EF Academy Pasadena

EF Academy is a private day and boarding high school with a 16-acre campus in Pasadena. The school’s curriculum is highly individualized and hands-on for its students from 30+ countries. EF Academy Pasadena first opened its doors in 2022 and had its first graduating class this year. 

Tell us about your upcoming open house.

Join us on November 2 or December 7 to learn about our global community, curriculum, extracurriculars, immersive learning philosophy and highly personalized approach. Hear from current students, faculty and school leadership as you experience what makes the EF Academy community so special.

Do you offer programs that focus on global issues?

EF Academy’s signature program, Innovation & Impact, aligns student projects with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We aim to equip students with innovation and global change-making skills that will serve them in their careers and lives. Students are in classes alongside other students from around the world to understand identities, perspectives and cultures different from their own. Our graduates are uniquely prepared for university and the real world, having gained global perspective, cultural competency and understanding of people and how to work with others.

Describe your academic focus.

EF Academy takes a student-centric approach to teaching through competency-based learning (CBL) and personalized education. CBL creates more options for students, placing them in an educational environment that allows them to learn at their own pace and gain a mastery of skills rather than a memorization of facts. CBL enables students to progress at the pace that works for them while growing their skills.

How do you connect classroom learning with the outside world? 

Our classes are designed to help connect classroom learning with the outside world by integrating project-based learning and field study. Within each course, faculty members take students on field study trips. These trips are both engaging and educational, but most importantly, they enable students to see and apply how their learning is used in the real world. For example, physics classes take trips to the Santa Monica Pier to understand the physics behind roller coasters.