Beyond Adversity: The Achievement Academy

The Achievement Academy: How One Program Is Making a Change

A conversation with Kwame Asante', Executive Director of the Achievment Academy

Since 2002, Kwame Asante has been actively engaged in providing educational opportunities for minority youth in Baton Rouge. As the Executive Director of the Achievement Academy of Baton Rouge, Kwame Asante has created a partnership program that provided funding for an afterschool program that offered academic assistance to more than 50 students. "Developing the funding and relationships necessary to provide the educational assistance necessary to sustain the program was one of my most challenging and rewarding experiences. Through the relationships created, I learned of the wide range of educational issues being championed by organizations such as NAACP." In the summer of 2002, the Achievement Academy would offer to Baton Rouge Students its first summer program at Baton Rouge’s oldest Charter School Program, the Charters School for Apprenticeship Learning. Through the partnership and collaboration, the Achievement Academy gained much more than ally in providing educational programs for young people, but a greater understanding and awareness of the need and bright future alternative educational options present to minority communities across America. It was at that point that Kwame Asante decided to join the work of the NAACP in collaboration with the Achievment Academy and became an active partner in educating others on the opportunities and vision that could lead to community progress and success. As Executive Director of an educational program, funded through the No Child Left Behind Act, Kwame Asante recognized the untapped opportunity and resources educational programs such as the Achievement Academy could provide to the African American community as an ambassador for change and progress.

The Road to Success Aways Starts Uphill

In 2003, the Achievement Academy applied to the Louisiana Department of Education to become a state approved Supplemental Education Services Provider. Even though the program had been recognized as model for academic success by outside evaluators, experienced educators and East Baton Rouge School administrators, the program was denied approval in 2003 and 2004. However, without public funding, the Achievement Academy continued to provide services to students and families throughout the Baton Rouge area. By 2004, the Achievement Academy had expanded its community initiatives to include a year around academic offering through its afterschool and summer programs as well as developing extensive partnerships to deliver such services as parenting programs through the YWCA. In 2005, the Achievement Academy was granted temporary approval as an emerging program with the Department of Education, and in the spring of 2006, after its first full year of service, was recognized by the East Baton Rouge School board as the only program in the parish to have a 97% Language Arts passage rate on the LEAP exam. By 2007, the Achievement Academy would serve 700 students in three parish’s state wide and branch off into children’s advocacy and voter empowerment in addressing children’s issues during the 2007 legislative session by supporting ballot initiatives to increase statewide teacher pay, health care centers in public schools and expanding funding for Head Start Programs in Louisiana. Through those experiences, I developed the tenacity to remain determined and steadfast to the values by which I first began the Achievement Academy. I remembered that when I began, I was a volunteer and that our mission was to provide educational assistance to the numbers of minority children lacking academic success in traditional school environments. The belief that I was part of something that was larger than me was my single focus and enduring motivation. In September of 2007, the Achievement Academy was granted full approval by the Louisiana Department of Education and plans to offer afterschool programs in 7 parish’s state wide.