The Institute for Academic Achievement strives to be a highly visible school known for its academically challenging curriculum and innovative learning modalities. We endeavor to be a leader in matching curriculum to student ability. We will actively promote self efficacy and encourage students to think critically, produce creative products, develop special talents, and embrace the difficult.
We plan a rigorous academic program. For portions of the Reading and Language Arts, and Social Studies and Science, the William and Mary Curriculum will be used. We will use Royal Firework’s Press curriculum for Language Arts, written by Michael Clay Thompson. For math, the National Gifted Research Center’s M-Cubed curriculum will be used, along with the National Council of Mathematics Teachers math series . These programs of study have been applied to all scenarios, including students in inner city, urban schools with a high percentage of low socio-economic, minority students. Our intent is to use high quality curriculum and innovative teaching methods to allow children to grow intellectually in way that they’ve not had the opportunity to do before.
It is our commitment to staff the school with creative and original teachers who will deliver lessons in all curricular areas that engage students and invite them to research, experiment, design and create. Science, Math and Technology will be emphasized, with the eventual addition of a dual language study opportunity.
It is our belief that each child has an inherent curiosity and love of learning; and that each child has a unique intelligence, level of capability, and learning style. With this in mind, we will motivate our students and expect them to strive toward their highest levels of capability while addressing their individual learning styles, thus fostering within them a life-long love of learning.
We, as educators, will create a partnership among student-teacher-parent that will provide our youth with the support necessary to reach their highest potential- intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically. It is a team effort!
An example of one of the many positive educational opportunities offered at the Elko Institute of Academic Achievement is the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM). Through this program, students identify an area of interest and are matched with a mentor from the community to help them understand more about the subject. After 10 year old Jacob Jueschke expressed an interest in atomic structure, he was matched with a mentor. His mentor helped him develop and expand his thoughts on the subject matter, create a project, define a goal, and set-up a presentation to showcase his new knowledge. Through SEM, Jueschke gained the confidence to present his project to Dr. David Freistroffer, Professor of Life Sciences at Great Basin College. Jueschke constructed water and soap molecules, described polar attributes of both, and demonstrated how each type of molecule reacts when soap penetrates the surface of water. Following the presentation, Jueschke stated that the experience was, “The most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life!”