OUR STORY
"He who opens a school, closes a prison."
— Victor Hugo
Proven Model, Proven Success
The Nea Community Learning Center (Nea) is built on a model of proven success. The idea for Nea arose out of the work of Paul Bentz, Maafi Gueye and Lowry Fenton who were integrally involved with the Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC), Alameda's first charter school established in 1995.
In 2008, spurred on by well over a decade of the positive educational outcomes and extraordinary learner successes of ACLC and a long waiting list of applicants that could not be served, these educators sought to spread this innovative model to a wider and more diverse group of learners.
A vital goal for the new school was to apply the educational and financial efficiencies of ACLC to a comprehensive K-12 curriculum, thereby extending the model's effectiveness to the elementary grades and proving its relevance throughout a learner's formative years. Another goal for the new school was to provide a more effective elementary educational choice for Alameda families.
Immediate Success and Rapid Growth
Nea Community Learning Center became an independent public charter school in 2009, starting with grades K through 9, and over three years grew into a complete K-12 program.
Nea achieved extraordinary API performance (over 800) in its first academic year, and has continued to raise its API each year to a score that now hovers around 840.
Nea's immediate success and rapid growth confirmed the community's desire for research-based educational alternatives, especially at the elementary level. Today, Nea serves over 500 learners with over 30 facilitators who enjoy and benefit from this innovative project-based public charter school education.
