Blackstone+Valley+Description


 * Blackstone Valley Prep Elementary School**

District:Cumberland Author:Alexa Levesque



Goldstein, Dana. //Morning Greetings, Blackstone Valley Prep//. 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2012.

At Blackstone Valley Prep Elementary School, students from Central Falls, Pawtucket,Lincoln, and Cumberland arrive at the school at 7:40 AM and immediately begin their work. They work hard all day at subjects ranging from phonics, to math until they are dismissed at 4:15(Blackstone Valley Prep)[1]. At BVP the students are also called "scholars", this is because from day one, they know that if they work hard, they will achieve greatness and go on to pursue college degrees.This sounds like a great idea, but does this really work? There is no long-standing data for BVP seeing that it was opened just a few years ago; standardized tests however, have indicated that the scholars have already reached all three targets set for Adequate Yearly Progress (“School Report Card”)[2] and 97.3% of second graders scored at or above the benchmark on the Developmental Reading Assesment (Blackstone Valley Prep). Testing results would agree that Blackstone Valley Prep is indeed on its way to sending all of their scholars to college success.

Standardized Scores
At Blackstone Valley Prep, the scholars work hard to reach the high standards that the school has set. Not only did all students, in 2010, reach proficiency, 85.3% of the students were proficient with distinction(“School Report Card”)[3]. This means that an overwhelming majority of the students at the school have not only met the standards, but exceed the expectations of the school and the state. These children will have an even greater advantage as they pursue higher education because they have been, from an early age, achieving great success and distinction among students all over the state.

Teaching
Blackstone Valley Prep also demands excellence from all of its teachers. At BVP, there is reported to be a 0% prevalence of teachers with Emergency Certification or who are not "highly qualified". This means that all of the teachers at the school have been trained in the area (elementary education). The advantage of this is that all of the teachers are well equipped to deal with classroom conflict and impart different teaching strategies to children who may need to learn in a different way than conventional learners. Both of these statistics on teacher preparedness are lower than that of the state, as is the student-teacher ratio of 1:9 compared to that of the state, 1:11.Having a lower student to teacher ratio allows the students or as BVP refers to them, "Scholars", to have a more personalized educational experience.[4]

Family,Community, and Home Life
Though a large amount of the students at Blackstone Valley Prep are from low-income backgrounds, they strive to beat statistics and reach academic excellence.This is shown through the statistics that show 64% of the students being eligible for subsidized lunches, compared to the state's average percentage of 44% and the average in Cumberland of 22%. (Rhode Island Department of Education)[5]. This means that more than half of the school's student population meet the requirements for this program by being very low-income and either at or below the poverty level. These are kids who would have been likely to become a statistic or continue inter- generational cycles of poverty, however, as the school's educational statistics also show, these kids have made adequate yearly progress, and 100% of the kindergartners are reading proficient (Blackstone Valley Prep[6].

Safe and Supportive Schools
Overall, Blackstone Valley Prep is an environment conducive to learning and preparing for college, which is their overall goal for 100% of its scholars (Blackstone Valley Prep[7] . This is supported through the fact that they have a 98% attendance rate, higher than the 95% rate of the state of Rhode Island. There is also only a 1% prevalence of chronic absenteeism and 0 instances of suspension in the 2010-2011 school year (Rhode Island Department of Education,2012)[8] . This speaks to the mission of charter schools which is that the students work hard to be there and use this opportunity wisely. Unlike Rhode Island public schools which had to deal with 2914 incidences of suspension in the same year, this charter school is able to discipline its students in such a way that incidents do not reach a point where suspension is necessary.

Blackstone Valley Prep creates an environment where their scholars are able to succeed and flourish in the classroom. They create students who take ownership over their own education and work hard to take advantage of their great opportunity. The students hardly ever miss school, and this is proven to have a correlation with their great levels of proficiency that surpass that of the state's requirements. These scholars are beating the odds that are stacked against the 64% of students who are at or below the poverty level, and countless other students who come from various disadvantaged backgrounds. Whether or not people all agree with the practices i.e. longer school days, the results cannot be disputed, schools like Blackstone Valley Prep are changing the landscape of education, giving more students opportunity to succeed.

> Blackstone Valley Prep. “Elementary School 2.” Blackstone Valley Prep. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. > Blackstone Valley Prep. “Elementary School 2.” Blackstone Valley Prep. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. > Blackstone Valley Prep. “Elementary School 2.” Blackstone Valley Prep. Web. 26 Oct. 2012.
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 * 1) ^ Rhode Island Department of Education. “InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov.” Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
 * 2) ^ Rhode Island Department of Education. “InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov.” Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
 * 3) ^ Rhode Island Department of Education. “InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov.” Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
 * 4) ^ Rhode Island Department of Education. “InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov.” Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
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 * 1) ^ Rhode Island Department of Education. “InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov.” Web. 12 Nov. 2012.