Capitol Learning Academy

We provide a learning model that is scalable and addresses a need to better prepare students for their futures. We need to eliminate provide exposure to different perspectives and backgrounds, and teach our students about the valuable resources available to them both in and out of school in our surrounding communities. Our mission is to prepare and teach students to effectively utilize resources, tools, and relationships in order to succeed as world citizens in an unpredictable future. We will achieve this with a progressive co-learning environment that utilizes the surrounding community to provide the most relevant and realistic learning experiences for our students every day. As a school, we will set the standard for progressive education, not just in D.C., but worldwide. We will be a model of innovative learning practices and intentional diversity. Our graduates will make a difference in their communities in ways we can’t even imagine.

More than 60 years after Brown V. Board, American schools remain segregated -- both racially and economically. Academic outcomes are divided along lines of race and class. Even when students have been academically prepared for college, too many young people lack the “soft skills” and self-direction they need to succeed in higher education and the workforce. Schools have taught them to follow rules at the cost of their own independence. The creativity and agency of students and educators alike are stifled in the traditional public school system. Even the most innovative teachers may find their best ideas denied by a system overwhelmed by the pressures of standardized testing. We need to be preparing students for jobs in the fast-growing tech sector and for fields, we can’t even imagine yet. But schools today aren’t helping children grow to be adaptable or to thrive in unpredictable situations. Most private schools are out of the financial reach of many low-and-middle income families. This means that some of the strongest schools in the country are restricted to the wealthiest families, and cycles of inequality persist.

Capitol Learning Academy solves two large problems currently facing the nation, and specifically Washington, DC: diversity (specifically socioeconomic diversity within private school communities) and inadequate instruction towards the technologically ever-changing unknown futures for today’s students. The school aims to be both academically excellent and socioeconomically diverse.

Even with as general of an advertisement as “new model” and “future-focused” school, for demand-testing events, there were 4 or more families that showed up to each event, proving that there was some level of interest in new and different approaches for their children. When I went deeper and advertised more specifically for workshops that would help children develop some valuable technological skills (to work with robots, understand basic coding, and apply this to their own lives) my workshop numbers skyrocketed and there were 18+ families at each event. In collecting data from all of the families that attended workshops, I was able to see that they were traveling from Virginia, Maryland and DC, to come to Southeast for the learning experiences that they valued, proving that it was not the quadrant of DC that determined if they’d sign up for the school, but the quality and content of what the school was offering.

Education in the United States is in a state of stagnation. While some changes and legislation have been applied over the past decade, the underlying format of the majority of schools remains the same as it has been for well over a century. With the same basic subject areas, grade-levels and school designs, it is no wonder that change does not make any substantial difference to educational success.  We need to look at education as an opportunity to prepare our young people for their future, not for our own ‘here and now,’ and not based on our own comfort of ‘what school is.’ Technology is changing at an exponential rate, as are the types of jobs available, location of one’s workplace and methods of collaboration with colleagues around the world. Teaching our students to learn in isolated subject areas, at set times in their day, while separated into a classroom that is organized by age and developmental estimates, rather than by interest, ability and potential for teaching and learning with others, does not reflect the workplace that they will enter as adults. Students must learn to be flexible with their mindsets and time management, they need to work with and from others’ ideas, they will require a level of resourcefulness, via people, tools, and knowledge acquired and overall, they will need to feel comfortable adapting to constant change. This is the future we must prepare them for, and we can only begin to do so if their learning environment mirrors this. 

Capitol Learning Academy will be innovative and a complete departure from traditional education. We will maintain foundational learning in reading, writing and mathematics so that students can go on to work independently and in groups to extend this learning and deepen it. Students will work in open learning environments, much like a co-working space, without defined grade-levels and classrooms. Students will work with all learning facilitators (teachers) in different capacities throughout their days, but have one facilitator who is dedicated to their goal-setting and progress monitoring over the entire school year. We will not have a standard school day schedule, rather students will work on their projects and in their foundational skills as they need or feel ready, and they will learn to manage their time and objectives in order to ensure that progress is made in each learning area/subject and for each weekly goal after each week.

