Academic Program

Educational Philosophy:

Success Preparatory Academy's education philosophy is derived from the most successful charter schools in the nation – schools that consistently prepare their students to succeed in college and beyond.  Specifically, KIPP, Achievement First, and Uncommon Schools have been major influences on the philosophy – the success of these schools has been frequently documented, most notably in a New York Times Magazine article by Paul Tough, entitled "What it Takes to Make a Student."¹ All of these schools almost exclusively serve at-risk students and share the same demographics as our students.Success Preparatory Academy is not conducting an education experiment: it will implement proven strategies that have consistently been effective in raising the achievement levels of at-risk students.

An unwavering focus on our mission to develop college bound students for leadership and lifelong learning serves as the single guiding principle for every aspect of the school’s educational program and instructional methodology. Fundamentally, we act upon the belief that all students can learn at high levels and deserve the opportunity to receive a college preparatory public education.  We believe in establishing clear and measurable high expectations for academic performance for every teacher and student, and we believe that it is ultimately the responsibility of adults in our school to do whatever it takes to ensure students meet the high academic and social standards we set for them.

Given the practices of our nation's highest-performing charter schools, and our mission to develop college bound students for leadership and lifelong learning, Success Preparatory Academy’s academic approach consists of nine main pillars:

Academic Approach:

1. Excellent Teachers are Essential for Excellent Results
2. Extended Learning Time for All Students with Intervention Classes
3. High Expectations for All Students
4. A Structured and Orderly Environment for All Students
5. Rigorous Curriculum and Instructional Systems with Proven Results
6. Using Data to Drive Instruction
7. Increased Student Family Involvement
8. Ubuntu Community Program
9. Exposure to Opportunities

Excellent Teachers are Essential for Excellent Results

Educational researchers indicate that teacher quality is the most important determinant of student success.² Recruiting and training great teachers has been one of Success Preparatory Academy’s foremost priorities.  Success Preparatory Academy only hires teachers with the highest expectations and a firm belief that all children can learn.  Once hired, Success Preparatory Academy develops teachers through an intense professional development before the school year begins followed by monthly ongoing professional development during school year, frequent classroom observations, coaching on how to use data to drive instruction, and peer collaboration.

Extended Learning Time for All Students

We recognize that the majority of our students will come to us significantly below grade level.  As such, Success Preparatory Academy provides students with a systematic schedule of additional learning time. Research has consistently shown that an educational program utilizing additional hours of carefully planned, engaged academic learning is directly correlated to increased student achievement.³ Our schedule reflects our belief that literacy and numeracy skills are the gateways to college preparatory learning.

High Expectations for All Students

Every aspect of the Success Preparatory Academy school design is grounded in our mission to ensure every one of our students is receiving an education that will make them college ready.  Research on high-performing schools serving low-income and minority populations has consistently demonstrated that a culture of no excuses and a belief in the ability of all students to achieve at high levels is of paramount importance to securing positive student outcomes.⁴

A Structured and Orderly Learning Environment

Successful urban school leaders echo the same core belief about building a successful school: a highly-disciplined culture is integral to establishing an environment where students can achieve at high levels. We have built structure through explicit processes, procedures, rituals, and routines that are consistent in every classroom and hallway.

Curriculum and Instructional Systems with Proven Results

Teaching and learning at Success Preparatory Academy is aligned with the Louisiana state standards and Grade-Level Expectations (GLEs), which we believe all students must master in order to be fully prepared to succeed in a selective college. Our instructional approach is not rooted in experimentation with respect to curriculum and pedagogy; rather, we implement an instructional program that is informed by successful practice of urban public schools.

Using Data to Drive Instruction

Success Preparatory Academy's constant data-analysis fosters a culture where success is defined only by student learning.  Benchmark assessments have been modeled after the iLEAP/LEAP format and examine content mastery strand by strand.  The instructional team disaggregates school-wide data and uses results to re-teach and continually gauge the effectiveness of teaching methods.

Increased Student Family Involvement

Students’ families are an essential resource to any school; stronger family support will result in increases in student achievement.  Students’ families’  are supported and expected to be partners in their student’s education at Success Preparatory Academy. We are one community whose mission clearly states that we will develop college-bound students for leadership and lifelong learning. We recognize that students’ families will be our key partners in making our mission a reality. Our teachers bridge the gap between school and community by making home visits at the beginning of the school year and throughout the school year, especially to complete report card conferences when families are unable to visit the school.

It is important that our teachers are available for our students even outside of school hours, therefore teachers at Success Preparatory Academy provide their students and their families with their cellular phone numbers in order for them to  be contacted for homework assistance or in case of emergency.

Throughout the school there are numerous family evening programs where students’ families can connect with the school staff and one another.

Ubuntu Community Program

Ubuntu, pronounced [ùbúntú], is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern Africa. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept.

“ A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed. ” Desmond Tutu.

