1 · Full ACS coverage
Every FAA Airman Certification Standards area taught to exam depth — not just the easy regulations unit. Airspace and operations are the make-or-break topics.
Everything you need to take students from zero to a real FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate — ready-to-teach lessons, interactive practice no other program has, a question bank built to the real exam, and a teacher gradebook. Perkins V eligible. No aviation background required.
A high school drone curriculum is a structured path that prepares students to pass the FAA's Part 107 Remote Pilot exam and fly drones legally for work — not a hobby unit, but a route to a credential the aviation, construction, agriculture, public-safety, film, and logistics industries actually hire for.
The Part 107 exam is a knowledge test, which surprises most people. There is no flight check to earn the certificate. A student who can read a sectional chart, decode a weather report, and apply the regulations can pass — and that makes this one of the few genuinely attainable, nationally-recognized credentials a 16-year-old can walk out of your classroom holding.
The FAA organizes everything a remote pilot must know into five areas: regulations (14 CFR Part 107), airspace and sectional charts, weather, loading and performance, and operations. A real curriculum teaches all five to the depth the exam demands — and the hard truth is that the exam does not weight them evenly. Operations and airspace dominate the test; weather and loading are a small slice. Curricula that teach straight down the FAA's topic headers leave students under-prepared on exactly the parts that decide a pass. DroneReady is weighted to the real exam blueprint, not the table of contents.
If you're evaluating programs, these are the seven things that separate a classroom-ready curriculum from a slide deck someone exported.
Every FAA Airman Certification Standards area taught to exam depth — not just the easy regulations unit. Airspace and operations are the make-or-break topics.
Practice questions written in the FAA's actual style and weighted to the real test, with explanations — so students learn why, not just the letter.
Chart reading is roughly a quarter of the exam and the single most-missed skill nationally. A curriculum without real chart-lookup practice is leaving the hardest points on the table.
Lesson slides, answer keys, bell ringers, and pacing so a teacher with no aviation background can run it Monday morning.
A gradebook that shows who's ready and who's stuck — ideally flagging each student's weak FAA area so you know exactly what to reteach.
Mapped to the FAA ACS plus your state's CTE framework (TEKS, Virginia CTE, and others) and Perkins V, so it drops into an approved pathway.
The FAA study book is famously dry. Interactive practice — charts, weather, scenarios — is what keeps a class engaged long enough to actually pass.
The question every CTE director asks first is "what does this cost us?" — and the good news is that a drone program is one of the most fundable credentials you can add. Because FAA Part 107 is an industry-recognized credential, it's precisely the kind of outcome federal Perkins V dollars exist to pay for: curriculum, exam vouchers, and equipment can all qualify when the credential sits inside an approved CTE pathway.
Part 107 fits naturally into Transportation, Distribution & Logistics and STEM clusters, and many states now list it explicitly. In Alabama, for example, Part 107 appears on the state's Career Readiness Indicators list across dozens of programs — meaning it counts toward the high-school college-and-career-readiness measure, not just as an elective. If your state publishes an approved-credential list, Part 107 is very likely already on it.
Practically, that means a director can often fund the whole program — the curriculum, the $175 exam vouchers, and a training drone or two — out of existing Perkins or CTE budgets rather than finding new money. DroneReady includes the standards-alignment documentation and Perkins V eligibility language districts need for that paperwork, and we'll build a custom crosswalk for your state framework on request.
Timing tip: Perkins budgets are typically set in the spring. A program that pilots in the fall and shows results before spring allocations is in the strongest position to get funded for the following year.
Far less than people expect. Because the Part 107 exam is knowledge-based, students earn the certificate with nothing more than computers or tablets and the free FAA testing supplement (the same chart booklet they'll use at the exam).
For hands-on flight labs, one inexpensive training drone is enough to start — a sub-250-gram model needs no registration and can fly in most school settings. A program can launch for a few hundred dollars and add aircraft as it grows. You do not need a hangar, a simulator lab, or a dedicated field.
This is the biggest fear and the easiest to put to rest. The exam is reading-based, and a prepared teacher learns the material alongside the first cohort. We designed DroneReady so a CTE, science, business, or STEM teacher with zero flight experience can teach it with confidence.
Every unit ships with lesson slides, answer keys, bell ringers, and day-by-day pacing, and the auto-graded quizzes mean you're never grading by hand or guessing whether students are ready. You facilitate; the curriculum carries the aviation expertise.
A high schooler who passes Part 107 leaves with an FAA Remote Pilot Certificate — a federal, nationally-recognized credential that doesn't expire for two years and is renewed with a free online course. That is a real line on a resume or a college application, and it opens paid work the day they turn 16.
