he Ida B. Wells Community Academy (hereinafter referred to as "the Academy") is established in Akron, Ohio, in association with the Task Force for Quality Education and sponsored by the Ohio State Department of Education. It is designed to serve low-income students residing within the Akron metropolitan area. Moreover, the Ida B. Wells Community Academy addresses its curriculum also to the needs of underrepresented youths eligible to attend the Akron Public Schools. The Academy's decision to maintain a low 15:1 student to teacher ratio will strengthen its efforts to increase these students educational performance while at the same time diversifying educational content. The Academy's intent is to eventually serve students from Kindergarten to High School. In its first year, which began in August 1999, the Academy will enroll only students in kindergarten through the 2nd grade, adding on average one grade per year during its initial five years in operation. 

   1.  Student Profile

The Ida B. Wells Community Academy's intended students will be from 5 to 11 years old and be enrolled in the following grade levels over the course of five years:

     Projected School Enrollment (at 15 students per grade level)

     Total Certified Teaching Staff during the Five-Year Period

      Students to Teacher Ratio:  15:1

The Academy's reasons for addressing its programmatic energies to the education of low-income young persons and to the development of an innovative educational paradigm is strengthened by contemporary societal problems. Some of these problems are spoken to in the following passage:

   Mission Statement

The Academy's mission is to educate youth (5 to 11 years of age) in Kindergarten through the 6th grade in an innovative and holistic and intellectually challenging atmosphere that (1) is personalized, problem-posing and problem-solving; (2) is devoted to the provision of quality instruction in the humanities, mathematics, the physical and natural sciences, citizenship, the arts, the social sciences, and African and world culture studies; (3) emphasizes preparing students to pass at the 75th percentile or better on the fourth, sixth, ninth and twelfth grade proficiency tests. However, the Academy will not rely exclusively on paper and pencil test to assess educational value added. As professional educators, we strive to develop other mechanisms for determining our students' intellectual progress; (4) is a fully democratic and participatory educational process and (5) has a well conceived policy outlining the Roles and Responsibilities of Walimu (Teachers) and Wanafunzi (Students) and also the Rights and Responsibilities of Parents, Teachers and Administrators. 

The Academy addresses its curriculum and educational services specifically to the needs of all youths eligible to attend the Akron Public Schools. Recently, however, the Academy learned of the possibility of enrolling students through an "Open Enrollment Program" who reside outside the Akron School District provided their home school districts agree. Admission is FREE. Busing is to be provided by the Akron Public School District. In the event that does not happen, the Academy will contract with a private transportation service. The Academy's decision to maintain a low 15 to 1 student to teacher ratio will strengthen its efforts to increase these students educational performance while at the same time diversifying educational content. The Academy's intent is to eventually serve students from Kindergarten to High School. In its first year, which began in August 1999, the Academy has enrolled only students in kindergarten through the 2nd grade; in subsequent years, the Academy will add on average one grade per year during its initial five years in operation. 

   The Academy's Educational Program and Goals

The Ida B. Wells Community Academy introduces its students to a culturally integrative curriculum designed to infuse content that is at once nurturing, stimulating, intended to engage students' intellectual curiosity, and imbue in its students a mutual respect for learning proficiency, competence and self direction not only in traditional learning objectives but also in the attainment of knowledge of their cultures, traditions and values. Students will also learn to appreciate themselves, their fellow students, their families, their community and their nation. The Academy's goals include creating a responsive and innovative and cooperative  earning environment that will instruct students based on these programmatic objectives:

              1. to prepare all students to function competently and productively in an ever more complex and technological global society;
              2. to achieve increased academic performance expectations and measured proficiency outcomes,
        3. to increase students' daily attendance records and to implement creative disciplinary methods to reduce suspensions and dismissals;
             4. to involve the professional community, parents, retired teachers and students directly in the learning process;
        5. to design a curriculum that can be partially reliant on the learning potential of the World Wide Web so as to augment class assignments and individual student research;
           6. to assure students and parents that they will be able to transition, with ease, out of the Academy into the Akron Public Schools or an equivalent public educational system; and
        7. to provide students, parents and faculty/staff with a detailed handbook that clearly outlines their rights and responsibilities. The rights of all students, parents and faculty, including those guaranteed by the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Ohio, and by applicable federal, Ohio, and local statutes, and the right to a quality education, are and shall be recognized without regard to race, religion, sex, disability, or intellectual ability. Student responsibilities include regular school attendance, conscientious effort in classroom work, conformance to school rules and regulations, and the responsibility not to interfere with the education of fellow students or the orderly operation of the school. These rights and responsibilities, as they pertain to students, begin with kindergarten and extend through the twelfth grade.
          8. to assure parents and students that the U.S. Department of Education's seven (7) educational priorites will also become prioties for the Academy:

• All students will read independently and well by the end of 3rd grade. 
• All students will master challenging mathematics, including the foundations of algebra and geometry, by the end of 8th grade.
• By 18 years of age, all students will be prepared for and able to attend college.
• All states and schools will have challenging and clear standards of achievement and accountability for all children, and effective strategies for reaching those standards. 
• There will be a talented, dedicated and well-prepared teacher in every classroom. 
• Every classroom will be connected to the Internet by the year 2000 and all students will be technologically literate. 
• Every school will be strong, safe, drug-free and disciplined. 

These program goals will inform parents that the Academy is an educational institution wherein administrators, faculty, students, and the community and parents work collectively and in harmony to reach its educational goals. And as argued by David Matthews of the Kettering Foundation in his Is There a Public for Public Schools (1996), the Academy has as an overriding objective that of effecting a partnership, a Learning Society, composed of strategic constituencies who enjoy a feeling of ownership. On the issue of social control, a team of two researchers reported that adults behave as if the locus of social control exists in black children when in fact it does not. Since teachers and parents rarely lived in the same community, rarely communicated with each other the social control mechanism employed in the schools was at variance with the mechanisms employed by the parents' community and certainly at variance with social control as it was used by the parents themselves (Henderson, Donald and Alfonzo Washington. 1975. "Cultural Differences and the Education of Black Children," Journal of Negro Education 44:353-60). The point is that the parents, teachers and community must act in concert so as not to be caught out  of  sync  with one  another. A  consequence  of  putting  emphasis  on  this  communal  relationship,  will  demonstrate  to  parents  and

Chief Fela Sowande's
Educational Program Harmony Model

Figure 1. Based on the "Program Harmony Model" developed by the late Nigerian Professor Chief Fela Sowande in 1972 at the University of Pittsburgh, and modified by Dr. Edward W. Crosby, Professor and Chair Emeritus, Department of Pan-African Studies, Kent State University in January 1989.

Click on A and B for an explanation of Sowande's "Program Harmony Model" and an intoduction
to his researach based "Afrocentric Paradigm of Curricular Holism."

significant others that the Academy is able to provide children with a quality education; that the Academy is an appropriate school of choice, and that parents should avail themselves of the Academy's socio-cultural services and enroll their child(ren). To promote this notion in the public's mind, the Academy's developers have already and are now conducting a community-wide canvass to announce its existence and to document community choice. We believe the personalized educational program, the student-friendly curricular structure, its emphasis on full participation of all constituencies, and its democratic program design and delivery system will be a major attraction.

   The Academy's Curriculum and Curricular Focus

The Ida B. Wells Community Academy's curriculum will provide instructional content that is nurturing, intellectually stimulating and intended to imbue in its students a mutual respect for learning not only those learning objectives or benchmarks recommended by the Ohio Department of Education's competency-based learning outcomes for mathematics, social studies (citizenship), science (physical and natural), comprehensive arts, language arts and literature, a foreign language, e.g., Kiswahili (the lingua franca of East and Central Africa), but also the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement where feasible. An additional Academy goal includes the establishment of a learning environment supported by a curriculum that relies in part on the learners' experiences at home, in their neighborhoods, in the community, and in the society in general as far as possible and prudent. The Academy will instill an awareness and mutual respect for other people(s), their cultures, aspirations, traditions and values. In short, the curriculum will help students recognize how their learning is integrally related to their lives in the present and in the future. The Academy's and the general public's focus on increased academic expectations, moral and social responsibility, and increased proficiency ratings will influence parents to enroll their child(ren) in the Ida B. Wells Community Academy. It is important here to state categorically that the Academy's educational program relies on the research of scholars in the field. The Academy bases its structure and design on the work of Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III, Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education, Georgia State University, and Dr. Janice E. Hale.

In Hilliard's Alternatives to IQ Testing: An Approach to the Identification of Gifted Minority Children. Final Report to the California State Department of Education (1976), he stresses, along with others, that schools and schooling must view low-income and underrepresented children through a different set of glasses. That is to say, poor African American and white students respond differently to standard and non-standard intellectual stimuli. This position is underlined in Janice Hale's Black Children, Their Roots, Culture, and Learning Styles (1986), in which she reports the findings of Laura Lein's research (1975) on speech behavior and linguistic styles of African American migrant children as follows: "Demanding examples of good speech from students in tests or in the usual classroom situations is not necessarily an effective way of finding out what students know. Listening to exchanges between peers and peer evaluations of such exchanges is an important part of discovering how children speak. Also, it is a reasonable mechanism for learning how children interpret and react to speech. Teaching teachers the skills of anthropological observation and analysis may be one helpful way of enlarging their understanding of what is happening in the classroom." 

Even though these references to educational research are directly related to African American children, the Academy understands that there is a commonality of educational experiences and barriers that obtain for all depressed classes of Americans. And that it is the Academy's job to see that every child – black or white, poor or disabled – receives a quality education and learns what it means to strive to be excellent in all their endeavors in school, at home, in the neighborhood, in sports, in art, in music and dance, in reading, writing and arithmatic.

