While most of their traditional public school peers still have weeks of summer vacation left, Uplift's 5,700 students have already spent a week in the classroom getting ready for the official start of school on August 11. Uplift's annual Student Leadership Academy (SLA) is part of its investment in more classroom time for its students through an extended school year, longer school days and Saturday school.

Uplift's SLA program immerses students in Uplift's college-going culture and leadership development activities, so they are ready to focus on academics and college preparation when school starts. Students also took their first round of benchmark tests to see how they compare academically to students across the nation. In addition, juniors began signing up to participate in Uplift's HERO mentoring program to assist them in their journey toward college admissions.

Three of Uplift's campuses also integrated a new component into their SLA activities designed to encourage community involvement among students. More than 1,000 students from Hampton, Summit and Peak spent Thursday, July 28 volunteering as part of Uplift's Community Impact Day - cleaning up Fair Park, reading to younger students, assisting the elderly, collecting school supplies for students in Haiti, and serving food to the homeless.

As supporters of education have heard in the news, accountability ratings dropped for many schools across the state this year due partially to the repeal of the "Texas Projection Measure" (TPM) that had allowed campuses to bump up their ratings during 2010 and 2009. Even with the repeal of TPM, Uplift campuses fared extremely well under the 2011 Accountability Ratings, with 4 of our 5 districts rated Exemplary for 2011.

• Hampton Prep: Academically Acceptable
• North Hills Prep: Exemplary
• Peak Prep: Exemplary
• Summit International Prep: Exemplary
• Williams Prep: Exemplary

The district-level rating for Williams Prep also includes an Exemplary ranking for Uplift's Heights Preparatory school in West Dallas. Having an open-enrollment, public charter school in West Dallas is a true win for the entire community. Aside from the Environmental Science magnet middle school in West Dallas, the neighborhood has not had a primary, middle or high school ranked above Academically Acceptable since 2007. Heights Prep will include Kindergarten and 6th-8th grades for 2011-12, with plans to grow to a full K-12 campus over the next several years. Achieving an Exemplary rating in its first year of operations is significant for the community and shows what is possible when passionate, dedicated educators come together around a shared mission of doing whatever it takes to bring out every students' potential and prepare them to enter and succeed in college.

The success of our schools, including Heights Prep, give Uplift confidence that we can meaningfully improve the level of achievement at Hampton Prep during this current school year. Its Academically Acceptable rating falls short of Uplift's standard for its schools. Uplift has launched an intensive plan to improve Hampton during 2011-12. This plan is driven by solutions that reflect our sense of urgency, respect for the school culture, empowerment, positive energy and perseverance toward higher student achievement levels. The three focus areas for the year will include building a stronger sense of school culture, increasing teacher leadership, and improving instructional quality in the classroom. Uplift is confident that the leadership and teachers in place at Hampton are the right team of people to lead this transformational year for the school.

The Dallas Morning News editorial board will be chronicling Hampton's improvement efforts throughout the year. Click here to read their first installment in this editorial series.

 
Please help join Uplift in welcoming a new senior leader, Johnny Deas, to our organization. Johnny joins us as a Fellow with the Broad Foundation and someone who we hope will be with the Uplift family for a long time. The Broad Foundation's mission is to dramatically transform urban K-12 leadership by attracting and developing additional leadership into the education sector. They have a highly coveted two-year program called the Broad Fellowship that places 40 individuals in high-level management positions in charter organizations and traditional public school districts across the country.  Hundreds apply and go through an incredibly rigorous process. This is Uplift's first time to be a "placement site" for a Broad Fellow, and we are thrilled to be matched with Johnny.

Johnny will serve as Senior Director of Operations with his initial focus on improving processes related to how Uplift manages existing and new facilities. He will also be working closely with the Operations Managers on each campus to improve CMO support in this area. Prior to joining the Broad Residency, Johnny served as a vice president within the Operations and Technology Division of Citigroup, and was responsible for business analysis, export licensing, business continuity, and federal regulatory compliance. At Citigroup, he also founded the Great Ideas Edu-tainment Foundation, an award-winning non-profit that teaches financial literacy and other life skills to the underserved through a blend of education and entertainment. Johnny also previously served as a captain in the United States Marine Corps, where he worked as an aviation supply officer, and graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in business administration while serving on active duty. He also holds a master's degree from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.