Amistad Academy Inc
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
secondary education
We are an urban middle school serving 275 students. Our student population is 97% African American and Latino, 84% free and reduced lunch.
Where we work
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Login and updateGoals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
1. Providing an excellent, gap-closing education for our students
2. Growing to scale to offer our students a K-12 education
3. Strategic partnerships and inspiring district-wide reforms
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Current programs: Achievement First’s primary activity is providing a top-quality, college-preparatory educational program for our students. Our educational program features the following six core elements, which serve as the cornerstone of all Achievement First schools.
1. Talent development: Achievement First firmly believes that the most important determinant of student achievement is teacher quality, and we invest heavily in the recruitment, development, recognition and retention of talented teachers. All new Achievement First teachers participate in nearly three weeks of professional development prior to the start of the school year, and we release early on Fridays to provide two hours of staff meeting and learning time. Every Achievement First teacher has a coach who meets with them at least once every two weeks to provide individual support.
2. More time on task: The Achievement First school day is at least 1.5 hours longer and the school year two weeks longer than the traditional public school day and year. Tutoring is also available during and after school.
3. Rigorous curriculum: Achievement First outlines the ambitious academic standards that all students are expected to master at each grade level, so that success in one grade can be seamlessly built on in the next. Teachers understand that “covering material” is not our goal; what is important is student mastery of essential knowledge and skills.
4. Unwavering focus on student achievement: Achievement First is focused on completely closing the achievement gap for our students, and student performance is the chief factor in network, school, principal and teacher evaluations.
5. Strategic use of data and interventions for struggling students: Every six weeks, Achievement First teachers give interim assessments (IAs) that measure student mastery of what has been taught. After each IA, teachers and school leaders spend a “Data Day” dedicated to reviewing the assessment data and together creating data-driven instructional plans that target whole class, small group and one-on-one instruction to address any gaps in student learning.
6. Strong school culture: Immediately upon entering an Achievement First school, you can feel a sense of urgency, order, focus and joy. Key elements of Achievement First’s school culture include: a commitment to character education; a small learning community with teachers who know and care; high expectations and “sweating the small stuff;” an unwavering college focus and continuous exposure to college; parents as partners; and joyful recognitions and celebrations for academic achievement and good behavior.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Achievement First is a growing network of non-profit, high-performing, college-preparatory, K-12 public charter schools, currently operating 25 schools serving more than 8,000 students in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut, Brooklyn, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island. Achievement First’s current strategic plan to maximize our impact in the next five years includes the following four tactics:
1. Creating a strong 'proof point' about what is really possible by continuously improving our performance with an unwavering commitment to both excellence and to serving high-need students well
2. Opening more schools to serve more than 12,000 students across 38 schools, thus demonstrating that gap-closing excellence is possible at 'district' scale
3. Geographically concentrating our growth so that we can, working together with others, transform district practice, family expectations and ultimately, community-wide results
4. Extending our impact through open-source sharing and strategic partnerships with others who are trying to do the same critical work
Achievement First’s Strategic Plan proposes a pace and mode of growth that will both enhance our ability to deliver an excellent education to every student in our network, as well as increase our capacity to have a broader impact in the future. As a result, we believe that, over the next five years, Achievement First will continue to get both better and bigger at the same time.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Excellence: Our first priority is to provide a truly outstanding, gap-closing education for the thousands of students we have the honor and responsibility of working with directly—the kind and caliber of education that will help these students and our urban communities break the cycle of poverty. Achievement First’s academies continue to experience significant academic gains toward achievement gap-closing results. By our capstone grades—fourth, eighth and twelfth —our students are significantly outperforming the host district average and achieving on par with or above the state-wide average at proficiency. Our unique education program includes an extended school day (7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) and features a rigorous, standards-based academic curriculum based upon three and a half hours of literacy instruction and two hours of math instruction every day, coupled with regular interim assessments and supplemental support programs. All Achievement First schools offer an extensive character development program that shapes classroom culture and school-wide expectations based on our REACH values of Respect, Enthusiasm, Achievement, Citizenship and Hard work. Scholars also participate in a variety of voluntary after-school and extracurricular activities that vary at each academy.
Scale: Beyond this direct impact, Achievement First’s theory of change is that by creating the equivalent of a high-performing urban public school “district,” we prove that the achievement gap can be closed at scale in a way that inspires and informs broader district-wide reform efforts. We currently serve over 8,000 students across 25 Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island schools. Our current strategic plan calls for us to expand to 30+ schools, eventually serving more than 12,000 students.
Sustainability: Our network approach creates efficiencies and allows school teams to focus on student achievement. AF has a three-phase strategic plan: Phase I – Start Up: creating a gap closing model, Phase II – Growth: Achieve “District” Scale, Phase III – Maturity: Sustain and Share. As we enter the third phase of our organizational investment, AF is building the systems that support growth and excellence and ensure that our work is sustainable—financially, humanly and institutionally—over the long term.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Amistad Academy Inc
Board of directorsas of 06/05/2016