The Academy's curricular content at each grade level will be structured to produce the following expected and measurable performance outcomes as cited in the Ohio Board of Education's mandated learning objectives. Broadly speaking, these learning objectives include modes for reading, writing, mathematics, science, and civics (citizenship) and social studies. It must be emphasized here, however, that these performance objectives represent only the minimum curricular foci of the Ida B. Wells Community Academy. It should also be emphasized that since the Academy will design structured learning activities based on individual student interests and needs, the performance outcomes enumerated do not and cannot to reflect all of the faculty's anticipated performance expectations. To be sure, they are no more than indications of comprehensiveness of the Academy's curriculum. At the risk of redundancy, given the Academy's emphasis on allowing its students to grow at their own pace, we expect over time a number of students will show even higher levels of performance.

   At the End of Kindergarten, Students Should Be Able . . .

• to sort objects by color, size shape, weight; create, recognize and repeat patterns with blocks, cubes, sticks or tubes.
• torecognize numbers and relate them to numerals. 
• to match objects with one to one correspondence; separate and join sets of objects; use counters to visualize abstract mathematical concepts; compare objects according to various lengths and weights.
• to prepare, expound on and maintain a personal learning log or journal.
• to identify letters of the alphabet – consonants and vowels.
• to recognize various occupations via pictures, i.e., mailman, store clerk, teacher, minister, baseball player, etc.
• to understand various life cycles: young to old, caterpillar to butterfly, tadpole to frog.
• to recognize seasonal changes, e.g., winter, spring, summer, autumn, and the aging process of humans and other animals.
• to recognize various astronomical elements – sun, moon, stars, planets; and earth science phenomena – wind, snow and ice, rain, water, fire, etc.
• to read and use maps, photographs, pictures, the globe and other learning tools to identify life at the home, family relationships, school items – desks, chairs, tables, etc.. 
• demonstrate position words – above/below, left/right, front/back, up/down.
• to understand the need for rules and regulations and good in-school and at-home behavior.
• to use symbols to describe various problems or situations; predict, draw, act out and/or solve problem situations.
• to demonstrate an awareness of different places to live for people, insects, and animals.
• to recite poetry of various sorts from nursery rhymes and children's literature and sing songs related to reaming topics.
• to demonstrate artistic and muscular coordination via finger painting, dance, simple gymnastics, etc.
• to exhibit an elementary ability to pronounce and use various selected greetings in a foreign language, e.g., Kiswahili. The instructor's availability and skills will determine which African language is taught.

• to sort objects using multiple attributes, e.g., small/large, uni-/bi-dimensional, round/ square.
• to extend missing elements of repeating patterns/numbers; separate and join numerical set.
• to count forward/backward to 100 by ones, twos and fives; identify even and odd numbers
• to identify ordinal numbers, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. 
• to recognize when to add or subtract, describe in words and symbols. 
• to demonstrate ability to do simple addition and subtraction and recognize and write simple fractions – 1/4, 1/2, 3/4. 
• to tell time on the hour and half hour and tell time in 15 minute intervals; count pennies, nickels and dimes.
• to identify needed and not needed information to solve problems, mathematical or otherwise.
• to explain a problem situation using a drawing or picture (photograph). 
• to demonstrate solving a problem using patterns or the manipulation of objects; match objects with one to one correspondence. 
• to separate and join sets of objects. 
• to use counters to visualize abstract mathematical concepts; compare and order sets according to more, less or same.
• to observe, describe and sort various objects – inanimate and animate – and place them according to category; recognize various racial, ethnic and national types.
• to demonstrate ability to find places on the globe or world maps, United States, Africa, Europe, Asia.
• to read maps, photos and simple diagrams and graphs; grasp how families need food, clothing, and shelter.
• to manipulate and combine shapes and sizes of objects in the environment – uni- and three dimensional, circle, triangle, flat, square, cube, cylinder, cone, etc.
• to demonstrate an awareness of life cycles.
• to prepare and maintain a personal learning log or journal.
• to understand how plants and animals are dependent on other plants and animals.
• to understand various occupations as well understand the people live in neighborhoods, states, and countries. 
• to demonstrate an increased ability to pronounce and use greetings, names of things and places, classroom objects, and longer phrases of three or four words and speak an African language with limited fluency.

• to use a number line; read and write three-digit numbers and round numbers up or down to the nearest five, i.e., is 13 is closer to 10 than 26? or is 20 closer to 18 than to 30?
• to add and subtract double-digit numbers and measure length and width in inches and centimeters using a ruler.
• to construct and use matrices for addition, subtraction, multiplication.
• to understand and use maps, photographs; read graphs; demonstrate an understanding of the occupations of their parents, neighbors and relatives; how people in their community and other communities earn a living.
• to solve and pose problems based on situations they have experienced or stories they have read and heard or that they have made up.
• to prepare and maintain a personal learning log or journal; summarize information gleaned from reading assigned or self-initiated; memorize poems, songs and pledges.
• to conduct independent research on topics related to animals, insects, or people and their occupations.
• to show an increased pronunciation and conversational ability in an African language -- greetings, names of things and places, and longer phrases of several words and short readings, e.g., proverbs and aphorisms.

           In Language Arts, the Student Should Be Able . . .

• to prepare for writing an informational and/or fictional piece by using pre-writing strategies. 
• to use the writing process to compose writing for a limited audience. 
• to demonstrate appropriate grade-level listening/viewing skill. 
• to demonstrate appropriate grade-level communication skills. 
• to demonstrate appropriate telephone skills. 
• to read and understand a variety of fiction/nonfiction material. 
• to decode new words while reading.
• to read silently for a sustained period of time and exhibits appropriate skills, techniques, and attitudes related to silent reading.

• to use patterns to create a rule or prediction of what comes next or what is missing,
• to use the guess-and-check method to solve a problem.
• to add and subtract whole numbers.
• to demonstrate and tell how multiplication and division relate to each other.
• to recall multiplication and division facts up to 12 x 12.
• to use the symbols >, >, <, <, = to compare two numbers.
• to describe a three-dimensional object from different views (top, side, front).
• to substitute numbers for letters in equations.
• to count collections of coins and bills.
• to illustrate the approximate size of metric and non-metric units.
• to add numbers mentally using groups of ten.
• to read and explain information from graphs.

• to use words and numbers to describe and explain the characteristics and behaviors of objects and organisms and describes the relationship (adaptation) between organisms and their environments. 
• to distinguishe between living and non-living things and justify the distinction between living and non-living things by using a simple created key. 
• to explain similarities and differences between organisms or objects, while identifying, creating, and using categories to organize and illustrate these similarities and differences. 
• to use words and numbers in writing to compare and contrast objects. 
• to observe an event and explain, in writing, what happened and why it happened.
• given a repetitive pattern in nature, to describe in writing the length and duration of the pattern and can predict what will happen next in a sequence.
• to discuss the basic need of living things and, in writing, describe the ways those needs axe met.
• to follow simple procedures to carry out an experiment and then, in writing, state reasons why observations and conclusions by others vary from those of the learner.
• to use words and numbers in writing to compare attributes of objects or organisms.
• to create a simple weather report.
• to identify and describe the relationship between human activity and environment causing pollution.
• to make predictions about the weather by observing conditions and weather maps.
• to select instruments, make observations, and/or organize observations of an event, object, or organism.

• to work with others to complete a task.
• to identify and record changes found in a historical narrative.
• to investigate personal stories and documents related to local history.
• to observe and record changes in the community brought on by technology.
• to identify and describe characteristics of different cultural groups in the community.
• to use map skills to describe the location of places on a map.
• to compare many maps of local communities.
• to demonstrate understanding of the concepts of production and consumption.
• to demonstrate understanding of political activity.

           In the Language Arts, the Student Should Be Able . . .

• to read and understands narrative texts.
• to read and comprehends grade-level nonfiction.
• to read silently with comprehension.
• to use the writing process to produce pieces of writing.
• to publish writing products to classmates. 
• to work with others to edit and revise writing.
• to use technology in learning and writing activities across the curriculum.
• to compare and contrast similar messages by radio, television, and print resources.
• to present ideas and information to various audiences. exhibits.
• to use appropriate behavior when speaking or listening.
• to demonstrate appropriate grade-level listening and viewing skills. 

• to identify simple and complex patterns in nature, art, and poetry.
• to make and uses a table to record information. puts fractions in numerical order.
• to add and subtracts decimals.
• to add and subtracts fractions using models.
• to arrange a set of whole numbers or a set of decimals from smallest to largest.
• to multiply and divide (single digit divisor) with numbers up to 99.
• to identify parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and right angles as they occur in the environment. 
• to identify and compare shapes by their characteristics.
• to explain how a calculator with arithmetic logic can give an incorrect answer. 
• to name a keying sequence on a calculator and predicts the display. 
• to make change using coins and bills. 
• to determine how much time has passed in a given situation. 
• to make estimates for addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems and determine whether the estimates are greater than or less than the exact answer. 
• to conduct an experiment to determine the probability of an event occurring.

• to describe an object in terms of its attributes and behaviors that are not easily observed. 
• to create and follow a simple procedure to carry out an investigation.
• to explain how a simple and compound machine works and how to use it safely. 
• to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of using a simple machine. 
• to predict and explain the motion of objects. 
• to identify and explain the relationship between human activity and environment. 
• to identify ways in which plants and animals react to a changing environment. 
• to trace the transmission of energy in a small, simple ecosystem and identifies the roles of the plants. 
• to analyze a series of events in nature and predicts the next likely occurrence in the sequence. 
• to evaluate observations and measurements made by other persons. 
• to identify and show examples of changes in the earth's surface.

