![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Akhiya-Fields-Clarke-7th-Maya-Ortiz-7th-Ariana-Rodriguez-6th.jpeg\")
Middle schoolers Akhiya Fields Clarke, Maya Ortiz and Ariana Rodriguez get their nails done as a part of Creo College Prep\u2019s self-care day. Photo by Claude Solnik<\/p>\nIt was hardly a typical day at the Creo College Preparatory Charter School in the South Bronx.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Following a day where students sat for hours, taking mock state exams, they were pampered by barbers and nail technicians, petted therapy dogs, sang karaoke, played video games and ate ice-cream.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs adults, after we do a big, hard thing we reward ourselves,\u201d said Benjamin Samuels-Kalow, the founder of Creo College Prep. \u201cIf we get a promotion, we might go on a vacation or treat ourselves to a haircut or go shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of their students \u2013not including those who had excessive absences\u2013 spent one day before break indulging in self care at a school that seeks to encourage responsibility as well as provide rewards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of options,\u201d said sixth grader Madison Garcia, who enjoyed having her nails done and spending time with a dog. \u201cAfter we do this, we go on break. It\u2019s to send you out with a little care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Middle schoolers Akhiya Fields Clarke, Maya Ortiz and Ariana Rodriguez get their nails done as a part of Creo College Prep\u2019s self-care day. Photo by Claude Solnik<\/p>\n
Seventh grader Logan Adams enjoyed the video games and pets, while sixth grader London Riggins enjoyed spending time with the dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very loving,\u201d Riggins said. \u201cAnd they cheer you up.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Sixth grader Jovany Acevedo found the self care day to be relaxing, a break from typical school activities and a way to refresh before the break.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s calming,\u201d Acevedo said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to show that your skin matters and how you should take care of your body.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Creo College Prep has been beating the odds with students\u2019 scores soaring as well as maintaining teacher retention.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
While self-care day is one example of Creo College Prep\u2019s winning strategy, it also gives interim assessments, where students take mock state exams.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s helpful,\u201d Riggins said of mock state exams. \u201cIt shows you what to expect from the real test and things you learn earlier in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acevedo added, \u201cYou need practice so you know what to do in the real tests.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Yet another student, Adams, took a practical approach. \u201cPractice makes perfect,\u201d he said. \u201cIt helps you understand what happens on the state tests later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuels-Kalow said the school acclimates students to tests by giving mock exams where scores aren\u2019t calculated into semester grades. The idea is to take some of the fear out of testing.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Assistant-Principal-Sam-Brotman-helps-Donovan-Macias-with-math-homework.jpeg\")
Assistant Principal Sam Brotman helps student Donovan Macias with math homework. Photo by Claude Solnik<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you do something a lot, it becomes less scary, but a way to show off,\u201d Samuels-Kalow said. \u201cWhen sports teams have scrimmages, they don\u2019t complain to their coach that they\u2019re having a mock game. It\u2019s how they get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creo College Prep doesn\u2019t cherry pick students based on high performance, but performance tends to rise.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get kids from 50 to 70 elementary schools,\u201d Samuels-Kallow said. \u201cThe majority come in not reading on what the state considers fifth grade level or math. We have kids who can\u2019t add in fifth grade or don\u2019t know letters who are English speakers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The students typically leave their school at a very different place, seeing double-digit improvement rapidly.\n<\/p>\n
According to the most recent data, 70% of Creo College Prep\u2019s students have ELA test scores at or above grade level compared to 44% of the rest of their district.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what\u2019s cool about children\u2019s brains?\u201d Samuels- Kalow said, citing the power of belief backed by process. \u201cIf you tell kids you\u2019re going to learn to read by the end of this year, they learn how to read.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuels-Kalow said he created Creo College Prep based on a few basic principles on best practices of how to make education enjoyable.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning how to read is not some magical thing,\u201d Samuels-Kalow said. \u201cIt\u2019s a teachable sequence of steps.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Samuels-Kalow has spent his entire teaching career in the Bronx, but grew up on the Upper East Side and then the East Village before going to Hunter College and then the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n
Creating Creo College Prep
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ms.-Ana-Villada-teaches-7th-Grade-English-Small-Group-Instruction.jpeg\")
Ms. Ana Villada teaches a small group of 7th grade English at Creo College Prep. Photo by Claude Solnik<\/p>\n
In 2012 he began working as a computer science and economics teacher at the Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, for 6-12 grades in the Bronx \u2013just blocks from where he would open Creo College Prep.<\/p>\n
