Junior Academies, Inc. Junior Academies Inc. is a non profit educational organization that has come to address the needs of African American children struggling in a failing school system. Junior Academy, Incorporated’s purpose is to establish independent schools that develop and initiate educational programs that promote academic excellence for at-risk and economically disadvantaged children who otherwise would have to continue going to poor performing schools. The first institution in the organization’s network of schools will open in fall 2007, the Rosa Parks Leadership Academy in Lithonia, Georgia.
President and Founder of Junior Academies, Inc., Ms. Melodee Ford, declares that, “Parents have been dissatisfied and denied a choice in where their children receive an equitable education.” Ford states, “Historical Black Colleges and Universities were established to provide the excellent higher education for high school graduates who were not selected by white colleges and universities. We must establish Historically Black Elementary and Secondary Schools.”
Ms. Ford goes on to say that it is necessary for Junior Academies, Inc. to establish independent schools as opposed to charter schools, because charter schools are still public schools under the control, in most states, of the same board that governs the local public schools, which of course are now already failing to properly educate current students.
Rosa Parks Leadership Academy will lead the way in providing what has been missing from education in the many poorer communities, an equal and balanced education. For Instance, Junior Academies, Inc. is publishing the first Black History textbooks to be used as part of the daily history curriculum for all grades. Ford states that all children will benefit from knowing how much of a positive impact African Americans have had on American society as a whole.
Like Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Rosa Parks Leadership Academy will not be exclusively for African Americans. It is a school for all students regardless of race, creed, gender or nationality. This is the first of eighty-five independent equitable schools, with the most talented and gifted teachers selected throughout the nation, small classes, single sex education for middle and upper school, an extensive arts program and mandatory sports for all students K-12.
More information concerning the schools may be obtained by visiting the websites: www.junioracademies.org and www.rosaparksla.com
