We worked for nine months to bring an amazing, gap-busting school to Rhode Island to help put more of our kids on a path to college.

On February 2nd, that work paid off: the Board of Regents approved the application to open the very first Achievement First Mayoral Academy in Providence. 

Low-income and minority students have had tremendous success at Achievement First schools in Connecticut and New York—at some schools they even out-perform their wealthier peers—and proved that the achievement gap is closable. Rhode Island kids will now have the same opportunity.

In the final week before the Board of Regents voted on this school, we unveiled our Seven Facts in Seven Days campaign. Every day for a week we revealed one fact about Achievement First.

Get the facts here about why Achievement First Mayoral Academy is the right move for Rhode Island kids. 

FACT #1: Every kid in the neighborhood will have a shot at achieving.

It won’t take sky-high test scores or a fancy resume to get into Achievement First Mayoral Academy. Any child from the communities Achievement First serves will be eligible to enroll, as long as their grade level is offered.

Not only are all kids welcome and eligible, Achievement First will do extensive community outreach to make sure families know about their new school option.If there are more interested kids than there are open seats, Achievement First will choose kids by a random selection process approved by the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Putting achievement first isn’t about limiting opportunity to kids who are already achieving at high levels. It’s about finding the kids that need a great public school the most, meeting them where they’re at and giving them the knowledge and skills they need to be just as successful.

 FACT #2: Achievement First is a nonprofit organization that would run a public charter school.

Achievement First is a nonprofit organization that operates and supports 20 public charter schools. There are no profits, no shareholders and no corporate tycoons. Instead, these nonprofit offices are staffed by a team of devoted educators who entered the classroom to help kids learn.

In 1998, a group of community leaders in New Haven founders came together with a clear goal in mind: to prove that urban students can achieve at the same high levels as their affluent suburban counterparts. Confronted by the popular attitude that demographics were destiny, the founders of Amistad Academy set out to change that belief and later started Achievement First to create more gap-busting public charter schools.

The proposed Achievement First Mayoral Academies would be public charter schools governed by a public board. Like any other public school, they would receive public funding and be completely free for students.

 FACT #3: Achievement First parents are happy with their children’s learning environment.

Achievement First works hard to make the most of class time and to provide its students with a dynamic, engaging learning environment that lets every child thrive. Students are held to high standards, and they know exactly what’s expected of them: to show respect for themselves, their classmates and their teachers.

Unsurprisingly, Achievement First consistently receives high satisfaction ratings in surveys of the more than 6,000 families they partner with across Connecticut and New York. In the most recent survey, for example, 91 percent of Achievement First parents said, “my child goes to a great school.”
 

FACT #4: There is broad community support for the Achievement First Mayoral Academy from Rhode Island parents, neighbors and community leaders who want a high-quality public school option for their children.

A long list of prominent Rhode Island leaders number among Achievement First supporters: Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, City Council President Michael A. Solomon, City Councilman David A. Salvatore, City Councilwoman Sabina Matos, Superintendent Lusi, the entire Providence School Board, Dr. Pablo Rodriguez (President of Latino Public Radio), Neil Steinberg (the RI Foundation), Elizabeth Burke Bryant (RI Kids Count) and former Providence State Representative Joe Almeida, to name a few.

Even more compelling is the support shown by hundreds of Rhode Island parents and community members: more than 800 letters were sent to the Board of Regents, more than 300 signatures were collected on a Change.org petition, and 400 Cranston and Providence families signed letters signaling their interest in sending their kids to an Achievement First Mayoral Academy.

The strong backing behind the Achievement First Mayoral Academy comes with a demand for public school options generally. More than 5,000 students are on waiting lists for charter schools in Rhode Island, many of them from Providence. At Blackstone Valley Prep, the state’s first Mayoral Academy, more than 800 students are on the waitlist.

When you look at the demand for great public school options by these parents, leaders and community members (or watch the video below), one thing is clear: Lil’ Rhody is ready to give Achievement First a big welcome.

FACT #5: Under Rhode Island’s new fair funding formula, money follows the child, so the Achievement First Mayoral Academy would not be taking money away from its host districts. 

Because of Rhode Island’s new school funding formula, each of the four communities that the Achievement First Mayoral Academy would serve are set to receive additional resources from the state in the coming years. Instead of a lump sum, districts will receive funding based on enrollment and student need, so that every child will get their fair share of state dollars, whether they go to a public charter school such as Achievement First Mayoral Academy or a traditional public school. To allow districts to adjust to the new funding formula and changes in enrollment pattern, districts will even get funding through the 2017-18 school year for the students who are no longer enrolled in their schools.

FACT #6: Achievement First has a strong track record of collaborating with its host district to improve learning for all students. 

For the last two years, Achievement First has worked alongside superintendents in New Haven and Hartford to design a unique program to recruit, train and support a corps of outstanding principals and assistant principals called the Leadership Residency This program is just one example of how an Achievement First school benefits all of the kids in a district, even ones learning outside its classroom walls. It’s also an example of the type of collaboration the Achievement First Mayoral Academies plan hopes to foster in Providence.

FACT #7: Achievement First tells its students that they can go to and succeed in college from Day One, and then equips them with the knowledge and skills to do so. 

 In today’s knowledge economy, graduating from high school today is simply not enough to compete. Yet many of our schools continue to graduate students who won’t be prepared to succeed in college. At Achievement First schools, the college seed is planted on a student’s very first day, and cultivated throughout their time there.

Because Achievement First believes it’s never too early to prepare for college, their students learn from a very early age that getting to and through college is not only possible, it’s crucial.
 

In addition to getting the facts, you can also watch this video and hear parents tell their gripping personal struggles to find the best educational option for their children: