Rocketship Education Launches Students into Success

Teachers play an essential role in the formation of the minds and characters of their students as they assume the legal responsibility of parental status. Indeed, teachers have had strong influences upon students. For it is not uncommon for former students in their speeches and conversations to allude to the encouragement and support given them by teachers who assisted in their learning and motivated them to reach goals beyond their initial expectations.

From those teachers who have entered the field after having worked in the public sector, students receive the added benefit of their acquired worldly wisdom and experience. Often these teachers can exemplify concepts in a concrete manner that is easily understood. And, because these mid-career changers who have become teachers have done so out of a strong desire to educate children, students sense the sincerity of their efforts. As a consequence, many students respond positively to these teachers with eagerness to learn from them. Later, as adults, these students remember not only the academic concepts that these caring teachers taught them, but they also recall the added lessons about life.

Unfortunately, there are those who are disadvantaged when it comes to receiving an education because they live in an area where devoted teachers and resources are in short supply in the public schools. Now, however, there are public charter schools such as those of Rocketship Education that can provide these urban students with the essential early education that they need. Rocketship Public Schools serves kindergarten through fifth grade and is a non-profit charter school network that is centered in Redwood, California. Rocketship Education was founded by Preston Smith and John Danner in 2006. The following year, their first public charter school opened in San Jose, California, the largest city in the northern part of the state. During that first school year, this charter school earned praise as “an innovative alternative for low-income students” after the scores of Rocketship’s students on California’s state assessment were as high as those of students in the prestigious Palo Alto School District. Following this success, Rocketship Education opened six more public charter schools near San Jose, a large city that has canneries, factories, and agricultural areas nearby. In 2013, Rocketship expanded and opened a public charter school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; then, in 2014, Rocketship began a charter school in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2016, again with the financial assistance of Andre Agassi’s Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund which had funded previous schools, another Rocketship school, named Rise Academy, was opened in Ward 8 of Washington, D.C.

To lower the achievement gap for its young students, who come from low-income families, Rocketship Public Schools, as they are now called, uses a variety of approaches to learning. There is individualized online learning along with traditional classroom teaching and tutoring with small groups. Teachers work with students to attain the expectations of parents that their children will be, among other commendable traits, “focused,” “opened up socially,” “independent,” “able to express her(him)self,” and “a courageous thinker.”

Sources:

https://www.educationpioneers.org/where-we-work/partners/rocketship-education

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketship_Education

http://www.rocketshipschools.org/rocketship-legacy-prep-what-will-your-legacy-be/ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rocketship-education#/entity