Tendaji is creating a generation of scholarly, wholesome, well-rounded citizens of the world, regardless of one’s start or background.
Program I.M.P.A.C.T., our signature after-school program, creates tailor-made plans to meet specific students’ needs and provides exploration of various subjects to supplement school-day offerings.
Our team identifies and addresses students’ reading and math deficiencies and strives for improvement through tutoring and the Homework Center.
Educational enrichment includes STEM, which fosters computational thinking and focuses on real-world applications to solve problems, all while discovering the world of robotics and scientific experiments.
Through dynamic community partnerships, students receive in-depth lessons in the arts, such as dance, voice, drama and instrumental music. Students also engage in fun, interactive activities that broaden their scope of knowledge about careers and their community beyond school.
“A decade of research and evaluation studies, as well as large-scale, rigorously conducted syntheses looking across many research and evaluation studies, confirms that children and youth who participate in after school programs can reap a host of positive benefits in a number of interrelated outcome areas—academic, social/emotional, prevention, and health and wellness.”- After School Programs in the 21st Century: Their Potential and What It Takes to Achieve It (Little, Wimer, & Weiss, 2008)
Program I.M.P.A.C.T. serves students from nearly 25 elementary schools in the Little Rock School District and Pulaski County Special School District.
An extension of the program is the A.R.T. (Arts, Reading & Technology) IMPACT Summer Camp for youth kindergarten through 8th grade.
Reclaiming Scholars is an alternative to out-of-school suspension program, providing students with educational instruction, counseling and mentorship to students in 6th through 12th grades.
If students successfully complete the Reclaiming Scholars Program and have no infractions at school for thirty days, they may have their suspension expunged from their academic record.
A first-of-its-kind program, Reclaiming Scholars is an alternative to out-of-school suspension. Through educational instruction, counseling and mentorship students in 6th through 12th grades return to school with strategies to help them stay on the right path.
Reclaiming Scholars is contributing to lower student suspension rates at each of our partner schools while meeting the emotional, social and educational needs of students in the program.
Data indicates that 85% of the students who successfully complete Reclaiming Scholars exhibit positive behavior and refrain from negative behaviors at school.
“Suspension and expulsion can influence a number of adverse outcomes across development, health, and education. Young students who are expelled or suspended are as much as 10 times more likely to drop out of high school, experience academic failure and grade retention, hold negative school attitudes, and face incarceration than those who are not.”- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Education, Policy Statement on Expulsion and Suspension Policies in Early Childhood Settings (Dec. 10, 2014)
“The difference between science and the arts is not that they are different sides of the same coin … or even different parts of the same continuum, but rather, they are manifestations of the same thing. The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity.”- Dr. Mae Jemison, First African American woman in Space
Children in kindergarten through 8th grade attend the A.R.T. Impact Summer Camp six weeks during the summer break to reinforce academic concepts learned during the school year and to also enhance their skill level and knowledge of science and technology. Students participate in reading clubs and in-depth lessons in dance, drama, vocal and instrumental music.
A growing body of research shows that there is a strong connection between art and science—both inspire and demand creative thinking.
The A.R.T. Impact Summer Camp encourages students to explore the use of art and makes room for young people to develop new and imaginative opportunities for communication and expression in science. The creative processes behind art can be used to drive innovation and find inventive solutions to problems. The addition of art themes inspires young people to be creative and communicate their ideas and findings.*
*2016, National After School Association