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OUR STORY
Crete Academy was founded by a group of individuals passionate about creating opportunities for children living in poverty. The vision for the school developed from the Founder’s life-changing experience on Skid Row thirteen years ago. The founder recalls watching a disconnected mother watch her daughter crawl through the filthy streets of the city. As she observed the child crawling, she thought, “Something has to change for children in these circumstances.”
From that experience emerged the vision of a school serving underserved children in impoverished communities. The Founder, along with many other passionate individuals, developed the Crete model.
CRETE’S MISSION
Crete Academy delivers an educational program to homeless and impoverished students in grades TK-6 that meets their physical, mental, and emotional needs while developing strong character and critical thinking skills so that each child is prepared for college and beyond.
CRETE’S VISION
One day, the cycle of poverty will end, and children who once were homeless and living in poverty will be leaders of this world.
CORE VALUES
The Crete model also embodies the following Core Values: Character, Responsibility, Equality, Teachability, and Excellence. The Crete core values are embedded in the school's educational program and are designed to develop students' social/emotional well-being and leadership skills. Crete aims to develop students who are healthy, happy, thoughtful, compassionate, and full of gratitude.
Crete students learn to love themselves, the concept of learning, and their community. We prepare all students for the real world and ensure they can lead healthy, productive lifestyles with bright, successful futures.
Character
Crete is dedicated to ensuring students have strong character, which means they are honest, trustworthy, have integrity, and a strong sense of perseverance.
Responsibility
Crete students will be taught to take responsibility for their actions. Students will learn humility in times of celebration and acceptance in times of failure.
Excellence
Crete students will do all things with excellence, understanding that they are not perfect, but they are always asked to do their best.
Teachability
Crete students will be taught the growth mindset in order to remain life-long learners. This means students will have an understanding that intelligence is not fixed.
Equality
Crete students will learn to appreciate and embrace the differences of others, including but not limited to individuals of different ethnic backgrounds, religious faiths, sexual preferences and learning abilities.
THE CRETE
EDUCATIONAL MODEL
At Crete, we believe in nurturing the whole child by addressing both immediate needs and long-term educational goals. Guided by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, our model ensures students’ basic requirements—such as safety, nutrition, and emotional support—are met, creating a strong foundation for learning and personal growth.
Through a college preparatory curriculum, Crete students develop essential skills in math, literacy, and critical thinking. We emphasize critical problem-solving and character development, equipping students to approach challenges with resilience and creativity. Our Harmony Program, a cornerstone of the Crete model, offers physical, mental, and emotional support through partnerships with community organizations, ensuring each student has the resources to succeed and thrive.
At Crete, every student has the opportunity to create their own future, empowered with the tools to overcome obstacles and achieve lifelong success.
THE FOLLOWING THEORIES ARE THE FOUNDATION OF HOW WE BELIEVE LEARNING BEST OCCURS:
LEARNING AT CRETE
At Crete, we believe that learning best occurs when students’ basic needs are met. We also believe that learning occurs best when personalized, through the gradual release of responsibility from the teacher to the student, and when students are motivated to learn based on positive school culture and positive feelings of self-efficacy, not when they are not overloaded cognitively and when they are able to understand and reflect on their own learning. Activities and assessments at Crete are aligned to with these learning theories and guide teacher instruction.
