Valor Collegiate Academies
Project Title
For project support to pilot a scalable career connected learning program for Valor students
Date
Jun. 04, 2026
Duration
24 months
Description
Founded in 2014, Valor Collegiate Academies is a Nashville-based public charter network that successfully bridges rigorous academic achievement with comprehensive youth development that promotes social, emotional, and ethical growth. At the core of its success is the “Compass,” a research-backed framework that is seamlessly embedded into the learning experience of its 1,900 students. Previous Carnegie support helped build Valor’s capacity to scale innovations to over 150,000 students nationwide. Valor is now addressing the “final mile” of the K-12 journey: the transition to high-opportunity postsecondary pathways. With Carnegie support, Valor will launch the Carnegie Career & Postsecondary Pathways Initiative, a suite of programs including a work-based learning microschool, a career education track in mental health careers, a dual enrollment option offering college courses, and an alumni fellowship. Valor will pilot this programming over the course of the grant, serving approximately 400 students and alumni, and providing them with industry-recognized credentials and early college credit to strengthen economic mobility. By codifying these models for future dissemination, Valor aims to establish a national exemplar for holistic college and career preparedness that drives upward mobility.
Website
Project Title
For general support
Date
Jun. 06, 2024
Duration
24 months
Description
Valor Collegiate Academies (Valor) is a charter management organization operating three successful schools that meet the critical need to integrate foundational socio-emotional learning into the academic experience through a comprehensive model called Compass. Valor’s schools have consistently ranked in the top 5 percent for overall student achievement and academic growth in the state since the network was founded in 2014. Furthermore, Valor is a diverse-by-design institution and has produced consistent student achievement and academic growth scores for the diverse range of students they serve (including students from economically disadvantaged households, English language learners, and students with disabilities). With prior support from the Corporation, Valor launched its high school, which has already become a statewide leader in college matriculation, and built out the Compass model through twelfth grade. Corporation support also enabled Valor to develop a training institute, Compass Camp, to spread its model to partner schools that to date has supported eighty schools serving over 45,000 students. This grant will allow Valor to further diffuse the Compass model, develop new coursework for high school students aligned to critical future-ready skills, and address barriers to attendance among low-income students.
Website
Project Title
For refining and disseminating the Compass model
Date
Jun. 09, 2022
Duration
24 months
Description
College and career readiness requires more than academic knowledge—an extensive body of research shows that students’ socio-emotional skills are key to their lifelong success and well-being. However, despite the literature and the real-world urgency created by the COVID-19 pandemic, educators have few models and limited implementation strategies for how to integrate socio-emotional learning (SEL) into the academic experience. Valor Collegiate Academies (Valor) is a charter management organization operating three successful schools that meet this need through a comprehensive SEL model called Compass. With prior support from the Corporation, Valor launched its high school, created college and career programming, and built out the Compass model through twelfth grade. Valor also developed a training institute, Compass Camp, to spread its model to partner schools that to date has supported sixty-four schools serving over 30,000 students. Continued support will allow Valor to further diffuse the Compass model by deepening partnerships with existing partner schools, supporting new cohorts of diverse partner schools, and refining the tools needed for high-quality implementation of the Compass model in a variety of contexts.
Website
Project Title
For the development and implementation of a high school program focused on college preparation and socio-emotional growth
Date
Jun. 04, 2020
Duration
24 months
Description
Research shows that students’ socio-emotional skills are key to their lifelong success, yet there remains a dearth of program models that marry socio-emotional learning (SEL) with academics, particularly at the high school level. Valor Collegiate Academies (Valor) is a charter management organization operating three successful schools that incorporate SEL into the core of their school design through a standalone curriculum called Compass. Valor has ranked in the top 5 percent for overall student achievement and student growth in Tennessee since its founding in 2014, with achievement and growth scores consistent across diverse sub-groups of students. With prior support from the Corporation, Valor expanded to the high school level and trained fifty-two school partners in the Compass approach, serving over 18,000 students around the country. Continued support will allow Valor to finalize critical components of the high school model, including college and career programming and a refined Compass curriculum for eleventh and twelfth grade students at Valor, which will graduate its first class of seniors in 2021, and its partner schools.
Website
Project Title
For support to plan, launch, and implement a new high school model, and to codify and share Valor's model of socio-emotional support more broadly
Date
Jun. 01, 2017
Duration
36 months
Description
An extensive body of research shows that students’ socio-emotional skills are key to their lifelong success. Yet, there remains a dearth of program models that marry socio-emotional learning (SEL) with academic instruction, particularly at the high school level. Valor Collegiate Academies (Valor) is a charter management organization, founded in Nashville in 2014, currently operating two successful middle schools that incorporate SEL at the core of their school design through a standalone curriculum called Compass. In its inaugural year, Valor was the top rated academic school in Nashville, with achievement and growth scores consistent across diverse sub-groups of students. Building upon the success of their two middle schools and the high demand for their work, Valor will adapt their model to the high school context and codify their approach to SEL to share with operators outside of the Valor network for broader student impact.
Website
Project Title
For development of a next generation high school model
Date
Sep. 17, 2015
Duration
24 months