Samuels-Kalow began a fellowship designed to create leaders in starting high achieving charter schools.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a year, I visited 50 high performing schools across the country,\u201d he said. \u201cThey opened their doors and said take whatever works. There are aspects of this school we developed. A lot of the things that make this school work are learnable.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2019, Samuels-Kalow started Creo College Prep, \u201cCreo\u201d was named after the Spanish word, \u201cI believe.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The school was a critical addition to the neighborhood where 60 to 70% of the population speaks Spanish as their first language.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important for us to have the name of the school be in the language that the majority of our students speak,\u201d Samuels-Kalow said. \u201cIf they can leave every day, saying, \u2018Io creo,\u2019 I believe in myself, my neighborhood, we\u2019re doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creo College Prep is a New York State Department of Education authorized charter school that Samuels-Kalow said was founded \u201cto educate students to thrive in college and assume responsibility for identifying and solving problems in our community and world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They are a 501C(3) nonprofit audited annually with a board of directors who meets monthly, open to the public, with an $11 million budget for 360 students \u2013a little less than traditional public schools.<\/p>\n
Class sizes can get up to 24 and their curriculum includes college prep, coding courses, yoga and holistic classes, along with traditional subjects.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThriving in college is not just passing exams,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s having the resilience and passion to try new things and persevere.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Burning interest not burning out
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Creo-students-playing-chess.jpeg\")
Creo College Prep students playing chess during their self-care day. Photo by Claude Solnik<\/p>\n
The tuition-free school has a longer school day and year than typical New York City schools, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
Teachers teach English and math in the morning and other subjects in the afternoon, such as science, history, computer science, health and wellness. They can use the other half of the day to grade, look at data, talk to parents and give students feedback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c50% of urban teachers leave the profession within five years,\u201dSamuels-Kalow said about teacher burn out. \u201cWe\u2019re at 90% retention. We need to make conditions where teachers and kids do the work we\u2019re asking and we need to be thoughtful about designing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students described the school as designed to be enjoyable but also that they are given a lot of responsibility.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first year here,\u201d Riggins said. \u201cThey\u2019re helping you understand, getting to the goals you need to get to. Goals can help you achieve what you want to be, what you want to do in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creo College Prep is showing that it can help students, helping lift scores and motivate their students without cherry picking.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get kids in fifth grade not performing at a high level,\u201d Samuels-Kalow said. \u201cWe get 50 points of growth in English and math, outscoring the neighborhood schools in our district by large margins.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charter school\u2019s first graduating class attended school in the basement of a Catholic school, growing 50% in ELA and 40% in math scores.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Their second graduating class, which did fifth grade on Zoom, grew by 52% in ELA and 54% in math with a 100% pass rate on the algebra Regents for the eighth grade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their third graduating class \u2013the first to spend four years in the school\u2013 grew ELA scores by 56% and math by 53%, also with 100% passing algebra.\n<\/p>\n
The\u00a0 word \u201cThrive\u201d is written on classroom walls in capital letters with letters which stand for: Team, Hard work, Repeat, Ingenuity, Voice and Excellence. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school is cheerful,\u201d said Adams, who has been at the school since April. \u201cBefore the tests, they say, \u2018Are you ready?\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n
What works at Creo College Prep
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ms.-Olivia-Comm-leads-7th-Grade-English-Seminar.jpeg\")
Ms. Olivia Comm leads her 7th grade English seminar. Photo by Claude Solnik<\/p>\n
According to Samuels-Kalow, what makes the school successful is people working together towards one mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked in schools with an accumulation of talent, teachers doing their own thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThis school is a bunch of people constantly in communication and coordination toward one goal, a school where kids are always safe and never bored.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do is reproducible. What we do takes consistency and effort,\u201d Samuels-Kalow added.\n<\/p>\n
Students are selected to enter the school through a random lottery in April with 96 seats.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe practice, get ready, prepare our lessons, get up in front of each other and teach and get feedback,\u201d Samuels-Kalow said. \u201cSchool shouldn\u2019t be an unpleasant activity. You put in hard work. You get to use your intellect, have joy. Those things are connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
As students greeted him while we walked through the hall, Samuels-Kalow began talking about how he greets students every morning. \u201cI had a kid yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cI greet him every day in the morning with a fist bump.\u201d<\/p>\n
That student, Samuels-Kalow added, has test anxiety. Yet, he had great news he couldn\u2019t wait to tell the student.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got the highest score you ever got, crush it today,\u201d Samuels-Kalow said, believing confidence is contagious. \u201cHe kept his head up and did his test.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was hardly a typical day at the Creo College Preparatory Charter School in the South Bronx.\u00a0 Following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[40245,128,25408,40246,9,24,40247,63,40248,2393,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-81563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-benjamin-samuels-kalow","tag-bronx","tag-charter-school","tag-creo-college-prep","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state-department-of-education","tag-nyc","tag-practice-test","tag-south-bronx","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}