Success Preparatory Academy students benefit from the small school environment of 239 students this year and slightly over 560 at full capacity Kindergarten-8^th grade. The fact that the school has two principals, one in the lower elementary and one in the upper elementary (eventually middle school) to concentrate on school culture and tying in with the school’s atmosphere and expectations, emphasize mutual respect and team work at all times – Ubuntu in the true sense of the word.

Our students are socialized into the routines, procedures and high expectations of our school during the first two weeks of school. It is during this time that they focus on relationships with each other in our school setting that is conducive to safety and learning and respect for each other. Ubuntu requires that people are open and available for others.

Exposure to Opportunities

The incorporation of summer school, Saturday Academies, and extended hours during the week will allow Success Preparatory Academy to develop creative programming that not only bolsters students’ academic achievement, but also their cultural capital which is crucial to their ultimate success. Saturdays will be spent in various enrichment activities. Teachers will integrate field lessons to various cultural and educational sites into their curriculum, with a focus on New Orleans--its history, its people and its culture-during the early elementary years.

Being located in New Orleans, our students are exposed to many of the city’s cultural venues which is an asset to our educational program. We are constantly developing partnerships with many of these organizations which will result in academic and enrichment opportunities for all our students.

Our program is college-preparatory, and recognizing that many of our students will come from homes where the college experience might be unfamiliar , so we aim to expose our students to life on college campuses, the reality of admissions requirements, and the benefit of attending higher education in their quest to become leaders and lifelong learners at a very early age. Our goal is that by the time a student graduates from Success Preparatory Academy, they will have visited at least fifteen college campuses around the country. These visits will demystify what college is and allow students to visualize themselves on these campuses. In the early elementary school years most college visits will be done locally, and as students get into the upper elementary and middle school backgrounds they will visit campuses around the state and across the country.

Instructional Methods:

English Language Arts

Decisions about reading instruction at Success Preparatory Academy are guided by the recommendations found in the 2000 report of the National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read, as well as subsequent research-based evidence supported by The Partnership for Reading. The report and recommendations outlined five key components including: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies.

Success Preparatory Academy utilizes the Mondo Publishing Bookshop program which addresses all five components of the Reading Panel’s recommendations and adds a crucial sixth component, oral language over a 150- minute morning block. The most central part of the reading program is the small guided reading group instruction which is differentiated specifically for the students’ reading levels.

Success Preparatory Academy has adopted the Development Studies Centers' "The Being a Writer" program. The program has two goals: to develop the creativity and skills of a writer, and to develop the social and ethical values of a responsible person. It uses trade books for genre immersion and author studies. It integrates writing instruction with regular community-building elements and guided partner work that develops in students a sense of autonomy, belonging, and competence.

Math

Success Preparatory Academy fully implements the Saxon Math program, which is a research-based, classroom-tested program that guides students and teachers through sequenced and spiraled daily lessons, as well as establishes daily opportunities for review and practice of basic facts. Students receive between 60-90 minutes of math instruction based on their grade level and this includes a daily math meeting, where the calendar and weather, in addition to basic math facts are reviewed daily.

The math instructional approach breaks complex concepts into related increments, recognizing that smaller pieces of information are easier to teach and easier to learn. The instruction, practice and assessment of those increments are systematically distributed across a grade level. This distributed approach ensures that students gain and retain critical thinking skills. Teachers will supplement their Math instruction with Investigation Math and other relevant material associated with effectively teaching the Louisiana standards and GLE's.

Science

Science will alternate with social studies on a weekly basis, during a 45-minute block once per day. Alongside the Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum, students will use the highly successful Full Option Science System (FOSS) science kits and the Harcourt School Publishers Science Program

In choosing to take advantage of the research based units designed by FOSS and Harcourt School Publishers Science Program, Success Preparatory Academy is acknowledging the value of experience-based learning wherein students are able to learn by doing. In addition to being highly interactive and hand-on, science units are also accompanied by grade appropriate reading materials

Social Studies

Science will alternate with science on a weekly basis, during a 45-minute block once per day. In addition to the Harcourt School Publishers Social Studies program, social studies instruction will be supplemented heavily by teacher-created units and materials. Teachers will begin with the end in mind and create experience-based units that integrate field trips, primary documents, and school visitors. Students will be prepared to learn by doing, with close attention paid to Louisiana Grade Level Expectations.

Assessment

Success Preparatory Academy is committed to fully implementing a program of data-driven instruction and assessment.

Success Preparatory Academy will abide by all accountability measures agreed upon through its relationship with the Recovery School District and Louisiana BESE.

This includes:

1. SAT 10 (national norm reference test)- fall and spring of each school year.
2. University of Chicago's Urban Education Institute Strategic and Teaching Evaluation Program (STEP)- measures reading growth four times a year.
3. Achievement Network- 3^rd grade interim assessments- given four times a year
4. State Tests- iLEAP and LEAP