Renaissance Alliance is a private, non-profit school in Blanco, Texas, that provides students from grades K through 12 with a stimulating, classical education, working in partnership with our students' parents.

In 1993, Pat Percival established Renaissance Alliance after being approached by parents whose children were not thriving in the public schools and by parents who wished to home school their children, but felt it would be better for a third person to serve as a tutor. At the time, Percival had been tutoring reading skills with a complete phonics program. She later expanded her curriculum to include all grades and all subjects, taught using tried-and true fundamentals.

Renaissance Alliance combines the best of organized, formal education--a well-planned, rigorous curriculum--with the advantages of home schooling: allowing students to advance at their own pace.

Our name was chosen very carefully. Renaissance means "an awakening" or "new birth," and our philosophy of teaching is to open young minds to the exciting world of learning and knowledge. From the beginning, we believed in quality instruction that is student-centered. Alliance refers to a group of people working toward a common goal. It was chosen because not only teachers and students, but also parents (and guardians) are working together to educate children.

We believe that a classical education is a three-part process.

The first phase (the Grammar stage) is when young children are introduced to language, history, literature, science and mathematics.

The second-phase, called the Logic stage, is when middle school students become captivated by the way facts fit together and their abstract reasoning begins to mature. For instance, during this stage the facts of history become secondary to the reasons behind history.

The third phase, also known at the Rhetoric stage, is when students build on facts and reasons; they learn to form their own theories and ideas and to express them lucidly and fluently.

"Armed with these tools, students are ready for any advanced education they desire to pursue," says founder Pat Percival.