Great Hearts Academies is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit charter school management organization dedicated to improving public education in the Phoenix metropolitan area by developing a network of excelling preparatory academies (grades 6 to 12). Great Hearts member schools--Veritas Preparatory Academy, Chandler Preparatory Academy, Mesa Preparatory Academy, Glendale Preparatory Academy, and Scottsdale Preparatory Academy, and its founding sister school, Tempe Preparatory Academy, are substantially outperforming other public schools and proving that schools can do a superb job of educating students if they are smaller, more efficient, and set higher expectations for all students through a core, liberal arts curriculum. Great Hearts plans to open many more liberal arts academies in Metro Phoenix in the next decade. An Academy that will serve an economically disadvantaged community in the Phoenix Metro Core is on track to be open in 2009.