We went to Warren to find out.
The 74 Million, a national news organization dedicated to covering K-12 education in America, recently looked at the elementary schools in each state that most beat the odds in third-grade reading scores. The idea was to see which schools scored much higher than the school’s poverty level would suggest.
They ranked the five elementary schools in each state that beat the odds the most. They called them the “Bright Spots.”
In Michigan, two of the Bright Spots were charter schools: Frontier International Academy in Warren and Vanderbilt Charter Academy in Holland.
This is what The 74 Million said about Frontier International Academy:
Frontier International Academy - Elementary has a poverty rate of 100.00%. We expected it to have 13.90% of its third-grade students reading proficiently. Its actual score was 59.30%.
That’s 45.4% higher than expected. And when you consider that the statewide average for third-grade literacy proficiency is 38.9%, it’s even more remarkable.
Frontier International Academy opened its Warren campus in 2017. The school is authorized by Bay Mills Community College and managed by Global Educational Excellence (GEE), an acclaimed organization with schools throughout Southeast Michigan.
The school serves a population of students who mostly come from Middle Eastern and Asian backgrounds. Roughly 63% are ELL students, which means that English is not the primary language spoken at home.
“We are inspired always by our mission, which is to promote lifelong learning by nurturing academic excellence, positive character, and appreciation of culture. And since we're talking about beating the odds, I can't say it's one person. It's students, parents, and my wonderful team all coming together,” Principal Mona Hamawi said.
What’s the secret sauce? It takes a team. How has a school with mostly ELL students managed to defy the literacy odds so much?
Mona said that at Frontier International Academy, it starts with a team approach. When it comes to literacy, students don’t just interact with their teacher. They have a whole team of educators helping them.
The team includes Multilingual Language Learner (MLL) coordinator Sameena Basha, MLL teacher Hafsa Hussain, instructional coach Maria Orlando, reading specialist Jennifer Dallal, and the entire teaching staff.
The reason that third-grade literacy scores are so important – and the reason the 74 Million used them for this ranking – is that third grade is considered the most important year in a student’s academic development. It’s when a student transitions from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
The third-grade teaching staff at Frontier International Academy includes Haneesha Shaik, who said that all of the teachers work closely together.
“First-grade teachers are always together; second and third, we're always together, always planning, collaborating, asking, supporting whatever we need. We are there for each other, and you can feel it if you talk to any one of us,” Haneesha said.
That collaboration extends to the entire school staff.
“We have collaboration with everyone,” said MLL coordinator Sameena Basha. “We're all taking part in this because it's so important. It's very holistic for the child as far as academic and social-emotional needs. What does that specific child need, and who are they going to see to get it?”
So we look at the child as a whole, and sometimes it's not just strict data; it's what we've observed. It could be a change in behavior and what's led to that. We always start with a benchmark that’s the NWEA they take three times a year. And then, we look at the students who are below the 30th percentile, and that's where we start.”
It’s typical at every school when a new student enrolls – particularly when they enroll after their kindergarten year, as an older student – they’ll be assessed to see where they’re at academically. That usually involves taking the NWEA assessment test, but at Frontier International Academy, they take it several steps further.
“When they first come in, we have different assessments that we do because a test score is just a test score,” Mona said. “But when they're sitting in front of you, you can learn so much more. And so we have a process where they come in, we screen them. And then that kind of gives us an idea where they are and where they're accelerating and where they're kind of falling. And then we set it up for that school year so they can start getting remediation right away.”
As Mona said, a test score is just a number, and a student is much more than that.
“We look at the child as a whole, and sometimes it's not just strict data, it's what we've observed,” Sameena added. “It could be a change in behavior and what's led to that. We always start with a benchmark that’s the NWEA they take three times a year. And then, so we look at the students who are below the 30th percentile, and that's where we start.”
Once a child learns to read, the goal is to get them reading all the time – in school, at home, and just for fun. To help the students get there, Frontier International Academy employs a multi-pronged approach.
“We focus on the different groups wherever they need help based on their NWEA scores,” said reading specialist Jennifer Dallal. “Whenever I pull in a small group to work one-on-one with, Maria is out there at the carpet working with another group of students who might need more support or they need more challenges. Either one. And then during another section of our schedule, Ms. Basha comes in as well, working solely with our MLL students, supporting them more, especially with comprehension, so that they're also going with the other students who are getting support elsewhere. We have two distinct times in our schedule for reading. We have like the ELA block, which is 90 minutes. And then we have an added 45 minutes of intensive intervention for reading.”
“This is one of the first schools where I remember the principal said, you must meet with every single family. For parent-teacher conferences, like the first round. It’s not an option. And we also met with them on curriculum night. So we were always trying to create a partnership at home,” Jennifer said.
“Many of our parents don’t speak English as their first language, but they value education very highly, and they’ll do everything they can to help their students succeed,” Mona said.
To that end, the school not only conducts parent-teacher conferences; they also hold multiple events throughout the school year where parents and families come together.
“It helps us so much to be able to know the parents as well as the students,” Mona said.
And as the school finishes its first decade of educating students, the proof is there. As the 74 Million can attest, Frontier International Academy’s approach is working.
“In our minds, our students can achieve greatness, all of them,” Mona said.
Frontier International Academy, a charter school in Warren, Michigan, was named one of Michigan's five "Bright Spot" schools by The 74 Million for third-grade reading scores that far exceed what its poverty level would predict.
The school uses a team-based literacy model — pairing every student with an MLL coordinator, MLL teacher, instructional coach, and reading specialist alongside their classroom teacher — combined with 90 minutes of daily ELA instruction plus 45 minutes of targeted reading intervention.
About 63% of students at Frontier International Academy are English Language Learners (ELL), meaning English isn't the primary language spoken at home.
Frontier International Academy is authorized by Bay Mills Community College and managed by Global Educational Excellence (GEE), which operates schools throughout Southeast Michigan.
The school requires every family to attend parent-teacher conferences and hosts curriculum nights throughout the year, building a home-school partnership that principal Mona Hamawi and staff credit as key to student outcomes.
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