New Beginnings Family Academy Inc

As a progressive public charter school located in Bridgeport, CT, New Beginning Family Academy (NBFA) educates 499 students in grades Pre-K – 8. Established in 2002, NBFA’s mission is to provide students a meaningful, high-quality education through experience-based learning that helps develop essential social, emotional, and critical-thinking skills. This gives all children a foundation to achieve their full potential at every stage of life.

Connecticut currently has the widest achievement gap in the nation between the rich and poor, particularly in Fairfield County. The school’s primary focus has been to help close this gap. Students enter NBFA daily grappling with adult-size stressors such as food insecurity, parent incarceration, and impending eviction – trauma that impedes our students’ learning.

NBFA aims to engage all students in grades Pre-K – 8 in active, hands-on, experiential learning daily throughout the school year. Experience-based learning ranges from dramatic play for Pre-K students, to scientific investigation and hands-on math projects for older students. This is an active pedagogy that promotes deeper integration of the concepts presented, which will engage the entire student population. NBFA students’ school day includes Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) disciplines integrated throughout the curriculum at all grade levels, interdisciplinary instruction (e.g., social studies and art), and a focus on local and virtual field trips.

In the 2016-17 school year, the Board of Directors chose to move from a punitive-based model to a trauma-informed model. NBFA has worked with Bank Street College of Education, leaders in progressive education and Emotionally Responsive Practice (ERP), to provide professional development for the school’s teachers and staff. This student-centered approach is steeped in child development and project-based learning.

The goals are to: a) facilitate learning in a way that is affirming and respectful of the diverse needs and styles of each student; b) make learning come alive and be more relevant to students; and c) weave trauma-informed, preventive mental health strategies into all classrooms to enable poverty-impacted students to learn optimally.

NBFA changed its model in order to not be a contributor to the ‘school to prison pipeline.’ Statistics prove that many youth follow this path when they are consistently suspended, particularly those from poverty-stricken cities like Bridgeport. Studies show that type of punishment does not change behaviors in children. With our innovative approach, we are setting our students on a path for long-term success both inside and outside the classroom. NBFA’s distinctive track record of success includes engaged students, on-time grade promotion, competitive high school placement, and low suspension rate.

As the state’s only emotionally responsive progressive public charter school, NBFA’s model is cutting edge in Connecticut. NBFA distinguishes itself from a pool of 21 charters and many other traditional district schools by embedding trauma-informed practice in its approach as a means to skills mastery rather than viewing social-emotional programming as an ancillary offering. Most of NBFA’s classrooms are staffed with both a teacher and an Instructional Assistant. NBFA employs two social workers and two Restorative Justice coordinators. Academic assistance is provided by two literacy interventionists, two math interventionists, and one literacy tutor.

“NBFA’s niche model sets it apart from other urban schools and provides a story about a little charter school whose courageous leaders dared to abandon traditional mindsets, shift gears and delve deeply into the social, emotional and mental health needs of students in order to educate them more effectively. Not without challenges, the journey to become an emotionally responsive, progressive school has shown that a cohesive, collaborative team can overcome setbacks to position NBFA as a desirous, high-quality place of learning for low-income urban public school children from Bridgeport.” Ronelle Swagerty, NBFA District Director/CEO