• to construct and use time lines of Ohio events.
• to examine the significance of waterways on the history of Ohio. 
• to identify factors that influenced development of Ohio in relationship to other countries. 
• to illustrate the relationship between the resources, climate, and vegetation in Ohio to another nation. 
• to examine and analyze sources of information about a significant individual in Ohio history. 
• to explore cultural groups and their contributions to Ohio's historical development. 
• to describe the common links between Ohio and a selected foreign nation. 
• to use maps as a source of information. 
• to demonstrate understanding of the economic importance of the factors of production. 
• to identify state governmental activity and its purpose. 
• to differentiate between fact and opinion with issues facing local and state governments.

           In Language Arts, the Student Should Be Able . . .

• to demonstrate appropriate grade-level listening skills.
• to restate information so the message is clearer to a listener.
• to speak with appropriate poise and self-confidence.
• to works with others to prepare and deliver an effective presentation.
• to write in journals or maintains learning logs for the purpose of reflection.
• to arrange ideas and composes informational, report, and persuasive writing.
• to write a story with a fully developed beginning, middle and end.
• to read and understands grade level fiction and nonfiction.
• to use elements of book structure to access information.
• to read to locate and use information from a variety of resources to support ideas, concepts, and interpretations of a theme.
• to reads silently with comprehension.

• to describe a pattern of digits that occurs when fractions are changed to decimal form.
• to explain how to find a missing number in a sequence of numbers.
• to identify the steps needed to solve a problem.
• to round a number to the nearest thousand, hundred, ten, one, tenth, or hundredth.
• to compute with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals using manipulatives, mental arithmetic, paper and pencil, or a calculator as appropriate.
• to find fractions that are equal.
• to use symbols or a number line to order combinations of whole numbers, fractions, and decimals.
• to build models of common shapes or figures and describes how the models were built.
• to compare and contrast angles in relation to a right angle.
• to interpret information given in a table.
• to measure accurately and determines perimeter, area or volume of geometric shapes.
• to round fractions to 0, ½, and 1, and use these estimates to add and subtract fractions with like and different denominators.
• to find the average of a set of numbers.

• to describe how changing one variable influences the other variables in the ocean systems.
• to propose an explanation of land and ocean features.
• to describe how changing one component influences the other components in a biological system.
• to interpret and explains the constancy of a pattern as it occurs in the cycles of the earth, moon, and sun.
• to understand the physical properties of matter.
• to follow procedures to carry out an investigation.
• to propose "What if . . . ?" questions regarding a change and uses appropriate safety precautions.
• to describe how heat is a form of energy.
• to describe an organism not easily observed by using a magnifying device..
• to describe how plants, animals; and humans react to change.
• to interpret and explains the design, function, and constancy of patterns in nature.
• to describe the properties of sound.
• to describe the electromagnetic spectrum.
• to describe tie properties of light.

• to research the changing relationships among individuals, groups and events in North America.
• to use a variety of primary and secondary resources to develop an awareness of the multiple perspective about American history.
• to compare and contrast the reasons different cultural groups came to North America.
• to describe how immigrant customs and traditions have influenced our American way of life.
• to read stories about people from different cultures and compares and contrasts problems and  opportunities the groups have encountered.
• to use different types of maps to draw comparisons among physical regions, climate, natural vegetation, and natural resources.
• to demonstrate map and globe skills to determine location effect on areas of the world using a variety of resources, examines patterns and causes of human movement.
• to use different types of map information to define regions.
• to identify the factors of production.to describe the essential characteristics of American democracy.
• to identify the characteristics of American democracy found in examples of political activity.

   Fourth-Grade Proficiency Outcomes:

          Writing

Each activity direction will be constructed to elicit two of the following different purposes (modes) for writing: a long piece such as a fictional or personal experience narrative, or an informational piece (report), and a shorter piece such as a communication (friendly letter, invitation, thank-you note, letter to the editor, directions, or journal), a summary, or a retelling.

Given an assigned activity direction intended to elicit two of the above modes of writing, the learner will use the writing process to make the intended message clear, as evidenced by

       a. a response that stays on topic;
       b. the use of details to support the topic;
       c. an organized and logical response that flows naturally and has a beginning, middle and end;
       d. the use of a variety of words;
       e. the use of a variety of sentence patterns;
        f. a response that shows an awareness of word usage (vocabulary, homonyms, and words in context);
       g. a response that shows an awareness of spelling patterns for commonly used words;
       h. Iegible writing in print or cursive;
        i. the correct use of capital letters (beginning of sentences and for proper nouns) and end
punctuation.

       Reading

Given a fiction/poetry text to read silently, learners will demonstrate an understanding of language and elements of fiction/poetry by responding to items in which they:

       1. summarize the text;
       2. use graphic aids (for example, a table or graph) or illustrations to locate or interpret information;
       3. demonstrate an understanding of text by retelling the story or poem, in writing, in own words;
       4. identify and interpret vocabulary (words, phrases, or expressions) critical to the meaning of the text.

Given a fiction/poetry text to read silently, learners will demonstrate an understanding of language and elements of fiction/poetry by responding to items in which they:

       5. analyze the text, examining, for example, actions of characters, problem/ solution, plot, or point of view;
       6. infer from the text;
       7. compare and/or contrast elements such as characters, settings, or events;
       8. respond to the text;
       9. choose materials related to purposes, as evidenced in part by the capacity to 

           a. choose or identify library resources to locate specific information; 
           b. select fiction and nonfiction materials in response to a topic or theme; 
           c. choose appropriate resources and materials to solve problems and make decisions;

     10. demonstrate an understanding of text by predicting outcomes and actions.

  Given a nonfiction text to read silently, learners will demonstrate an understanding of language and elements of nonfiction by responding to items in which they:

     11. summarize the text;
     12. use graphic aids (for example, a table or graph) or illustrations to locate or interpret information;
     13. demonstrate an understanding of text by retelling the information, in writing, in own words;
     14. identify and interpret vocabulary (words, phrases, or expressions) critical to the meaning of the text.

         Given a nonfiction text to read silently, learners will demonstrate an understanding of language and elements of nonfiction by responding to items in which they:

     15. discern major ideas and supporting ideas;
     16. analyze the text, examining, for example, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, or fact and Opinion;
     17. infer from the text;
     18. respond to the text.
     19. choose materials related to purposes, as evidenced in part by the capacity to

          a. choose or identify library resources to locate specific information;
          b. select fiction and nonfiction materials in response to a topic or theme;
          c. choose appropriate resources and materials to solve problems and make decisions;

    20. demonstrate an understanding of text by predicting outcomes and actions.

       Mathematics

     1. Sort or identify objects on multiple attributes (e.g., size, shape, and shading).
     2. Use patterns to make generalizations and predictions by

          a. determining a rule and identifying missing numbers in a sequence;
          b. determining a rule and identifying missing numbers in a table of number pairs;
          c. identifying missing elements in a pattern and justifying their inclusion; and
         d. determining a rule and identifying missing numbers in a sequence of numbers or a table of number pairs related by a combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.

     3. Select appropriate notation and methods for symbolizing a problem situation, translate real-life situations into conventional symbols of mathematics, and represent operations using models, conventional symbols, and words.
     4. Identify needed information to solve a problem.
     5. Explain or illustrate whether a solution is correct.
     6. Decompose, combine, order, and compare numbers.
    7. Illustrate or identify fractional parts of whole objects or set of objects and like fractions greater than one, and add and subtract like fractions with illustrations and symbols.
     8. Add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers and explain, illustrate, or select thinking strategies for making computations.
     9. Order fractions using symbols as well as the terms "at least" and "at most".
   10. Represent whole number value by

             a. applying place value ideas;
             b. translating between words and symbols in naming whole numbers.

    11. Add and subtract decimals.
    12. Apply congruence, symmetry, paths, simple closed curves, and the ideas of interior and exterior.
    13. Recognize parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular lines, and right angles in geometric figures.
  14. Determine properties of two-dimensional figures and compare shapes according to their characterizing properties, identify two-dimensional shapes on a picture of a three-dimensional object, and compare three-dimensional objects describing similarities and differences using appropriate standard and non-standard language.
    15. Symbolize a keying sequence on a calculator and predict the display.
    16. Model a problem situation using a number phrase/sentence and/or letters, understand the use of letters and symbols in statements such as 4b=12 or 3c=15 and find the value for a letter or symbol if the value for the other letter or symbol is given, and recognize the use of variables to generalize arithmetic statements applying the concept of odd and even numbers.
    17. Apply the use of tools to measure lengths, using centimeter and inches including recognizing the positions of whole numbers and fractions on a number line.
    18. Apply the counting of collections of coins and bills (which could include one, five, and ten dollar bills) in a buying situation.
    19. Illustrate the approximate size of units of length, capacity, and weight; choose an appropriate unit to measure lengths, capacities! and weights in U.S. standard and metric units; and relate the number of units that measure an object to the size of the unit as well as to the size of the object.
    20. Determine perimeters and areas of simple straight line figures and regions without using formulas.
    21. Use mental, paper-and-pencil, and physical strategies to determine time elapsed.
    22. Apply concept of place value in making estimates in addition and subtraction using front-end digits.
   23. Round numbers and use multiples of ten to estimate sums, differences, and products and discuss whether estimates are greater than or less than an exact sum or difference.
    24. Make or use a table to record and sort information (in a problem-solving setting using simple and complex patterns in nature, art, or poetry as setting) and make identifications, comparisons, and predictions from tables, picture graphs, bar graphs, and labeled picture maps.
    25. Find simple experimental probabilities and identify events that are sure to happen, events sure not to happen, and those we cannot be sure about.

