Our centers provides a safe learning environment promoting risk taking and inclusion for all students. Consequently, teachers focus on understanding the learning needs of students and the development of a delivery system to address those needs. Teachers implement and utilize “best practices” and include research based pedagogy to implement the most effective instructional designs. By employing a wide variety of instructional techniques, teachers meet the individual needs of students. The following researched-based instructional methods will provide opportunities for all students to learn at the highest levels across all disciplines.

Our Approach:

All core subject content will be taught in a sequential order that will provide all students fundamental knowledge and skills to enter elementary school as an “on track” college bound student.

Problem-based Learning:

Research supports the significance of connecting classroom instruction to authentic experience outside the classroom. Therefore, PBL creates an opportunity for students to apply newly learned concepts and past knowledge to complex real-life problems. Our culminating projects will offer a method for measuring what students have learned. The projects require a range of skills, including written and oral expression, extended research, analysis and synthesis of information, planning, perseverance, and organization, all skills that are needed for success in elementary, middle school, high school, college, and the adult world. Students will have a “voice” in selecting their problems and the expression of their “solution” through projects Integrated Curriculum: The integrated curriculum design model will support the Problem-based Learning model giving students authentic opportunities to incorporate mathematical and scientific reasoning and written and oral language skills. Visual and performing arts are woven throughout the curriculum and beyond the core academic day as forms of enrichment, assessment, application and synthesis of learning. Our before and after-school programming will also provide students opportunities in music, art, drama, and technology.

Direct Explicit Instruction:

Students will learn through both direct instruction and inquiry-based instruction. Whole group, small group, and individual instruction will provide students with the support needed to acquire concepts and the skills necessary to think critically while gaining academic proficiency. The term "Direct Instruction" refers to a rigorously developed, highly scripted method for teaching that is fast-paced and provides constant interaction between students and the teacher. "If the child hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught." That's the philosophy behind Direct Instruction, an educational technique that challenges the mantras of modern bureaucrats and shows that even the most disadvantaged children can excel, if only schools will teach them. The evidence for the success of Direct Instruction is much more than anecdotal: major long-term studies provide powerful evidence of its success, and disturbing evidence for the futility of the more popular techniques that dominate our schools.

Inquiry-Based instruction:

Inquiry based teaching is a teaching method that combines the curiosity of students and the scientific method to enhance the development of critical thinking skills while learning science. As learners encounter problems they do not understand, they formulate questions, explore problems, observe, and apply new information in seeking a better understanding of the world. The natural process the learners follow when seeking answers and deeper understanding closely follows the generally accepted scientific method.

Scope and Sequence:

All core subject content will be taught in a sequential order that will provide all students fundamental knowledge and skills to enter elementary school as an “on track” college bound student