RAINIER VALLEY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
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Mission Statement
Rainier Valley Leadership Academy is an anti-racist collaborative community of critical thinkers focused on dismantling systemic oppression through scholar leadership. We fulfill our vision by ensuring scholars are college and career ready by providing an anti-racist education, opportunities for collaborative problem solving, and community leadership experiences.
About This Cause
Who Rainier Valley Leadership Academy is: As an anti-racist collaborative community school of critical thinkers serving grades K-12. We welcome all families and scholars with warmth, love, acceptance and respect. We recognize that all scholars and families come to us with an innumerable amount of assets and gifts; it is our responsibility to tap into those assets and cultivate scholars’ innate brilliance in a place that is safe to explore, grow, question, and lead. We hold a high bar of excellence and rigor for our scholars and as a staff. We recognize that when we set goals for ourselves and our scholars, we also set up systems of support that make the goals accessible and attainable. When our scholars achieve their goals, no matter the size, we celebrate them loudly and proudly. Collaborative Community: It takes a village to raise a child. We invite elders and community into the building to be a part of the learning community and interact with scholars to support the overall health and success of our community. Our education model is for all scholars regardless of race, religion, gender, or ability. We embrace our community, understanding a school must be a part of the community, and the community a part of the school. Our school will serve our community, housing critical thinkers, as a hub of innovation, learning, and collaborating with one another during and after school hours is a normal occurrence. Leadership: We provide opportunities for our school community to support community service in the community, internships, and entrepreneurship with community stakeholders and partners. We believe our scholars are the change we want to see, so we cultivate leadership opportunities to facilitate growing scholars local and global civic leadership skills they can use in the future to effect change to dismantle systems of oppression. Anti-racism: We believe in acknowledging the urgency of dealing with racism on a daily basis. We provide safe spaces for our scholars and staff to discuss racism based on their real life experiences. We train our teachers to take feedback from scholars advocating against racism to continuously grow as educators in the space, and allowing for scholars to grow as activists in the space. We deal with bias, racism, and micro-aggression seriously, actively, and urgently; we recognize racism may make adults uncomfortable, but it directly harms scholars. We are in the business of putting scholars first, no adult can be in our space and not be practicing anti-racism. We have ongoing professional development that supports anti-racism with our staff. Decolonized Curriculum: We provide an anti-racist environment where teachers and curriculum are diverse and mirror our scholars. Ensuring we provide as many opportunities as possible for critical thinking in all subject areas, allowing for scholars to critically analyze and reflect on what has occurred pre and post colonialism in all discipline areas. It is paramount that scholars who rarely have representation in curriculum begin to see themselves in the teachings, building confidence in who they are debunking myths and stereotypes that are contrary to who they are. We believe in culturally responsive education that allows for connections between academics and real life lived experiences. Our scholars read books that mirror them, they cognitively learn math and have rich math conversations, they look at science through their own lived experiences. Curriculum is cross curricular, meaning subject areas build upon one another as much as possible to increase engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking. College and career ready We believe that scholars should leave RVLA prepared for college and career with the tools and skills to succeed in life and leadership. No system has the right to choose a child’s success, the individual should be able to choose their path knowing they have numerous opportunities because they are prepared for all pathways. Scholars are introduced to college readiness beginning in 6th grade, learning their strengths, and developing their ideas around their future goals of success.