The trend in modern high school education is to allow students to take more and more college-level courses. This can be done with AP or IB courses and tests, ACE CREDIT recommended courses, Advanced Standing or CLEP tests, dual enrollment courses (in high school and college), early college, and other arrangements. In fact the U.S. Department of Education is encouraging this trend by spending $20 million to pay for dual enrollment courses as a way of making better education available for disadvantaged students. All of this confirms Dr. Mortimer Adler’s and Jacques Maritain’s insights that most teens are capable of college-level work and should be given the opportunity to do so (see the article on this website: When is the Best Age to Begin the Study of the Great Books?).
In our A.A. track, students do not actually receive their A.A. degree while in high school – they simply earn their 60 credits necessary to qualify to do so, while in high school (or home school equivalent). Once they complete the courses/credits necessary for graduation from 12th grade, and the five Holy Apostles courses mentioned above, and receive their high school diploma (or home school program diploma or equivalent), then they will be immediately eligible to matriculate into the Holy Apostles Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree program and may apply for their A.A. degree, and receive their degree with the September graduating class.