Relevance

Finding relevance and purpose is what gives not only children, but also adults, the motivation to begin, persevere, and achieve. The “why” empowers children to be scholars - those who seek knowledge. Greatness is not an end to itself, it is a means to making the world a better place it represents our consistent “why.” At Ali Academy, relevance comes in the form of college, career, and social justice campaigns. Many adults spend the majority of their waking hours working. Our scholars must have exposure and experience with numerous colleges, careers, and struggles to inspire them to work for a life that matters to themselves and to the world. Economic empowerment is a key element of social justice. Our scholars must be economically empowered and be in a position to economically empower others to uplift their communities. Through this lens, school has relevance to our scholars’ lives, their struggles, and the struggles of others to live decent fulfilled lives.

Certification: Every scholar will have an industry recognized certification that supports a family-sustaining-wage by the time they graduate in a field they are passionate about e.g., EMS, Website Design, IT, Health, Auto Mechanics, etc.

Social Justice Campaigns: Every scholar will identify issues and work towards a more socially just world every year. This could be helping to decrease violence, creating a cleaner environment, helping the homeless.

Rigor

To be one of the GREATS, scholars must be able to meet objective standards of achievement. We utilize standards based grading to clearly display and push what scholars know and what they can do. We have a focus on reading throughout all subject areas. Reading and writing are skills that cut across almost all disciplines, college curricula, and careers.  In order for our scholars to reach greatness they must be able to read and write, at least, on grade level so that they can criticize and analyze deeply in order to improve and build new, socially just institutions.

Righteous

To make the world a better place, one must seek to make themselves a better person. One cannot seek the betterment of the world and exempt themselves from the process. Scholars must have the grit and moral compass necessary to strive for and achieve social justice for all including themselves.  They must “Be the change they wish to see.” - Gandhi.  To be great is to display positive characteristics in good times and in bad.

Huddles (Advisory): Every morning our teachers (coaches) and scholars will huddle to talk about the GREATS and social-emotional skills that will aid in their success.

Sports: Sports and physical exertion force the human body to contend with itself physically and emotionally.  Sports catch you at your worst - tired, upset - while still requiring you to perform at your best - maintaining focus, exercising skill and increasing effort.  Sports provide a strong analogy to the struggles in life. One must fight to succeed.  Sports help to provide the self-discipline and tenacity necessary to achieve on and off the field.  Every scholar will participate in our sports program. Accommodations and supports will be provided to ensure access for all.

Community Service: Every scholar will participate in giving back to the community through service for a number of hours depending on the grade.

What does this look like in practice for our students?

Scholars will have a portfolio of campaigns they have engaged in.  Whether trying to create more culturally representative media or trying to work with politicians to reduce Gun violence.  By the time every child graduates high school, they will be certified in some area, e.g. coding, web design, EMT, auto mechanics.

We work with Common Core aligned curriculum - EL Education

• Curriculum purposefully ties readings with culturally relevant topics and tackles issues of social justice.

• Reading specialist to help students learn and all teachers teach reading

• Extra guided reading groups across the grade to help scholars who are behind

• Support for parents to assist with literacy skills at home

• At least 2 hour block for ELA from Pre-K through 8th grade

• 6 week summer literacy program for scholars who are behind