Summit Academy of Greater Louisville Inc

Too often, children are asked to adapt to school policies, procedures, and programs rather than the school making adjustments to meet the unique needs of the learners. As a result, many families and students find themselves frustrated by academic programming that does not work for them. Summit Academy of Greater Louisville is an independent, non-profit school that helps families and students stop feeling frustrated. Our students are pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and they love going to school here.

Summit provides a place where each child’s learning challenges are understood and met using a whole child approach; a place where we celebrate and develop a child’s strengths, as well as addressing their area of difficulty. It’s a safe place where a child is treated and educated as an individual – in an atmosphere of caring and respect that allows our students to succeed.

Philosophy

We believe:

• Every child should feel valued and necessary.
• Every child is unique and has unique strengths and weaknesses.
• Children deserve to be taught in a way that allows them to be successful.
• Children need individual attention from educators in order to properly assess and address their needs.
• Children must have the earliest possible intervention to mitigate the effects of learning differences on their academic success and emotional well-being.
• Children need an emotionally safe environment in order to learn.
• Children need a school that addresses their social, emotional, physical and academic needs.
• Children need a joint cooperative commitment between family and school in order to be successful.
• Children benefit from the use of technology as an instructional tool.

 

Because this is our philosophy:

• Children are assessed on an on-going basis in order to guide instruction and monitor progress. 
• Children are taught with the most adaptive, best-practice teaching strategies in order to meet the students’ changing needs.
• Children are taught organizational and compensatory skills as a regular part of the daily curriculum.
• Children will have a very low student/teacher ratio in every class.
• Children ages three, four, and five have a specialized Pre-K and Kindergarten program to provide early intervention for learning differences.
• Children are educated in an atmosphere of mutual respect, in a structured, secure environment.
• Children enjoy a complete curriculum that includes art, music, computer instruction, library science, recess, and physical education.
• Children have extra-curricular activities that correspond to their current interests and abilities.
• Childrens’ parents and teachers communicate with each other on a regular basis.
• Children are introduced to, and use, technology as part of the instructional process.

 

What makes us different?

Summit Academy was designed specifically to meet the needs of the students, rather than insisting that the students adhere to a predetermined program that doesn’t work for them.

Here’s how we’re different:

We have very small classes. Homeroom classes for younger grades are usually no more than ten students; twelve in a class for older students.  Math and literacy classes are broken out into even smaller groups, and can be as small as two students, depending on the needs of the child.

Homogeneous class groupings.  We very deliberately and carefully create classrooms of students that have similar issues, so they can be taught using particular methods and strategies.

We do mastery teaching.  That means that students do not move on to the next concept until the current one is thoroughly understood.

We teach students math and literacy at their achievement level, not their grade level.  That means that a 4th grader who excels at math but not literacy may be in a ’6th grade’ math class, and a ’3rd grade’ literacy class.  This allows children to be challenged, but not frustrated.

We have a unique school day.  We teach math and literacy skills in the morning, school-wide.  This allows students to move forward at their own pace, and if they have achieved their grade level in their deficit subject, they will move to a higher level class.