After more than a year of drive-through graduations required by the Covid pandemic, the educators, graduates and family members of Miami-Dade Acceleration Academies were able to gather in an auditorium and celebrate in person.

When Nadi Sambrana talks to young people about the importance of working toward their high school diplomas, she doesn’t deliver a lecture and ask them to accept it. She urges them to do their own research.

But for St. Lucie Acceleration Academies, Juvan Lester says, the grave mistake he made as a young teenager — a mistake that gave him a criminal record — might have defined and darkened his future path. Instead, he’s heading for college.

Three years ago, Naxieli Serret was struggling to stay afloat in high school. It’s not that she didn’t want to do well, earn her diploma and pursue her dream of becoming a psychologist. It was simply that she couldn’t balance her other responsibilities with a traditional school schedule.

The Lowcountry Luau proved to be more than a coming out party for a new high school option in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties. It was also a place where students, educators and South Carolina community partners pledged their commitment to a better way.

Math doesn’t come easily but, as Denisha Palmer can tell you, neither does life.

Each month, we take a moment to learn from the educational leaders who are bringing the Acceleration Academies mission to life, day in and day out. This month, we asked our Academy Directors to respond to this prompt: It’s graduation season, and we are celebrating the members of our Class of...

Jax Randles began dropping out of school in 6th grade. And while officials would bring him to truancy court time and time again, he never fully went back — until he found his way to Bethel Acceleration Academies.