       Citizenship

     1. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to think about the relationship among events by: 

           a. identifying sequence of events in history; 
           b. grouping events by broad historical eras on a time line; 
           c. recognizing that change occurs in history; or d. identifying cause-and-effect relationships.

     2. Identify and use sources of information about a given topic in the history of Ohio and the United States.
     3. Relate major events and individuals in state history to time periods in the history of the nation and the world.
     4. Identify the various kinds of cultural groups* that have lived or live in Ohio.
     5. Identify or explain how various cultural groups have participated in the state's development.
     6. Identify or compare the customs, traditions, and needs of Ohio's various cultural groups.
     7. Demonstrate map skills by: 

           a. identifying various major reference points on the earth; 
           b. locating major land forms and bodies of water; or
         c. using a number/letter grid system to locate places on a map, a map key to understand map symbols, a linear scale to measure distances on a map, and a direction indicator.

     8. Use maps and diagrams as a source of information to: 

           a. recognize continents by their outlines and major physical features; 
           b. recognize characteristics of major land forms and bodies of water; 
           c. describe physical differences between places; or 
        d. explain the influence of the natural environment on the settlement of Ohio and on changes in population patterns, transportation, and land use.

     9. Identify or describe the location of Ohio in relation to other states, to regions of the United States, and to major physical features of North America.
    10. Identify the factors of production (land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship) needed to produce various goods and services. 
    11. Name the resources needed to produce various goods and services, classify each resource by the factors of production, or suggest alternative uses for those factors.
    12. Classify various economic activities as examples of production or consumption.
    13. Identify the function of each branch of state government.
    14. Identify the purposes of state government (state government refers to the government of a state of the United States of America).
    15. Identify or explain the purposes of local government.
    16. Differentiate between statements of fact and opinion found in information about public issues and policies.
    17. Identify and assess the possibilities of group decision making, cooperative activity, and personal involvement in the community.
    18. Identify the elements of rules relating to fair play.

         *  The phrase "cultural groups" refers to a number of individuals sharing unique characteristics (e.g., race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion).

       Science Learning Outcomes

      1. Create and use categories to organize a set of objects, organisms or phenomena.
      2. Select instruments to make observations and/or organize observations of an event, object, or organism.
      3. Identify and/or compare the mass, dimensions, and volume of familiar objects in standard and/or nonstandard units.
      4. Use a simple key to distinguish between objects.
      5. Analyze a series of events and/or simple daily or seasonal cycles and predict the next likely occurrence in the sequence.
      6. Evaluate a simple procedure to carry out an exploration.
      7. Identify and/or discuss the selection of resources and tools used for exploring scientific phenomena.
      8. Evaluate observations and measurements made by other persons.
      9. Demonstrate an understanding of safe use of materials and/or devices in science activities.
    10. Explain the operation of a simple mechanical device.
    11. Identify characteristics of a simple physical change.
    12. Explain and/or predict the motion of objects and/or describe the effects of some objects on other objects.
    13. Make predictions about the weather from observed conditions and weather maps.
    14. Identify and/or describe the relationship between human activity and the environment.
    15. Identify evidence and show examples of changes in the earth's surface.
    16. Demonstrate an understanding of the basic needs of living things.
    17. Identify ways in which organisms react to changing environments.
    18. Distinguish between living and nonliving things and provide justification for these distinctions.
    19. Analyze and/or evaluate various nutritional plans for humans.

   Sixth Grade Proficiency Outcomes:

           Writing

The student will be given one prompt or topic which will direct two writing activities, each in a different mode (purpose for writing). The student will be given the two modes which will be selected from the following: fictional or personal experience narrative, a persuasive piece, informational writing, a communication (letter, invitation, memo, thank-you note, letter to the editor, directions), a journal entry, or a summary.

The student will use the writing process to make the writing activities clear for the intended audience, as evidenced by the capacity to

       a. focus on the topic with adequate supporting ideas or examples;
       b. exhibit a logical organizational pattern that demonstrates a sense of flow and conveys a sense of completeness and wholeness;
       c. exhibit word choice appropriate to the subject, the purpose and the intended audience;
       d. communicate clarity of thought;
       e. use complete sentences except where purposeful phrases or clauses are desirable;
        f. write legibly using cursive or manuscript;
       g. demonstrate correct usage, correct spelling of frequently used words, and correct punctuation and capitalization;
       h. include sentences of varied length and structure.

   Reading Learning Outcomes

            Fiction or Poetry Selections:

Given a fiction or poetry text to read silently, learners will demonstrate an understanding of text and elements of fiction or poetry by responding to items in which they:

      1. analyze aspects of the text, examining, for example, characters, setting, plot, problem/solution, point of view, or theme;
      2. summarize the text;
      3. infer from the text; and/or
      4. respond to the text.

  Given a fiction or poetry text to read silently, learners will demonstrate an understanding of text and elements of fiction or poetry by responding to items in which they:

      5. compare and contrast aspects of the text, for example, characters or settings;
      6. critique and evaluate the text;
      7. select information for a variety of purposes, including enjoyment;
      8. express reasons for recommending or not recommending the text for a particular audience or purpose; and/or
      9. explain how an author uses contents of a text to support his/her purpose for writing.

        Nonfiction Selections:

  Given a nonfiction text to read silently, learners will demonstrate an understanding of text and elements of nonfiction by responding to items in which they:

     10. analyze the text, examining, for example, author's use of comparison and contrast, cause and effect, or fact and opinion;
     11. summarize the text;
     12. infer f rom the text; and/or 
     13. respond to the text.

        Given a nonfiction text to read silently, learners will demonstrate an understanding of text and elements of nonfiction by responding to items in which they:

     14. compare and/or contrast aspects of the text;
     15. critique and evaluate the text for such elements as organizational structure and logical reasoning;
     16. select information from a variety of resources to support ideas, concepts, and interpretations;
     17. express reasons for recommending or not recommending the text for a particular audience or purpose; and/or
     18. explain how an author uses contents of a text to support his/her purpose for writing.

       Mathematics

       1. Apply the relation between doubling the side of a regular figure and the corresponding increase in area.
       2. Determine the rule, identify missing numbers, and/or find the nth term in a sequence of numbers or a table of numbers involving one operation or power.
       3. Apply appropriate notations and methods for symbolizing the problem statement and solution process.
       4. Identify needed and given information in a problem situation, as well as irrelevant information.
       5. Validate and/or generalize solutions and problem-solving strategies.
       6. Compute with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals.
       7. Find equivalent fractions.
       8. Change freely between fractions and decimals.
      9. Order combinations of whole numbers, fractions, and decimals by using the symbols <, <, >, >, and = and/or by placing them on a number line.
     10. Use ratios and proportions in a wide variety of applications.
     11. Visualize and show the results of rotation, translation, reflection, or stretching of geometric figures.
     12.  Recognize, classify, and/or use characteristics of lines and simple two-dimensional figures including circles; and apply models and properties to characterize and/or contrast different classes of figures including three-dimensional figures.
     13. Use the distributive property in arithmetic computations.
   14. Explain and reflect differences between calculators with arithmetic logic and calculators with algebraic logic when symbolizing a keying sequence and identifying the display as each key is pressed.
     15. Use variables to describe arithmetic processes, to generalize arithmetic statements, and to generalize a problem situation.
     16. Determine perimeters, areas, and volumes of common polygons, circles, and solids using counting techniques or formulas.
     17. Convert, compare, and compute with common units of measure within the same measurement system.
     18. Measure angles with a protractor.
   19. Apply appropriate strategies to find estimates of sums, differences, products, and quotients of whole numbers (and determine whether the estimate is greater than or less than the exact result).
    20. Estimate the sum, difference, product, or quotient of decimal numbers by rounding, and the sum, difference, or product of fractions and/or mixed numbers by rounding the fractions to 0, 1/2, or 1.
     21. Collect data, create a table, picture graph, bar graph, circle graph, or line graph, and use them to solve application problems.
     22. Read, interpret, and use tables, charts, maps, and graphs to identify patterns, note trends, and draw conclusions.
     23. Apply the concept of average and calculate the arithmetic mean and mode of a given set of numbers.
     24. Make predictions of outcomes of experiments based upon theoretical probabilities and explain actual outcomes.

       Citizenship

       1. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to think about the relationship among events: a. group significant individuals by broadly defined historical eras b. utilize multiple-tier time lines.
         2. Utilize a variety of resources to consider information from different perspectives about North America: a. identify the central idea an historical narrative attempts to address b. inquire into the relative credibility of sources
       3. Identify significant individuals from the past in North America and explain their contributions to the cultural heritage of the United States.
      4. Identify a significant individual from a region of the world other than North America and discuss cause-and-effect relationships surrounding a major event in the individual's life.
         5. Compare the gender roles, religious ideas, or class structures in two societies.
         6. Draw inferences about the experiences, problems, and opportunities that cultural groups* encountered in the past.
         7. Describe how the customs and traditions of immigrant and other groups have shaped American life.
         8. Utilize map skills:

             a. apply latitude and longitude to locate points on maps and globes
             b. distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information on a map for a specific task

       9. Interpret and analyze maps, charts, or graphs to formulate geographic ideas: 

             a. utilize time zones to compute differences in time and to describe their impact on human activities
             b. determine and explain relationships among resources, economic activities, and population distribution.

