Why NHLA

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Our Executive Director, Paul Krueger, has been intervening in the educational community since 2003 and working with children, especially youth since 1993. As a Husband, Father, Pastor, Educator, Coach and community volunteer, Paul brings vast experience to supporting you and your child to thrive. Paul not only has the empathy and experience to be successful with you, but he has training and is highly qualified. Paul has three educational passions as a lifelong learner: Interpersonal Communication, Education/Teaching, and Theology. Paul has a professional certificate in Theology from ITLS, A bachelor’s degree in Interpersonal Communication from CSUSB, and a master’s degree in Teaching from WGU. Paul’s passion for learning has translated to innovative approaches to intervening in the lives of learners and their parents in the community. That same passion is the driving force behind bringing our NHLA families high quality educational support and training,  as well as parenting education and support, shoulder to shoulder with a staff Paul has assembled that is highly qualified, has a proven track record,  and is called to love your family.    Among the staff members at New Hope Learning Academy are a PhD, three Master’s Degrees, 5 bachelors degrees, and 3 professional certificates. 

The Driving force behind our efforts to provide NHLA is educational freedom that accomplishes high-quality educational and life outcomes in the lives of the families we serve. That is probably the reason you are reading this FAQ document as well! We do not receive state funding because it comes with “strings attached” that give a broken system control over the educational outcomes in your child’s life. Not taking those funds means that we are privately funded through the generosity of our sponsoring 501(c)(3) organization, through private donations, from grants that we come across from time to time, and from the fees we collect from participating families.

 We believe in the value, that educational choice rests with and is the responsibility of parents. While we believe there are amazing hard-working, highly qualified educators in the public system, we believe the system itself is broken. So, our motivation is practical, not “anti.” We are pro-educational choice, pro-parent, pro student, and believe education can be done better. 

  A school can’t be a Christian! We are love effort of believers in Jesus Christ who demonstrate their values and love in practical ways through a school. You do not have to be member at New Hope, go to church at all, or believe the same way we do to take advantage of this program. Simply put, like everything done at New Hope, we are blessed by people seeing the demonstration of our faith and recognizing the value of that demonstration with no strings attached. If you want to be a part of our church family, we would love that, but it will never be required. We are ready to love and support home-educators and their families regardless of their faith identities.

 We believe the best way to bring about change is to do the right thing in front of people. With the amount of money poured into schools to feed a bureaucracy that is morbidly obese, it is an understatement to say that our system is broken. Then, when “broad -brushed” mandates and controls are creating environments that don’t serve our children’s’ educations as effectively as possible, we believe there is a better way to do things and that action needs to take place. We stand with you to do what makes sense for your child to thrive in life and education. Simply put, for far less investment of resources we can do far more. This also allows us to protect your child’s education from extremists in our school system that have a present agenda to indoctrinate children rather than educate our children. There is a big difference. We believe you have the ultimate responsibility to make the right decisions regarding raising your child. We believe it is our job to enable and support home educators to be great and to enrich your child’s life in a way that helps them thrive in life and education 

  Our staff and administrators have been working with families and children in our local community since 1988. While there are wonderful individuals in our local educational institutions, they are working in a system that is not simply educating but is slowly eroding (sometimes not so slowly) parents’ control over the education of their children. We have also witnessed the eroding of the family unit as an anchor that drives our culture and society. We want to support education and families to have effective, accountable, affordable control over their children’s lives. 

  Moral Autonomy is the philosophy of the day, and those who speak or act against issues based on values they deeply hold, or even simply practice the values they have, are marginalized, shunned, shouted down and “canceled.” To combat this, we don’t engage in the same activities hoping for a different outcome, we think there is value in discourse and understanding all sides. We want to hear from and understand those who disagree with us. What happens when a student doesn’t just regurgitate what they’ve been told to believe, but can critically analyze and defend their value’s merit based on a thorough understanding of  values contrary to their own? We believe that “agree to disagree agreeably” is a better way and that schools should be for supporting children to critically think in all domains, without indoctrinating. We want outcomes that see children reaching the highest levels of thinking. We want them to remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create as they grow as individuals to thrive in education and life. 

  Of course! All are welcome to enroll at New Hope Learning Academy. All we ask is a basic understanding and acceptance that everything that we do is in response to and because of our faith and values. We will never be pushy, and this school does not have a secret purpose to convert anyone to our faith. We believe that the public demonstration of our faith and love for God should do the talking. If that demonstration of love and faith in your life has you wanting to know more, awesome! If not, we will simply continue to be who we are and serve you and your family in the same way we serve everyone regardless of whether you are like us or not. 

