Fourteen Schools Receive EL Education Credentialing Honor

NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2015 -- EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning), a leading K-12 non-profit focused on raising the bar on student achievement, has announced that 14 additional schools in its national network have been named EL Education Credentialed Schools.

"These schools are proof that there doesn't have to be a trade-off between rigor and joy in teaching and learning. Demonstrating powerful results in EL Education's three dimensions of achievement, they are focused on developing students' character and their ability to solve real-world problems in addition to traditional measures," said Mark Conrad, Chief Schools Officer at EL Education.

Redefining how performance is measured in K-12 education, EL Education last year launched a new benchmarking process for schools in its network – encompassing measurements around character development and quality of student work on top of test results. EL Education defines achievement as mastery in three areas, all of which are powerfully associated with success in college and careers:

• Student Mastery of Knowledge and Skills. This factor takes into account how schools raised performance on state assessments/testing over a period of several years.
• Student Character. EL schools establish consistent school-wide "Habits of Scholarship" (such as perseverance and responsibility), which are then tracked by students and teachers to provide evidence of growth over time.
• High-Quality Student Work. Schools present evidence showing how the quality, depth, and authenticity of student work has improved during the school's multiyear partnership with EL.

EL Education's comprehensive credentialing process assesses whether schools have met these benchmarks and have documented growth over time. Credentialing along this broader set of metrics is allowing schools to take a more complete assessment of what they're doing well and what they need to improve, Conrad said.

The 14 schools receiving the designation as an EL Education Credentialed School include both urban and rural and both district and charter schools

• Casco Bay High School, Portland, ME
• Capital City Public Charter School, Washington, D.C. - Site Seminar, February 25-26
• Codman Academy Public Charter School - High School, Dorchester, MA
• Clairemont Elementary School, Decatur, GA
• Delaware Ridge Elementary School, Kansas City, KS
• Odyssey School of Denver, Denver, CO - Site Seminar, November 8-9 (FULL)
• Sierra Expeditionary Learning School, Truckee, CA
• Pocatello Community Charter School, Pocatello, CA
• King Middle School, Portland, ME - Site Seminar, May 12-13
• Tapestry Charter School, Buffalo, NY
• MAELS Middle School, Staten Island, NY
• Entheos Academy, Kearns, UT
• The Greene School, Greenwich, RI
• Evergreen Community Charter School, Asheville, NC - Site Seminar, December 3-4

They join nine other schools in the EL Education network that received the honor last year:

• Anser Charter School, Boise, ID
• Genesee Community Charter School, Rochester, NY
• Grass Valley Charter School, Grass Valley, CA
• Harborside Academy, Kenosha, WI
• Kettle Falls Elementary School, Kettle Falls, WA
• MELS, Queens, NY
• Polaris Charter Academy, Chicago, IL
• The Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MA - Site Seminar, April 28-29
• Two Rivers Public Charter School, Washington, D.C.