Our Educational Philosophy

We believe students should be actively engaged in their learning. New knowledge is created as students integrate what they already know with new ideas. This process of learning is highly active, involves transformation of information, and derives meaning from experience. Our students form hypotheses and engage in problem solving and decision-making. Students are not simply vessels to be filled with information. Instead of relying on someone else's information and accepting it as truth, our students are exposed to data and primary sources. They interact with other students so that they can learn from the incorporation of their experiences.

A Commitment to Differentiated Instruction

We understand that students learn in different ways and our teachers incorporate many techniques to best meet the needs of each and every student.

Differentiation in the classroom takes many forms including:

• Reading materials at different readiness levels.
• Tiered lessons that focus on one overarching goal and offer different avenues to reach that goal based on student readiness or learning styles.
• Choices for how to demonstrate mastery of skills and knowledge that take into account multiple intelligences and learning styles.
• Opportunities for creative and open-ended projects to stretch students’ thinking and allow them to reach their highest potential.
• Leveled courses in mathematics and Hebrew in the higher grades include varied pace, depth, and amount of content. Fluidity exists in the system so students can move between levels during or in-between academic years where appropriate.
• Additional resource services are available for students with IEPS, 504 plans as well as students who are identified through the RTI (Response to Intervention) process.  Our resource team works collaboratively with classroom teachers to meet the needs of these students.

Assessing Student Achievement

• Just as there are different types of learners, there are also numerous assessment tools and strategies to measure student achievement.
• Formative assessment tools that are used throughout a unit of instruction include evaluation of daily written work, student self-assessment, targeted questioning, hand signals for understanding (i.e. thumbs up and thumbs down), graphic organizers, classroom observation, and short quizzes.
• Summative assessments used at the end of a unit may also include essay tests, multiple choice exams, or project-based tasks.
• In our General Studies, we also use a computer adaptive achievement test known as Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) that adjusts for the skill level of each student.
• MAP assesses students in language usage, mathematics, and reading. It is also used to determine students’ instructional levels and to measure progress from the fall to the spring of an academic year.
• The Terra Nova standardized achievement test is also used to measure a sampling of the skills and knowledge that students are expected to acquire as they progress through each grade. This norm-referenced test allows us to compare the achievement of individuals and groups of students with national performance.