The U School

Welcome to the U School. Here we do things a little bit unique, and we do them for you. 

We constructed an innovative system that doesn't just cover the simple academics but instead centers Youth development. Youth development includes not just school work but supporting students to understand themselves and their place in the world. We want students to pair the knowledge they learn here with life skills, to grow their passions and to become the individuals that they want to be. 

We know that all too often in traditional schools, the system itself can get in the way of student success. In traditional schools, kids who start low tend stay low despite their efforts to improve. Individual skills are hidden and penalized through confusing and unseen grading systems. Unique creativity is boxed up behind arbitrary assignments with no personalization. Practices are held that push students away and out of school instead of brought into a community. Students and their families never get to see how they are actually growing in their education.

But here we do things differently. 

To foster Youth Development we utilize 3 foundational components.

We use a Competency Based Model: 

Our competency based model is a different style of system for education. This model focuses on the mastery of skills rather than scoring grades that feel like the don't connect to anything. It prioritizes real world activities and allows for students’ creativity to shine. The Competency based model is transparent so that you can be an expert of your own education. It uses the same grading system used for all 4 years so students can see how well they perform and grow overtime. 

We embrace Restorative Practices:  

Using restorative practices means we prioritize community. Everyone is involved in building a community together, developing positive relationships and offering input. When things go wrong we offer the opportunity to make things right. We don’t want to see students pushed out, but instead brought back into our school with better understanding and insights. Youth development includes building character and self-accountability. We set up a practices to learn the impact of our actions and problem solve on how to make things right. By using empathy to understand ourselves and others students will implement solutions to maintain the harmony of the community for all. 

We advance Student Agency:

Upon graduation we want students to feel confident to move themselves in the direction they want to go. Through out our programing here, we will encourage students to take an active role in understanding where they are in their educational process. We will team up with students to support them in taking action on their own improvement and having ownership on their own success. 

Click the button below to get a video explanation on our U School foundations