ASPIRE Basketball Academy

Bella Vista College Prep

Bella Vista College Preparatory School opened in the fall of 2004 as a school for 5th to 7th-grade students, and currently offers classes for students from Kindergarten through High School. The guiding principles of the school have been the same since 2004:

  • Innovative teachers who use a variety of teaching methods to reach their students.
  • An emphasis on project and challenge based learning and an abundance of experiential opportunities outside of the classroom.
  • An environment of respect for students and teachers with no tolerance for bullying or disrespect.
  • Small class sizes to maximize teachers one on one time with students. Classes are limited to no more than 15 students.
  • The belief that every student deserves access to the highest quality education regardless of ability to pay.

Bella Vista College Prep is fully accredited by AdvanceEd.

Historically, 25% – 35% of students attending Bella Vista College Prep received some form of needs-based financial aid. BVCP matches every dollar received in tuition tax credit money with an additional dollar offered towards needs-based aid. BVCP prides itself on being as innovative as possible and is always searching for ways to improve their student’s learning and opportunities, as well expose students to a variety of new academic and social experiences. Bella Vista College Prep students are out of the classroom setting often during each year, providing students with both in and out of state field trip experiences. BVCP also includes international experiences as well. In 2012, a group of students spent seven days in Costa Rica. BVCP is welcoming to foreign exchange students from all over the world. Students have come from China, France, Sweden, Norway, Macedonia, Spain, Ecuador, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Switzerland, Vietnam, India, Ukraine, Brazil, Yemen, and Mexico. 

Bella Vista College Prep has always been an innovator in program development. In 2010, BVCP began allowing students to use personal technology in class and provided wireless and wired access to pupils. Today the use of student-owned technology includes encouraging the use of smartphones in the classroom and cloud-based computing. BVCP‘s curriculum includes a traditional Science, Math, and Language Arts instruction. Spanish as a second language is taught from Kindergarten. English as a second language (ESL) courses are available to international students. Students are expected to master productivity software such as word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software. Students also learn how to use digital imaging and video production software and are introduced to WIKI’s and Blogs as tools. HTML is taught as early as elementary school, and object-oriented programming is introduced in 6th to the 8th grades through the use of Scratch and Alice programs, developed by MIT and Carnegie Mellon University. High School students add the Python language to programming languages learned. Those involved in the robotics program are exposed to Labview and Autodesk software.

Bella Vista College Prep has been featured on local television for innovative programs such as the Open for Business project and robotics. BVCP has pioneered instruction with case studies for topics such as international business and marketing at the middle and high school level. In 2012, BVCP added a robotics program; the only one in the Cave Creek, Carefree, North Scottsdale area, winning the Top Rookie Seed Award at the 2012 Regional FRC robotics competition.

Bella Vista College Prep students have won awards across a broad spectrum of disciplines from the arts and sciences to the written word and sports. BVCP‘s  first graduating class of 5 students earned over $525,000 in the form of academic scholarships and grants. One student graduated with 35 hours of college credit and two others with 35 hours and honors. All students who have been with BVCP from tenth grade have earned at least 30 hours of college credit with GPA’s of over 3.5. One-hundred percent of the class of 2012 met or exceeded the Arizona AIMS test. The class of 2013 had six graduates, with three of the students graduating with 30 or more college credits.