Academics

Oakdale Academy helps guide students in the development of their character and academic potential through academically rigorous, content-rich educational programs and extracurricular activities. The liberal arts curriculum directs student achievement toward mastery of the basics, exploration of the arts and sciences, and an understanding of the foundational principles of our Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman heritage.

Benefits of our purposeful choices include:

• Oakdale Academy offers books and learning materials that are carefully selected based on their content and academic quality. Each selection is made with our Mission Statement and Statement of Faith in mind. 
• We emphasize primary sources throughout the curriculum from Kindergarten through the Upper School.
• A low student-to-teacher ratio ensures that every student receives the personal attention needed to ensure individual, academic success.
• Emphasis is placed on self-respect, which results from a student’s academic accomplishment, proper conduct and regard for others.

Oakdale Academy is based on Hillsdale Academy's model for private education. As such, our curriculum selections are based on the Hillsdale Academy Reference Guide which has a 25 year track record of success. The curriculum features a traditional, well-balanced core of essential subjects. Students receive instruction in:

• Mathematics
• Language Arts
• History
• Science
• Geography
• Music
• Art
• Physical Education
• Logic, Rhetoric, Christian Apologetics, Latin (Upper School)

Mathematics is taught to the next grade level to accelerate learning and classes are taught at the same time throughout the school to ensure students can be placed according to their ability without disrupting their schedule.

We believe that it is the role of the family and the church to be the source of spiritual instruction for children, and it is the role of the school to support the instruction of the church and family, not to supplant it. The focus of Oakdale Academy is to provide students with an outstanding liberal arts education that is culturally rich in traditional American values in a Christian environment, surrounded by Christian teachers and staff, without preference for one denominational set of beliefs over another.

Oakdale Academy’s Mission is to instill Character, Truth, and Wisdom in our students to prepare them for a life of service to God, country, community, and family.

Oakdale Academy is committed to standards of education that align with our Mission and Statement of Faith. As Christians, we believe that God endows us with many gifts and one of these gifts is the gift of intellect.  We believe that we are to use this gift to the best of our ability and as such, we are to nurture it, develop it, and use it for God’s glory.

It is the position of Oakdale Academy to continue to use the curricula and teaching methods that have been tried and tested. Oakdale Academy does not intend to align to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as our academic methods and curricula used by our teachers and students have proven to be successful by encouraging true critical thinking, understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts, good writing skills, and character-enriching by the exploration of excellent literature. Furthermore, the political and philosophical controversy surrounding CCSS is of serious concern to the administration of OA.

Additionally, Oakdale Academy views the mission and curricula goals of International Baccalaureate to be in direct conflict with Oakdale Academy’s mission, vision, and curricula goals.

As a Christian institution, Oakdale Academy rejects CCSS and IB based on the inherent relativism that serves as the underpinning philosophy of CCSS and IB. Christian education teaches children that truth, salvation, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and sin and its consequences are not matters of relativity.

As a classical institution, Oakdale Academy rejects CCSS and IB because both CCSS and IB promote the notion that the purpose of education is job training. Classical education embraces the belief that true education is the enlightenment of the soul with beauty, goodness, and truth.

As a private institution, Oakdale Academy rejects CCSS and IB based on what we believe to be the overreach of government and corporate interference into education. Oakdale Academy is accountable first and foremost to God and next to our parents and students. Oakdale Academy’s record of excellence in developing character and solid academics speaks for itself.

Below are resources regarding CCSS and IB that support our stand on these issues.

• “Heritage Foundation: States Must Reject CCSS” – by Lindsay Burke.  Ms. Burke outlines point by point the problems with CCSS and why and how states can exit implementation.
• “Sandra Stotsky:  Common Core Standards’ Devastating Impact on Literary Study and Analytical Thinking” – Published by the Heritage Foundation in December 2012, Ms. Stotsky – once a consultant for the developers of Common Core – reveals the consequences of removing literature from the classroom.
•  “The Road to a National Curriculum” – by Kent Talbert & Robert Eitel, former legal counsel to the U.S. Department of Education explain the legal and constitutional problems with Common Core.
• “Letter to Catholic Bishops Urging to Reject Common Core” – This letter was written and signed by over 100 academics urging the Catholic schools in America to reject Common Core because of the fundamental incompatibility with the Catholic educational tradition.
•  “Greb Testimony on HB4276” – Mrs. Greb’s written testimony distributed to Michigan State Legislature Educational Committee urging them to defund the implementation of Common Core in the state of Michigan.
• “International Baccalaureate Releases Common Core Relationship Studies” – This official statement by IB demonstrates how IB views Common Core to have similar goals and values.
•  “IB Essay” – Mrs. Greb, former OA Head of School, writes why Christian parents and schools should be concerned about IB and its moral relativism, association with academic consultants such as Peter Singer, and its ties to the United Nations.
• HSLDA’s (Home School Legal Defense Association)
• Common Core topic papers
• Building the Machine: A Common Core Documentary