Building to win.

That is the vision for the Heights Academy at Grandview Heights Middle School, which is already laying a strong foundation in just its first year.

The Heights Academy is a new, innovative education strategy that gives high-performing or proficient students the opportunity to learn in a separate environment within the traditional school setting.

The idea for the Heights Academy came out of Principal Deartis Barber’s intention to transform the culture within the school and the perception outside the school.

When Principal Barber came to Grandview Heights Middle last year, one of the first things he set out to change was the students’ mindset. He said it was not cool for students to achieve. They would be made fun of for making good grades or even answering question correctly in class.

"We would have honor assemblies where we called someone to get a certificate and they don’t want to leave their seats because classmates and peers would ridicule them," said Barber.

It was clear that the students needed an environment where achievement was promoted and encouraged among their peers. Principal Barber says that surrounding students who want to shine with other students aiming to reach higher is making a big impact on educational growth.

"It’s a safer environment. I’m not as scared to ask if I don’t understand something. The teachers are here to answer my questions," said seventh grader Janea Springfield.

The creation of Heights Academy also removes students from many distractions, such as classroom behavioral issues commonly dealt with on the traditional side.

The new environment has had a major impact on seventh grader Taliyah McClinton. Ms. McClinton has seen tremendous progress since moving into the Heights Academy, where classes are "smaller and [have] less distractions." She saw her grades slip last year, but on a recent progress report received four A’s and two B’s

The Heights Academy also promotes improvement in students who are just below proficient learning levels. Science teacher Jamie Mack is seeing students make impressive strides forward in this setting.

"We also have some students who were not proficient or advanced. With them being in this different environment, with students who are on that higher level and thinking out of the box, that’s causing them to also want to reach higher heights," said Mack.

LEARN MORE ABOUT JAMIE MACK'S ROLE IN THE SUCCESS OF THE HEIGHTS ACADEMY

Students in the Heights Academy get an opportunity to learn outside the classroom each month. Principal Barber calls it the "Heights Academy Tour." For the month of September, students will visit the Memphis Zoo to learn first hand about habitats and animal adaptation.

The perks of being in the Heights Academy aren’t just educational.  The students are not required to wear uniforms. This is what gets many students on the hook and motivates them to work harder to raise their grades and performance to earn a spot in the academy.

For years, Grandview Heights Middle has been seen as an unsafe place for children to learn and had the reputation of not having high quality instruction. Many parents chose to move their kids to other schools. The Heights Academy is already beginning to change that perception and make GHMS a destination for students.

Eighth grader Aaliceya White’s parent wanted to transfer her out of Grandview Heights Middle after last school year but changed her mind after learning about the Heights Academy. White calls the transition from the traditional setting "a miracle."

"I'm very happy I didn’t leave. I don’t think any other school I would have went to would have topped this," said White.

Principal Barber has big ambitions for the Heights Academy. His goal is not to continue to have a separate school with in a school. He wants to grow Heights Academy from four sections of classes to the entire schools in the next five years.

"If we become The Heights Academy five years from now, it doesn’t mean that low socioeconomic or low-performing students stop coming to the school," said Barber. "It means that they now come into an environment where the expectation is that you are a scholar and that you are high performing."