In The News

SEL, Mentoring, Career Prep: Schools That Deliver What Parents Say They Want

The 74 highlights the innovative work at Blackstone Academy Charter School focused on student relationships and wellness.

At Blackstone Academy, a public charter school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the same students meet daily with the same adult leader for multiple years, providing an opportunity to form deeper relationships than are often possible in conventional schools.

Many other Canopy schools integrate social and emotional learning throughout the academic curriculum. They offer mental health supports, train adults to recognize and respond to students who are impacted by traumatic stress, and pair students with an adult in school for regular individualized mentoring.

We are public schools

Our 20 schools serve the public, are free and open to the public, funded by the public and held accountable to the public. We enroll students through a fair and transparent lottery system, which is open to all students, including many from low income, diverse communities.

We collaborate

Whether we’re working with traditional public school leaders or a team of teachers is working collaboratively within their own department, we are always seeking new ways to improve student achievement. We work closely with families and community partners, providing invaluable educational experiences for students that don’t end once students leave their classrooms. We have flexibility around how we spend our resources and run our programs, helping us explore best practices and share them with both charter and traditional public schools.

We succeed

We teach differently because we know that students learn differently. We find innovative approaches to each lesson and we don’t stop until we know what works. We are striving every day to close the achievement gap in our public schools and have shown strong results on state testing and other measures of success.