Data-Driven/TECH-ENABLED
Raising kids is hard. We’re here to help.
We engage students and families in personalized, data-driven learning and health while promoting school/home collaboration.
Consolidate health and learning data for a holistic roadmap.
A Dedicated K12 Advisor, Student Profile and Roadmap
- Dedicated, Independent Advisor and a K12 Ally Membership; menu of assessments, Advisory Sessions, liaison to Counselor, Teachers, triage to Specialized Support.
- K12 Ally App w/ Student Health and Learning Profile (Encrypted, famiy-owned) to improve diagnostic accuracy in a Personalized Roadmap. Integrates w/ a-z apps.
Know the data, know the answers
BETA: Consolidate your personal data for AI-enabled health and learning.
Academy Health and Learning sees a future where a more comprehensive, user-owned personal data profile empowers the individual student and patient to take an active role in their health and learning. We are looking for true believers to help us improve and to scale.
Get in Touch
Interested in testing the BETA version of KnoMe.app? Click here.
Adolescent Health and Learning: Interrelated and Mutually Dependent
Ten years of providing holistic, student-centric academic support to families with children led us to the revelation that true, personalized learning requires a complete health and learning profile for the student, plus information on family, environment, and all out-of-school factors; know the data, know the answers. In our student/family-owned KnoMe.app, you collect and control personal data in a decentralized and encrpted data wallet. Personal ownership of our data, plus 21st-century encryption, gives us the confidence to digitize all the data elements and unlock power of Machine Learning for insights we can share with designated educators, counselors, and clinicians.
About Academy (Health &) Learning
A Science Teacher's Approach to Academic Intervention: Student-Centric, Holistic, Personlized.
Founded in 2013 as a STEAM Learning Center, Academy Learning's mission was to help parents prepare their children for success. Founder, Salli Cavanaugh Ford, M.Ed. intended to offer personalized STEAM Enrichment Plans, but soon was asked to also offer academic support and tutoring. Instead of promoting her own or one specific method, Salli approached each student's case as a science teacher and mom. It turns out that starting with a blank slate, collecting input and data, and using the scientific method to discover whether there was a root cause for a student's struggles produced results. Rather than selling tutoring contracts that amounted to treating the symptoms, Salli's approach sought to diagnose and cure the disease. Academy Learning's "360-Degree Student Profile" considered grades, test scores, teacher/counselor input, family environment, and various in-school and out-of-school factors. Salli's sincere focus on pursuing the student's best interest gained her the needed trust with studens and their families, not to mention teachers, school counselors, and school leaders. Salli became a sought-after and invaluable K-12 Educational Consultant, providing advice on a wide range of issues facing students and families. Importantly, whether it was STEAM classes, K-12 Tutoring, or Consulting, Salli's approach was naturally student-centered. Her Team acted as collaborators, extensions of the work happening at school, and valuable liaisons between students, families, and educators, school counselors, and Special Education resources. The updated mission of Academy is; help students and families create complete Personalized Health and Learning Profiles to share with schools and professionals towards the best interest of the student. We invite you to become a client, collaborator, partner, or employee.
Salli Cavanaugh Ford, M.Ed.
“You really go to his school and meet with his teacher?” The father of a struggling middle school student could hardly believe his ears. Salli Cavanaugh Ford, M.Ed. (Boston College), the Founder of Academy Learning, was offering to meet with the student’s teacher in order to collaborate on his success. This concerned parent was looking for some extra help from a Tutor. He found academic support for sure, but he also found another parent; a passionate, dedicated, educator willing to go the extra mile for his son.
Academy Learning opened its doors on October 1, 2013, Salli Ford and her team served families and students from over 35 schools in the Northern California centered around Sacramento. The Academy offered one-on-one tutoring with qualified, experienced Tutors, Study and Organizational Skills sessions, Test Prep, and an innovative “AfterSchool Advancement” program for students seeking an academic edge. But what made Salli and her team at the Academy stand out, was their philosophy of both family engagement and collaboration with the school and teacher. Salli saw a key role for the Academy in leveraging every possible resource available to help a child succeed, starting with the parents and classroom teacher, and extending to the efforts of the Academy staff and to study tools and select software. As a parent herself, Salli recognizes what a daunting challenge parents of school-age children face. She says her reward is hearing parents say “thanks for giving us back our family time.”
Salli Ford grew up in Auburn, CA and attended Loretto High School Sacramento and then Creighton University where she earned a B.S. in Environmental Science with a Minor in Spanish. She then moved to Boston to work in an innovative all-girls middle school called Mother Caroline Academy (MCA). The mission was and is to intervene in the lives of at-risk girls with intensive academic formation in order to prepare them for very competitive high schools and colleges. MCA demonstrated to Salli the importance of the 5th-8th grade years in preparing the student to become lifelong learners and of parent involvement. “My passion to teach started with my students in Boston.” says Salli. “I was with them from early morning, through after-school activities and into an evening study hall. Motivating them to succeed was my whole life.”
Salli later enrolled in the Lynch Graduate School of Education at Boston College. By the time she completed her M.Ed., she had gotten married and started a family. Salli taught science in an inner-city high school and Biology as a Teaching Assistant at Boston College. She later worked as a Director of Admissions and as an Administrator with special needs students at Lesley University. Over several years spent raising her children in Dallas, Salli founded her own Summer Science Camps before going back to the classroom in Sacramento to teach Science to grades K-5. After a family sabbatical and service trip to La Paz,in lower Baja in Spring/Summer 2013, Salli returned to Sacramento to launch Academy Learning.