The Southern California Region Academic Decathlon, Inc., is a recognized participant under the California Academic Decathlon and the United States Academic Decathlon Program. Southern California Region is the premier location for both Private High Schools and Independent/Dependent Charter High Schools from Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties. Academic Decathlon is a ten-event scholastic competition for teams of high school students.
How we grew from Private Schools Academic Decathlon to Southern California Region. Private School Academic Decathlon began when a group of parochial schools wanted to participate in the Academic Decathlon experience, but lacked the resources to compete on the same level as the large public high schools.
Permission was given by the California Academic Decathlon to create a separate competition open to all private high schools and magnet schools in Southern California . The private schools competition winner is invited to compete for the state championship in March along with the other county competition winners and selected invited teams.
The California State Champion competes in the United States Academic Decathlon competition, held annually in April. As the program grew, so did the landscape of education. Charter Schools began to emerge, and another opportunity and need grew as well.
In 2017 our Charter with CAD and USAD changed into the Southern California Region. We welcomed into our region the Charter Schools, both independent and dependent.
A unique aspect of Academic Decathlon is that it is designed to include students from all achievement levels. Teams generally consist of nine members, who are divided into three divisions based on grade point average: Honors (3.8–4.0 GPA), Scholastic (3.20–3.799 GPA), and Varsity (1.00–3.199 GPA). Each team member competes in all ten events against other students in his or her division. Overall team scores are calculated using the top two overall individual scores from each division. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for individual events as well as for overall scores.
