Step Up sees all students as “Genius” and helps students to also see themselves the same way. Each student possesses their own unique spirit of Genius, and we aim to cultivate and uplift this brilliance through love, care, and support.

Our curriculum combines both teaching and mentoring into an integrated methodology under the framework of Historically Responsive Literacy. Historically Responsive Literacy, introduced by Dr. Gholnecsar Muhammed in her book Cultivating Genius(2020): An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy focuses on creating a set of interdisciplinary learning goals to develop academic skills and intellectual insight while also building strong identity and developing tools to view the world through a critical lens.

The Historically Responsive Literacy can be broken down to this four-layered equity model, which emphasizes the following four qualities: (1) Identity, (2) Skill, (3) Intellect, and (4) Criticality. These qualities are intended to propel students from being passive consumers of knowledge to becoming independent thinkers who cultivate their own learning and become active contributors to their own communities.