Asora's Stellar School Services to its Customers
What Content Do We Want Our Children To Learn?
We want our children to have a robust and rigorous preparation in the K-12 years. Ideally, we believe that children would learn the traditional classical curriculum subject matter which includes Latin and Greek instruction during the primary school years. Of the various curricula in fairly widespread use, we find the near-classical content taught at the Hillsdale Academy is best. In this curriculum, the children study Latin beginning in 7th grade but are not required to study Greek. Over 500 schools in the United States currently use the Hillsdale Academy curriculum. Given that it is fairly well known, we think it will be easier to market this curriculum as compared to one that would be the “purists’” choice. So we shall consider using the Hillsdale Academy Study Guides as our base curriculum.

We shall also incorporate, in the early primary years, the Core Knowledge Sequence of E. D. Hirsch. Under consideration also is an augmentation of our middle and upper school content with major segments of the 6-12 curriculum developed by the Advanced Math & Science Academy of Massachusetts.
What Instructional Methods and Formats Do We Want?
We believe in books- the ones specified in the Hillsdale Curriculum. We also believe in the lecture format as an equally important mode of instruction. In providing these lectures we believe in hiring the best available instructors. We believe that a comprehensive set of lecture notes encompassing the entire curriculum of each course should be provided to the students as their primary textbook. Students will also study more traditional textbooks to reinforce course content. We believe in workbooks, practice tests, and hands-on learning where appropriate- especially in laboratory science courses. We believe in tutoring where needed and we believe that the teacher’s roles include that of mentor. We insist that the students be allowed to progress in a self-pacing format.
How Can We Deliver These Services Cost-Effectively?
If we were to deliver the instruction in the manner just described without any use of modern technology, the costs of providing each child’s education would be exceedingly high. However, through automation, these costs can be brought down significantly. With proper organization and optimal use of the teachers we believe we can operate a school with markedly lower labor costs than typically experienced in private schools. There already exist so-called virtual schools in which the instructional services for K-12 are provided over the Internet. These are typically used by home-schooled children. They use a form of distance education to provide on-line lessons, drills, and testing. Some of these schools are accredited and issue diplomas. Most vendors in this area, however, do not offer the lectures nor do they provide digitized lecture notes linked to the online exercises of the sort that we seek for our Stellar Schools.
How To Augment These Services For Asora's Stellar Schools?
We have begun discussions with one or more vendors who will help us “produce” the content of our courses. This includes the production of video lectures and digitized lecture notes, as well as other digitized content. Links to that content from exercises and practice tests will enable students to rapidly access the information relevant to any errors or questions they might have. We plan to have FAQ’s as well as supplementary documents and supplementary lectures to help students when they encounter difficulties. While our main emphasis is the application of this technology in classrooms (of Stellar Schools), we shall also provide these services to home-schooled children.
How To Implement Self-Pacing?
Self-pacing is not new and yet it is not commonplace. As children move through each course, each at his own pace, it is obvious that no group instruction is feasible. While the technology employed in the virtual school is asynchronous the human labor force must also be able to meet the demands of many children where each, so to speak, is on a different page. It is particularly true in the early years of primary school that children need significant teacher time. In most schools where self-pacing is used some reliance is placed on student tutors. We believe that a large minority of the more advanced students can be trained to assist the professional teachers provide instruction to the younger children.