Merit College Preparatory Academy (MCPA) is a public chartered high school serving grades 7â€"12 in Springville, Utah, USA. It opened in 2008.
Facilities
The school building is a 63,000-square-foot (5,900Â m2) ADA-compliant facility on approximately 12 acres (49,000Â m2). It has classrooms, foreign language labs, a student store, art, dance, and music rooms, a kitchen and cafeteria, a separate gymnasium, and indoor and outdoor sports facilities.
Education
Merit Academy uses university-style learning and assessment. The curriculum follows the state core, with enhancements. Core subjects are taught by a licensed teacher with two assistants. Core classrooms accommodate 45 students, and can be divided into three smaller classrooms of 15 students when required, with a 15:1 student-teacher ratio.
Instructional Focus Tracks
Instructional Focus Tracks (IFTs), starting in the 10th grade, provide specialist teaching. Students can take 6.5 credits, of the total 27 credits they need to graduate, as intensive focused study in the following areas:
- Concurrent Enrollment (College Credit)
- Business
- Science & Engineering
- Science & Math
- Computers & Technology
- English & Humanities
- Foreign Languages
- Fine Arts
- General Studies
- Individualized Focus
Students taking courses in the Business IFT, for example, will start and run their own businesses either online or at the student store, under the direction of Merit's business IFT faculty and volunteer professionals from the community. A student in the Computers & Technology IFT might build a service robot in the Robotics course, or work on a website development team that produces a site for a real company. A student in the Fine Arts IFT might create a composition or short play staged and performed in the theater.
