Academic Model
GEO Academies schools utilize a variety of cutting-edge and proven methods to increase our students’ academic success. We aim to prepare each child to not only graduate from high school, but also ready to enter into college and earn a degree.
The GEO Academic Model Rests on Five Pillars
Our College Immersion Program is a hyper-personalized dual enrollment program where high school students take college classes on the college campus of their choice beginning as early as the ninth grade. GEO pays for everything and provides the academic, social and emotional supports so that kids learn real life skills and grow the confidence necessary to earn poverty busting degrees before they graduate from high school.
We use Blended Learning, an approach that combines online and in-class learning for differentiated instruction. Classrooms are divided into three zones: direct, teacher-led instruction, independent learning and practice, and teacher-assisted small group instruction. This blended learning approach honors and facilitates relationships between teachers / students and students / students, while providing space to build independence and self-reliance, qualities that are essential in college and career. Teachers are able to structure their classrooms for students to catch up, keep up, and move up, depending on their current level of performance.
GEO Academies are TAP schools. We emphasize Strategic Human Capital Management because we understand that teacher effectiveness is the largest in-school factor affecting student outcomes. The TAP System for Teacher and Student Advancement provides teachers with powerful opportunities for career advancement, ongoing professional development, a fair evaluation system, and performance-based compensation.
Our teachers receive training in Teach Like a Champion to develop an Effective Instructional Practice so that they are successful in the classroom. The program is based on the book by Doug Lemov and his observations of top teachers and their successful classroom practices in high-need schools.
GEO uses Evidence-based Curricula including Core Knowledge and Great Minds to provide a rich classical liberal arts education to its students. Core Knowledge, created by E.D. Hirsch, is based on the idea that “for the sake of academic excellence, greater equity, and higher literacy, elementary and middle schools need to teach a coherent, cumulative, and content-specific core curriculum.” GEO Academies also use Eureka Math as its math school program. Eureka Math is a complete PreK-12 math curriculum that sequences math into logical progressions. It is a program that connects math to the real-world and helps students develop confidence in their math skills.