WOW! Time has flown by...
We had the open house in February (with enrollments for next year arising from that event!). Yes, it was a cloudy somewhat rainy day. But, people came out. We had folks from when we opened at 10 am until ... well, really, until we finished cleaning up and were on our way out! It was wonderful to see some of the current students present to visit with the visiting parents. It was also great because we had a couple of folks interested in working at RPA there also. I think a great time was had by all. This Early February event was followed by having a booth at the Women in Business Expo in Myrtle Beach towards the end of February.
feel free to contact, Ms. Delaney at the school, 854-925-0401!
I also was able to make an academic presentation about the school start up process at my conference, Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. It was held in Albuquerque, NM during March 6-10.
My full time job of teaching at CCU began with my teaching all of my class in the shortened term of Spring 2! I have been very busy teaching and grading since then. I also chatted a bit with a staff member there at CCU about research on happiness. She had a little quip on her office door about what makes for happiness and I decided to look into that a bit more. I found out that the longest research on adult happiness was done by Harvard. That study of over 75 years and 700+ people, found that close relationships are key to a long, healthy and happy life! A quick summary of his talk and 4 key lessons from it is available online (click here). It found that neither money
A happy childhood has very, very long-lasting effects.
nor success lead to a long happy healthy life... but rather having warm close relationships with others led to such a life. Those who had such warm loving relationships as children continued to have such relationships with others over the 3/4 of a century since! Yet again, support for our philosophy and design of our school. 
Our small tutorial-like classes where students spend multiple years with the same loving enthusiastic teachers allows for the creation of close warm relationships. The family-sized classes allow for children to experience close sibling-like relationships. We wholeheartedly believe that this type of culture and our honor code which helps us establish and maintain this close supportive culture is one element which makes RPA unique and different from other educational options available in the area today. Since your child will spend most of their waking hours at school, isn't it the type of environment that you want for them too?!
Check out some more of what Robert Waldinger says on this Ted Talk! Heads up… its about 12 minutes long. FYI, relationship quality matters! Spoiler alert… Loneliness kills. Good friends at work and after work (those you can count on to help in tough times) make for a longer happier healthier lives. We invite you to choose to become a part of our family at Renaissance Preparatory Academy!
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| Whew! The end of the term along with Thanksgiving and preparations for the winter break, which, in my case, means, preparations for Christmas; all conspired to keep me from blogging. I had thought about discussing the topics of our theme projects and showing how they align with common core, and, even more useful, practical life. I thought about reemphasizing how many of our boys and young men are slipping through the educational processes and ultimately not continuing their education at the same rate as our young women are. I thought about addressing the let down and disappointment that comes when our children are in a ill-fitting educational environment. But ultimately, I decided to share some of the highlights from these first two terms of the Renaissance Preparatory Academy! Who knows? This time of year often causes a rethinking of where to have your child at school and this may encourage you to send your child to the Renaissance Preparatory Academy! | Is My Child at the Right School?  |
Parents often are conflicted. They want family time or at least time to run the kids to soccer, gymnastics, swim team, etc. and they want their children to benefit from homework. So, just how much time should be spent in academics during a day? The amount of schooling and homework combined varies by type of instruction, and even then, by school district and sometimes by school within a district. If you turn to the homeschooling crowd, the amount of time per subject per child decreases dramatically as a total but the amount of individual time increases. So, let’s examine each one.
Funny enough, homework is a contentious topic when it comes to scholarly research. Some argue for it and others argue against it with the majority view cycling between these two view points over the years (Marzano and Pickering, 2007). A decade ago, Marzano and Pickering concluded that homework should have four qualities: 1) it should be purposeful for learning; 2) Students should be able to accomplish it independently with a relatively high success rate; 3) Parents can be a sounding board but not teachers of the content; 4) The amount of homework should be age appropriate and not infringe too much on home life. Let’s look at each of this in our school’s context. Remember, we are a school that has small class sizes (the smallest being like a family) that requires Mastery learning done within a longer than average school day.
