Our Model - Valor Collegiate Academies

Our Model

We have designed our school model around four core anchors

Powered by Compass

We start by broadening the vision for education by placing human development at the core of our model. Ranked in the top 5% of Tennessee schools for growth and achievement since opening in 2014, we are proving that schools don’t have to compromise academic results for comprehensive human development. Relationships are central to everything we do – from academic curriculum to classroom management. At Valor, we are changing the approach to social-emotional learning… and it’s working.

Education today is not only about acquiring content or knowledge but about actively engaging in our own holistic human development. Valor has created a human development model, Compass, and built our school model around it to ensure that all members of our community are engaging in deep, comprehensive development work.

Learn about our Compass model

Top 1% Academics

While the vision for education has broadened, the core responsibility of helping students develop the intellectual prowess necessary to help them succeed and serve remains as important as ever. Valor believes that engaging community members holistically enhances this development and offers cutting-edge pedagogy to ensure students access deep content knowledge while developing critical meaning-making and system-thinking capacities. Valor firmly believes that whole-child development should never be at the expense of academic excellence – and, in fact, should serve to develop it more fully.

Diverse By Design

Our world is rapidly changing and the need to prepare ourselves to thrive in a truly diverse and global community has never been greater. We firmly believe that diversity is a strength, social justice is our responsibility, and access to opportunities is a necessity for all students. Valor has sought, and achieved, a student population that is intentionally diverse by income and race, unifying students from all walks of life in one community to be able to learn together and reach across lines of difference. 

Built to Last

As the world continues to speed up, we are constantly asked to do more with less. Valor’s model seeks to align with this reality and build the capacity for sustainability in innovative ways. Valor is committed to creating sustainable school models and works to create sustainability-driven mindsets and capacities in all community members so they are built to last.

The Four Anchors

We believe that all the anchors are important, but the most powerful impact comes at the intersections of these anchors.

For example, students doing rigorous Socratic Seminars in ELA is a strong experience when conducted by a well-trained teacher engaging a strong curriculum; it is powerfully amplified by having students across many lines of difference offer diversity of perspectives; and it is transformational when those students also have developed trust in each other, have developed the ability to be vulnerable, and have developed a strong sense of identity to bring their full selves to the discussion.