College Achieve Central Charter School (District)

OVERVIEW: College Achieve Central Charter School is an open-enrollment public charter school with the mission to prepare our students to excel in and graduate from the nation’s top colleges and universities. Less than 1 in 10 low income children in America go on to graduate from college by their 25th birthday. We are a community of teachers who have devoted our careers to creating schools that dramatically change the odds for our students. Our plan? We have backward mapped our school's curriculum to meet the standards of college graduation, and we are building at College Achieve a powerful culture that values dreamers, hard workers, and all those who love to learn. We seek to develop in our scholars grit and resilience. And everyone who works at College Achieve must have an unshakeable belief in the greatness of our students. If this sounds like you, we encourage you to join our team. WHAT TO EXPECT: What it Takes to be Successful You must care about our students. You must believe our students will graduate from college before their 25th birthday. You must have high expectations of yourself - can you be the change? Are you an excellent writer and critical thinker? If not, how can you teach our students to be excellent writers and critical thinkers. Parental Engagement Parents are expected to be engaged in their child's education. College Achieve seeks to create agency in our parents and students informing and educating them in our instructional model. Why do we teach what we teach? What are our priorities? We engage parents by establishing committees with parents, teachers, and administrators to decide the school uniforms, the school mascot, and the catering company for our breakfast and lunch programs. There is also a parent on the board of College Achieve Central Charter School. We believe we can be a somewhat successful school without strong parental engagement. But to be excellent? To be great? We need our parents fully engaged to achieve college graduation for all. Professional Development Every summer we hold a Curriculum Summer Institute (CSI) for teachers during the last week of July and first week of August. Teachers are compensated for this incredible opportunity to work with their colleagues and outside consultants to backward map our curriculum from college standards and align our instructional model to the Common Core. The week before school is reserved for culture setting and getting classrooms, books, and supplies ready for the first day of school. During the school year, every Friday we have early dismissal at 1:45 pm so teachers can meet with the Principal, Department Chairs, or grade level leaders to review student data and make decisions on reteaching, tutoring, and course corrections. Observation Frequency Teachers can expect frequent informal observations by the principal, grade level leaders, department chairs, and curriculum specialists. Formal observations will occur twice each year. Other 12 Pillars of a College Achieve Education 1. GRACE: Grit, Resiliency, Agency, Character, and Excellence 2. Rigorous instructional program backward mapped from college standards 3. Elementary: Core Knowledge, Reading Wonders, & Intense Science Curriculum 4. AP Programs for all in High School 5. Toulmin Writing Model 6. Shared Inquiry: Socratic Seminars 7. Data Driven Assessment & Instruction 8. More Time on Learning (and double the science instruction in K-5) 9. Pacing for Rigor 10. Integrated Co-Teaching Model – Apprentice Teachers & High Dosage Tutoring 11. Global Languages 12. MAADDness: Music, Art, Athletics, Drama, & Dance

The College Achieve Central Charter School Mission: ?College Achieve Central Charter School will prepare its students to excel in and graduate from the top colleges and universities in the nation. ?We - the parents, teachers, and administrators - pledge to achieve this mission by discovering and developing each child's gifts and talents. We believe a college education is this century's passport to the American Dream, and we are determined to offer our students every opportunity to achieve it.

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