Higher Achievement

Higher Achievement is an intensive summer and after-school program for students in grades 5-8 in under-resourced schools. Students enter during the summer before fifth or sixth grade and commit to attending through eighth grade. The program offers more than 500 hours of academic enrichment annually through Achievement Centers hosted in select middle schools. During the school year, the Afterschool Academy operates three days a week (3:30-7:30 p.m.) for 25 weeks, providing homework help/study hall, dinner, enrichment activities, and 75-minute English Language Arts (ELA) or math lessons delivered by trained volunteer mentors to small groups of 3-4 scholars. The six-week Summer Academy offers eight-hour days with morning academic instruction in ELA, math, science, and sometimes social studies delivered by certified or student teachers, followed by afternoon enrichment electives and field trips. The program is overseen by a full-time center director and assistant director at each center. Higher Achievement uses detailed, scripted lesson plans aligned with Common Core standards and focuses on four social justice themes: freedom, voice, solidarity, and justice.