Commercial drone work is one of the fastest-growing skilled fields in the country. Certified remote pilots are hired in real estate and construction (progress mapping, inspections), agriculture (crop and livestock monitoring), public safety (search-and-rescue, fire, law enforcement), film and media, surveying and GIS, utilities and infrastructure, and logistics. For a student, it's a credential that leads to a $25–$50/hour side income or a direct on-ramp to an aviation, engineering, or public-safety career pathway — before they've paid a cent of tuition.
For your program, that pass rate becomes the proof point that justifies next year's funding. Every certified student is a documented, industry-recognized completion — exactly the outcome Perkins and your administration want to see.
We built DroneReady against the seven criteria above — here's how each piece maps to your classroom.
Full ACS coverage across 14 units — regulations, airspace, weather, loading, operations, and more — with lesson slides, bell ringers, and a day-by-day 6-week pacing guide.
Over a thousand FAA-style questions weighted to the actual test blueprint, each with a written explanation — built to produce first-attempt readiness, not rote memorization.
A sectional-chart simulator, a METAR decoder, an airspace quiz, and scenario trainers — the hardest, most-missed skills, made interactive.
A real LMS: students join with a code and a 4-digit PIN, take auto-graded quizzes, and the gradebook flags each student's weak FAA area so you know exactly what to reteach. CSV export for PowerSchool or Skyward.
Built-in crosswalks for the FAA ACS, Common Core, NGSS, TEKS, and Virginia CTE, with Perkins V eligibility documented — plus a free custom crosswalk for your state.
Run it as an intensive 6-week bootcamp or stretch it across a semester with labs and projects. Every unit also stands alone to fill gaps in a course you already teach.
Most drone curricula are a PDF and a slideshow. The topics that actually fail students — reading a sectional chart, decoding a weather report, judging whether a flight is legal — are the ones you can't learn from a static page.
DroneReady turns each of those into a live, hands-on tool students can drill on any device, free, with no login: a sectional-chart simulator, a METAR go/no-go decoder, an airspace classifier, and a "Can I Fly Here?" scenario trainer. It's the part of our program competitors can't copy from a document — and it's what makes ground school something a class will actually open.
What is a high school drone curriculum?
A high school drone curriculum is a sequence of lessons, practice, and assessments that prepares students to pass the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot exam and fly drones commercially. A strong one covers the five FAA knowledge areas — regulations, airspace and sectional charts, weather, loading and performance, and operations — and ends in an industry-recognized credential students can put on a resume.
Is a high school drone program eligible for Perkins V funding?
Yes. FAA Part 107 is an industry-recognized credential, which is exactly what Perkins V dollars are meant to fund, and it fits CTE Transportation/Distribution/Logistics and STEM pathways. In Alabama, Part 107 appears on the state's Career Readiness Indicators list across dozens of programs. Build the credential into an approved pathway and the curriculum, exam vouchers, and equipment typically qualify.
Do teachers need an aviation or drone background to teach it?
No. The Part 107 exam is a knowledge test, not a flight test, so the material is reading-based and a prepared teacher learns it alongside the class. A good curriculum ships ready-to-teach lesson slides, answer keys, pacing, and auto-graded practice so a CTE, science, or STEM teacher with no aviation background can run it confidently.
What equipment does a high school drone program actually need?
Very little to start: the FAA Part 107 exam is entirely knowledge-based, so students can earn the certificate with only computers or tablets and the free FAA testing supplement. One inexpensive training drone is enough for hands-on flight labs; a program can launch for a few hundred dollars and scale later.
Can high school students really earn the FAA Part 107 certificate?
Yes. You must be at least 16 years old to be issued the Part 107 certificate, so most juniors and seniors can earn it during the school year, and younger students can learn the full material and test as soon as they turn 16. The $175 FAA exam is taken at an approved PSI testing center.
How long does a high school drone curriculum take to teach?
It is flexible. DroneReady is built as a 6-week bootcamp for an intensive unit and also maps to a full semester when stretched with labs, projects, and review. Because every topic stands alone, teachers can also drop single units into an existing course.
How much does a high school drone curriculum cost?
DroneReady starts at $89–$149 for a single teacher's full classroom, $499–$999 for a building-wide school site license, and $1,499+ for a full district — all Perkins V eligible. Individual topic packs are also available on Teachers Pay Teachers for $10–$17 if you want to try the material first.
What makes DroneReady different from other drone curricula?
DroneReady pairs a complete, standards-aligned curriculum with live interactive practice tools no competitor offers — a sectional-chart simulator, a METAR weather decoder, an airspace quiz, and a 'Can I Fly Here?' scenario trainer — plus a question bank weighted to the real FAA exam blueprint and a teacher gradebook that flags each student's weak areas.
Site licenses from $499/school, full-district adoption, Perkins V documentation, and a custom standards crosswalk for your state.
See licensing & request a quote → For teachers ready to startThe complete classroom curriculum, one teacher, one price — everything you need to run a Part 107 unit this semester.
See the Bootcamp →Questions about fit, funding, or a pilot? Email hello@dronereadycurriculum.com — we answer every one.
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