Knowledge and Aptitude Are Only Part of the Education Equation

The driving force guiding Building Minds for the Future is cultivating an attitude of exceptionalism, a culture where excellence is expected. Through Building Minds, this expectation will find its foundation in our youth rather than being simply directed from authority.

The organization takes a fresh approach to educating youth, helping each child recognize that attitude and critical thinking reinforces, actually uplifts, the hard skills of reading, math, science, and engineering along with all other academic areas. Critical thinking, consequential decision-making and a desire for excellence is what employers are looking for and what putting American education back on top will require.

 

Competitive Edge:

 

We aim to empower underserved youth with consequential decision-making and marketable bilingual skills (Spanish and English), coupled with a MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) Certification before graduation, greatly enhancing their community value and future earning opportunities.

 

We firmly believe there are no effective 'fix-all' solutions available and every youth that we serve is unique with specific needs for empowerment. The following programs are used in accordance with our unique methodology, tailored to the specific need in support with assisting the underserved youth:

 

1) the SaviLearning program  - empowering youth with 'critical-thinking' and 'consequential decision-making' skills producing bottom-line results

 

2)the University of Texas at Austin K-16 Continuing and Innovative Education program - empowering youth with proven 'effective consequential decision-making' services and courses that meet the demand for greater knowledge and accountability


3) the AVID program - empowering youth with 'college readiness' skills


4) the S.T.E.M program  - empowering youth with 'Science, Technology, Engineering and Math' skills

 

5) the Scholastic program - empowering youth with READ 180® and System 44™ skills that are proven-effective reading intervention programs that have helped transform school districts. Additional innovative products like Expert 21™, Expert Space, Read About, Timeliner® XE, FASTT Math™, Do the Math®, Scholastic Zip Zoom™ English, Wiggleworks®, BookFlix™, and Fraction Nation™ all target the hardest-to-reach youth and support the development of core skills for a wide range of age groups and skill levels. 

 

ACT Assessment 

 

We enrich underserved youth opportunities in the community by our unique ACT® process. ACT® is an acronym defined by the - 'A' as in Accountable, 'C' as in Consequential and 'T' as in Thought - for the execution of an immediate plan of action to achieve maximum individual prosperity.

 

Our ACT® assessment defines three basic areas:

 

1) 'historical choices and decisions' - this initial interviewing process includes relevant school benchmarks such as report cards, counselors records and files, complete home and community evaluations,

 

2) 'self-value and purpose' - a review of the aggregated results of previously made decisions, empowering the youth with attitudinal alignment resources for his or her individual achievement, and

 

3) 'effective resources' are provided,  leading to the attainment of sustainable goals and objectives, building a better family unit and community environment.

 

Act Assessment Process

 

The following instruments are used in a seven-step process to generate evidence relevant to the foundation of consequential decision-making skills applicable to attaining education and learning:

 

1.      Consequential decision-making: Protocol for Interviewing: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, the youth is thinking consequentially while making decisions. 

 

2.      Consequential decision-making: Concepts and Understandings: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, the youth understands the fundamental concepts embedded in consequential decision-making (evaluates the youth’s readiness to think critically). 

 

3.      Consequential decision-making (Subtest): Analytic Reasoning: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, the youth is able to reason analytically.

 

4.      Consequential decision-making: Conscientious Test: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, the youth can reason effectively between conflicting view points (the youth’s ability to identify strong and weak arguments for conflicting positions in reasoning).

 

5.       Consequential decision-making: Reading and Writing Test: Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, the youth can read attentively and write substantively (the youth’s ability to read and write critically). 

 

6.       Consequential decision-making: Comprehensive Test: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, the youth is able to analyze and assess excerpts from textbooks or professional writing. 

 

7.      Assessment Evaluation Form: provides evidence of how the youth perceives his or her optimal individual achievement plan. 

 

 

After the aforementioned 7-step ACT® Assessment process, a rubric for enhancing the youth’s skills is implemented and executed to attain optimal individual achievement.


Our objective is to empower underserved youth with a foundation premised upon consequential decision-making with marketable bilingual skills (Spanish and English), coupled with a basic Microsoft certification, MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) before graduation. The unique process equips youth with needed marketable skills and the opportunity to become an above average productive member of society.

Excellence Is Our Future
Reaching our up and coming entrepreneurs, innovators, employees and leaders with the tools and resources they need to develop both technical and soft skill capabilities will position them to take their future place and return America to a leadership position in innovation and high tech capability.