Fusion Academy Opening Four New Schools this Spring

Expanding in Colorado, California, Florida, and Opening its First Campus in Tennessee

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fusion Academy, the nation's most engaging school, will bring its accredited personalized learning model of one teacher to one student for each class to four new cities this spring.

"Year after year, families across the country trust Fusion Academy with their student's education. Children develop self-confidence through our one-to-one approach to learning, they find their voice, and they thrive," said Peter Ruppert, Chief Executive Officer of Fusion Education Group (FEG).

The new campus locations are located at:

• Fusion Academy Palm Beach Gardens, 11300 Legacy Avenue, Suite 220, Fla.
• Fusion Academy Santa Barbara, 510 State Street, 2nd Floor, Calif.
• Fusion Academy Franklin, 2550 Meridian Boulevard, Suite 100, Franklin, Tenn.
• Fusion Academy Boulder County, 168 Centennial Parkway, Suite 100, Louisville, Colo.

"These four new schools offer families a personalized education choice for their middle and high schoolers that equally weighs social and emotional learning and academics," Ruppert added.

The Santa Barbara and Palm Beach Gardens campuses will open in April and the Franklin and Boulder County campuses in June. Fusion's continued growth comes on the heels of its opening of three new schools since last August in Reston, Va., San Antonio, Texas and Minneapolis, Minn. and reflects the education provider's ongoing commitment to scaling its in-person individualized learning model.

Founded in the belief that a personalized education that balances the social and emotional well-being of students with their academic journey is the best way for middle and high school students to learn, FEG has been scaling Fusion Academy's model since 2010. Fusion began as a tutoring center in 1989 in Southern California. Today Fusion Academy annually serves more than 5,000 students enrolled in 67 schools located in 18 states, and the District of Columbia.

Fusion teachers personalize instruction for student strengths, interests, and learning preferences. Schedules are customized so students take classes at a time of day that works best for them. Athletes, actors, and students with extracurricular passions can schedule school around their life instead of the other way around. Other students who attend Fusion include gifted or accelerated students, students with mild learning differences such as dyslexia, or those seeking a more personalized learning experience.

"The pandemic provided many families an epiphany. The traditional school setting didn't work for their children," said Lynna Martinez-Khalilian, FEG Vice President of Education Programs & Services. "At Fusion, families find a safe, nurturing space, where teachers are members of a team that mentors, partners and truly cares about the physical and mental well-being of their students."

Fusion's approach ensures students are better prepared academically, socially, and emotionally for their future. Fusion Academy student surveys show dramatic increases in academic engagement, positive relationships, and emotional support:

• 95% of students report being academically engaged at Fusion, up from 47% at their previous school
• 93% of students report having positive relationships at Fusion, up from 37% before enrolling.
• 87% of students reported that they received the emotional support they needed within their first three months at Fusion, up from 27% before enrolling.

Fusion Academy utilizes different assessment tools to create a custom learning roadmap for students. At enrollment Fusion students take two assessments: Measures of Academic Progress (MAP®) and Mindprint, which help teachers understand both their level of knowledge, as well as how they process information, how their memory works, and how they reason.

"These tools create the baseline from which the student will grow," said Martinez-Khalilian. "We then create a personalized curriculum that establishes a trajectory with measurable goals that reflects how a student learns in order to acquire subject mastery and flourish academically."

Like traditional schools, every Fusion campus fosters social interaction. The Homework Café spaces not only ensure students complete their homework before leaving for the day, but the cafés are also social hubs; where student meetings occur, clubs meet, and more. Fusion campuses also feature a state-of-the-art recording studio, a mixed-media art studio, and a science lab with college-level tools. Fusion Academies are intentionally small to serve as a haven from large traditional schools, and rarely exceed 100 students. Students can attend Fusion full-time for middle and high school, part-time tutoring, credit classes, or college counselling. Fusion students have been accepted to more than 200 unique colleges and universities, many being their first-choice school.

Families wanting to explore Fusion's flexible learning model can enroll their students in an array of summer programs tailored to ensure that students get ample respite while remaining engaged in their learning. Fusion offers more than 250 classes that are available for in-person, virtual, or hybrid learning and focus on three core areas: 

• Build Key Life and Organization Skills: Students can sharpen skills with Fusion's unique Skill Launch Camps designed to build necessary skills for student success.
• Accelerate: Students can continue advanced learning with classes for credit in a personalized, one-to-one setting at an accelerated pace.
• Remediation: Fusion offers students classes for credit and tutoring to fill learning loss gaps, recover failed credits, or rebuild a learning foundation.

About Fusion Academy:
Fusion Academy offers quality individualized education to middle and high schoolers at its more than 65 campuses in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Fusion Academy is part of Fusion Education Group an organization committed to providing accredited personalized education and also includes Futures Academy, that offers one-to-one and small group instruction at 15 California campuses, Barnstable which offers traditional college-prep in a small school setting in New Jersey, and Fusion Global Academy which offers one-to-one personalized education for middle and high school students through a completely virtual campus that currently serves students in the United States and 17 additional countries. Learn more about Fusion Education Group here.

About MAP®:
The MAP® assessment is an independent assessment developed by NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) and used worldwide. MAP® covers three areas: Language Usage, Mathematics, and Reading, and creates a personalized testing experience by adjusting questions based on a student's ongoing performance. Fusion teachers utilize the results to gain a more accurate sense of the content a student has mastered.

About Mindprint:
Mindprint is a cognitive assessment that reveals why a student is performing at a certain level. This tool helps teachers understand a student's cognitive process while working to identify where challenges might occur due to processing speed, memory, executive functions, or complex reasoning.

SOURCE Fusion Education Group