We are so proud of our students for many reasons – mostly because they represent the kind hearts and souls of young Haitians blossoming into strong and caring Haitian leaders.

We’re also thrilled to report that their academic progress shined through this winter as they demonstrated 16% improvement year-over-year compared with end of term results from first trimester passing rates!

This progress is due to so many factors, from the curriculum to our staff to outside support.  One of the elements contributing to students’ success is parent involvement.  Even though some of the parents may have not had much formal education themselves, they take an active interest in learning more about their children’s academic processes and development. We also have a volunteer parent committee that influences decisions involving Choix.  While parent meetings, an overview of curricula, and parent involvement are commonplace in other parts of the world, they are not frequent occurrences in Haiti.

We have several evaluation structures in place to monitor and measure our academic and administrative programs at Choix, including a strong element of academic assessment representing continuous feedback mechanisms which include measuring the results of the implementation of new curricular materials. Each of our faculty also conduct weekly basic benchmark tests in order to make sure that they tailor their lessons precisely to the students’ learning pace and to offer our pedagogic directors from Aux Alizés guidance on progress.

For the current school year, we have expanded our after-school study club to three afternoons each week, offering additional support to students beginning at the third grade level. Since we saw positive results following our regular club meetings last year, the program has become a reliable support to our students suffering from low self-esteem and focusing problems. We believe that these qualities emerge in our students by factors related to possible ADHD, high levels of daily stress and anxiety, and even sometimes of effects of depression or poor health and nutrition.