TFA: Day 4, "College for Certain" and the Celebration Assembly

With a 97% acceptance rate to college, Perspectives Leadership Academy employs a “College for Certain” philosophy.  This means that all facets of teaching and learning are premised upon the attitude that college is a certainty in the future for all students.  To emphasize and foster this attitude, the school holds a monthly Celebration Assembly, where all students gather in the auditorium to recognize and celebrate those with the highest GPA’s, the best attendance, and those who have demonstrated the ability to live “A Disciplined Life” (another one of their philosophies) which includes awards for perseverance, improvement, peaceful conflict resolution and so forth.  All students are grouped in accordance with their advisory period (much like a ‘homeroom’), and each advisory period has a name borrowed from a major University.  Each group has a their corresponding university’s flag and as each advisory period is introduced and recognized, they stand, wave their flag, and do a special cheer that they themselves have created to represent their group.  In addition to accomplishment being recognized individually, students also compete by grade level and advisory period for collective accomplishments.  With a collective GPA of 2.9, the senior advisory period “Loyola” beat out the freshman advisory period “Stanford” (collective GPA 2.8), earning the highest GPA award for the fourth consecutive quarter.  The seniors also toted the best attendance record.  Along with presenting the awards, the administration presented graphs and charts in a power-point presentation throughout the assembly, demonstrating various correlations such as the one between good attendance and academic achievement.

I loved how the assembly provided the students an opportunity to exercise creativity and release some energy by designing and executing their cheers (almost every groups cheer was accompanied by a dance).  I think this was monumentally important because the school, with its limited budget, did not offer classes like art, music, or gym.* Furthermore, I think the assembly facilitated a healthy competition amongst the students, fostering a positive and academic environment, which in turn urged  them strive to meet their goals.  

*Speaking of the budget, one thing I forgot to mention in a previous post, is that the school does not own or offer a single textbook.  That being said, all reading, homework, and assignments come from articles or worksheets (hence all the photocopies John and I made).  If one's glass is half empty, one could regard not using textbooks as a testament to the inequity in the public education system--if one's glass is half full, one could regard not using textbooks as an innovative strategy to help close the achievement gap.  In other words, it all comes down to the attitude one chooses to have...it can either be "I don't have textbooks because I am a victim" or it could be "I don't have textbooks because I am a trailblazer in educational innovation".