Charleston Progressive Academy (CPA) is helping all students develop the world class skills expected in the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Our school’s mission, “Building Tomorrow’s Leaders,” supports active engagement as we implement Franklin Covey’s Leader in Me (LIM) initiative. LIM provides opportunities that encourage critical thinking, collaboration, and communication as it teaches the 7 Habits of Effective People in a student-friendly language. LIM is also directly aligned with the world class skills of the South Carolina Graduate. Habits 1-3 in LIM: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, and put first things first, are the components of World Class Knowledge in the Profile of South Carolina Graduate. Habits 4 – 6: think win, win, seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw are components of the World Class Skills in the Profile. The 8th Habit, Find Your Voice, is also a component of the World Class Skills.
As we continue to address and support our learners socially and academically, we place a strong emphasis on instruction that supports the district goal of all fifth-grade students reading on grade level by 2027. Measures to attain this goal include implementing and using the reading curriculum with fidelity, completing training of LETRs for teachers, providing intervention for all students in reading and math during the schoolwide W.I.N (What I Need) schedule, and hiring a STEM/science teacher to provide fourth grade students science instruction and expose all other grades as an exploratory class. The 2024 Report Card showed the mentioned strategies were effective, as the ratings for student progress and school climate were rated Good. We also utilize components of Leader in Me, such as leadership binders, data chats, accountability partners, and data walls, to ensure that students know their data and explain their academic and social goals. Each of these components encourages students to select strategies that will be beneficial in the future as they work toward other goals. These LIM components are some of the strategies we use to monitor students’ progress toward meeting the district’s 2027 reading goal.
Our focus this year continues to be academic growth. However, we remain mindful of the importance of building positive social emotional relationships with our students. We accomplish this in our homeroom classes through Morning Meetings. Morning Meetings allow our students to build community among their classmates. Another focus is to reduce our chronic absentee rate. We plan to use our parent advocates to assist students and families who consistently appear on the chronic absentee list. We will continue to employ these strategies to help us attain the goal of all fifth graders reading on grade level by 2027.
As the first school in Charleston County to become a LIM Lighthouse School, we will continue to offer leadership opportunities that exemplify collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. This will ensure the development of world class skills to increase the readiness of students at CPA. As educators, we know nothing is possible without the support of our parents and the community. We thank you for your continued support as we move into a school year focused on continuous growth in our academia while continuing to “Build Tomorrow’s Leaders!”
Wanda Wright-Sheats, Principal
Tamashia Flowers, School Improvement Council, Chairperson
