GOAL POST Winter 2013 | Página 4

A Word from the Executive Director, Kenneth D. Crowell >>> I hope you enjoy this edition of the GOAL POST as much as we do in highlighting some of our students and the wonderful work that our staff continues to do each day. Learning is a challenge when the circumstances are not in your favor. Most GOAL Academy students face this adversity every day. This adversity may come in many forms: teen parents trying to stay in school while raising a child, students who struggle attending school all day because they are facing a medical condition which is not conducive to sitting in a classroom, or bored students who want to excel in their studies but are not allowed to because they have to work at the same pace with the rest of the class. GOAL supports students by providing a rich, high quality curriculum in a flexible delivery model which is individualized for each student. Working with our Academic and Support Teams, each student develops a personalized plan which allows them to successfully address their individual needs and still satisfy expectations from their academic support teams to stay on track for graduation and beyond. Just because we use online curricula does not mean our students are stuck behind the computer for their learning. Our Experiential Learning program called GOAL Ventures has taken several overnight and day learning trips that have allowed the world to become the classroom for GOAL Academy students. In 2014, GOAL Ventures is planning on taking students abroad to Costa Rica. In addition to GOAL Ventures many of our Academic Coaches and Specialists create daily opportunities for students to learn and experience life in new and meaningful ways. From cooking classes, outdoor recreation, parenting, physical fitness and healthy living to deal with addictions; students are afforded different paths to become powerful self-reliant adults. Continuing the work of providing creative programs for student success, GOAL Academy recently won a grant to bring the National Council of La Raza’s Escalera Program to the school. Academic coaches Renee Aragon and Joe Gonzalez have been selected to head the 15-month pilot program for juniors and seniors. The Escalera cohort will meet twice per week, including the summer months, and occasional weekends. The students will complete an internship of at least 80 hours, earn their diploma, and enroll in a postsecondary institution. Several participating students will travel to Los Angeles in July to represent GOAL Academy at the 2014 NCLR Líderes Conference. We love to provide our students the opportunity to present with staff at national and regional conferences. On the national stage they commonly speak about their struggles and challenging life experiences and how GOAL Academy has become their guiding light to meaningful achievement. In this edition of the GOAL POST, you can read about one such student’s presentation at a recent TEDx event. We are extremely proud of our students and continue to make their success the focus of our daily work. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to serving students and their families for years to come. Why We Value Think Through Math and Reading Plus GOAL Academy is unique because of the students we serve and our approach to educate them. Many of our students come to us below grade level in reading and math: 72% are below grade level in math this school year and 60% are below grade level in reading. Early on, we knew that providing opportunities for students to recover these skills would be foundational in attaining their diploma and succeeding in their life goals. Every school in Colorado is required to write a Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) to address areas of school accountability, and our plan this year is to continue focus on implementing remedial reading and math programs to increase student growth and achievement. As an AEC (Alternative Education Campus), GOAL Academy works under a school performance framework different from other schools considering the needs of our students and strategies we use to engage students in learning, achievement, and postsecondary workforce readiness. Our plan to address our students’ needs includes dedicated usage of the current Reading Plus and Think Through Math programs. 4