Top 10 Reasons to Attend Vanguard Collegiate of Indianapolis

1. We are Vanguards

We are unapologetically focused on academics for our sixth to eighth grade students. We create scholars by setting a high bar for educational fluency and leadership, and we provide extensive supports to get there. It’s our firm belief that empowering middle schoolers to create and find their leadership voices will change the world. We partner with our scholars — and families — to build leaders, in thought, word and action, our definition of a Vanguard.

2. Pathways to College and Beyond

We provide high-quality instruction, rigorous curriculum, and supportive character development. We are a thoughtfully designed school, but we can (and do) adapt to the changing needs of our scholars. We bring realistic and successful pathways to college and life beyond to our middle schoolers. By eighth grade, our scholars are even earning high school credit.

3. Core Values Drive our Approach

Our core values are THINK: team, hard work, integrity, nobility and knowledge. We find tangible ways to exercise and celebrate our scholars as they enact these daily attributes. THINK values can be working together in pairs or pods (teams), productivity in homework and tutoring (hard work), acting as a leader even when no one is looking (integrity), taking care of our facility and ourselves (nobility) and exhibiting curious, inquisitive engagement in class (knowledge).

4. Meaningful Student Supports

We support our students in multiple ways every day. From our data-driven instruction to our Saturday Academy, we never stop supplying top notch academics in meaningful ways. We start our days together with Power Hour and we spend our afternoons at tutoring – focusing on the personalized needs of each individual student.

We use the ILEARN (Indiana Learning Evaluation Readiness Network) and NWEA-MAP (Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress) approaches to identify our scholars’ starting points and track every middle schooler over the school years. We utilize a Student Services Coordinator and a School Therapist to help further our scholars’ development and we enjoy extra-curricular activities to round out our experiences together.

5. We Are the Community We Serve

We are proud to serve and partner with our Near Westside community as the only standalone middle school. We reflect the diversity of our surrounding neighborhood and our teachers and staff look like the community we serve. We pledge to maintain this diversity going forward and to be a robust member of our broader 46222 environs.

6. Parent-School-Scholar Partnerships

We have a dedicated service-learning class in our school day and a Capstone Service Project for our seventh graders. We host quarterly town hall meetings for the community. And we never stop elevating the parent-school-scholar partnership; it’s the cornerstone of our success as a community-based public charter school. Our students’ academic dreams, and those of their families, are our mission.

7. Learn. Serve. Lead.

We incorporate our goal-oriented culture outside the classroom, too. Our learn, serve, lead approach comes to life in the world around us and from the history upholding us with field trips, service learning, and community outreach. We have created schoolwide celebrations like Black History Month and special incentives where our students can earn Pacer and Colt tickets, or holiday trips to drive the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We never stop striving to learn, serve and lead.

8. Our Test Results Speak Volumes

The NWEA-MAP tools help us identify each scholar’s academic starting points as early as possible. Our scholars take tests three times during the school year, and with the results, we can pinpoint individual student needs.

Some key results for Vanguard Collegiate of Indianapolis:

  • Our scholars collectively outscore their projected growth in all areas.
  • Our Language Usage consistently grows by two years’ worth, and our Science scores typically progress three years’ worth, in one year.

9. Fulfilling our Mission

We are dedicated to teaching the sixth to eighth grade members of our community. We are tireless in our work, ensuring each of our scholars get the individualized attention they need to succeed, regardless of social economic status, race, ZIP code or family economic status. We actively promote and pursue support for our school – through volunteer efforts, fundraising and grants.

Our ProAct Indy award is just one recent example of our commitment to our scholars, families and our community. This is how we fulfill our mission.

10. Our Promise

Through meaningful, quality instruction, rigorous curriculum and important character-development, Vanguard Collegiate of Indianapolis equips scholars with critical thinking skills, integrity, and a sense of personal and social responsibility. We will strive together to achieve educational dreams and realize leaders who can change the world.