Category: Annual Report

I am pleased to share with you our annual report for the 2013-2014 school year. In our second year of operation we expanded our program to serve 162 scholars in grades five and six. 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 2014 MCAS 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 two consecutive years of quality curriculum and instruction at Veritas Prep, more than 70% of our scholars are scoring proficient or advanced in all subjects. The vast majority of these children came to us several grade levels behind.

As we move forward in our third year of operation, now serving 243 scholars across three grade levels, we continue to tackle our biggest challenge: finding and developing talented teachers with the will to do what it takes to put our scholars on a path to college. This year, we will begin growing teachers as leaders to build more organizational capacity around teacher development. 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 know we can help transform public education in the city of Springfield.

Sincerely,
Rachel Romano Executive Director

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

In our fourth year of operation, the 2015-2016 school year, we reached our capacity serving more than 300 scholars in grades 5-8 and we graduated our inaugural class, the college class of 2024. These scholars made staggering gains in their time at Veritas Prep and we sent them off fully prepared for the rigor and expectations of high school as they charge on toward college. Our first graduates leave a legacy of hard work and achievement which sets the bar high for each class that follows.

At Veritas Prep, we strive to be a proof point for Springfield and to reset the bar for all Springfield students. To that end, we opted to take the state assessments online last year because we want ourselves and our scholars to begin preparing for what will soon become the norm. We learned a lot from the experience of administering an online assessment across the school and are learning a lot from the performance of our scholars. The “technology enhanced items” were technically challenging for our scholars, but they also demanded our scholars to think and show their understanding in unique ways. We will use all of this data to inform programmatic changes that will keep us ahead of the curve and our scholars competitive with their peers. As we compare the performance of our scholars to their peers in the district, it’s worth noting that while the standards assessed were the same, the test was different as there was no other Springfield school that took the assessment online.
As this report illustrates, our scholars are outperforming their peers 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.

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

I am pleased to share with you our annual report for the 2016-17 school year. In our fifth year of operation we graduated our second class, the Veritas Prep Class of 2017 and the college class of 2025. These scholars made staggering gains in their time at Veritas Prep and we sent them off fully prepared for the rigor and expectations of high school as they charge on towards college. The class of 2017 had higher average scaled scores and higher median Student Growth Percentile than all other 8th grade classes in Springfield, Holyoke and nearby charters. The vast majority of these children came to us several grade levels behind. These young scholars are proof that quality education can change the trajectory of a child’s life and put them on a path to academic and career success.

At Veritas Prep we hold every scholar to high expectations and push them to reach their fullest potential. We strive to be a proof point for Springfield and to reset the bar for all Springfield students. Veritas Prep ranked second in the Commonwealth last year for Math student growth percentiles (SGP) and fifth for English Language Arts. The growth percentiles are important because they don’t just show our students’ absolute performance, but rather how much they’ve learned in comparison to their academic peers across the state. This shows the value we added for our scholars in just one year. The overall percent of Veritas scholars scoring “proficient or above” in all three subjects was higher than the statewide averages across grades 5-8.

These results show the power of one team with a common mission, they are a testament to the hard work of our team; teachers, staff, our scholars and their families. We are all committed to and succeeding at achieving our mission to prepare our scholars to compete, achieve, and succeed in high school, college and beyond. 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 will keep pushing ourselves to prove what is possible for Springfield scholars as we continue to defy the odds and prove what is possible when talented people join together around a critical mission.

We couldn’t do this work without your support! With your help, we will continue to transform public education in the city of Springfield.

Sincerely,
Rachel Romano Executive Director

Veritas Prep is successful both because of how deeply we care about each other and also how much we expect from one another. Our team is dedicated to getting it right for our scholars. Not only do our scholars achieve at high levels, but in their four years with us, they grow into incredible young men and women who will make great contributions to our world. We’ve learned as much from them over the years as they have from us. Together, our story is one of students, teachers, leaders, families, and community members supporting each other to raise the bar for ourselves, our scholars and the world around us.

Our scholars in Springfield had another stellar year of learning and achievement, and Veritas Prep expanded our impact to Holyoke. In partnership with the Holyoke Public Schools we launched a new middle school this fall that will serve students in grades 5-8. We will use the successful practices of Veritas Prep Charter School to provide children in Holyoke with a world class education. The opportunity to serve more students in our region is the result of years of hard work by our tenacious Springfield team who has proven that even in our most struggling communities, students can and will achieve at high levels. We remain driven to put every scholar we serve on a path to college and future success. We will keep pushing ourselves to defy the odds and prove what is possible for our scholars in Springfield, and now, in Holyoke.

We couldn’t do this work without your support! With this report, we invite you to take a closer look into some of our stories and accomplishments from 2018.

Sincerely,
Rachel Romano Executive Director

Once again Veritas Prep Charter School scholars realized the ideal: high growth and high achievement. Our students are once again proving what is possible with hard work and determination. We are so pleased to have expanded our impact last year to serve scholars at the new Veritas Prep Holyoke, a Holyoke Public School, that serves scholars from South Holyoke by assigned enrollment. We are serving the highest needs population in Holyoke, and in our first year of operation scholars at VPH had the second highest growth in the city. Our scholars in Holyoke are now back on a track to academic and life success. The opportunity to serve more students in our region is the result of years of hard work by our tenacious Springfield team who has proven that even in our most struggling communities, students can and will achieve at high levels.

Veritas Prep is successful both because of how deeply we care about each other and also how much we expect from one another. Our team is dedicated to getting it right for our scholars. In their four years with us, our scholars not only achieve at high levels but also grow into incredible young men and women who will make great contributions to our world. We’ve learned as much from them over the years as they have from us. Together, our story is one of students, teachers, leaders, families, and community members supporting each other to raise the bar for ourselves, our scholars, and the world around us.

As we look to the future we are excited about the possibility of expanding our program at Veritas Prep Charter School to serve our Springfield scholars through their high school graduation. Pending approval from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, we will launch a new and innovative high school in school year 2021-2022. We couldn’t do this work without your support! With this report, we invite you to take a closer look into some of our stories and accomplishments from the 2018-2019 school year.

Warmly,
Rachel Romano