At The Cleveland Academy of Leadership, we are ensuring that all students develop the world class skills and life and career characteristics outlined in the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by continuing our dedication to several very important initiatives. The initiatives include The Leader in Me Model, school-wide focus on Continuous Improvement, and an one to one technology initiative. We are confident that these initiatives will ensure our students’ success in the 21st century. We have also made it a very high priority to learn, improve and evaluate our initiatives through the continuous improvement process.
This year at The Cleveland Academy of Leadership, we continued our implementation of the Leader in Me model. This model is a “whole school transformational model.” It has proven to help produce higher levels of academic achievement, fewer discipline problems, and increased engagement in students, teachers, and parents. It provides students the tools needed to not only survive, but also thrive in the 21st century. Our students are developing life and career characteristics which include responsibility, leadership, adaptability, communication, creativity, problem solving, and teamwork, to name just a few. The development of these skills has already resulted in improved student achievement because students are becoming more and more prepared to fully take advantage of the curriculum provided. Cleveland is part an elite group of only 388 Leader in Me schools in the nation out of a total of 3894 to earn the “Lighthouse School” distinction.
The Continuous Improvement (C.I.) model at Cleveland has afforded teachers and students the opportunity to identify the problem of practice and develop solutions to improve. C.I. provides a collaborative effort to set goals pertaining to academics and behavior that will test projected solution. Afterwards, the students are able to assist their teacher with tracking the data and analyzing the results to determine if the success criteria was met as a collective group. Moreover, students are able to gain access to the ability to become accountable to the goals being set, demonstrate a willingness to collaborative, and develop the skill adapting to an efficient strategy.
Spartanburg District 7 and The Cleveland Academy also believes the use of technology can greatly support learning and instruction in our classrooms. In conjunction with our outstanding teachers, our 1:1 initiative (one device for every child) aims to create a truly student-centered, 21st century learning environment. All our students in grades K and 1 are issued I Pads, and students in grades 2 though 5 have MacBook Air computers. As a result, they are becoming more and more responsible for their own learning, they are gaining a more global perspective as they travel the world through the use of technology and they are developing world class skills as they solve problems, and create content .
Additionally, The Cleveland Academy of Leadership continues a rich and diverse relationship with many community organizations which provides opportunities for our students including field experiences, and resources our students would not otherwise have access to. These partnerships offer students the chance to see and participate in “leadership in action” including the renaming of a local waterway as part of the Northside Redevelopment Initiative.
Marquice Clark, Principal
Horace Wilson, SIC Chairperson
