The curriculum and program content of New Visions Academy originated with A Chance To Grow's summer program, Boost Up which began in 1988. A Chance To Grow is a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the development of brain-injured, learning disabled, and delayed children. In Boost Up, participating children attend a two and a half hour program, five days a week for seven weeks. They participate in structured activities which stimulate the brain's processing capabilities and help the brain learn how to receive information more efficiently. On average, Boost Up students make an eight month gain in reading over the seven week period.

The first expansion of the Boost Up model involved a four year collaboration with Minneapolis Public Schools called the "A Chance To Learn Project". In 1987, when the project began, approximately 400 children annually were failing the kindergarten benchmark test in Minneapolis Public Schools. These students represented the bottom ten to twelve percent in student achievement. Typically, they were required to repeat a full-day kindergarten program called Transition. While most Transition "graduates" passed the kindergarten benchmark test, over half of these children were failing in reading by the second grade. At the conclusion of the A Chance To Learn Project, the students were reading at the 82nd to 89th percentile of Minneapolis students who were entering the first grade.

New Visions Academy represents an expansion and integration of the A Chance To Learn formula into a full-day curriculum, kindergarten through eighth grade. After operating as a contract alternative school for one year, New Visions became a charter school in the fall of 1994 as Minnesota's eleventh charter school, ISD 4011. New Visions began with 100 failing students in an all day format. Given the demand for our services, we increased enrollment to 195 students for the 1998-99 school year and currently have the capacity to serve 210 children. Each child is screened for readiness skill levels upon enrollment.

Boost Up was designed to accelerate the reading performance of the bottom 50% of children in U.S. public schools. These methods, based on brain development, are easily taught to educators and have been successfully replicated in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee and California. This curriculum can be implemented in every school with a minimum of training and space in a cost effective manner for students in K-8th grade. This program will accelerate the learning of any student however it is particularly effective with your lowest readers.

Ninety percent of our brain development occurs within the first six years of life. During this time any and all input we receive through our senses is making an impact on brain (neuron) activation. Our environment and the experiences we encounter are key to establishing what we call "readiness skills".

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