Blog

The Alpha Model Works

October 18, 2019

Starting a school year is like taking off in a plane: long steady ride to the top of the runway, full throttle acceleration as the plan lunges down the runway, turbulence as the plane takes flight. We’re passed all three of those phases (with minimal turbulence)! Now that we are in the air, our focus moves to intensely fulfilling our three promises:

  1. Students love school.
  2. Students learn 2x faster.
  3. Students learn life skills.

Alpha Austin staff has met, discussed, researched and presented on apps and MAP. The fall MAP test is a good benchmark for progress and a corner post from which we can build student pathways for the year. Further, as a school, we were very pleased with our year to year MAP results. The results increase strong support that time in apps leads to academic growth and achievement. Here are a few highlights:

  1. 65% of students that have been at Alpha for a year are above the 90th percentile in achievement in at least one subject while 23% have are 99th percentile in at least one subject.
  2. Average growth (the growth between Fall 2018 and Fall 2019) is 67th percentile, which is astounding.
  3. 25% of all students have a growth result in the 99th percentile.

There is a lot of talk about session goals, mobile squads and “focus” from level to level. A Level 2 student stopped me recently and explained that we needed to do a better job of coaching everyone to focus because “Doing well is all about execution and focus.”

Everything we do hinges on our first promise. Every workshop, q-break, launch, closing, arrival and departure must be part of a well orchestrated day that gives kids the freedom to be self agents while they march down a brilliantly constructed pathway. Love of school is born from the enthusiasm we bring each day and takes flight in how we deliver every element to the Alpha Standard.

As we plan for the next session, we are letting love of school be our lodestar. We recently encouraged Alpha Guides to:

“Break rules. Blow stuff up. Take chances. Fail and re-build. Ask yourself: would my ___ age self love this workshop?”