Achievement First

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Closing the achievement gap is the civil rights issue of our time. From the moment students arrive at Achievement First schools, they are held to high expectations built around the belief that they can and will achieve academic success.

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All Achievement First students know they can and will go to college.

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The culture at our schools is one of rigor and joy—you can sense the urgency and energy when you enter an Achievement First school. Our lessons are geared to engage students and foster a lifelong love of learning.

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Achievement First schools emphasize the REACH values—Respect, Enthusiasm, Achievement, Citizenship and Hard Work.

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At Achievement First, we believe all children can succeed when presented with the right educational opportunities. Across the Achievement First network, our students—low-income, African-American and Latino students—are outpacing their state and district peers.

For the third consecutive year in as many graduating classes, 100 percent of seniors have gained acceptance to four-year colleges and universities.

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We work hard every day to close the achievement gap and deliver on the promise of equal educational opportunity for all children, regardless of race, economic status or zip code. Our first priority is to provide a truly outstanding, gap-closing education to our thousands of students.

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We believe a great education can level the playing field, break the cycle of poverty and create a brighter future for all of us.

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Achievement First is proud to serve special education students, English Language Learners, talented and gifted students, and all other students accepted through our blind lotteries. We don’t have admission requirements or interviews, and there are no admission or tuition fees.

Students, teachers and parents work as a team to achieve success.

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At Achievement First, we help individual students, entire schools and partner districts close the achievement gap. We are committed to engaging volunteer tutors, increasing public awareness, and advocating for public policies that would support education reform and the expansion of high-quality school choices.

We host hundreds of visitors—including community members, elected officials and educators—in our schools each year.

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People matter mightily at Achievement First. We spare no effort to recruit the best teachers, school leaders, subject-area and functional experts, and operations specialists from around the country, provide them with outstanding professional development, and create opportunities that will inspire and support them in their careers.

We develop, recognize and reward teachers through constant professional development and the Teacher Career Pathway.

Results Across Achievement First

After a decade of growth, we are more optimistic than ever about our potential to deliver on the promise of equal education for all and that our students will climb the mountain to college. The hard work of our teachers, students and parents is
paying off as their extraordinary achievement results receive local, state and national attention. As our organization
grows, we continue to be committed to the core value
"People Matter, Mightily."

New York Student Achievement Highlights

Achievement First New York schools and students continue to outpace their statewide peers on achievement tests. On the 2012 state math assessment, 88 percent of our New York students achieved proficiency, compared to a 60 percent average proficiency rate in New York City and a 65 percent average proficiency rate across the state. In English Language Arts, 58 percent of Achievement First students achieved proficiency in 2012, compared with 47 percent of New York City students and 55 percent of students statewide.
Achievement First students are not only achieving higher proficiency rates than their peers, but their achievement is also increasing at a faster rate. The proportion of students in our Brooklyn schools reaching English Language Arts proficiency rose more than 20 percentage points since 2010 when the state increased standards, and math scores have increased by more than 18 percentage points. During the same time period, the statewide average increased by only 2 percentage points in English Language Arts and 4 percentage points in math.
Math remains an especially strong area for Achievement First. On the nationally normed Terra Nova math assessment, kindergarten through second-grade students achieved, on average, at the 92nd percentile. Across Achievement First middle schools, 91 percent of our students achieved math proficiency, including 99 percent of eighth graders. On the eighth-grade math test, students outperformed their peers in Rye, New York, one of the wealthiest and highest-performing districts in the state.
Our elementary and middle schools have made substantial gains in reading, with seven of our eight New York schools posting improved scores. In the past two years, AF Bushwick Elementary improved reading scores by 30 percentage points, and AF Endeavor Middle improved reading scores by 22 percentage points.

Achievement First charters earned top grades on the New York City Department of Education 2012 Progress Reports, with four of five charters scoring in the top 15 percent of all New York City schools. AF Endeavor, AF Bushwick, AF Crown Heights and AF Brownsville each earned an A; AF East New York earned a B.

AF Bushwick was the highest-scoring K-8 school in New York City on the Department of Education 2011-12 Progress Reports, scoring in the 100th percentile.

AF Crown Heights and AF Endeavor both scored in the 93rd percentile for all New York City schools, and AF Brownsville scored in the 86th percentile.

Connecticut Student Achievement Highlights

Achievement First students are excelling in early elementary math and reading. On the nationally normed Terra Nova math assessment, our kindergarten through second-grade students performed, on average, at the 90th percentile—meaning that our students’ math achievement averages are in the top 10 percent of all students nationwide. In reading at all four of our Connecticut elementary schools, an average of 90 percent of students in kindergarten through second grade achieved at or above proficiency on the nationally normed Fountas & Pinnell assessment.
It is often said that the best way to evaluate a school’s impact is to look at the achievement of a group of students over time. At Achievement First’s Connecticut middle schools, the percentage of students at or above goal on the Connecticut Mastery Test doubled from fourth grade in 2008 to eighth grade in 2012. In Bridgeport, only 22 percent of our eighth-grade students scored at or above goal on the Connecticut Mastery Test across all subjects when these same students were in fourth grade (before they came to Achievement First). After four years at AF Bridgeport Academy Middle, 73 percent of these students scored at or above goal—a 51 percentage point gain over the four years. Similarly, at Amistad Academy Middle, the fourth-grade cohort entered with only 45 percent scoring at goal. By eighth grade, achievement jumped to 88 percent at goal—a 43 percentage point improvement.
Across Connecticut, our students are closing the achievement gap by eighth grade, surpassing statewide averages and, in some subjects, outperforming the state’s most affluent suburban districts. In each of our Connecticut middle schools, our oldest middle school students—eighth graders—achieved 73 percent at goal averaged across all subjects, 4 percentage points higher than the statewide average. Eighth graders achieved 90 percent at goal on the math section of the Connecticut Mastery Test, outperforming students in Greenwich, one of the state’s most affluent towns.
Achievement First high school students are working hard to get ready for college. More than 61 percent of our students who took the A.P. U.S. History exam scored a 4 or 5 (5 is the top score), compared with only 33 percent of students across the country. On the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, Achievement First students were again top performers on the writing section, with more than 88 percent of our students achieving at goal, compared with 63 percent of their state peers. Through a coordinated focus on college readiness, SAT performance continues to improve; Achievement First students are averaging more than 1,020 points on the reading and math sections of the test. Nationally, for the Class of 2012, the average on those two sections of the test was 1,010.