Wesley International Academy - Charter School

Highlights: Charter School, Single Gender, International Baccalaureate Program (PYP and MYP), Mandarin – Second Language School

Wesley International Academy is a tuition-free, public charter school serving students kindergarten through eighth grade in a single gender setting. At Imagine Wesley each child will be treated as a unique individual and encouraged to reach his or her true potential. The students will participate in a curriculum that follows the guidelines set by the International Baccalaureate Organization’s (IBO) Primary Years Program (PYP) and Middle Years Program (MYP). The parents/guardians, students and educators, are required to work together to create a positive, warm, loving environment in which the student can develop their whole self. The school will explore and celebrate cultural differences in an academically challenging, nurturing and intentionally multi-ethnic environment. Our children will have the great fortune of incorporating a second language (Mandarin) into their everyday lives starting in kindergarten. The goal is to encourage the children to develop into global thinkers and lifelong learners.

These are truly our desires: to allow the child to grow and learn as a globally aware individual, to foster a love for life-long learning, to encourage enormous involvement of parents/guardians and educators in a diverse and flexible environment, and to offer a unique alternative in education for the Atlanta Public School District. Our intention is to create exceptional opportunities for all the students by delivering the curriculum through an international approach and enhance the learning opportunities already offered through the Atlanta Public School District. In short, Wesley International Academy will provide parents another choice for schooling.

Our approach to education is to allow decision making to flourish at a local level while creating equal weighting to five measure of excellence for the school: Academic Success, Character Education, Economic Sustainability, Parent Satisfaction, and Adherence to Shared Values (Justice, Integrity, & Fun). Having the experience, professionalism, and business savvy to operate a public school is only part of what will make Imagine Wesley International Academy healthy and successful; the other piece is a strong vision for the students of Atlanta.
The Primary Goals of the School are as follows:

• Wesley International Academy students will show steady progress each year toward reaching their maximum potential. Each student will be evaluated based on a longitudinal profile of that student’s success by testing each student on a Norm Referenced Test (NRT) in the Fall and the Spring of the same school year.

• Wesley International Academy students will show steady progress in developing fluency in Chinese language.

• Wesley International Academy believes that parental involvement is key in any charter school and crucial for a child’s educational success. Research has shown that students attending schools with strong parental involvement perform better and achieve more. As such, parents and/or legal guardians will be expected to contribute at least 10 hours (two adult caregiver household) or 5 hours (single adult caregiver household) per household per school year. These hours will be dedicated to the students and school’s success through both “in” and “out” of school volunteer opportunities. Wesley will ensure that these opportunities are varied and available during the day, evening and weekends to accommodate the busy schedules of our families.
• Wesley International Academy’s parents will indicate high levels of satisfaction with the school’s program as evidenced by the annual School Climate Survey.
• Wesley International Academy will operate in an economically sustainable way.


We believe that this innovative school has the potential to be a jewel in the crown of the Atlanta Public School system because of its unique offerings for education as outlined above. We also believe that our relationship with Imagine Schools Non Profit will ensure both the educational excellence of the program as well as its financial viability. We would like the school to attract people to the neighborhood in which it is situated and indeed to Atlanta itself.