About Us

Providing Hope

Founders Classical Academy is a public, tuition-free K–12 charter school rooted in the classical liberal arts tradition. As part of the ResponsiveEd family of schools, we offer an academically vigorous and morally formative education. Every Founders campus is built upon the shared belief that liberty requires virtuous citizens who are well-formed in both heart and mind.

Founders Classical Academy – Leander, founded in 2014, is proud to serve families in Leander as part of Founders Classical Academies.

A classical charter school established in 2014 by ResponsiveEd, Founders Classical Academy of Leander serves students in grades Kindergarten through 12. The school is tuition-free with an open admission policy and is accredited through the Texas Education Agency.

Click on the Aristotle quote to visit the Hillsdale College website and view the video created for Founders Classical Academy of Leander. The video features our founding headmaster, graduates, and teachers from our campus.

Parents, faculty, and staff work together for the benefit of each child, and as an established, tuition-free public school of choice, Founders Leander is open to all families.

Charter School Model

We believe families should be able to choose a school that best meets their educational needs. As public charter schools, Founders Classical Academies are open to all Texas residents, tuition-free, and without religious affiliation or academic requirements for admission.

What Is a Charter School?

Charter schools are public schools that operate with increased autonomy in exchange for strong accountability. Being authorized by the Texas Education Agency, they must meet the same academic, financial, and operational standards as traditional public schools. They are open-enrollment—students can attend regardless of their home school zone. We serve all Texas residents with no tuition or entrance exams.

How We Differ from District Schools

Ability to develop specialized curricula (such as classical education)
Select instructional materials and programs
Set high expectations for student conduct and academic mastery
Foster unique cultures of learning and character

Charter schools were established to offer families public school alternatives that foster innovation and accountability. Founders Classical Academy fulfills that promise through a classical model that nurtures the mind and forms the character.

ResponsiveEd Family of Schools

As part of ResponsiveEd, Founders Classical Academies are proud to contribute to the growth of public school choice in Texas.

Accreditation

We are a campus of ResponsiveEd®, accredited with the Texas Education Agency as a public school designed to provide an effective, traditional liberal arts and sciences education for our students. Over the last two years, Founders Classical Academies have earned distinctions from the Texas Education Agency for Reading, Mathematics, Social Studies, and College Readiness.

Our Achievements

PSAT and SAT Performance

Founders Classical Academy of Leander students perform well above the national and state averages on standard college entrance exams.

National Merit Scholarship Program

Since 2014, Founders high school students have been recognized by the National Merit Scholarship program for their performance on the PSAT.

Even among a very small first senior class of just 12, one student achieved the rank of National Merit Scholar.

U.S. Presidential Scholars Program

One student in the Class of 2017 was chosen as one of 2600 candidates invited to apply for the U.S. Presidential Scholars program, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students. Her score on the college entrance exams placed her as one of the top 20 female high school seniors in the state of Texas.

College Acceptances and Scholarships

Within eight graduating classes, the graduation and college acceptance rate is 100%. Graduates include four National Merit Scholars and fourteen National Recognition award recipients. Merit based scholarships offers exceeded $3,500,000 for the Class of 2024.

The students from our first graduating Class of 2018 were accepted to colleges and universities across the country, and earned over $2,500,000 in scholarships--an average of $90,000 in scholarship offers per student.

Education for Its Own Sake

Our greatest academic successes cannot be quantified, but anyone who walks around the hallways or overhears our students talking over lunch can see that they are not only learning a great deal but that their curiosity has been piqued by the things they have studied. In Western Civilization class one semester, the students read arguments from the Greek Ministry of Culture and the British Museum about the proper home of the Parthenon marbles. The debate began in class and soon became heated—so heated, in fact, that the teacher eventually had to ask the students to leave her classroom and go home because the school day had already ended.

It’s impossible to describe successes like this with statistics, but the results we have measured are nevertheless promising.

Salvatori Prize for Excellence in Teaching

In 2017 Founders Classical Academy was awarded the Salvatori Prize for Excellence in Teaching. The $25,000 Prize has three objectives: to focus attention on teaching, which is the core ingredient of effective education reform; to support deserving schools with funds for books, equipment, and other educational material; and to promote the principles of classical liberal arts education. The funds from the prize have been spent on purchasing a telescope, an air track, and other lab supplies for the science department, and violas, cellos, and an upright bass for the fine arts department.

Alumni Across the Country and Abroad

Founders Classical Academy graduated its first class of 12 students in May of 2017. Since then, our student body has continued to grow with graduating classes reaching upwards of 47 students. Our seniors have been accepted to top colleges and universities across the country and in Europe. A full list is available below. Explore an interactive map showing the colleges and universities that Founders Classical Academy of Leander students have attended since our first graduating class in 2017.

Here is a partial list of colleges and universities to which our students have been accepted.

List of Colleges & Universities

Abilene Christian University

Austin College

Ava Maria University

Baylor University

Belmont Abby College

Benedictine College

Berry College

Brigham Young University

Clemson University

Cornell University

Concordia University

Catholic University of America

Colorado School of Mines

DePaul University

Duke University

Duquesne University

Emory University

Hardin‐Simmons University

Hendrix College

Hillsdale College

Houston Baptist University

Kent State University

Knox College

Letourneay University

Louisiana State University

Lubbock Christian University

Point Loma Nazarene Univ.

Purdue University

Rhodes College

Rochester Inst. of Technology

St. John’s College

St. Edward’s University

St. Mary’s University

St. Michael’s Abbey Seminary

Samford University

Southern Methodist University

Southern Virginia University

Southwestern University

Texas A&M University

Texas Christian University

Texas Tech University

Thomas Aquinas College

University of Alabama

University of Arkansas

University of Chicago

University of Colorado

University of Dallas

U of Mary Hardin‐Baylor

University of Notre Dame

University of Oklahoma

U of St. Andrews, Scotland

University of St. Thomas

University of Texas

U of Texas San Antonio

University of Utah

Washington & Lee University

Wheaton College

Westmont College

William and Mary University

School Profile

Faculty

Academic Curriculum

Academic Curriculum

The curriculum teaches the liberal arts and emphasizes the intellectual and moral virtues through a content-rich, cohesive course of study. The Western tradition is central to the study of history, literature, and philosophy at Founders, and within it, students engage in a rich and recurring examination of the American literary, moral, philosophical, and historical traditions. Courses are rooted in primary sources and taught in the Socratic method, emphasizing intellectual analysis and dialogue. Students are encouraged to improve their minds and their character in accordance with virtue. The aim of the academics is to cultivate a love of the Just, the Beautiful, the Good, and the True, and to make the pursuit of these things a way of life.

Diploma Requirements

Diploma Requirements

Graduates are well-prepared to enter institutions of higher learning as liberally educated young men and women. All students complete a common, challenging college preparatory curriculum. At a minimum, the requirements include: four credits of mathematics, four credits of the sciences, four credits of literature, four credits of history, one credit of philosophy, three credits of Latin with the option to continue or to enroll in a modern foreign language, and courses in logic, composition, rhetoric, fine arts, and physical education.

Grading Scale

Student Awards

Student Awards

At the end of each academic year, students are honored for academic, athletic, and moral achievements. Students who have demonstrated excellence in a particular subject are recognized with subject awards. The highest awards are determined by faculty committee and given to students demonstrating the utmost level of Excellence in Attendance (Spartan Award), Excellence in Moral Virtue (Aeneas Award), Excellence in Athletics (Achilles Award), Excellence in Fine Arts (Homer Award), and Excellence in Intellectual Virtue (Odysseus Award).