Why Waggener - Waggener High School is an Academies of Louisville school with eight distinct career pathway options leading to industry certifications.  In addition to career readiness, Waggener’s College Now program allows our students to earn college credit now, before arriving on the campus of your chosen university.  Waggener also boasts championship athletic and extracurricular programs and provides students with rewarding community engagement opportunities. 

Waggener houses the only three National Career Academy Coalition (NCAC) Model Academies in the state of Kentucky: Freshman Academy (Model with Distinction), Health Science Academy (Model), IT & Law Academy (Model).  This certification is awarded to academies based on the 10 NCAC National Standards of Practice.  These nationally recognized standards were developed by nationally recognized educational organizations from around the United States using research to determine best-practices for effective academies in better preparing students for high school, college, and life success. 

We are actually the fourth smallest high school in JCPS.  This enables us to form a tight knit community that allows each and every student to thrive.  Even though we are small in comparison to our neighboring JCPS high schools, we still offer ALL the courses, programs, and extracurriculars needed to set you apart from the crowd.  You won’t sacrifice anything in experience, but you will gain tremendously in personalized attention and support.

Waggener High School's Freshman Academy was the first NCAC accredited model academy within Jefferson County Public Schools and the state of Kentucky in 2020!   Our school recently went through the review process during the Spring 2024 semester and was awarded Model with Distinction accreditation status to become the only Model with Distinction academy in JCPS and the state of Kentucky.

This certification is awarded to academies based on the 10 National Career Academy Coalition (NCAC) National Standards of Practice (NSOP).  These nationally recognized standards were developed by educational organizations from around the United States using research to determine best-practices for effective academies in better preparing students for high school, college, and life success.

Waggener's College NoW Program offers our students the opportunity to earn more than 30 college credit hours. This unique program is designed to offer high school students the opportunity to earn college credits with reduced tuition through partnerships with several Kentucky universities. Our partner schools currently include UL, UK, WKU, Campbellsville University, and JCTC. The current course offerings include: English, Math, History, Science, Psychology, Communication, Digital Literacy, Nursing, Law, and Education with many new courses on the horizon for the 2025-26 school year. Individualized college counseling is available to juniors and seniors in Waggener’s College NoW Program. Personal college application, essay writing, and financial aid/scholarship assistance is provided to students in finding their best-fit college.

Waggener's College NoW Program is offered to students as early as the ninth grade.  Our ninth graders with the required 3.0 GPA simultaneously take Waggener’s Freshman Seminar course in the spring with an 8-week online College and Career Exploration course from Western Kentucky University to bank their first college credit hour as a freshman and kick start their College NoW Program!