“We believe that all parents should have choice in regards to the type of educational program that is being offered in their community!”
Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School is a groundbreaking charter school in Atlanta. I would attribute this to the involvement of families in the development and operations of the schools. ANCS is what I call a true, community based Charter school. They are diverse in instructional practices, students and families served. It is my opinion that if Atlanta Public Schools was going to replicate any school turn around model, they would first look at ANCS Charter network. “People are asking for more community based and built schools!” says residents in the ANCS community.
ANCS highlights for 2017-18:
– ANCS students performed in the top 10% of the district on the 2017 ELA and Math Georgia Milestones
– The CREATE Teacher Residency Program was awarded an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support deepening and expanding the work of the program which serves 13 traditional and charter schools in and around the Maynard Jackson High School cluster in APS
– Installed a $100,000 photovoltaic array to reduce energy usage and use as an educational tool for students to learn more about sustainability
– Featured in Atlanta Magazine for school’s efforts at creating a more economically diverse student population
I have had the privilege of being an Associate Teacher at ANCS (elementary school) and supporting some of the work of family and community engagement through the Office of Innovation in APS. If any school within the charter world has community and family engagement embedded in their vision and culture, it’s ANCS. I truly believe that their engagement of their stakeholders is one of the reasons why so many parents and families are wanting to move within the community. ANCS isn’t just doing community and family engagement; they are the community! ANCS is definitely keeping it all in the family and showing the South how the charter world really operates.
Check out more information on ANCS here and see why they are a model school of choice and great model of how to improve school and student performance with stakeholder engaged every step of the way.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.