All rising ninth-grade students who have been accepted by audition into a Level I or higher arts discipline are eligible to apply for the Academic Studio. Today, up to 250 of NOCCA’s 600-member student body attend the full-day academic and arts program, while the remainder attend the arts-only conservatory on a half-day basis. Because students are admitted to NOCCA on the basis of their arts audition only, they enter the Academic Studio with a wide range of academic preparation. Within a few years of its conception, NOCCA’s Academic Studio has become one of the top schools in Louisiana that does not screen for academic achievement upon admission. Graduates of the Academic Studio outpace their peers on state and national standardized tests, and garner higher college scholarship offers than the arts-only cohort.

The Academic Studio is fully accredited by the State of Louisiana and recognized by the TOPS University Diploma Program. Over the course of their four years in the Academic Studio, students earn four credits each in World History, English, Science, and Math. Students also complete two foreign language credits in French with a classroom teacher. Lastly, if they are not in a movement-intensive arts discipline (dance and musical theatre), they take three semester credits of physical education and one semester credit of Health.

Students who successfully fulfill the expectations of courses at the Honors level will earn Honors credit for the specified course on their high school transcript. The Honors enrichment course expectations are an extension of the core Academic Studio courses’ typical coursework. Students must be in good academic standing to enroll. Honors projects can vary, but often have common components such as completing differentiated assessments, research projects, reading, writing, presentations, teaching their colleagues, round-table discussions, additional assignments or challenge questions, and delving more deeply into an academic subject.

Students may receive college credit for work completed as part of certain Academic Studio courses. Students must be in good academic standing to enroll. The requirements vary by course, but in many cases, little to no additional coursework is required to receive college credit because our courses are inherently structured similarly to college courses. College courses for which students have previously received credit include English Composition, Humanities Special Topics, and Environmental Studies.

The Student Portfolio Project is the culminating activity at the end of each course. Students take one topic or project that sparks their interest or challenges the way they think, and research or revise further to create a final project that is then presented to their classmates. From there, a small sample of students from each grade is selected by their peers to present to NOCCA and the larger community in the NOCCA Academic Symposium, a day dedicated to showcasing excellent student work.

As an effort to recognize the high demands that are placed upon our students through rigorous arts training and the college preparatory program of Academic Studio, all students have a “Supported Studies” block of time built into their daily schedule. Supported Studies is a time for students to work with faculty in individual or small-group tutorials. Supported Studies can be used to clarify what is not understood, expand to the next level if a student is progressing well, or dive more deeply into subjects of interest.