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Program of Studies
Our model accommodates a student’s individual learning style. Classrooms find the teacher directing learning, not lecturing, and older and younger students help each other learn. Remembering a concept from years earlier, our students often exclaim, "I know something about that!" Students must demonstrate competency before "moving up" to the next Level, as determined by Exit Standards, by completing performance evaluations and portfolio requirements.
The School is organized into multi-age, multi-grade “Levels” to ensure that students work and learn together. In the lower levels (Level I: K-2; II: 3-4; and III: 5-6), this model is especially vital as students develop their learning styles and interests and form relationships with each other and their teachers.
The concept of Levels is an extension of our allegiance to the Core Knowledge Sequence. Core Knowledge is a process of reinforced, cumulative learning that plants the seeds on a range of subjects – history, geography, literature, science, and the arts – that will grow in the upper grades when students tackle those topics in greater detail and sophistication.
In Level IV (Grades 7-8) and the High School (Grades 9-12), Levels are more fluid and the change to a college-preparatory program finds students thinking more intensely about their future studies and post-graduation plans. A Career/College Counselor advises students and assists them in navigating the application or job search process.
On any given day, a student may have Spanish, music, art, and their project as well as Town Meeting, a forum at which Levels govern themselves. Community service is a core component of SSCPS's curriculum and all students are required to fulfill service hour requirements. Either through their project or independent service opportunities, our students are participating members in the school and the regional community.