Academic Program

Roosevelt Children’s Academy (RCA) provides students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to succeed in school and in life. To prepare our students, RCA provides faculty with the tools, training and curriculum to educate students with cognitive delays, gifted and talented children and students who do not speak English.

Students advance based on mastery of the curriculum and progress is measured continuously using standardized assessments, rubrics and curriculum checklists. Students are grouped and regrouped as they progress through the curriculum. Developing and applying early literacy and numeracy skills in a highly structured setting in the K through 3rd grade years is a critical component of our academic program to ensure strong foundational skills in the core subjects: reading, language, writing, mathematics, science and social studies.

Literacy and the Early Intervention Model

The practice of the most successful schools has demonstrated that when young children are provided an environment rich in language and literacy interaction and full of opportunities to listen and use language constantly, they begin to acquire the essential building blocks for learning how to read. A child who enters school without these skills, and who does not develop them in the earliest grades, runs a significant risk of starting behind and staying behind.

We believe that the sooner students are enrolled in RCA, the greater the impact on their academic achievement and personal development. RCA begins with the Kindergarten, as our earliest learners. To allow for the movement of students who may be ready for more advanced academic work or for those who may need to be grouped with younger students based on academic and/or social-emotional needs we have a “high potential” afterschool program

Much of the student success in the early years of school is connected to intensive and comprehensive reading, writing teaching and instruction. At RCA, every student receives between 2½ and 3 hours of reading and writing per day. Students receive direct instruction in phonics, decoding, vocabulary, writing, and comprehension. Through a variety of learning techniques, small group instruction, center work, read aloud and writer’s workshop, students are equipped with the necessary tools to read. With our parents support, RCA is committed to ensuring that every child is ready to read by kindergarten and is a developing reader before entering first grade.

Local Assistance Plan – RCA has created a Response To Intervention (RTI) Program with staff members skilled in reading and math in order to focus the needs and intervention services of its Tier II and Tier III students. We have also purchased several diagnostic systems that will assist with indentifying the strengths and weaknesses of at-risk students. The primary program to be used to administer Tier II Intervention is called SuccessMaker. This is a research-based system that has had sustained results with building skills in reading and math. Every Tier II and Tier III student will receive consistent services in reading and math development assisted by the RTI Staff. The SuccessMaker system will also provide tracking data to ensure that appropriate

growth is occurring. We will share the results of this intervention program with the classroom teacher and parents to ensure a comprehensive response for each child.

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Plan to address the needs of at-risk students: Teachers will be provided with data through assessment tools such as Acuity in order to formatively assess their students' development. This will enable teachers to make focused instructional adjustments to Tier I students. This is a proactive approach to ensuring fewer students move into the Tier II level. RCA will ensure recruitment and retention of quality staff; early notification of staff assignments leading to improved teacher satisfaction and preparation; purchase of new curriculum materials; teacher input into building and/or systemic structural decisions: develop a structure to ensure that staff are supported in all professional areas. Input a systems thinking approach for evaluation of teachers including a process for teacher development of deficiencies (e.g. PD Library through Teachscapes). Implement Team Learning for increased communication and accomplishment of goals

New Academic Curriculum – Components of the Selected Math Program: K-5 Go Math Program with Staff Development (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing); Explorations Core Workbooks; Kno Me Account for students.

Support Programs to assist students with additional skill building for Response to Intervention Level II and Data Management: Accelerated Math, Successmaker, StarMath, 6th-8th Grade Digits Program (Pearson Publishing) and Hands-on Math Kits for RTI

Components of the Selected Reading Program: Wonders Reading Program for K-Sixth (McGraw Hill Publisher) and Codex Program for Middle School Students for 6th-8th Grade (Scholastic Publisher)