 Hybrid means that we are facilitating a combination of parent-led home education and in person learning in a way that brings the best practices of different educational pedagogies together.  We bring expertise and flexibility to your child's educational plan in a way that is always growing and getting better.  Our education is home-based, meaning that homeschool statistics give a glimpse of why home based and in our case, hybrid education is better.

According to thinkimpact.com, a clearing house on statistics:

https://www.thinkimpact.com/homeschooling-statistics/#:~:text=41%25%20of%20parents%20showed%20a,28%25%20fewer%20parents%20preferred%20homeschooling.

· Homeschool students have a college graduation rate that is 13.5% higher than those in public school.

· 25% of homeschool students are working at least one grade level higher than their public-school peers

· Homeschool students typically score 80-90% regardless of parent level of education

· Boys score 44% more in reading tests when educated at home compared to when educated in public schools.

· Boys score 44% more in reading tests when educated at home compared to when educated in public schools.

· Peer-reviewed studies indicate that 69% of homeschooled students succeed in college and adulthood.

· Homeschooled students tend to perform above average on their ACTs and SATs

o In these standard achievement tests, the homeschooled students average between 15% and 30% more points than the students attending public schools, notwithstanding the parents’ income and education.

· Homeschooled students average 72 points more than the nationwide mean performance in SATs.

· The average performance of homeschoolers is 22.8 out of 36 points compared to the national average of 21.

The average performance of homeschoolers is 22.8 out of 36 points compared to the national average of 21. 

 Selecting curriculum can be overwhelming! We work with you from square-1 to help you select the curriculum that will accomplish great educational outcomes for your child. We then work with you to set short, mid and end of year goals, align your curriculum to benchmarks, and then help with lesson planning and sequencing your child’s learning. We proctor and support outcomes with you that help your child thrive in life and learning.

As a home-based private school, students of New Hope Learning Academy are exempt from California Immunization Requirements. However, we believe in parents’ right and freedom to choose what is best for their child. If you choose to vaccinate your child, we will be glad to maintain immunization records consistent with the requirements of the State of California for the K-12 students we are serving. You will either have an exemption from immunization on file with us, or an immunization record that we will maintain for you.

 We will have typical opportunities for your child to explore music, sewing, art and other areas of enrichment, but what sets NHLA apart is a proprietary system that has been developed and honed over the last 17 years to also enrich your child’s life. Utilizing a proprietary developmental asset assessment, our 4:8 curriculum, and character trips, we have regular collaborative 4:8 elective sessions where we take your child on a journey of understanding major philosophies, life skills, and living truth to integrate a framework into their lives that they can use, as we’ve mentioned earlier, to thrive. Our character trips immerses you and your child into a real-world learning environment with a character themes that create moments of learning that last a lifetime. One example is our Cabrillo Journey that integrates California History, US History, Science, and Geography with lessons in the character learning domains of legacy, sacrifice, integrity, and honor. 

 While we want our students to be able to thrive in any environment and think their way to living their values, sometimes the pressures exerted on our children are not appropriate for their age and maturity. Hybrid education takes those threats “off the table.” Imagine a school environment devoid of bullying, with a high level of emotional security, that is nurturing, promotes your family’s values, where peer pressure is non-existent, and you don’t have to wonder what is really happening in the classroom. Now ask yourself if you just imagined a typical school classroom? Probably not! We use regular enrichment meetings, character trips, and an extracurricular strategy to ensure that students are experiencing wholesome social interaction while preparing them for the inevitable moments they will be pressured or have the opportunity to compromise the family values. Utilizing  our proprietary 4:8 enrichment we mentor students to have the life skills to understand the appropriate giving and receiving of intimacy in their relationships; teaching them that they “are the choices they make.” We work hard with you to ensure that your child is more prepared socially for the outside world than other children their age.

 Even parents who think they are ready to be hybrid educators usually need or would love to have help and support, and those who are not ready, definitely need it! We want this choice to be simple for you. If you think hybrid education is the best option for your child, we are ready to help you make it happen. Many Private School PSPs and Coops have get-togethers or fellowship times, offer enrichment, allow access for a price to extra activities, or effectively pool resources with other like-minded families. We are different in that we add a layer of expertise and guide in a way that we believe takes education to a better level of effectiveness. A FAQ sheet cannot begin to detail all the things that we do to partner with parents to make hybrid education a wonderful, credible, effective, and excellent journey. Whether you are a seasoned educator, home education veteran, somewhere in between, or a total beginner... we are ready to partner with you to initiate and execute your child's hybrid education journey so that they thrive in life and education!