Organization
HOPE Christian Schools is a network of six college preparatory schools in Milwaukee and Racine. HOPE is a part of Open Sky Education (OSE), an entrepreneurial not-for-profit, Christian organization in tireless pursuit of a full and lasting education for all children. OSE works to ensure that world-class academics, character formation and faith-based educational choices are accessible and affordable for all. Open Sky Education creates, supports, leads, and grows a family of learning environments, including HOPE Christian Schools, EAGLE College Preparatory Schools, Soaring Education Services, Compass Educational Programs, and the Character Formation Project.
Currently, Open Sky Education’s Wisconsin region provides educational programming on six campuses serving roughly 3,000 scholars. On each of these sites is located a HOPE Christian private school through which the HOPE Board and OSE works collaboratively to ensure they offer rigorous academic, character, and faith formation programming in a safe and loving environment.
Mission and Vision
Mission: HOPE Christian Schools exist to provide a high-quality, Christian education in a safe, supportive environment where teaching and learning are exciting and students graduate well prepared to become inspirations to their families, leaders in their communities and successes in their workplace.
Vision: HOPE is dedicated to developing a network of schools that provide a Christian education that is genuinely transformational for our students. We are tireless in our commitment to establishing a distinctive identity as one of America’s finest college-preparatory institutions, developing students who are academic standouts and active community servants.
Purpose: HOPE Christian Schools are driven by the love of Christ, building learning communities that inspire, equip, and support Serving Leaders to transform the world.
Today, HOPE Christian Schools is a network of six private K4-8 Christian college-preparatory schools serving nearly 3,000 scholars in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin. The six HOPE schools in Milwaukee participate in the Milwaukee Parental School Choice Program. Their school in Racine is part of the Racine Parental Choice Program. Nearly 100 percent of the scholars qualify for free or reduced lunch and live in some of the most impoverished areas of these two urban centers. Despite the statistical odds being stacked against them, HOPE scholars are proving what is possible. Their elementary scholars demonstrate strong academic results and grow faster than their peers, as demonstrated on the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measures of Academic Progress (NWEA MAP), a nationally normed growth assessment.
All of this began with the passion, energy, and inspiration of HOPE's founders, who had hearts for service and a love for children whom they saw not as statistics but rather as God's own children, created on purpose and for a great purpose. None of this could have happened, or indeed can continue, without God's ongoing grace and blessing at every step along the journey. Looking back on over two decades of the growth and development of HOPE Christian Schools, it is clear that God put the talented people, the courageous leaders, and groundbreaking public policies in place at key moments in time to bring HOPE to life, sustain it and grow it.
HOPE is an acronym that stands for "Holding Onto the Promises Everywhere." This acronym's formation was one step of many along the way as HOPE has evolved and developed more clarity in its communication. From the very beginning, the culture of HOPE Christian Schools has been a continuous improvement with an entrepreneurial mindset, always refining and finding better ways to accomplish our mission. HOPE's mission has included the same three pillars since the beginning:
1. Deliver excellent academics
2. Create the opportunity for strong character formation
3. Share Christ with our scholars to support them in building an ongoing, deepening relationship with Him
The founders also envisioned that each of these three pillars should be delivered in a sustainable way for our people and those we serve, as well as scalable, to open up more opportunities to serve more children. This three-fold mission has been refined and is now stated by our team as "Christ. College. Character.® for all."