     10. Use maps of North America or the world to identify physical and cultural regions and to show relationships among regions.
     11. Examine instances of contact between people of different regions of the world and determine the reasons for these contacts.
     12. Describe the role of each factor of production in producing a specific good or service and suggest alternative uses for the resources involved.
   13. Identify the factors that influence: a. consumer decisions to demand goods or services b. producer decisions to supply goods or services
    14. Identify the factors that determine the degree of competition in a market and describe the impact of competition on a market:

             a. identify advantages and disadvantages of competition in the marketplace
             b. explain the general relationship between supply, demand, and price in a competitive market

    15. Use information about global resource distribution to make generalizations about why nations engage in international trade.
  16. Identify the main functions of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the United States national government and cite activities related to these functions.
    17. Interpret how examples of political activity illustrate characteristics of American democracy.
    18. Classify characteristics of government that are typical of a monarchal, democratic, or dictatorial type of government.
    19. Analyze information on civic issues by organizing key ideas with their supporting facts.
    20. Identify and analyze alternatives through which civic goals can be achieved and select an appropriate alternative based upon a set of criteria.
    21. Identify ways to resolve private and public conflicts based on principles of fairness and justice.
    22. Identify examples of citizen participation in political systems around the world.

          *  The expression "cultural groups" refers to a number of individuals sharing unique characteristics (e.g., race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion).

         Science

      1. Use a simple key to classify objects, organisms, and/or phenomena.
      2. Identify the potential hazards and/or precautions involved in scientific investigations.
      3. Make inferences from observations of phenomena and/or events.
      4. Identify the positive and/or negative impact of technology on human activity.
      5. Evaluate conclusions based on scientific data.
      6. Recognize the advantages and/or disadvantages to the user in the operation of simple technological devices.
      7. Predict the influences of the motion of some objects on other objects.
      8. Propose and/or evaluate an investigation of simple physical and/or chemical changes.
      9. Provide examples of transformation and/or conservation of matter and energy in simple physical systems.
    10. Identify simple patterns in physical phenomena.
    11. Describe simple cycles of the earth and moon.
    12. Identify characteristics and/or patterns in rocks and soil.
    13. Demonstrate an understanding of the cycling of resources on earth, such as carbon, nitrogen, and/or water.
    14. Trace the transmission of energy in a small, simple ecosystem and/or identify the roles of organisms in the energy movement in an ecosystem.
    15. Compare and/or contrast the diversity of ways in which living things meet their needs.
    16. Analyze behaviors and/or activities that positively or negatively influence human health. 17. Analyze the impacts of human activity on the ecosystems of the earth. 

Focus of the Curriculum

The Ida B. Wells Community Academy introduces its students to a culturally integrative curriculum designed to infuse content that is at once nurturing, stimulating, intended to engage students' intellectual curiosity, and imbue in its students a mutual respect for learning proficiency, competence and self direction not only in traditional learning objectives but also in the attainment of knowledge of their cultures, traditions and values. Students will also learn to appreciate themselves, their fellow students, their families, their community and their nation. The Academy's goals include creating a responsive and innovative learning environment that will instruct students based on these programmatic objectives:

           1. prepare all students to function competently and productively in an ever more complex and technological global society;
           2. achieve increased academic performance expectations and measured proficiency outcomes
           3. increase students' daily attendance records and to implement creative disciplinary methods to reduce suspensions and dismissals;
           4. involve the professional community, parents, retired teachers and students directly in the learning process;
           5. design a curriculum that can be partially reliant on the learning potential of the World Wide Web so as to augment class assignments and individual student research;
           6. assure students and parents that they will be able to transition, with ease, out of the Academy into the Akron Public Schools or an equivalent public educational system; and
           7. provide students, parents and faculty/staff with a detailed handbook that clearly outlines their rights and responsibilities. The rights of all students, parents and faculty shall be recognized without regard to race, religion, sex, disability, or intellectual ability. Student responsibilities include regular school attendance, conscientious effort in classroom work, conformance to school rules and regulations, and the responsibility not to interfere with the education of fellow students or the orderly operation of the school. These rights and responsibilities, as they pertain to students, begin with kindergarten and extend through the sixth grade.

These objectives represent only the minimum operational and curricular focuses of the Ida B. Wells Community Academy. Given the Academy's emphasis on allowing its students to grow at their own pace, we expect a number of students will show even higher levels of performance. The Academy will see that every child receives a quality education and learns what it means to strive to be excellent in all their endeavors in school, at home, in the neighborhood, in sports, in art, in music and dance, in reading, writing and arithmetic.

The expected performance indicators enumerated above show (1) that the focus of the Academy's curriculum follows the basics of standard public school curricula with one noteworthy and vital exception (see "Curricular Infusion" below) and (2) that the Academy has developed an educational perspective that embraces high and comprehensive learning and behavioral standards. Furthermore, the Academy will provide its enrollees at all levels a well thought out physical education program designed around various physical activities &ndash; manipulative, locomotor and non-locomotor &ndash; such as modern and African dance, running, jumping, sprinting, acrobatics (tumbling, headstands, throwing, catching, somersaults, leapfrogging, etc.), martial arts, e.g., karate and capoeira (a traditional Brazilian martial art), volley ball, baseball and basketball.

Before the Ida B. Wells Community Academy goes into operation or as we add additional grade levels, we will draft an upgraded listing of performance outcomes indicating the expected end competency results as mandated by state-required proficiency tests, etc.

   The Academy's Instructional Design and Educational Philosophy

Students will be taught a basic skills program with an interdisciplinary (holistic) learning focus. The Ida B. Wells Community Academy is committed to engendering in its students intellectual curiosity and will stress high academic standards and rigorous performance expectations. To accomplish this aim, the Academy has an educational philosophy that emphasizes in its program structure and instructional design the following essential curricular and procedural ingredients:

          1. Small classes that are holistic and culturally integrative, and designed to enhance at all levels the students' proficiency in the basic skills and mastery of standards adopted by teachers, parents and students;
      2. Team-teaching emphasis stressed where appropriate (on occasion students may be assigned to a team of teachers); using parents, community residents, retired professionals and businessmen or -women as part-time teachers, teaching assistants or educational consultants;
      3. Small average student to teacher ratio (15:1) to respond (a) to the at-risk character of the student body and (b) to facilitate individualized instruction based on interests and needs; this averageratio will also support the institution of a "learning-through-doing" (active vs. passive) instructional design; 
          4. Meeting students where they are socially, culturally and academically and then moving them to higher and different academic levels supported by incorporating instructional themes such as the avoidance of threat, meaningful and relevant content, learning style choices, sufficient time to assimilate content, enriched learning environment, student-to-student collaboration, and immediate feedback; of especial importance in this context is the programmatic notion that all children can learn. It is incumbent on educators to devise means to design appropriate strategies to "lead that learning out," i.e., make it happen;
          5. Self-learning projects that are student or teacher initiated, conducted first in-school and later, based on student maturity, conducted out-of-school;
        6. The interdisciplinary (holistic) model that allows students to experience how one set of basic skills directly relates to other basic skills, i.e., reading to mathematics, geography to social sciences, mathematics to science, culture to history; and how all these relate to being truly educated and to life in general (see Alfred North Whitehead's The Aims of Education and Other Essays, 1967, pp. 6-7); and 
          7. An extended year-round calendar of up to 210 days (with 180 regular days and 30 summer school days).

Curricular Infusion

The Academy's instructional philosophy and program structure are open-ended so that it can maintain curricular and operational flexibility, recognizing that over time it may have to incorporate revised or different learning and operational strategies. The Academy is intent on infusing into its curriculum a diversity element with the emphasis on African America, Africa, Native America, Latin America and the world. This element is not standard in public or private school education but is, from our perspective, vital given our anticipated student population, not because they will be children of color but rather because most children (and most educated Americans regardless of race) have not been exposed to the history, culture and aspirations of the African and other persons of color in America. 

A careful review of the Academy's educational philosophy and curricular plan reveals that we approach education from a quality perspective that agrees with Edward Wilmot Blyden's description of our educational needs as a people in 1878:

The African American represents, for example, the largest non-white racial group in the United States; unfortunately it also represents the group whose history, culture, languages, traditions and contributions to American civilization have been most neglected in school curricula from kindergarten to the PhD. The Academy will, therefore, correct this oversight by the infusion of curricular diversity. The Academy does not resort to the exclusion of instruction on other ethnic and racial groups. The fact is that Americans regardless of ethnicity or race must learn to live and work with each other. This need has been evident, although ignored, since the inception of the nation. It is now incumbent on the nation's educational system to reflect in its curricula this necessary national emphasis. The Academy will, then, offer public school children in the city of Akron a well-balanced education where academic skills are taught in combination with mutual respect and cooperation among those diverse Americans who are destined to maintain the American experiment. It is time for the Acacemy to join with parents and the general community to take matters into our own hands and stop wondering about whether to call our schools African-centered or European-centered and get to work delivering to our youth and their parents and the Akron public school district what their taxes should have delivered a long time ago: A QUALITY EDUCATION designed for the 21st century!

