Reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic may be the traditional “3 R’s of many school systems, but Harmony has developed and adopted its own version of the 3Rs to set higher goals for our students.
The success of our students at Harmony is based on a program emphasizing academic excellence while motivating student achievement. The Harmony School model is:
- Rigorous(prepares students for college);
- Relevant(reinforces math and science skills); and,
- Relationships(a strong culture of meaningful personal relationships, reinforced by teachers and parents).
Harmony attributes the strong performance of its schools and students to three core principles within the school model:
- A challenging math and science curriculum supported by theory;
- A focus on assessment across the school system; and,
- A culture of constructive competition, discipline and parental engagement.
“Can Do” Support System from School to Staff to Student
Harmony is steadily growing as an entrepreneurial organization. In just 10 years, the organization has grown from one school in one city to a multi-city, robust network of more than 35 schools with support for every Harmony student.
Harmony has built its support network to leverage two core organizational strengths:
- A strong culture of collaboration, demonstrated by the “can do,” passionate attitude of its staff.
- A distributed leadership model that enables deep consistency and fidelity to the school model, as well as quick and effective decision-making.
The resulting network builds upon these strengths at each individual school, while providing support to all schools through our central office.
The Success Behind Harmony’s Collaborative Network
- Schools consistently deliver a high-quality program, based on our experience and success to date and led by school administrators and teachers who fill key administrative responsibilities
- Collaborative and responsive regional clusters, led by:
- Cluster superintendents, who manage day-to-day cluster-wide responsibilities
- Knowledge leaders, such as principals and assistant principals working within clusters, who ensure consistency with the school model while developing school- or cluster-specific best practices
- A lean central office led by Harmony’s Executive Director (ED) with a five-person leadership team supplying strategic guidance, technical support, and financial aid to all clusters
College-Ready
At Harmony, students are expected to master their subjects, and every Harmony student graduates college-ready. Our high school program is designed to provide each student with the essential elements of a college prep education, along with opportunities to engage in the exploration of intense study of particular fields of interest.
Strategic Collaboration with Higher Education Institutions
Harmony actively collaborates with local colleges and universities. Harmony post-secondary partnerships:
- Engage our students in research projects in collaboration with college-level engineers and scientists
- Expose our students to the collegiate environment
- Provide professional development to teachers
- Empower our students with college credit options
Higher education institutions that collaborate with Harmony include Rice University, Texas A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Houston.