Student-Centered Learning

1. • Teachers are expected to acknowledge and support every student's unique path, regardless of strict curriculum.

   • By organizing smaller classroom sizes, teachers can provide every student with the necessary attention and care.

   • We listen to our students' voices about their needs.

   • Teachers incorporate students' lives into the curriculum to get them engaged and willing to learn.

   • We teach students with regard to their own real-world problems and think and act on how to enact change in our communities.

   • We encourage students to reach their full potential with rigorous courses and thorough encouragement correspondent to assessments of their learning and engagement, not necessarily through standardized testing.

Real-World Education

1. • We believe learning should go beyond the classroom and be linked to real-world experiences, urging students to participate in community service projects or internships.

   • We discuss real world problems inside the classroom and the effects that they have on ourselves and the world around us.

   • We read old and new texts as part of curriculum and analyze them with a sense of relevance and relatability.

   • Our teachers take college classes as part of training and curriculum organization to keep up on how best to connect with and teach students of the current age.

Inclusivity and Equity

1. • No matter the students background or skill level, all students should have a strong sense of belonging and engagement in their learning, so we make sure that every student and their family is heard and reflected in school.

   • We make sure that every student is engaged with their education and is able to receive any necessary additional help they may need.

   • After school tutoring and extra assistance is offered to every student if they need it.

Since we do have AP classes, we do have AP testing every April/May. However, we no longer support PSAT or SAT testing since universities no longer require these scores and most do not even look at them anymore. If a student still wishes to take these exams along with the ACT they may and will be granted a fee waiver through the school. We can provide study books held in the library, and they can ask for support within our after school programs that have tutors available. Any other state mandated testing has to be done as well, but we do our best not to focus on these tests and focus instead on the actual needs and learning of our students.

The amount and difficulty of in class exams are determined by teachers. However, as a collective, we encourage teachers not to rely so much on test scores and incorporate projects or activities that could just as well represent the learning of a student besides exam scores. We acknowledge that most colleges are heavily exam-based so we don't do away with exams to try to best prepare students for their future.