The Academy again relies on the research and scholarship of educators such as Richard Long, Asa Hilliard, Janice Hale and Wade Nobles who writes: "The importance of culture is reflected in the curriculum by it (the curriculum) being sensitive to the ethnic heroes and holidays and aware of the groups songs and dance. Culture is not, however, simply a compilation of ethnic heroes and holidays nor is it only an awareness of other people's music and dance. . . . Curricula are tools of education and part of the problem has been in the way culture in general and the . . . African American culture in particular, has been defined and applied to the educational experience. . . . Culture is therefore the invisible dimension of all curricula. Hence, just as the nature of water (i.e., salt vs. fresh vs. polluted), influences the reality (i.e., survivability) of particular types of fish, so too do different cultural systems influence the reality of particular groups of people." Dr. Nobles goes on to say:

A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, A Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 1983, offers this on-point testimony as to why the Ida B. Wells Community Academy development team have decided to enter the educational reform struggle and have designed their educational delivery system and support services as they have. We quote extensively selected passages from the Commission's report:

        1.  "Our society and its educational institutions seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling, and of the high expectations and disciplined effort needed to attain them. This report, the result of 18 months of study, seeks to generate reform of our educational system in fundamental ways and to renew the Nation's commitment to schools and colleges of high quality throughout the length and breadth of our land. . . . That we have compromised this commitment is, upon reflection, hardly surprising, given the multitude of often conflicting demands we have placed on our Nation's schools and colleges." . . . 
        2.  "Our concern, however, . . . includes the intellectual, moral, and spiritual strengths of our people which knit together the very fabric of our society. The people of the United States need to know that individuals in our society who do not possess the levels of skill, literacy, and training essential to this new era will be effectively disenfranchised, not simply from the material rewards that accompany competent performance, but also from the chance to participate fully in our national life. A high level of shared education is essential to a free, democratic society and to the fostering of a common culture, especially in a country that prides itself on pluralism and individual freedom." [emphasis added] . . .
        3.  "Part of what is at risk is the promise first made on this continent: All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost. This promise means that all children by virtue of their own efforts, competently guided, can hope to attain the mature and informed judgment needed to secure gainful employment, and to manage their own lives, thereby serving not only their own interests but also the progress of society itself." . . . 

The educational dimensions of the risk have been well documented in testimony taken by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. We list here some of the risks the NCEE noted that the American community faces on national, state and local levels. They are: 

• "International comparisons of student achievement, completed a decade ago, reveal that on 19 academic tests American students were never first or second and, in comparison with other industrialized nations, were last seven times. 
• Some 23 million American adults are functionally illiterate by the simplest tests of everyday reading, writing, and comprehension. 
• Functional illiteracy among minority youth may run as high as 40 percent. 
• Over half the population of gifted students do not match their tested ability with comparable achievement in school. 
• The College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) demonstrate a virtually unbroken decline from 1963 to 1980. Average verbal scores fell over 50 points and average mathematics scores dropped nearly 40 points. 
• Both the number and proportion of students demonstrating superior achievement on the SATs (i.e., those with scores of 650 or higher) have also dramatically declined. 
• Nearly 40 percent cannot draw inferences from written material; only one-fifth can write a persuasive essay; and only one-third can solve a mathematics problem requiring several steps. 
• There was a steady decline in science achievement scores of U.S. 17-year-olds as measured by national assessments of science in 1969, 1973, and 1977. 
• Between 1975 and 1980, remedial mathematics courses in public 4-year colleges increased by 72 percent and now constitute one-quarter of all mathematics courses taught in thoseinstitutions."

• "Computers and computer-controlled equipment are penetrating every aspect of our lives &mdash; homes, factories, and offices. 
• One estimate indicates that by the turn of the century millions of jobs will involve . . . technology and robotics . . . in health care, medical science, energy production, food processing, construction, and the building, repair, and maintenance of sophisticated scientific, educational, military, and industrial equipment." 

This discussion illustrates that you do not have to be African American, poor or a person of color to be at risk. All young people attending the nation's schools are in similar circumstances and, if change does not come, will continue to be at risk well into the next century. The Academy commits itself to do its part to prepare and educate its student body, parents, faculty, administrators and the community at large to make certain they avoid this pitfall.

   Students Qualifying for D.P.I.A. Funds

It is difficult to state definitively the percentage of students qualifying for DPIA funds. Suffice it to say that the Academy expects 60 to 70% or more of its student body will qualify for these funds. The Ida B. Wells Community Academy's market research generated data supporting our expectations. There are sufficient numbers of so-called low-income and at-risk students, as defined above, residing within the metropolitan boundaries of the City of Akron and are currently attending Akron public and private schools. These data also attest to a pool of other children who will come of age and attend district schools within a few years. Moreover, a cursory examination of the District's suspension/expulsion percentages (see Table 4), the numbers of disadvantaged students (35.8%), the dropout rates (28.7 black and 24.4% white) and the number of low-income families black and white (the District median income is $21,006) undergirds the Academy's move to establish a student- and parent-friendly learning environment. According to the 1990 U.S. census, the total population of Akron had a median income of $32,000; the African American population by contrast has a median income of $18,709 with 50% of population below the poverty level (11,325) and 125% of the population (or 22,314 persons) below the poverty level. Of the 32,331 young people enrolled in the Akron public schools in 1997, 46.8 are African American (see Table 5). There are approximately 9,914 African American school-age youngsters between ages 5 to 14 years residing in Akron. Since the total population of the city is 223,019 and its residents enjoy a very modest median income, it is clear there is also within the white community a substantial number of youth that can be defined as "at risk" and under served. This view is augmented by the number of dropouts and suspensions, even though it is lower than that reported for African Americans. It is further strengthened by the disparity Table 3 shows in the average number of African American honors students (7.2%) when contrasted with white honor students (15.6%). Therefore, it is apparent that the Academy will succeed in recruiting a critical mass of low-income and other at risk students from the African American, white, Native American and Latin American inner-city communities (see Table 4).

   3. Accountability System

Various psychometric instruments, e.g., the California Achievement Test, the Academy will be used to measure scientifically the degree to which its students exhibit the cultural, historical and social knowledge and sensitivities (sensibilities) the curriculum fosters. The inference here is that the Academy will establish frequent opportunities for staff to conduct structured assessments of . . .

• how well students (and parents) are apprehending the Academy's curricular structure, teaching style and methodology and the Academy's student-community-parent relations;

• how well students are comprehending the lessons, learning materials and related class materials and activities; 

• how well the Academy is making progress in its overall development as a creative and responsive learning process; and

• how well the Academy has met its planned and comprehensive continuum of educational services for all studentsand particularly for special population students as required by rule 3301-51-04 and in accordance with the procedural safeguards outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B. Under this item is also included the assessment of the Academy's ability to meet the needs of its under-challenged and exceptional students (see  "Notes on Special Education").

The Academy's choice of methods to assess pupil progress is based on the following five beliefs about assessment:

• In order to have a complete picture of a student's growth, different types of assessments must be used. Assessments should focus on an individual student's growth towards a proficiency standard rather than comparing a student's performance against other students;

• There should be a close relationship between a desired student outcome and the means used to assess it;

• Assessing what students do with knowledge is as important as assessing what knowledge they have;

• Assessment should promote and support reflection and self-evaluation on the part of students, staff, parents and the Academy; and

• Assessment, intervention and evaluation will proceed along the lines defined by MEO/SERRC in its "Combined Initiative Training: Assessment and Intervention" manual:

The Academy will use with other students a variety of performance-based assessment tools such as portfolios, demonstrations, and performance tasks. The Academy will also use standardized tests that compare individual student progress to state standards. These standardized proficiency tests are also intended to report the proportion of students at the Ida B. Wells Community Academy who have reached (or exceeded) the state proficiency standards in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies.

   Tools for Assessment

4.  Effective Educational Practices

   Parental Involvement

The Academy's decision to involve parents as equal owners of the Academy in meaningful and critical operational and managerial imperatives throughout the Academy's start-up and operational phases is not usually replicated in traditional public and private schools. These imperatives include teaching, administrative and governance functions, committee assignments of various sorts, e.g., discipline, curriculum design and delivery, student recruitment and admissions, faculty/staff hiring and training, transportation, fund raising, and facility management and identification. Their children will attend an educational program wherein they, too, will have a role in the program's operation and governance (see Sowande's "Program Harmony Model" above). The Academy's program structure and continuum of educational options and procedural safeguards will be designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The parents of these children will be integrally involved with these and other curricular and managerial aspects of the Academy. This full package of educational services will, therefore, help persuade parents that the Ida B. Wells Community Academy is a safe haven for their children and is intent on achieving excellence over and above some other educational program (see "A Selected Bibliography").

   Classroom Management

Classrooms are administered by a trained and experienced teacher-principal and individually managed by certified teachers or teaching teams in collaboration with teacher assistants. A trained special education teacher (or teachers) will be on staff. These teachers will construct matrices of teaching strategies that will encompass the following areas and a number of others, e.g., classroom control and conflict resolution, that will be introduced as necessitated by the needs of the Academy students.

• Meeting students where they are socially, culturally and academically and then moving them to higher and more intensive academic levels supported by incorporating instructional themes such as the avoidance of threat, meaningful and relevant content, learning style choices, sufficient time to assimilate content, an enriched learning environment, student-to-student collaboration, and immediate feedback;
  

• Designing methodologies to confirm the Academy's belief that all children can learn, if not at the same pace, and that it is incumbent on educators to make that learning happen;

• Self-learning projects that are student or teacher initiated, conducted first in-school and later, based on student maturity, conducted out-of-school;

• A holistic paradigm that allows students to experience how one set of basic skills directlyrelates to other basic skills, i.e., reading to mathematics, geography to social sciences, mathematics to science, culture to history; and how all these relate to being educated in general;
  

• Main streaming students with disabilities to the extent feasible so as to assure that all students' learning is administered equally and with care; and

• Periodic and unannounced classroom visitations to monitor and upgrade teacher performance.

