Salida Del Sol Academy has reached a new milestone on its Colorado Department of Education testing, with more than 54% of students scoring proficient or above on the English Language Arts portion of the test.
Student performance has steadily improved. In the first year of testing in 2016, only 29% of students scored proficient or above, placing the school on a turnaround plan.
“Us reaching this has been a combination of all the right things,” Dr. Ronna Sanchez, President of the Salida Del Sol Foundation, said. “The support we’ve received, administration, teachers, students and parents all working hard. It all came together.”
The financial support came by way of a $101,000 grant from The Weld Trust to provide reading tools such as an online vocabulary platform and the purchase of textbooks. Previously, students only had access to digital textbooks.
“It definitely made a huge difference,” Dr. Sanchez said. “The Weld Trust has been such a huge support to us.”
The online vocabulary platform’s unique approach combines songs, reading passages and exercises to create a multisensory learning environment. The funding directly impacted 425 students.
“It’s so exciting to see this school thriving,” said Chief Executive Officer for The Weld Trust, Jeff Carlson. “The longer children struggle with reading and comprehension, the further behind their peers they become, which for some leads to dropping out of school and a life of continued struggle.”
While celebrating this achievement, Dr. Sanchez is already looking ahead to what students can accomplish next.
“Everything revolves around language – it helps in all other areas of study,” she said. “We think it’s great we hit 54% but there is a lot further we can reach. Our kids have really improved quite a bit.”
To learn more about Salida Del Sol Academy, click here.