
Other intersessions include topics and projects such as: entrepreneurship and socialization.
Learning Lab
The Learning Lab is also two hours per week and is focused on helping student-athletes who might be struggling with a concept in a particular program or for those who excel in a subject and need additional challenges. This time each week is totally focused on each student-athlete’s individual needs, growth and success. Learning Lab will be monitored by a designated instructor, however all faculty will be available as needed to assist student-athletes.
Friday Life Enhancement
Friday life enhancement is designed for students to experience hands-on things they are learning in a “field trip” type of approach. For example, if student-athletes are learning about the environment, a Friday might be a hike in a nearby state park to see first-hand the things they learned about in the classroom. As a part of this program, they also explore professions and careers, while meeting with professionals to give student-athletes “ground zero” insights. Of course, there is the occasional Friday when due to academic pressures, it’s just simply a “fun Friday” of competitive games or time on the field.
