Herron Classical Schools

Herron Classical Schools will be a leader in educating a diverse student population through a Classical, liberal arts model, ensuring that all of our students graduate with the opportunity to live a life of choice.

Herron Classical Schools will play a leading role in creating an education ecosystem locally that values diversity in all respects. As a leading Classical, liberal arts education high school, our students and graduates will think critically, engage in respectful and meaningful dialogue, and value diversity in their community.

We will be the model for how public schools can impact their neighborhoods and the city at large.

Our schools:
Believe that every student is a scholar
Engage in an urban community
Advance timeless ideas and content
Build a culture of respect and trust through relationships with people and ideas
Serve as a catalyst for renewal

Through an integrated curriculum and classical methodology, Herron Classical Schools believes all students can learn to think logically, express themselves creatively, appreciate aesthetics fully, and approach any subject intelligently.

The academic programs of the schools are designed to challenge every student to achieve on or above grade level performance in all academic subjects. While students may enter below grade level in many areas, the schools are prepared for the challenge of equipping students with the knowledge, skills, and habits necessary for success in an academically rigorous college preparatory high school.

Herron Classical School's curriculum is structured around a historical timeline which emphasizes the classic art and literature of many cultures. Presented through the lens of science, mathematics, and humanities, this unique approach to the organization of knowledge provides a means to integrate subjects, and leads students on a journey through the earliest human history right up to modern examples of human creativity.

Herron Classical School's classical methodology relies on Socratic dialogue and the classical model of education called the Trivium as its academic corner stone. The three phases of the Trivium include:

Grammar – In this phase students acquire fundamental knowledge in all disciplines.

Logic– As students become world-class citizens, they learn how to reason and debate. Students apply their knowledge as they discern and evaluate, compare and contrast, and discover cause and effect relationships in any given subject.

Rhetoric – As students progress through the Trivium, they learn to apply the rules of logic to the information they have acquired. Students learn to think rationally and articulate ideas effectively.

Herron Classical Schools success is fueled by an exceptional faculty, many of whom grow into teacher leaders.
The leadership has remained consistent, with three members of the executive team having been at the school since its founding.

More than half of Herron Classical Schools faculty members hold master’s degrees or higher.
Every Friday, faculty members engage in an hour and a half of professional development to improve in their craft. This amounts to more than 300 hours of professional development every year.

The school’s faculty includes two Woodrow Wilson MBA Fellowship in Educational Leadership graduates and three who are currently enrolled in the highly prestigious program, which offers a unique and innovative approach to developing new school leaders by training them in business practices and education leadership.

2021 - Herron Preparatory Academy (HPA) opens. Herron Classical Schools (HCS) emerges.

2020 - Herron High School awarded the National Blue-Ribbon School Award as an Exemplary High Performing School.

2019 - 2020 Herron-Riverside High School receives an “A” grade on the Indiana Department of Education accountability report card.

2019 - 2020 The combined ISTEP+ pass rate for Herron High School and Herron-Riverside High School scholars are the highest and third-highest of all high schools in Marion County.

2019 - Ranked as the #5 public high school in Indiana according to US News and World Report, ahead of all of other central Indiana high schools. (HHS)

2019 - Herron-Riverside High School students outperform the national average for growth on standardized assessments by 500 percent.

2017 - Herron-Riverside High School (RHS) opens. Indianapolis Classical Schools (ICS) emerges.

2014- 2018 - Designated a Gold Medal School by US News and World Report magazine. (HHS)

2014 - Presented with Institute for Quality Education’s “Quality Matters” award for excellence in education. (HHS)

2012-18 - Ranked among the top 1 percent of high schools nationwide by Newsweek, US News and World Report and The Washington Post. (HHS)

2012-20 - Herron High School receives an “A” grade on the Indiana Department of Education accountability report card.

2011 - Ranked #2 in Indiana and #208 overall in the nation in The Washington Post’s “High School Challenge Index.” (HHS)

2010 - Honored with the NUVO Cultural Vision Award for outstanding contributions to the community for new ideas, original work and fresh solutions for stubborn problems in urban education. (HHS)

2010 - Ranked #27 in the nation on Newsweek’s list of “America’s Best High Schools.” (HHS)

2009 - Ranked as the top-performing public high schools in the state according to the Indiana Dept. of Education’s improvement and accountability framework. (HHS)

2007 - Herron High School students achieved the highest ISTEP scores of all public high schools in Marion County in language arts and math.

2006 - Herron High School (HHS) opens.

Other notable distinctions:
- The graduation rate for the Herron High School Class of 2020 is more than 99 percent, far exceeding Indiana Department of Education targets and state averages | 100 percent of graduates pursuing post-secondary education or military service are accepted | Scholars earned $16.7 million in college scholarships.