Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Candace Jones.
Hi Dr. Jones, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I am a parent of school-aged children and a 27-year veteran educator with expertise in educational leadership, curriculum, instruction, and emotional wellness. Since 1996, my passion and delight have been to build people and show them they can do what they never thought they could. In 2010, I opened a tutoring firm to support individuals in academics and emotional health. Since then, the tutoring company has expanded exponentially.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
In the wake of COVID-19, the failure of our public education system has been exposed. It was already apparent in the workforce and college programs that high school graduates were inadequately prepared to provide effective contributions to society.
Our public education system is rooted in the desire to make money from federal sources and initiatives designed to give the low-income, low-performing student population a boost in services that would help them achieve academic success. The money is steadily streaming in but adequate academic progress remains elusive.
Expanded Educational Services desires to bring equity and equality to those left behind in the bureaucratic red tape of the public school system. EES recognizes education has become more political and less academic. EES is going to return equity and equality to the educatory process by being student-centered and vertically aligning the curriculum.
Our children deserve better. We are an intelligent country educationally speaking, we know how to get academic results. Private school education is proof that children in this country can and do succeed. Public school students can do so as well. A new era of public school education must now begin.
Once upon a time, education was simple. It was basic and not convoluted. Children sat in a one-room schoolhouse and they achieved. They advanced in higher levels of learning as their teacher knew them as individuals and ensured that they received what they needed academically. They were not compared to and forced to compete with their peers across the state and nation.
The focus was on whether or not they were working to the height of their own potential. That was then. It is time to revisit and champion the strategies of old. They were effective. We now introduce to you, EES Success Academy, for that time has come again!
Success Academy is a hybrid educational concept with an academic year comprising three trimesters in operation four days per week (Monday through Thursday). Families complete assignments at home on Fridays.
Implementation Plan
Success Academy Mission
A new school with an old concept: education simplified with a back-to-the-basics approach where students will work to the height of their own potential and find success in accomplishing their own academic and social-emotional goals.
This hybrid educational concept will function as a school run by the educatory firm, Expanded Educational Services, under the auspices of homeschooling. We have secured ample space to house and have begun running the school since February 2021.
The Anatomy of Success Academy = The Success Model & Method
Certain grade levels are taught together based on the foundational skills that older students lack. The younger benefit from the older as peer mentors, tutors, and the opportunity to gain higher level vocabulary skills early on. The four-hour day allows for zero downtime/wasted time, more family time, and more time for developing passions/talents, i.e. sports, etc.
If students are behind academically they will make progress within 3 months due to the intensive Zero Barriers to Success strategy we have created. If students are able to complete their grade level goals before the end of the year, they will begin working on the next grade level goals. It is possible that some students will graduate before age 18.
High schoolers will be dually enrolled at a partner college to earn an associate’s degree at the same time they graduate from high school. Those more suited for the vocational track will be dually enrolled in licensure programs such as but not limited to contractors, electricians, plumbing, barbering, cosmetology, etc. – with a goal of completing licensure at or before high school graduation.
All students are required to start and run their own business as part of their schooling program. They will be taught the tenets of entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, advertising, and business skills as part of the curriculum. The purpose is to graduate students who are ready to live on their own, care for themselves financially, and make notable contributions to their community by establishing jobs for their community.
Students will engage in the political horizon of the city by establishing and running a Youth City Council that will operate alongside the city of Memphis council. The purpose is to expose students to the inner workings of politics city government and leadership in an effort to increase understanding that what you put in is what you can expect to get out of a process. This whole process is what we call BLOOM – a flourishing, healthy condition.
Goals
Success Academy’s goal is to exist as an alternative for those for whom, traditional education is not the best fit regardless of income or ability to pay. Our strategy is to produce and graduate students who are proficient in the core subjects, particularly reading and math with a proficiency level of 80% or better. We hope to accomplish this over the next five years.
While our services are available to everyone, the group that we seek to serve is our Memphis inner-city students, who due to income restraints, utilize the public school system, but desire an alternative educational experience for their children – one where their children can not only feel successful but truly be successful.
The academic needs of our target group are disheartening. In 2018, less than 30% of Shelby County Schools third – eighth graders scored proficient in English and Language Arts and less than 23% scored proficient in math. Most high schoolers who took the ACT scored below 19. Since then, those numbers have further plummeted.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Expanded Educational Services?
Everything I do in education is a risk because it breaks away from the norm in order to net positive results for students and families.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk-taking.
Taking risks are a necessary part of pioneering innovation. Someone has to jump out and do it first; pave the way for others to follow. It is past time to reimagine and refocus K12 education in this country. Someone has to do it. I don’t mind that it’s me. I’m happy to take risks if it will ensure a better quality of education for our young people.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.Sablooms.Org
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC_btI4dr3hLi1GVhCvi-Taw
- Other: Www.Expandededucationalservices.Com
Image Credits
LaBarre Images
