Pensacola Christian Academy (PCA) is a private

Christian school A Christian school is a Parochial school, religious school run on Christianity, Christian principles or by a Christian organization. These schools often include religious education and worship in their curriculum. They may also have a distinct Ch ...

serving elementary through high school grades. It is located in

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only incorporated city, city in Escambia County, Florida, Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

, United States.

History

The school was founded as Pensacola Christian School in 1954 by Arlin and Beka Horton, who later established Pensacola Christian College. PCS began in a three-classroom building, offering kindergarten through second grade. One grade was added each year until the school reached 9th grade. In the early days PCS was one of the only schools with air-conditioned classrooms. Grades 10 through 12 were added after the school was moved to a larger facility in the mid-1960s. The Hortons and PCS have claimed, falsely, that the school was desegregated in 1969, before the IRS' decision to remove tax-exempt status from segregated schools. The first black students appeared in the 1972 yearbook. In addition to denying black children enrollment, the school refused to hire black staff until sometime after 1963. The earliest record of black employees is in the 1969 yearbook. In 1994, PCS completed a new facility on Brent Lane in Pensacola. After moving there, the school changed its name to Pensacola Christian Academy.

Program

PCA is an Independent Baptist Christian school using Abeka curriculum. The school is

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

through the Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, an accrediting body for Christian schools. The school is dedicated to "traditional methods" such as

phonics Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing to beginners. To use phonics is to teach the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language (phonemes), and the letters (graphemes) or groups of letters or syllables of the written ...

for teaching reading and the art of

cursive Cursive (also known as joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and m ...

for

penmanship Penmanship is the technique of writing with the hand using a writing instrument. Today, this is most commonly done with a pen, or pencil, but throughout history has included many different writing implement, implements. The various generic a ...

. Although criticized by some, PCA begins teaching cursive as early as kindergarten.

Dress regulations

Girls are only allowed to wear skirts or dresses that do not rise above their knees (7–12th only) and shirts that do not show their stomach. Boys can wear pants. Boys cannot wear shorts (7th–12th only). For girls most jewelry is permitted. Cartilage/facial/tongue/lip/eyebrow/belly button piercings are not permitted. No words are allowed on the clothing, unless they are able to be covered by one or two fingers.

Associations

Pensacola Christian Academy is associated with Pensacola Christian College, and is used extensively by the PCC Education Department as a training grounds for PCC Education students. All PCC Education internships as well as many classroom observation practicums are held within the PCA facility. The A Beka Books curriculum, which is marketed to homeschoolers and private Christian schools throughout the world, is named for the co-founder of the Pensacola Christian Academy, Beka Horton. The curriculum was developed within PCA and is the curriculum used solely by the school. A Beka Books textbooks are written from a conservative Christian perspective and are available to home schoolers and Christian schools for purchase through the A Beka Books website. PCA is affiliated with A Beka Academy, a correspondence-school system that uses the A Beka Books curriculum. The A Beka Academy sells

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

s of PCA teachers recorded while teaching live classes at PCA. All student test scores and grades for those enrolled in A Beka Academy are sent to and recorded at the A Beka Academy offices. On completion of the 12th grade, a home-schooled student of A Beka Academy may graduate.

Notable alumni

References

External links

Pensacola Christian Academy website
{{authority control Christian schools in Florida Buildings and structures in Pensacola, Florida Private high schools in Florida Private elementary schools in Florida High schools in Escambia County, Florida Private middle schools in Florida Educational institutions established in 1954 1954 establishments in Florida Conservative organizations in the United States Schools using the Abeka curriculum Segregation academies in Florida