Causes: Charter Schools, Education

Mission: The mission of blackstone academy charter school is to build a strong community of learners and leaders. Our small educational environment helps foster independent inquiry, teamwork, and communication. Our students develop the skills to solve problems and use their voices in ways that lead to success in the academic, social, and professional arenas. They demonstrate their achievements through a process of discovery, presentation, and reflection. Community involvement and community improvement are key themes at bacs. In addition to classes, our portfolio system structures the progression of their learning by having students study themselves and their relationships to others, move forward with an exploration of the local community, and ultimately integrate an understanding of the wider world as students become responsible, motivated, life-long learners.

Programs: Blackstone academy charter school inc. Includes a free public secondary charter high school and an educational enrichment program (spirit) for students from the cities of providence, pawtucket, and central falls, ri. The school is authorized and evaluated by the rhode island department of education (ride). The school has a proven track record of effectively preparing students students to reach proficiency in high school and preparing for higher education despite the fact that nearly 80% qualify for free and reduced lunch. Recently published national student clearinghouse data indicates that not only do the vast majority of blackstone go to college, but more go to college directly from high school than high income students statewide. Blackstone has also been recognized as an effective place for engaging students in high school by getting them interested and skillful in solving community problems. This is done both through coursework and required action projects. Boston university professor scott seider chose blackstone academy as one of seven schools in the northern united states to study as part of a five year research project. Blackstone was initially chosen because of the successful student academic outcomes and because there is early evidence that the school's focus on civic engagement and school culture is positively affecting these outcomes. Additionally, heather rheaume, phd. Sociology recently completed a research study which highlights the positive effects of blackstone's school culture on the cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes of the students. A letter from dr. Seider stated, " i strongly believe that blackstone academy charter school represents an exemplar school that educators across the united states would benefit from visiting and learning from (and whose practices i plan to share in a future book about this current study. " initial research results show that project work in blackstone classes and community improvement projects (cips) should be utilized by other schools seeking to engage students. College acceptances for the class of 2017 included a number of very competitive colleges including american university, amherst college, boston university, brown university, brandeis university, haverford college and smith college to name a few. Nearly all members of the graduating class were first in their family to attend college and at least 80% planned to enroll in a four year college immediately following graduation. Most students will be able to attend due to a combination of merit scholarships and need-based aid. Quite recently, blackstone academy was part of a small collaborative to be awarded more than $900,000 in planning funds over a two year period from the barr foundation. This funding will allow blackstone and two other schools to work with the great school partnership and other schools across new england to further innovate their educational model. The spirit educational program supports students from blackstone academy and surrounding school districts (providence, pawtucket and central falls, rhode island). The six week summer enrichment program engaged 115 students, most of who were transitioning from middle school to high school. Students engaged in a six week project based and community connected summer program where they engaged with local experts and designed and carried out service learning programs. One of the service learning projects was a student made film which won a $5,000 grant from the cvs foundation to help support the program in the future. The twice per month saturday academy and college visit program hosted at least 160 participants throughout the year. Student had a choice of twenty different college visits throughout the school year. This thirty-one year old program had a summer attendance rate of more than 90% of students, all of whom were there on a voluntary basis. The students engaged in project-based learning activities in the community and completed substantial service learning projects. After completing pre/post math and writing assessments, 35% showed significant gains in math and 32% showed significant gains in writing. More than 80% of the students reported that spirit helped them to feel better about themselves, form positive relationships with adults and return to school with a positive outlook on learning.