# Mountain Heights Academy

**Type:** resource
**Status:** Draft
**Confidence:** Medium
**Tier:** C
**Focus:** online charter school, open educational resources, Utah grades 7-12, digital learning
**Identifiers:** ein=26-3417162
**Primary Location:** West Jordan, UT
**Utah Location:** West Jordan, UT
**Region:** West Jordan
**Map Location:** 9067 S 1300 W Suite 204, West Jordan, UT 84088
**Coordinates:** 40.5898, -111.9289
**Location Precision:** exact
**Location Source:** https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&ID=490013801285
**Domain:** culture-place
**Website:** https://mountainheightsacademy.org
**Updated:** 2026-08-11
**Pull:** *Utah's open-curriculum online charter — formerly Open High School of Utah — still building courses from OER at scale for grades 7–12.*
**Relates:** cites [Source: Mountain Heights Academy — About Page](mountain-heights-academy-official-about-page.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/mountain-heights-academy-official-about-page.md · https://mountainheightsacademy.org/about · cites [Source: NCES — Mountain Heights Academy Record](nces-mountain-heights-academy-record.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/nces-mountain-heights-academy-record.md · https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&ID=490013801285

## Summary

Mountain Heights Academy is a **tuition-free online Utah charter school** serving **grades 7–12**,
founded in **2009**, with offices in **West Jordan** ([about page](mountain-heights-academy-official-about-page.md),
[NCES record](nces-mountain-heights-academy-record.md)). NCES lists **864 students** (2024–2025 data)
and charter status **Open**.

The school was formerly known as **Open High School of Utah** in 2010 open-education reporting; the
current about capture does not use that former name.

## Impact

The lead's first-in-the-nation claim — first U.S. public school to build entirely from openly licensed
materials and release courses under an open license — is **partially supported but not closed**:

- **Supported:** A **2010 Creative Commons** post reports OHSU released **ten semesters** under **CC
  BY**, quotes director **DeLaina Tonks** saying they are **"among the first, if not the first,
  secondary school"** to create and share OER curriculum worldwide
  ([CC post](creative-commons-open-high-school-curriculum-2010.md)).
- **Supported today:** Mountain Heights says it still **builds curriculum from existing open-source
  content** plus teacher-authored materials aligned to standards
  ([about page](mountain-heights-academy-official-about-page.md)).
- **Not supported on current school page:** The 2026 about capture does **not** claim first-in-the-nation
  status or name the 2010 release.
- **Not pulled here:** Utah State Board of Education charter authorization documents that would tie
  the legal charter to an OER-only mandate.

**Bet:** that a charter school can treat openly licensed curriculum as infrastructure — compounding
courseware the way software repos compound code — if teacher labor keeps standards alignment current.

Scale is real in Utah terms: **864 students**, **74 FTE teachers**, ratio **11.66**
([NCES](nces-mountain-heights-academy-record.md)) — a substantial online charter, not a pilot.

## Who It's For

Utah students in grades 7–12 seeking a tuition-free online charter with flexible pacing, 1:1 teacher
access, and concurrent/college-credit pathways ([about page](mountain-heights-academy-official-about-page.md)).

## How To Use It

Enrollment and program options (full-time, part-time, summer) are on https://mountainheightsacademy.org/.
Office: **(801) 721-6329**; address **9067 S 1300 W Suite 204, West Jordan, UT 84088** ([NCES](nces-mountain-heights-academy-record.md)).

## Open Questions

- **First-in-the-nation status is unattributed beyond Tonks's 2010 quoted speech** — no USBE or third-party
  audit confirming no predecessor school.
- **Rename timeline** (Open High School of Utah → Mountain Heights Academy) not sourced on captured pages.
- **Utah charter authorization record** and performance reports (USBE / Utah School Report Card) not
  captured in this shard.
- **Open Education Resources** nav link on the site did not resolve to a dedicated captured page (404 on
  `/open-education-resources` probe).

## Evidence

- [Source: Mountain Heights Academy — About Page](mountain-heights-academy-official-about-page.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/mountain-heights-academy-official-about-page.md · https://mountainheightsacademy.org/about — founded 2009; OER-built curriculum statement; West Jordan address
- [Source: NCES — Mountain Heights Academy Record](nces-mountain-heights-academy-record.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/nces-mountain-heights-academy-record.md · https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&ID=490013801285 — charter; 864 students; grades 7–12
- [Source: Creative Commons — Open High School of Utah Curriculum Release (2010)](creative-commons-open-high-school-curriculum-2010.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/creative-commons-open-high-school-curriculum-2010.md · https://creativecommons.org/2010/09/07/the-open-high-school-of-utah-releases-open-educational-curriculum-under-cc-by/ — 2010 CC BY release; Tonks first-secondary-school quote

## See Also

- [Utah Valley University Innovation Center Academy](utah-valley-university-innovation-center-academy.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/utah-valley-university-innovation-center-academy.md — another Utah education resource entry