   Professional Development &ndash; Faculty, Parents and Administrative and Support Staff

All individuals actively engaged in the educational process &mdash; Governing and Advisory Board members, faculty, parents, and administrative and support staff &mdash; are required to undergo a comprehensive and ongoing training program and series of educational development workshops or forums. Since the Academy proposes to create a non-standard educational paradigm, and since it encourages innovation and rigorous academic standards, these training and development programs coupled with a set of Faculty Employment and Performance Expectations are essential to its proper and effective conduct and administration. Even though the Academy cannot force its students' parents to attend and participate in this program, we hope parents will see and act on the absolute need for them to be integrally involved so that they, too, can join in as knowledgeable partners and cooperate with the other members of the educational team. It is to serve this need that students, parents and faculty/staff are presented with a detailed handbook that clearly outlines their rights and responsibilities. Moreover, parents are, in the Academy's view, an essential educational support system for their children. They, too, must not only understand what is being done educationally but also be able to make suggestions to better the Academy's effectiveness.

The tentative style and content of the Academy's professional development program follows along these lines:

       Phase I: Program Planning, Professional Development

          Advisory Group Development and Orientation

               Training areas

1. General Advisory Procedures
2. What is Special Education
1. How do we fit into the Community School Picture
1. Curriculum and Methodologies
2. Faculty, Staff, Student, Parent Handbook
3. Classroom Management
4. School Management
5. Educational Technology: e-mail, Teaching with the Internet, Library Links (Ohio and National)
2. IDEA and the Academy's Special Education Plan
1. Types of disabilities 
2. Classroom Management
3. Service Management
4. Medical and Educational Technology
3. C. Curriculum Design and Development
1. Standard Curriculum: What and How
2. Infuse Curriculum: What and How
3. Curriculum Revision-Downward
4. Curriculum Revision-Upward
5. Cultural Responsiveness
4. Performance Expectations 
1. Accountability and Assessment 
2. Behavior
3. Discipline
4. Conflict Resolution
5. School Schedule
6. Facility management
7. Data Collection, EMIS and Empirical/Qualitative Educational Research

          Training areas

1. By Laws: What Makes for an Effective Board?
2. What kind of Educational institution are we?
3. The Three Rs: Roles, Rules and Responsibilities
1. Faculty and Students and Parents Handbook
2. Employment Policies
1. Administrators
2. Faculty and Staff
3. Teaching Assistants
4. Volunteers, Interns and Student Teachers
5. Consultants: Researchers, Psychologists (Psychometricians)
6. Support Staff: Secretaries, Accountant, Custodial Services, School Crossing Guards
4. Data Collection, EMIS and Empirical/Qualitative Educational Research
5. Required Assurances 
6. Curriculum
1. Standard Curriculum: What and How
2. Infuse Curriculum: What and How
3. Curriculum Revision &ndash; Downward
4. Curriculum Revision &ndash; Upward
5. Cultural Responsiveness
6. Educational Technology: e-mail, Teaching with Internet Resources, Library Links (Ohio and National)
7. Performance Expectations
1. Accountability and Assessment
1. Behavior 
2. Discipline
3. Conflict Resolution
8. School Schedule
9. Facility management
10. Data Collection, EMIS and Empirical/Qualitative Educational Research

          Faculty, Staff, Parents, Student Training and Orientation

1.  What kind of educational institution are we?
1. Independent Public School
2. Community Educational Partnership
2. Program Governance and Management: By Laws, Employment Policies and ODE Contract
3. The Three Rs: Roles, Rules and Responsibilities
1. Faculty and Staff 
2. Parents 
3. Students
4. Volunteers
5. Interns and Student Teachers
4. Training areas
1. Curriculum
1. Standard Curriculum: What and How
2. Infuse Curriculum: What and How
3. Curriculum Revision &ndash; Downward
4. Curriculum Revision &ndash; Upward
5. Cultural Responsiveness
6. Textbook Selection, Purchase and Development
7. Educational Technology: e-mail, Teaching with Internet Resources, Library Links (Ohio and National)
8. Special Education, Parents Rights and the Curriculum
9. Required Assurances
2. Classroom Management 
1. Controlling the Classroom
1. Behavior 
2. Discipline
3. Conflict Resolution
4. Classroom Setup and Design
5. Team (Collaborative) Teaching
3. The Academy's Performance Expectations and Periodic Reviews
1. Accountability and Assessment 
4. School Schedule: the Academy's 210 day Academic Year (the traditional 180 days plus 30 days or 6 weeks during the Summer months)
5. Facility management

Currently, the Academy is jointly administered by Mrs. Emma Jean Calhoun and Edward W. Crosby, PhD. Later an experienced school administrator will be retained to be the Academy's primary on-site officer in-charge, i.e., principal. An oversight committee or Advisory Board composed of students, parents of students with and without disabilities, teachers, administrators, and community professionals will be formed. This Advisory Board will oversee the school's daily educational operation, i.e., teaching assignments, curriculum revision, teacher performance, textbook selection, student discipline, etc. In short, on-site management will be an operational imperative. In addition, the Academy will have a Board of Governors and ByLaws composed of, say, officials from Kent State University and the University of Akron, e.g., deans and department chairs and faculty, as well as parents, professional educators, health officials, psychologists, school teachers and business persons. Where the Advisory Group will meet weekly or daily as necessary, the Governing Board will meet on a monthly schedule.

5.  Program Development and Consultation Network

As outlined under "School Management" above, the Academy has developed a comprehensive "Network" of individuals who have been and will continue to be instrumental in its planning, professional development and orientation programs, and in its implementation processes. These individuals along with others may be consultants or members of  the Board of Governors or members of the Advisory Board, i.e., the Site-Based Management Committee. As planning proceeds this Network will expand or contract. Presently, the following individuals have agreed or consented to be considered as members and will offer their professional services in the following areas:

   Psychological, Assessment and Counseling Services

• Dr. Juanita K. Martin, Associate Director and Psychologist, Counseling, Testing and Career Center, The University of Akron 

• Mrs. Emma Jean Calhoun, Chairperson, The Task Force for Quality Education, Akron, Ohio
• Dr. Edward W. Crosby, PhD, Professor and Chair Emeritus, Department of Pan-African Studies, Kent State University
• Ms. Raita Bilal, Certified Teacher, Elementary Grades, Akron Public Schools
• Mrs. Beverly Parker, Certified Teacher, Speech Pathology, Akron Public Schools, and Special Education Consultant
• Mr. Perkins Pringle, Certified Teacher, Elementary Grades
• Dr. Marlene R. Dorsey, Dean, College of Continuing Studies, Kent State University
• Mr. Dean Seavers, Marketing and Sales Executive, Allied Domecq Retailing &ndash; USA, Chicago, Illinois
• Ms. Debra Calhoun, Director, African American Cultural Action Program, American Friends Service Committee and Temporary Assistant Professor, Department of Pan-African Studies, Kent State University
• Mrs. Geraldine Hayes Chavez, Director, Project Upward Bound, Kent State University
• Ms. Jacqueline Jackson, Graduate Assistant, College of Education, The University of Akron
• Dr. Ronald McClendon, Assistant Professor, College of Education, The University of Akron
• Dr. Robert Deitchman, Professor Emeritus, Social Work, The University of Akron (now deceased)
• Ms. Jacqueline Garrett, Recqor Coordination, Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
• Mr. Herman Oden, retired from Goodyear Aerospace, Akron, Ohio
• Mr. John Fuller, Department of Community Development and Planning, City of Akron 

• Ms. Gloria McCullough, Assistant Dean, College of Continuing Studies, Kent State University

   l Edward W. Crosby, PhD:  Educational Reform Activism and Community Development

Address: 437 Silver Meadows Blvd
               Kent, Ohio  44240-1913

Phone:   330.673.9271
e-Mail: hierogfx@hierographics.org

Dr. Crosby was born in Cleveland, Ohio and was one of the founders of the Experiment in Higher Education at Southern Illinois University in East St. Louis in 1965 and the founder and first chair of the Institute for African American Affairs and subsequently the Department of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University from 1969 to January 1, 1994, when he retired and became emeritus chair and professor, the Department of Pan-African Studies and professor emeritus, Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies (German). He currently serves in conjunction with Mrs. E. Jean Calhoun as a Co-Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Academy's Superintendent and Chair of the Personnel and Benefits Committee for the Ida B. Wells Community Academy.

Dr. Crosby received his BA and MA from Kent State in 1957 and 1959 in German and Spanish and earned his Ph.D at the University of Kansas in 1965 in German, Medieval German Literature and Medieval History. In 1957 he began teaching at Kent State and later, in 1958, at Hiram College also in Ohio. In 1962, while on a leave of absence, he taught at Tuskegee Institute (now University) in Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.

He returned to Hiram College a year later. In 1965 Dr. Crosby resigned from Hiram College, changed his career from teaching German and Spanish to serving the social and educational needs of Africans in America, and worked first as a volunteer and later became an associate director of Akron's recently organized Summit County-Greater Akron Community Action Council. During this period, he spearheaded among other cummunity projects the establishment of an Upward Bound Program on the Hiram Campus. This program was subsequently transferred to Walsh College and later in 1971 to Kent State University.

In 1966, after working in Akron for six months, he joined Southern Illinois University's Experiment in Higher Education (EHE) based in East St. Louis. As the director of education of EHE, he restructured the learning process and the curriculum of the last two years of high school and first two years of undergraduate education for 200 African American (90%) and white students (10%) who were assured scholarships to continue their college careers at SIU or any other college or university in Illinois or the United States in general. Two students studied in Africa.