Capitol Learning Academy uses research and experience to innovate from an obvious truth: children have boundless curiosity and a deep eagerness to explore. We harness the natural creativity of young people and use it to provide the strongest possible learning experience and prepare them for an ever-changing future. Traditional schools work for many children, but as they stand today, they are producing striking disparities in outcomes along lines of race and class. They are also not preparing children for an increasingly technologized, unpredictable future. We iterated from time-tested models like Montessori schools, but we felt the traditional model needed a reboot--so we picked and chose the aspects of both traditional, progressive, American and international education that we felt worked best.

CLA graduates will be genuinely comfortable with new and unknown technologies. They’ll be able to seamlessly adapt to different brands, makes, and models of technology, making the most of all available resources. They will maximize the potential of their mental and physical tools to achieve success. As such, we partner with local and global technology companies to let the students test and utilize current and emerging technologies in their research and design work. As the consumers, we will allow the students to provide feedback directly to developers, and see themselves as valuable to the process. Current technologies we use are: laptops, tablets, websites (individualized learning module sites), apps, coding robots, VR goggles, and new apps such as a Google AI Reading Assistant. 

This school will provide a small but realistic insight into what a true departure from traditional education, with an embracing of technology, can achieve for students regardless of neighborhood, economic status, number of parents at home, etc. Our indexed tuition allows for us to truly be a community that represents our surrounding city, and acts as a representative sample of students that would be enrolled in local public schools. Thus, we will be able to more easily apply the success of our model into a larger public system by scaling what we learn from our own population. Furthermore, by utilizing our community resources (arts and music workshop, local fitness studios for PE, public library, local park for recess), we will become a known and supported entity within our community and thereby will find continued buy-in as we grow and learn, and the students will in turn recognize their value and contributions to the community that they are living in. 

Our location continues in this vein- with our chosen location situated in a truly accessible area of the city. We are 4 blocks from a main metro station, 1 block from a bus stop (that is a free ride for children), 2 blocks from the main highway, and in a residential and walkable section of the city. Our street is mainly restaurants and venues that operate in the afternoons and evenings, so traffic is light during our main pickup and drop off times, allowing for easy parking and walking. 

Currently we serve 7 students directly, with 16 adults involved and more than 20 community members supporting. 

In one year, we will double all of these numbers and serve up to 15 students, 35-40 adults and hopefully 50+ community members. 

In five years, we will have 45-50 students, therewith nearly 100 adults, and our goal will be to have a community impact and outreach of 200+ people.

Over the next year, the ultimate goal is to successfully implement the vision of this school model, gain local recognition, and have more families and community members begin to approach us for the opportunity to join our CLA community. We plan to become a "household name" within Washington, DC, and to be welcomed to museums, and community spaces where our students set a valuable example of their inclusive spirit, adaptable minds, and ability to respectfully converse with those of differing perspectives.

In five years' time, this would all exponentially grow. We would have a high level of demand from DC, Maryland and Virginia based families, and from community members wanting to be involved with our school program. We would be a destination in DC for education innovators, and would gain wider attention along the east coast, and perhaps even further across the US. With this, we would begin to discuss the scalability and replication of our model to other diverse populations. 

Barriers that currently exist are the emotional and traditional mindset of many adults. School is a nostalgic topic for many, and recognizing the need for a complete departure can cause sadness, anger and fear of change, and thus shut down many conversations in terms of policy changes, fundraising, and also for admissions considerations for their own children. Changing that lens from looking at the departure from their own memory versus this being an opportunity for the children, is a difficult one to navigate. 

Additionally, in order to maintain an indexed tuition that keeps us affordable and an accessible option to most DC area families brings with it an intense need to fundraise, especially in the first 7 years of the school's naissance. Constant fundraising is a time consuming task, especially prior to the data being present to show how well the model actually works. 

In order to change the lens from which conversations with funders, policy makers and prospective families takes place, I will continue to work on adjusting my own language and approach according to each individual. It is important to acknowledge their experience, memories, and successes, and move from this perspective into really strong points of why a new and different model is the stronger option for today's students. Developing these strong talking points, especially with supporting data, will be key to all conversations. 

