The mission of St. HOPE Leadership Academy (SHLA) is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and habits they need to succeed in a four-year university. Equally important is to instill in our students a commitment to serving others, particularly those in urban communities. In order to accomplish this, all students participate in a rigorous college preparatory core curriculum that utilizes a standards-based, workshop model approach to instruction in all content areas, as well as a character development program that includes a minimum of 40 hours of community service every year.
At SHLA we believe not only that all students can learn but that all students will learn. In order to ensure that all our students are achieving at their highest potential our academic program features:
- A structured, disciplined, and caring learning environment
- Rigorous, standards-based college preparatory curriculum
- Focus on literacy and mathematics including extended time in both subjects
- Low student-teacher ratios (25 students per class section)
- An extended instructional day and school year
- Character development as the underpinning of (and precursor to) academic achievement
- A small-group advisory program that provides personalized social and academic support to each student
- Frequent interim assessments of student progress in English Language Arts and Mathematics support a culture of data-driven instruction and allow teachers ample opportunities to review and analyze the results of these assessments and use the data to differentiate as per student need
- Intensive interventions for students who are performing far below grade level including homework help, small group instruction, and Saturday academy
- Yearly college visits for all students
- Extensive community service opportunities
- Elective offerings such as arts and crafts, chess, cooking, mask making, photography, recorder, step, PE/Health
- Intramural Sports teams including Flag Football, Track, and Basketball
SHLA’s Curriculum resources include the following:
- Prentice Hall Math, a structured series of middle school course that sequentially builds on computation and problem solving skills fostering student readiness for High School Math Courses
- A balanced literacy program that utilized authentic literature to explicitly teach comprehension, decoding, and fluency skills. Teachers are supported though the professional works of Lucy Calkins, Ralph Fletcher, Nancy Atwell and Kylene Beers.
- Units of Study in content areas that expose students to World Civilizations, United States History, and a variety of Science topic
Attributes of a St. HOPE Leadership Academy teacher include: - Instructional expert;
- Student advocate;
- Relentless achiever;
- Continuous learner;
- Critical thinker;
- Effective communicator;
- Problem solver; and
- People person with excellent interpersonal skills.
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