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Academic Framework

Paulo Freire's Academic Framework is an integrated approach to learning that recognizes the needs of the whole person by drawing on individual strengths and interests.  Relationships and an inclusive community which fosters belonging are crucial to students' sense of empowerment, agency and wellness. Our academics focus on real-world issues.  We start with big essential questions and then personalize the exploration of big ideas through a variety of personalized, creative, and engaging learning experiences. Our students are prepared for success in high school and beyond, but more importantly, they learn to embody the skills necessary to be leaders and collaborators in a rapidly changing world.

Project-based Learning: Hands-on learning where students demonstrate their skills and dispositions through the creation of high-level projects.  Project-based learning inspires students to go above and beyond expectations, allows them to integrate their personal interests, and leads to authentic and long-lasting learning. 

Competency-based Learning: Traditional grading methods are inequitable, do not inspire student agency, and are not accurate.  Competency-based learning breaks down the learning into competencies and allows students to demonstrate their progress in meaningful and personalized ways. 

Universal Design for Learning: Not everyone learns the same.  Teachers plan for the many ways students learn by designing lessons where everyone has access to the skills and knowledge from the start.  This allows every student to be successful and eliminates unnecessary barriers to student success.

Culturally Relevant Practices: Culture is not just what we do; it is how we learn.  Through the process of connecting to deep cultural meaning making practices in each student, teachers are able to build more meaningful relationships, design more meaningful lessons, create a greater sense of belonging, and decrease inequitable learning outcomes. 

Literacy Integration: Reading is a crucial component of all learning.  Teachers integrate literacy strategies across the curriculum to build content area fluency, vocabulary fluency, and comprehension fluency.  Building strong readers means building strong learners. 

Social-Emotional Learning: No one can learn effectively under duress.  We address student social and emotional needs through a safe and welcoming community, by integrating social-emotional skill building throughout the curriculum, and in advisories where students are able to connect with teachers and peers in personalized, meaningful, and healing ways.  

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Competency-based Learning

Student Demonstrations of Leaerning