I am pleased to share with you our annual report for the 2014-2015 school year. In our third year of operation we expanded our program to serve more than 240 scholars in grades five through seven. Additionally, we hired 15 teachers to join our team and began the hard work of developing them into extraordinary teachers who drive dramatic gains in student achievement.
Research has shown that the quality of a child’s classroom teacher is the biggest predictor of a child’s academic success. We agree! Veritas Prep scholars’ results on the 2015 PARCC tests prove that great teaching can change the trajectory of a child’s life and put them back on a path to academic success. With three consecutive years of quality curriculum and instruction at Veritas Prep, our scholars are outperforming state proficiency averages by a wide margin and firmly on a path to college. The vast majority of these children came to us several grade levels behind. We are so proud to be realizing our mission and we remain driven to put every scholar we serve on a path to college and future success. We’ve reset the bar for Springfield’s middle schools and we will keep pushing ourselves to prove what is possible for Springfield scholars.
As we move forward in our fourth year of operation, now serving more than 300 scholars across four grade levels, we continue to tackle our biggest challenge: finding and developing talented teachers and leaders to continue to serve our scholars and grow our program. We will continue to keep teacher recruitment and retention as a top priority so that we can continue to defy the odds and prove what is possible when talented people join together around a critical mission.
Thank you for your support and interest in Veritas Prep. With your help, we will continue to transform public education in the city of Springfield.
Sincerely,
Rachel Romano Executive Director