After a year of converting a bottom 5%, traditional, bricks and mortar K-8 public school into a 21st century blended school, the results are in.  Approximately 8 out of every 10 students across A.L. Holmes gained more than 10% in student test scores in our first year. 

A 10% gain from our pre and post test is a significant and rare accomplishment.  Even more remarkable, of those students making a 10% gain, more than a third made up to 20%, a third made up to 30% and just under a third made 30% or more in achievement gains in a single year!
 

This represents a year of hard work by our A.L. Holmes Blended Teachers and solid leadership from A.L. Holmes Principal Williams. 

So we did the only thing we could do after seeing these results.  We partied.  More specifically, we invited our Blended Principal and Teachers to a Gala at the Whitney, a historic 19th-century mansion turned restaurant in the heart of Detroit.  At the Whitney, Matchbook Learning was able to properly honor each member of the A.L. Holmes faculty that made this year so memorable.  It isn't often teachers or a Principal hear the words "thank you" or "job well done".  The mountain ahead is inevitably larger than the one just traversed.  But it is moments like these that are important, to mark and to celebrate, to pause and to reflect, and to give thanks.