Amana Academy: Getting Better, Expanding Impact
“To be a changemaker, first you must step up to the challenge. After you step up to the challenge, you must step out of your comfort zone. And last but certainly not least, you must step into your greatness.”
– Amana Academy students, performing at the opening session of the 2019 EL Education National Conference
In November, EL Education held its national conference in Atlanta, bringing more than 1400 educators, school leaders, and students together for professional development and community building. Amana Academy was at the center of the conference, hosting a pre-conference site visit on Wednesday, offering two masterclasses during the conference, and welcoming participants with a student performance at the opening plenary. At a VIP reception for EL Education network schools and districts, Scott Hartl, President and CEO of EL Education, remarked that “Amana is constantly getting better and expanding their impact.”
The thing we like most about the EL Education model is that it doesn’t just focus on content mastery. Student achievement is measured across three dimensions – mastery of knowledge and skills, culture & character, and high-quality work. We credit much of our success to this whole-child approach to education. The Georgia Department of Education released the 2019 College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores last week, and Amana maintained its A rating – scoring a 92 for the second year in a row.
Students showed gains in content mastery in English Language Arts in both the Elementary School and the Middle School. Our Elementary School scored a 100 on progress in ELA, and we saw gains across the board in Literacy. We credit this to our implementation of the EL Education ELA curriculum in grades K-8. In the three years since we began utilizing this award-winning curriculum schoolwide, we have seen an increase in students scoring proficient and above on the Georgia Milestones End of Grade ELA test from 60% in 2017 to 73% in 2019.
Another source of pride from our most recent CCRPI score is the Readiness metric. This speaks directly to the other two dimensions of student achievement that EL focuses on – character and high-quality work. According to the CCRPI website, “Readiness measures whether students are participating in activities preparing them for and demonstrating readiness for the next level, college, or career. The indicators for elementary and middle schools include literacy, student attendance, and beyond the core {Fine Arts, World Language, PE, and Career Exploratory}.” Amana middle school students have a readiness score of 94 – 7 points higher than Fulton County and 12 points higher than the state.
As we look to expand impact further by replicating our school in other parts of metro Atlanta, we will continue to partner with EL Education to bring this multi-dimensional approach to achievement to more and more students.
For more information on our West Atlanta Campus, click here.