It is a sad statistic but 40% of students in college who start as engineering students change majors and 70% of those who start a 2-year engineering program don’t finish (Silvarole & Mitchell, 2017). WHY? For many, it is because they cannot test into Calculus 1 as a college freshman. The math education that they receive is not sufficient for them to enter into the correct class to be successful in a common STEM major such as engineering. A coalition of colleges in SC are studying why and not that the problem starts very early in our educational system. Anecdotal evidence links poor later performance to the "pushing' on of kids to next levels in spiral math (and other subjects without insisting that they master earlier concepts. The net result is a poor education for that individual.
The Renaissance Preparatory Academy takes a mastery or competence approach. Concepts are taught academically and then applied to show that learning has occurred. Once consistency in its use is demonstrated then the student can move on. Furthermore our theme-units use the math concepts being learned to enable children to see that math is eminently practical and valuable to them now and in the future. As L. Renard commented back in March
Because of this (mastery learning), students can finally master the concepts while building a growth mindset, grit, perseverance and taking agency over their learning.
Can you say the same for your child’s current environment?
Our parents can and do!
Today’s public school’s educational environment in South Carolina has been judged to be the next to last nationwide for teachers… The biggest reason why? The percent of teachers who have reported being threatened by students (Wilson, 2017)! If teachers feel threatened, what does that mean for your child in that same environment? Teachers leave the public school due to a wide range of issues which include lack of time to actually prepare and grade the large sized classes and high levels of disrespect both inside and outside of the classroom. This does not mean that South Carolina teachers are not striving and fighting to maintain some minimal standards. South Carolina had average SAT scores slightly above the national average (Bowers, 2017). Teachers, though, are failing to return to that environment and many leave education. Again, how do you think this impacts your child? Don't wait to make a difference in your child's education, take action now!
Our parents can and do!
Today’s public school’s educational environment in South Carolina has been judged to be the next to last nationwide for teachers… The biggest reason why? The percent of teachers who have reported being threatened by students (Wilson, 2017)! If teachers feel threatened, what does that mean for your child in that same environment? Teachers leave the public school due to a wide range of issues which include lack of time to actually prepare and grade the large sized classes and high levels of disrespect both inside and outside of the classroom. This does not mean that South Carolina teachers are not striving and fighting to maintain some minimal standards. South Carolina had average SAT scores slightly above the national average (Bowers, 2017). Teachers, though, are failing to return to that environment and many leave education. Again, how do you think this impacts your child? Don't wait to make a difference in your child's education, take action now!
The Renaissance Preparatory Academy is a non-profit school that deliberately creates an environment where teachers and teaching are valued and respected. This respect then spills over into the environment in which the children learn. Children are challenged to strive for high level goals and to meet and exceed those goals. They learn about respecting themselves and others as they grow and learn. Our small family-sized classes allow teachers to assess where children have gaps and to take steps to help the children fill those gaps. After a child catches up on the needed concepts, that child can then move more rapidly along and actually continue learning. The net result is stronger individual learning than is possible when teaching a rote curriculum throughout a district to ensure that every child has seen the same curriculum.
Full disclosure, the Renaissance Preparatory Academy is a start-up school and is in a growth phase. Students lucky enough to enroll this year will reap the rewards of intimate family-sized classes. We expect that almost tutorial-size class experience to dissipate as more families discover the great learning environment and culture found at the school! We commit, though, to limiting the maximum class size to 15 students. These smaller maximum classes, longer school year, 8-hour school day create a strong supportive environment. Most days, our current faculty and students say that the school day seems to whiz by!
Call 843-800-0590 or use our contact us box to set up an appointment today!
Janice Black, Founder & Director School Board
Call 843-800-0590 or use our contact us box to set up an appointment today!
