This week, we profile the extraordinary Ignacio Prado, founder and executive director of Futuro Academy in Las Vegas.
As a ten-year-old, Ignacio Prado’s family moved to the United States from Argentina. This happened “on little warning,” so Ignacio started fifth grade knowing little English. It took until he was in eighth grade for a teacher to see his potential and encourage him.
“I realized those were really impactful moments,” he said. It was a tiny spark of light, just barely illuminating the power education can hold.
Fast forward a few years. As a college student at San Diego State University (SDSU), Ignacio studied finance and served in the student government. During that time, he was on a task force examining a slate of proposed cuts to the California State University system and what those options would mean for SDSU students.
Because of that experience, Ignacio got to see different models of what would happen to SDSU enrollment if proposed changes were made, including raising ACT score requirements for admissions. With this data, he saw a clear picture: wealthier northern parts of San Diego had high schools with substantially higher ACT scores than poorer schools in the southern part of the city.
“I saw that it was extremely predictive where you went to high school whether or not you fell off the bus or not,” he said. When Teach For America reached out, it became a call to help students.
“I was very ready to jump in,” Ignacio said. “There was nothing I could do about Cal State’s $1.5 billion in the hole but there was something I could do about these disparities in education.”
Breakthroughs
Ignacio began his teaching career via Teach For America in Las Vegas, teaching elementary school in a traditional school district. That once-tiny spark of light grew bigger, brighter and more enthralling to Ignacio.
“I just really loved it. The day-to-day of teaching, I find to be wonderful,” he said. “The moments when we have breakthroughs, when we have gains, when the data comes in—that’s like, my favorite days. It’s a feeling that I just got addicted to.”
Ignacio didn’t take summers off. He spent them working with Teach For America to help train incoming new teachers. One summer, he worked on a school team at Gabriella Charter School in Los Angeles (which Jed wrote about recently). That was the first time Ignacio had ever heard of a charter school and his eyes were widened.
“That was my entry into charter schools. I was like, ‘Oh, this is what’s possible.’ It was remarkable what could happen when you get that level of cohesion and mission orientation,” he said.
Spinning plates
Returning to Las Vegas, there weren’t many charter schools, and very few in the urban core. Ignacio was still working in a traditional district school, despite his positive experience at Gabriella.
“In the district, we would see really accelerated outcomes but the challenge when we were trying to do something was that we were having to like, hack around system-imposed barriers,” he said.
By coincidence, Ignacio stumbled into an opportunity—a fellowship to plan and develop a new charter school in Las Vegas.
“I just jumped through the next open window,” he said. During his fellowship, Ignacio got his charter petition approved and spent a year planning for the opening of the school, Futuro Academy.
“It was incredible,” he said. “It was great preparation for what it’s like now. You’re spinning all these plates; you’re hoping that everything that’s supposed to comes together at the right time. It’s almost like Cape Canaveral—a countdown, and then you take off.”
‘Obsessed with your future’
Futuro Academy launched in a retrofitted grocery store on Las Vegas’ east side in 2017. The store, which had sat empty for years, transformed into a bustling home to kindergarten and first graders. It was the first option in the area for families seeking something other than the Clark County School District.
From day one, the school’s purpose was clear. Even its name reflected the idea that Las Vegas students deserved a full future, full of opportunities.
“Futuro means future in Spanish. So, starting in kindergarten, we’re obsessed with your future,” Ignacio said. “Our goal is always to provide a school that will increase the proficiency of students and open doors. And parents want that. They’ll go through all sorts of things to get their kids here. They want them to continuously have more and more open doors.”
Futuro Academy now owns the 45,000-square-foot building and serves nearly 500 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. About 45% of students are English Language Learners and 100% are provided with free breakfast and lunch.
The school has been a success, achieving a four-star rating (out of five) on Nevada’s school performance rating system, averaging more than double the index points of its neighboring district schools. (Nevada schools receive index points across a number of performance indicators, like academic achievement and chronic absenteeism, and the total number of those points helps determine a school’s star rating.)
Small things, big wins
In addition to leading Futuro, Ignacio is the vice chair of the Charter School Association of Nevada (CSAN) board, carrying his now-beaming light for education outside of the walls of Futuro Academy, with the hope he can kindle a spark for more leaders.
“Leadership is sometimes isolating and siloing. There’s just not that many comparable people in your building or organization. So, connecting to the movement, trying to move the needle, that can be energizing and create a sense of community,” Ignacio said.
But Ignacio doesn’t believe that everyone needs to serve on their charter school association board in order to drive positive change for charter school students.
“You can do small things consistently and score big wins,” Ignacio said. “It’s not a giant thing. You don’t have to plan marches every day. You can just educate people and do relationship work. Not everyone is logging on to the state accountability portal and comparing and contrasting schools. You can spread the message.”
For Ignacio, perhaps the biggest impact on charter school advocacy in Nevada is the success of Futuro Academy and showing by example what is possible.
“Once you create a proof point that challenges the narrative, all of a sudden it begins to suggest that others could be doing the same,” he said. “It was previously a constant trying to rationalize failure or twiddle your thumbs about how to make society better, but there was nothing to celebrate or replicate. Now, I get questions about ‘Wow, what’s going on at that school?’ And people now want to see what’s happening in East Las Vegas.”