What is FASTAR®?
A month before the most famous auto race in America, the Indianapolis 500, CCS-America students will compete in a race of their own, a voluntary, extracurricular academic tournament known as FASTAR® (Fluent Academic Skills Tournament in Arithmetic and Reading). The goal of FASTAR® is to encourage students to improve their basic skills through practice in an exciting and rewarding tournament modeled after automobile racing. Research shows that practicing to the point of fluency – able to give fast, smooth, and nearly automatic responses – has several benefits: skills are retained longer, students are able to perform the skills for longer periods of time before tiring, comprehension may be improved, mastery of basic skills make it easier to succeed at more-complex tasks, and homework time may decrease.
FASTAR® racers will participate in tune-up sessions in advance and are encouraged to practice at home. Race days occur in April. The trophy winners from each campus will then meet at the Race of Champions on April 24th where the school with the most speed and accuracy will take home the overall trophy. Sign your student up by this Friday, February 23rd to participate!
Check out last year’s pictures below.
Beta Clubs Travel to State Convention
Members of the CCS-Leland and CCS-Whiteville Beta Clubs traveled to Greensboro last month to participate in the North Carolina’s 32nd annual Junior Beta Convention.
The students competed with distinction in individual and team events in the Arts and Academics that relate to classes at CCS-America. Congratulations to all for impressive performances! We are so proud of how they represented CCS-America.
The mission of the Beta Club is to promote academic achievement, character, service, and leadership. Middle school students interested in these values are welcome to join the Beta Club in the 2024-2025 school year!
Learn more about Beta Club here
State Archery Tournament
Classical Charter Schools of America’s three middle school teams from Leland, Southport, and Whiteville participated in the National Archery Schools Program’s (NASP) North Carolina State Tournament in Winston-Salem this past weekend.
Our teams have been involved in NASP for fourteen years and have garnered nine State Championships, two second-place trophies, and numerous individual awards with two students placing in the top 10 in the middle school boy’s division this year – Colton Riley (Leland, 8th grade) ranked 6th in the State, and Ethan Stanley (Leland, 7th grade) placed 7th. All our team members should be commended for their hard work because the growth and popularity of the sport is making it increasingly more competitive each year.
“Our middle school students have the opportunity to participate in our archery elective classes, and students are then selected for the competition archery teams,” explained Leland Head Coach LaFave. “We are thankful to all our coaches and administrators for supporting our student-athletes, and we are excited to continue to grow the archery programs on all our middle school campuses,” he added.
Celebrating Frederick Douglass
“Once you learn to read, you are forever free.” -Frederick Douglass
Born into slavery in February 1818, it was illegal for Frederick Douglass to be taught how to read and write, but the wife of his master taught him the alphabet and how to read the Bible. After he learned, Douglass read everything he could and went on to become a champion of the abolitionist and women’s rights movements.
Each year, CCS-Wilmington, previously named after Frederick Douglass, celebrates his birthday and contribution to our country. Teachers read books about Douglass to students and they even get a special visit from Mr. Douglass himself!