Coming soon · Grade 3 through high school
Ready to seize life from day one.
Honed by work. Formed by faith.
IronSharp is a full Christian curriculum and the software to run it. Students move on when they master the work, not when the bell rings. Screens stay in their place. Parents see everything. And the road runs from grade 3 to real college credit.
The why
Why IronSharp
School should make a young person ready for real life: ready to work, think, build, serve and stand on their own two feet.
Too often the clock runs the classroom. A child who already knows the lesson waits. A child who missed a step gets pushed ahead anyway. And the screen keeps creeping into more of the day.
IronSharp puts things back in order. Mastery comes first. Teachers lead. Screens serve the lesson and then go away. Real books stay on paper. Afternoons go to making real things for real people. Faith sits at the center, never off to the side.
Where the name comes from
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”Proverbs 27:17
Students get sharper the way iron does: by hard work alongside good teachers, good parents and each other.
How it works
Four parts. One plan for every student.
Placement
Placed by mastery, not by birthday.
Each student starts each subject at the level they have actually mastered. A student can work ahead in math and get extra help in reading at the same time.
Mastery
Move on when you've proved it.
Students show 90% on a skill, 85% on a unit test and 80% on an end-of-course exam before they move on. Nobody moves up just because the year ended. A teacher signs off on every grade.
The Family Workbench
Parents see the work.
One screen for every child in the family: today's work, the week ahead and mastery by subject. Each quarter brings The Proving, a report the student presents to the family in person.
Raphael, your IronSharp guide
Hints, not answers.
Raphael is the built-in study helper, named for the archangel who walked beside Tobias. He asks questions and gives hints so students do their own thinking. Teachers can read every conversation. He never stands in for a teacher, a parent or a pastor.
The school day
Mornings for mastery. Afternoons for making.
Screens with limits
Daily screen work starts in grade 3. Middle school is capped at two hours a day and high school at three. The software enforces the cap.
Short stretches
About 25 to 30 minutes on a screen, then a task on paper. Phones stay put away.
Real books, real pencils
Novels and great books are read on paper. Early drafts are written by hand.
IronSharp Works
Afternoons go to workshops and student businesses, where students learn it, build it, sell it and give it.
Grades & college credit
Grade 3 through high school.
One path from chapter books to college credit.
Foundations
Novels and informational texts on paper. Cursive and handwriting. Touch-typing begins. Multiplication, fractions and decimals until they are second nature. Science and history every week.
Building
Literary analysis and research papers. Latin or Spanish begins. Pre-algebra, then Algebra I in grade 8 for students who are ready. Life, earth and physical science.
Launch
A full high-school plan with daily faith study, lab science, a world language and electives. AP courses and dual-credit college classes.
Up to 60 college hours.
That's an associate degree's worth, about halfway to a bachelor's. The credit tracker counts every hour.
The plain truth: college credit depends on the college. Each college decides what it accepts, and we'll name our partner colleges once agreements are signed. Sixty hours is the ceiling, not a promise for every student.
- AP examsCourses designed for AP exams. A strong score can earn credit where a college accepts it.
- Dual creditReal college courses taken in high school, counting toward high school and college at once.
- Credit by examTests that turn what a student already knows into college hours.
Electives on the drawing board
- Marketing and Brand Design
- Personal Financial Literacy
- Entrepreneurship
- Leadership and Public Speaking
- Computer Science Principles
- Audio/Video Production
- Art
- Music Appreciation
- Health
- Principles of Agriculture
On the draft reading list: The Odyssey, Flatland, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and A Christmas Carol.
Faith traditions
Faith at the center
Jesus worked with His hands. So do we.
Each IronSharp school or family picks one faith tradition at setup, and it stays set. Faith lessons come only from people who teach that faith.
Faith is never scored. We teach it seriously, the way we teach math and reading, but we never grade belief, prayer or worship.
Christ the Craftsman
“Is not this the carpenter…?”Mark 6:3
The Son of God spent years at a workbench. Work done well is a way to honor Him.
Catholic: Cedar & Cross
Our first edition is IronSharp for Catholic schools and families, built on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Visit Cedar & Cross →More Christian traditions
Editions for other Christian traditions are being built with reviewers from each tradition. Join the waitlist and we'll keep you posted.
Join the waitlist →IronSharp is offered by an independent company. It is not sponsored or endorsed by any church or denomination.
Who it's for
For schools. For families.
For schools
- Runs the school day: placement, mastery records, teacher sign-off and reports parents actually read.
- Screen limits enforced by the software, not by willpower.
- Teachers stay in charge. A teacher approves every grade.
- Works in a web browser on a Chromebook or a basic laptop.
- One faith tradition, set once for the whole school.
- Your school owns its students' data.
For homeschool families
- The full curriculum, with you as teacher of record.
- The Family Workbench: one screen for every child.
- Transcript and portfolio export when you need it.
- A credit tracker that counts every college hour.
- Afternoon projects and a real student business through IronSharp Works.
Our promise to parents
The rules we're building it to keep.
- No ads. No selling data. Ever.
- Raphael never receives a child's name.
- Teachers can read every Raphael conversation. Parents can see every message sent to their child.
- No messages to students between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.
- Raphael never diagnoses anyone. If a student may be in danger, Raphael points them to a trusted adult and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, and a real person is told right away.
- Families can download their records any time.
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No. IronSharp is the curriculum and the software that runs it. A school runs it in the classroom, or a family runs it at home. Teachers and parents stay in charge.
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We’re building IronSharp now. Join the waitlist and you will hear first when enrollment opens.
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We’ll share pricing when enrollment opens. Waitlist families hear first.
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No. Daily screen work starts in grade 3, and it is capped: two hours a day in middle school and three in high school. Younger grades have their own caps. Students work about 25 to 30 minutes at a stretch, then switch to paper.
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Yes, through AP exams, dual credit and credit by exam, up to 60 college hours. Credit depends on the college that grants it, and not every student will reach 60. We’ll name our partner colleges once agreements are signed.
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No. Faith is never scored. Students study it seriously, but no one grades belief, prayer or worship.
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Raphael is the built-in study helper. He is software, not a person, named for the archangel who walked beside Tobias in the Book of Tobit. He gives hints, not answers, and teachers can read every conversation.
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No. No ads and no selling data, ever. Schools own their students' data, and families can download their records any time.
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IronSharp is built on Texas standards first, and we plan to support other states' standards too. Join the waitlist and we’ll keep you posted.
FAQ
Straight answers.
Join the waitlist
Be first in line.
Join the waitlist and we'll write when enrollment opens. Just your name and email. We never sell either one.
Schools, families and anyone else with a question: write to RBolen@blackstoneanalytics.com.