Empower Generations embraces the whole child, focusing on both social-emotional and academic skills. After our beginning-of-the-year assessments and in lieu of the traditional parent-teacher conference, the learners, facilitators, and parents/guardians collaborate annually to create an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP). ILPs help to guide instruction and social-emotional aspects for each learner. Everyone works together to reflect on, monitor, and make adjustments to the ILP as needed.
The primary goal of the ILP is to ensure that each child reflects on their own achievements, both academic and social-emotional, and identifies areas in which they need to improve and evaluate their progress toward those outcomes, starting at a basic level when they are younger and improving their ability to self‐assess over time.
Throughout the year, facilitators and learners meet to look critically at what they have accomplished, reviewing assessment data and setting forth new goals when their original goals have been accomplished. A portfolio is maintained throughout the year that showcases the learner’s reflections throughout the school year.