Power Curriculum Program

The Power Curriculum Program is a large-scale program in Academy City designed to advance a person's psychic or supernatural powers. The program is a series of tests, studies, lectures, medicines, body simulations and hypnosis used to unlock a person's powers.

Most students are categorized as Level 0, normal people that have no powers but may have the potential to develop powers, and are encouraged to participate in the program to help them train or acquire their powers artificially. About 60% of Academy City's espers are Level 0s.

However, not all Level 0s have no powers at all; there are special cases that a Level 0 has an ability that can't be directly measured (e.g., Kamijou Touma and Motoharu Tsuchimikado). While most students fail the program as they never had powers to begin with or fail to increase their power, some are able to advance their powers from their initial Level.

Considered to be one of the program's success stories is Misaka Mikoto, as she started from Level 1 and worked her way up to Level 5; she is presented as proof that with enough hard work and determination, anyone can become a powerful psychic. It is implied that the potential of a person can be noticed from a young age; one example is "doctors" asking a young Misaka for her DNA.

However, unbeknownst to the public is a dark side to this program; some of the scientists who research psychic powers try to increase a person's powers, especially if said powers are unique, via unethical methods such as dangerous drugs (e.g., the Crystallized Esper Essence and Body Clear) and experiments (e.g., the various institutions Accelerator has been through in his youth).

Some of these methods achieve their desired results, but others fail horribly, ending with its participants traumatized, injured, or even dead. In fact, some of the most powerful espers in Academy City are the result of these dark programs. One example is Accelerator, who was the only survivor of gruesome experiments. Another is Kinuhata Saiai, whose Personal Reality was developed by studying Accelerator's own; while failing to reach Level 5, she managed to obtain "automatic activation of esper ability" similar to Accelerator's auto-reflect.

It is implied that Academy City's Board of Directors are aware of these experiments, but choose to turn a blind eye to them and allow the scientists that run them to do as they wish as long as the public does not know and said experiments have achieved their desired results.

In addition to that, during World War Three, Hamazura Shiage found proof that Academy City was preventing the majority of espers from developing their powers via the Parameter List.