NCS Charter 2000 — Founding Petition Excerpts

Whom is the school attempting to educate?

In our first year we serve students from Kindergarten through grade three, growing over the subsequent five years to serve Kindergarten through grade eight. As Long Beach is a diverse urban community, our school is composed of children and families from a variety of linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

How does learning best occur?

Our shared knowledge about children and learning shapes our program, our roles as educators, and the environment in which learning will happen. These beliefs are based on current research and educational theory as well as our own experiences as parents, teachers, and learners. These core beliefs include:

• Children thrive in an environment where adults respect them and take them seriously. In order to earn their trust, teachers need to understand the needs and interests of the children.
• Children are competent learners. Beginning in infancy and continuing beyond school age, they know how to learn; they think and utilize all of their senses in order to build physical, social, and logical knowledge.
• Children are not "blank slates"; they have knowledge, beliefs, life experiences, language, and culture.
• Intellectual growth is not linear; it often occurs as a dramatic or sudden leap of understanding, causing the learner to reexamine what s/he thinks.
• Children teach and learn from one another. Learning is social, and children develop confidence through playing a variety of roles, from novice to expert.
• Children learn by resolving issues and solving problems that are important to them, with support from adults.
• Children construct reality; they do not absorb knowledge. Children need to act on their environment in order to make sense of it.
• Children learn through play. Children have the opportunity to grow while pretending, exploring, practicing and inventing.
• Children need freedom and time to take risks, make mistakes, and reflect on their own thinking.
• Knowledge is in the individual mind; it neither begins nor ends in the school.

What does it mean to be an educated person in the 21st century?

The New City School — A model for urban K-8 learning in the 21st Century. We will provide a thoughtful, intimate environment in which community-building is valued over competition. Through a curriculum enriched by the arts, technology, and the natural environment, we will help children to develop into independent thinkers who are experts in reasoning and creative expression, and proficient in English and Spanish. Toward these goals, parents and teachers will work as partners to understand the needs and interests of the children and to extend learning opportunities into the home and community.

All children will develop oral and literary proficiency in English and Spanish through formal and informal interaction with peer and adult second language experts.

Each child will have an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) developed by the teachers, parents, and child. In this plan, there will be clearly stated, developmentally appropriate goals for the academic year in the core subjects (Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, History/Social Science) as well as Visual and Performing Arts and Second Language development.

The school will utilize a constructionist approach in the use of technology, based on the research of Seymour Papert and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab.

The curriculum for students of The New City School will be guided by the California State Frameworks and the Content Standards for California Public Schools.

Community: the Relationship between Living and Learning

In order to build understanding and trust, as well as to forge strong interpersonal connections, each teacher will visit the homes of the students in his/her class during the first trimester. Families will be encouraged to share their traditions, artifacts, and stories with the teacher and the class.

Children will connect their in-school learning to home and the community through family participation in weekly learning excursions (gardens, public libraries, parks and beaches, ranchos and other historic sites, museums, local businesses, colleges and universities).

Upon graduation from the New City School, students will demonstrate appropriate age or grade-level mastery of the following:

Thoughtful, Active Membership in our Community

• Develop historical perspective, understanding patterns of continuity and change over time with a sense of empathy for people of different times.
• Demonstrate ethical thinking and a concern for human rights.
• Understand human and environmental interaction.
• Recognize and understand political and social systems, and their relationship to the development of laws and a sense of social justice.
• Connect their learning in school to their lives at home and as members of the Long Beach/Southern California community.

Independent Thinking and Confidence

• Show initiative in their learning (solving problems, planning and implementing projects, choosing and discussing literature, creating works of art).
• Have the freedom and time to develop and express their own opinions and ideas.
• Have opportunities to participate in formal debates.
• Exchange ideas informally across the curriculum.

Expertise in Reasoning and Problem Solving

• Do their own thinking with confidence in their ability to figure out how to solve a particular problem.
• Solve problems in many different ways.
• Have a highly developed sense of number — strong intuitive thinking about numerical quantities and relationships.
• Apply their knowledge in a variety of mathematical arenas.
• Create computer programs that solve problems.

Creative Expression

• Develop artistic literacy, using the language of the elements and principles of art.
• Attend, create, and perform in theatrical productions throughout the year.
• Participate in rhythm and melody games; combine their understanding of musical elements to create and appreciate music.
• Create original works of visual art.
• Produce and publish original pieces of creative writing.

Proficiency in English and Spanish

• Read with interest and comprehension from literature representing a variety of genres, cultures, and time.
• Write with clarity and purpose, carefully considering their intended audience.
• Confidently listen, speak, read, and write in both English and Spanish across the curriculum.
• Use technology for research, presentations and to publish original writing.

Assessment is the means by which we will measure the success of the children of our school. The type of assessments used must be directly aligned with the academic and social outcomes toward which all of our students are striving.

Individual Learning Plans

Each student will have an Individual Learning Plan (ILP). This plan will set trimester and year-long goals in each outcome area. Progress toward these goals is the real measure of success at The New City School.

Student-Led Conferences

Each student is expected to demonstrate and present her/his progress toward the goals of the ILP at each trimester student-led conference. The students will present their work to teachers, parents and peers.

Portfolios

An archive will be kept encompassing work samples from all of the outcome areas. Samples will be chosen by the student, with input from teachers, parents and peers.

Standardized Tests

The Stanford 9 test will be administered each year.

Developmental Checklists

The teachers will utilize checklists that show progress toward mastery in each of the five outcome areas.

Rubrics

Rubrics, developed by the NCS teachers, will be used to evaluate work samples in each of the core academic areas as defined by the California State Standards.

Public Exhibitions/Performances

Students will exhibit and perform their creative work for a variety of audiences, including their classmates, their school, their parents and members of the community.

Teachers Anecdotal Record Keeping

Teachers will document student progress toward the outcome areas in the form of anecdotal records. These records will narrate student progress throughout the year and will be used for goal-setting and as part of the ILP.

Parent Feedback

Following each student-led conference, parents will be asked to give their feedback as to their child's overall progress and success. This feedback will be a vital element of the goal-setting process.