Blog

Leadership Preparatory Academy is looking for middle and high school students who want to learn in a small, multi-age, innovative learning setting. Our LEADPrep community will cap its enrollment at 49 students and is housed in downtown Kirkland. Features that allow us to get to know each student well and tailor educational goals accordingly include:

• Flipped Learning. Mini video lessons come home for students to preview. Then students come to school and create projects to develop the concepts, with teachers coaching. Gone are hours of homework and passive listening at school.
• STEM. Hands-on STEM is a regular class at LEADPrep. All students are creative. The opportunity to be curious and weave science, technology, engineering, and math together in the design process makes learning relevant.
• Leadership. Our student regularly engage in service and leadership. From monthly cooking and serving at a homeless teen shelter to Toastmaster meetings to develop public speaking skills, leadership is a key component of our model.
• Bridge between high school and college. Whether a student is off to a four-year college or to a vocational internship after graduating, LEADPrep is supportive of the transition and mentors each graduate through the six months following graduation.
• 1-8 Teacher-Student Ratio. We believe that students need lots of attention to thrive. By keeping our costs down and our facility simple, we are able to provide more teachers to our students, so that they can learn using their preferred learning styles and with maximum support.
• The Village. Our families are connected to LEADPrep and actively engaged in supporting each learner. Being a small school allows for this extra layer of support.
• Intentional Welcome. Our students know what it is like to get lost in a large school. They are committed to being welcoming to all students—visitors and classmates alike. Being a caring community, developing social emotional learning skills, is a priority at LEADPrep.
• Later Start Times. We know teens are not on the top of their game early in the morning. So classes begin at 9:00 am Mon-Thurs and at 10:00 am on Fridays. We want our learners awake!

A mutually good fit is critical in such a small, intensive community. We ask students to spend the day at our school (unless enrolled in the summer) so that they have a feel for our small multi-age school. They also need to be able to commit to full participation to be considered for enrollment.

Our model is outcome driven. We expect all students to master content before moving on. Students continue to work on subject matter until they earn A’s or B’s. Conversely, if they demonstrate mastery in a pre-test, they move onto new content or enrichment material. By staying small and continuously adjusting to student learning needs and interests, we keep our diverse learning community engaged and actively learning.

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