While in East St. Louis, Dr. Crosby was instrumental in the establishment of the Danforth Foundation's Metropolitan Scholars Program and assisted in the national evaluation of UPWARD BOUND for urban youth and compensatory education programs for migrant and other agricultural workers through the South West Alabama Farmers Cooperative (SWAFCO) and worked with university faculty, administrators, and students to speed the establishment of African or Black Studies programs in California, Oregon, Missouri, Ohio, Texas and New York.

He returned to Kent in 1969 to found the Institute for African American Affairs and, in 1976, the Department of Pan-African Studies. From 1976-1978, while on administrative leave of absence, Dr. Crosby directed the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of Washington in Seattle. For twenty-five years, as aforementioned, Dr. Crosby was the chairperson of the Department at Kent State where he promoted African-centered education, and won the respect of students and faculty at Kent, across the state of Ohio, and around the nation. He believes academic, cultural, and socio-emotional holism helps place African American college and public school students at the center of the learning process and allows them to "retire upon themselves."

As those who have known Dr. Crosby over his teaching career of 42 years or over the twenty-five years he spent at Kent State, it should not have been a surprise that he would not remain retired for long. After laying off for four years to recuperate from prostate cancer and a liver transplant, he sprang back into action in 1997-1998, when he joined with other educational activists in Akron, Ohio to seek authority to found a five-year continuing public charter school (or community school) in Ohio &ndash; The Ida B. Wells Community Academy. Given Dr. Crosby's successful first and second African American educational reform ventures, it is thought important to point out here that he continues to work as an agent for educational change.

   l Mrs Emma Jean Calhoun:  Co-Founder, Akron Community Educational Activist

Address:   622 McKinley Avenue
                Akron, Ohio  44311 

Phone:   330.724.6035

Mrs. Calhoun is the inspirational leader of the Ida B. Wells Community Academy and was very instrumental in collaboration with Dr. Edward W. Crosby to found the corporation named the Ida B. Wells Community Academy, Inc. In January 2001 she left the Board of Governors and is now honored with the title "Governor Emeritus." She is a native of Sylacauga, Alabama and is married to Ira "Joey" Calhoun, Jr. They have resided in Akron for most of their lives and have two daughters and four grandsons. For 28 years, Mrs. Calhoun worked at Akron City Hospital as a Licensed Practical Nurse, during which time she developed her lifelong ambition to serve her people and humanity in general. She received "The Beautification Award" from Keep Akron Beautiful in 1995, The Catholic Commission's "Certificate of Recognition for Exceptional Work for Peace and Social Justice," November 23, 1993; "Award to an Outstanding Community Activist" presented by the African American Cultural Festival and Parade Committee, July 10, 1993; and "The Martin Luther King. Jr., FESTAC Institute Certificate of Appreciation," November 30, 1987.

As a life member of the NAACP, she has been working diligently over a period of years to increase the membership rolls of this very important community organization. She has served as a Girl Scout Leader at Trinity Lutheran Church. Her hobbies include reading and traveling. She has traveled to Egypt, Israel, Greece, Liberia, Senegal, the Ivory Coast in West Africa, Mexico, and various parts of the United States. Never one to forego learning opportunities Mrs. Calhoun attends the University of Akron studying among other things courses in the African American history and culture under the tutorship of Professor Neal Holmes. She along with Professor Holmes and a committee worked concertedly and with success to have an African American history course taught in theAkron Public Schools. This course is currently taught at Buchtel, North, East, Ellet, and Firestone High Schools. She is presently working with a Akron Public Schools multi-cultural education committee to infuse African American history content into all grade levels &ndash; K through 12 &ndash; in the Akron Public Schools. In 1989 the parents of school-aged students informed Mrs. Calhoun about the high rate of expulsions and suspensions in the Akron Public Schools. As a result, she requested and received data from the Board of Education which demonstrated the accuracy of this assertion.

As a consequence of this involvement, Mrs. Calhoun organized the Task Force for Quality Education was formed with Ms. Debra Calhoun, program coordinator, the American Friends Service Committee, Dr. Neal Holmes of the University of Akron, Mr. Ken McClenic, director, West Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation, and Mr. Cazzell Smith, director, East Akron Community House. The Task Force for Quality Education has conducted a series of Community Education Forums at the East Akron Community House, on a wide range of topics some of which are indicated below:

• Symposium: Suspensions and Expulsions of African American Children September 26, 1992;
• Parents Open Mouth Forum on Expulsions and Suspensions, November 19, l992;
• Open Discussion Regarding Suspended and Expelled Students, January 14, 1992;
• School Board Meeting, Task Force Members Present, Rankin Elementary School March on the Board of Education, "Save Our Children," September 13, 1993;
• Planning for Careers and College Workshops in collaboration with the University of Akron Educational Talent Search, Saturday, January 22, 1994;
• "Knowledge is Power," Guest Speakers Dr. Edward W. Crosby and Dr. David Whitaker, Esq., Saturday, February 18, 1995;
• Town Meeting One, A Public Discussion on the Humanities, Public Schools, and Community Based Academic Programming. Guest Speaker Dr. Mwalimu Shujaa, SUNY at Buffalo, Saturday, December 2, 1995, Black Cultural Center, the University of Akron;
• "The Basis for an African Centered Education," Guest Speaker Dr. Charles S. Finch III, MD, Morehouse University Medical School, Saturday, February 22, 1997, Black Cultural Center, the University of Akron;
• "What to Your Child Should Know by the Third Grade," Parent and Student Preparedness, Saturday, April 25, 1998, Guest Speaker Mrs. Myra Lewis Bolar, the University of Akron Educational Talent Search; and
• "What to Look for in a Good Teacher," Guest Speakers Mrs. Denise Brown and Dr. Ronald McClendon, Lawton Street Community Center.

The résumés, curriculum vitae and positions curently held by individual members of the Board of Governors, Administrators and Faculty are found in the Roster of Current Governors, Administrators, and Faculty.. 

   7.  Facilities

The Academy is housed on the premises of the East Akron Salvation Army Post located at 1104 Johnson Street, P.O. Box 9187, Akron, Ohio 44305 (phone: 330.376.5169). This facility is more than adequate for the educational purposes we envision. It has several large to medium sized classrooms, a large gymnasium, a well equipped food service facility that is inspected monthly by the Summit County Health Department, a large fenced-in play area, and is fully accessible to those who are disabled. This facility already has some classroom furniture, exercise mats, sports equipment, etc., however, the Academy will have to purchase or otherwise provide room dividers, classroom furniture for small children, desks and desk chairs for teachers and staff, and school essentials.

   8.  Relationship with Akron Public School District

The Academy will not have any direct relationship with the Akron Public School District. The Academy will, however, rely on the District to provide transportation to and from school. The Academy will also seek to establish a working relationship with the District for the provision of other negotiated services such as food service, if necessary. In the short term the Academy will negotiate working relationships which will include training in responding to ODE's data collection and submission (EMIS) requirements, the delivery of special education services, among other things. As time progresses the Academy will seek from the District the ability for its students to participate in some District functions and/or facilities, e.g., the National Honor Society, varsity sports, natatoria, Glee Clubs, theatre and dance facilities, musical performances, speech declamations, debate societies, etc.

   9.  Continued Operation

The Academy's Board of Governors will be oriented toward developing funding networks, overseeing the preparation of grant proposals and exploring a variety of community fund raising ventures to sustain where necessary programmatic items contained in this proposal and beyond. The Board will put its emphasis on raising funds to support envisioned site construction and capital improvements, equipment purchases and upgrades, the establishment of a computer lab, the creation of a library and media center, and a number of other things. The Academy envisions becoming a full-fledged High School within a ten-year period or less. To accomplish this, the Academy's Board must be actively engaged in making certain that the Academy has the wherewithal to make this eventuality happen.

   10.  Admissions Process

The Ida B. Wells Community Academy will serve students residing within the Akron City School District. The Academy's student body will include low-income, under achieving, under served, under challenged and under represented inner-city youths. Even though the Academy's mission is to eventually serve students from Kindergarten to High School, it will initially serve only students in kindergarten through the 2nd grade, adding one grade per year thereafter. Students will be admitted to the Academy in accordance with the Ohio Revised Code, Chap. 3314.06 which stipulates that "there will be no discrimination based on race, sex, religion or handicapping condition.
. . . Admission will not be limited to intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or athletic ability." The number of students the Academy can serve is limited; after year one, enrollment preference will be given to continuing Academy students and their siblings. Other students will be accepted by lottery provided space is available. 

   11.  Promotion

Local newspapers have already announced on two occasions that the Academy has a Community School that will be up and running in September 1999. In addition to this the Academy network has already begun to canvass and distribute forms and brochures that request parental information and provide a summary of its mission statement, admission policy, educational program and goals and instructional design and educational philosophy. The Academy will initiate an intensive promotion effort slated to begin January 1, 1999. This effort will include public service announcements on local radio and TV, paid advertisements, bumper stickers, fliers and posters, announcements in church bulletins, community forums, and appearances at organizational, community meetings, etc.

    12.  Registration

Parents wanting to register their child(ren) in the Ida B. Wells Community Academy will be invited by mail to attend a public forum that will be held in March. The time and place for this forum will be announced in that letter and in the Akron Beacon Journal and the Reporter. Additional announcements will be made on local TV Channels and Radio Stations. Announcements will also be placed in church bulletins, grocery stores, barbershops and hair salons. 

To register their child(ren) parents will be required to submit a Registration Form which will be used only by Ida B. Wells Community Academy officials and will be kept in the strictest confidence. Click on the button below to view and print out a copy of the Academy's Registration Form. 

Copyright © September 30, 2000, HieroGraphics Online, Kent, Ohio                                                                                              Updated on October 15, 2002