Janice Black, Founder & Director School Board
Those of you who have been following the school know that theme units are an integral part of all our classes from the PrePrimary to the Grammar class. The first major unit in our fall term has been a study of PETS. The PrePrimary has a great picture book about a pet goldfish whose “stuff” overflowed his bowl. The Primary and Elementary classes read about choosing a pet and considered the costs associated with that. The Grammar school focuses on the pet industry and the impact that has for good and bad in our communities. Amidst all of this, the faculty and staff decided that it would be a good idea to get a school pet. They defaulted to fish and our new friend, Orange Juice, is the result. The aquarium was set up on Friday and Orange Juice entered his (or her) new home on Monday. Students are now researching a pet of their choice. Their big expo on pets is on this upcoming Friday afternoon. Can't wait to see what they come up with!
Janice Black, Founder & Director of School Board
Janice Black, Founder & Director of School Board
Many of you know that we are a year-round school. For those who are new to us, our “initial” term of a school year is our summer term. This first year that summer term was a short one that ended the last week of September. Check out a short slide show of our experiences below.
We did an extended field experience at Myrtle Beach State Park!
Our short summer term was because we began our normal year-round calendar at the same time that Horry County Schools began its traditional calendar. Some may wonder why we chose to start a private school with a year-round calendar. Certainly, year-round programs have been introduced before and have not been very popular.
So, why do a relatively unpopular school calendar?
...Because it makes a difference in children's learning!
So having longer school days (8 to 4 with drop off from 7:30 to 4:30) and having 40 weeks of school per year versus 36 weeks are both things that help students learn more and retain more of what they have learned. Remember, we came into being to demonstrate that preparation for higher education begins with Kindergarten and that the whole child needs to be taken into account in designing the learning experience. We stand by that need. A nice by-product is that parents can find shorter activities for their children in each season (which includes time for summer camps, ski camps, family vacations and so forth).
At the Renaissance Preparatory Academy, we are structured to help your child succeed and learn challenging curriculum well!
Call for an appointment today... 843-800-0590! Schedule an appointment via email using [email protected].
Renaissance Preparatory Academy IS an ABC School = Advancement By Competence Not By Year Cohort
9/24/2017
Thus, as a child demonstrates competence in the topics required for a certain grade level, they can be promoted to the next grade level. Competence means earn at least an 85% in the cumulative test AND demonstrate use during our theme units.
No holding kids back to keep them on track for a grade based on an age cohort!
No holding kids back to keep them on track for a grade based on an age cohort!
New Term Starts Oct. 2... May Mean Grade Promotions For Some. Definitely means welcoming a new Kindergarten cohort (PreK who turn 5 by October 16 are welcome to enroll).
So as your child demonstrates knowledge of kindergarten, they are promoted at the next term to the next grade, 1st grade. An actively learning and hard-working child could conceivably be promoted 4 grades in a year (not likely but possible).
Alternatively this means, if your child has gaps in their learning, we will help them fill those gaps until they can demonstrate competence. For example, let’s say your child received a C, a 75% in last year’s cumulative math final. And that this was broken down as shown on the graph below.
We work on a mastery framework but we allow progress based on competence which we define as at least 85% correct in a topic area. An average of 75% does not demonstrate sufficient competence in all required math areas in this example. This means that the results of the previous year show weaknesses or gaps as indicated below. These gaps will be addressed before the child is allowed to promote to the next grade.
Children don't have to be perfect to promote but they do have to meet our higher standards (remember we are a classic college prep and have high standards for mastery... that's that 85%).
Founder's Blog by
Janice Black, Ed. Specialist,
Ph. D.
Dr. Black is an active college professor in Entrepreneurship with a background in Education. Her scholarly publications have received over 1700 citations when the average professor rarely reaches 50 citations.
She is passionate about school reform that results in students prepared for college and entrepreneurial/ professional life.. She is initiating this school as a non-profit with no return on her investing funds and no payment for any services provided. She just wants to support the starting of a school that directly and indirectly supports the acquisition by our children beginning at kindergarten of knowledge skills and abilities needed for future entrepreneurs, future college students and future professionals.
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