In terms of fundraising, the barrier will not disappear or decrease in the early years. Even when we are at full capacity, as a nonprofit, the need to fundraise will always exist, albeit to a lesser degree. This barrier will be easier to navigate with continued fundraising coaching, exposure to foundations and philanthropic individuals who have interests in education innovation, and the ability to hire and develop a team to help lessen the tasks on the individual founder. 

Two full time staff: Founder/Director and Learning Facilitator. 

Additionally, we have seven Board Members, non-compensated.

Alexandra is keenly aware of the disparities in education--both globally, nationally, and at home in DC. She also developed the firm belief that parents shouldn’t have to settle when it came to their children’s education, no matter where they lived or how much money they made. 

She decided to launch a school that fulfilled both visions--a place where student’s agency and exploration came first, and where an intentionally diverse student body grew and learned together. Alexandra did extensive research as to different learning models and school designs. She read books and articles, visited schools and talked with experts. Eventually, with the support of the 4.0 Schools Tiny Fellowship and the input of trusted advisors and experienced educators, Capitol Learning Academy was born.

Cha'ron has experienced teaching from a classroom teaching, aftercare, and curriculum assessing viewpoint. She has also homeschooled her own children, ages 5-14 and seen the value of multi-age, student-driven education firsthand. She is dedicated to finding the websites, apps, and technologies that best suit each student's needs and interests, and to creating a curriculum that utilizes the richness of our community resources. 

Our current partnerships are with:

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop- our students walk to their building and work with their artists three times per week for art and music lessons. In doing so, we support their nonprofit mission and efforts.

Super Soccer Stars- our students meet their soccer coach twice per week at a local public park to have our PE lessons.

Having a diverse student body is central to the well-rounded, real-world education that I would like provided at Capitol Learning Academy. I believe that students learn best from their interactions with one-another, an experience that is enhanced when different perspectives and experiences are authentically woven into the day's learning, rather than being provided via video, text, or a teacher.  Thus, it is essential that my private school implements a financial model that allows for families of all wealth levels to consider the school for its academic program, without being deterred by tuition amounts. A future-focused, student-centered, progressive model should be accessible to all students, regardless of their wealth, so that we can give them all as equitable a chance as possible towards success in their futures.

Tuition will range between $2,000 and $20,000 per family, per year. Several factors are considered in determining the amount per family that applies to CLA, which can include the number of children attending CLA, other liabilities and assets, significant medical costs, etc. Once we are firmly up and running (year 3), we will begin to look to balance admissions across our tuition range, so we can average the amount per student for our budget. 

Our estimates show that when we begin to reach a third of our total capacity (45-50 students), we will bring in enough revenue from tuition (averaging $11,000 per student over our indexed tuition) to cover 95% of our operating budget with tuition alone. Prior to this, we will work to gain long-term and sustained donations/grants, multi-year donations, and to fundraise more than needed each year, so that we can begin to accrue savings early on. I

Solve will help us to gain recognition and support of our technology-forward model and solution to education. It will also provide us with a broader community to whom we might connect for technologies to test with our student population. Solve will also help us to begin to imagine how to scale our model to a public option. 

This prize will help our team to partner with institutions in order to properly research student engagement and achievement with our model. We will be able to create more partnerships with community organizations with this prize money helping us to create these contracts and provide support in-turn for their valuable work. Our students will be able to spend a large portion of each of their school days in the community, learning from those around them, and finding their own roles therein. By helping our students to appreciate and see themselves within their communities, both in and outside of school time, we will create long-lasting community members who are committed to their city and improvements to keep resources available for the future. 

This prize will help our team to partner with institutions in order to properly research student engagement and achievement with our model. We will be able to create more partnerships with community organizations with this prize money helping us to create these contracts and provide support in-turn for their valuable work. Our students will be able to spend a large portion of each of their school days in the community, learning from those around them, and finding their own roles therein. By helping our students to appreciate and see themselves within their communities, both in and outside of school time, we will create long-lasting community members who are committed to their city and improvements to keep resources available for the future.