Rigorous Academics: At Envision Schools, graduating means much more than earning a diploma—it means going to college and being prepared to meet the challenges it presents. Over sixty percent of Envision’s students will be the first in their families to go to college. Our students meet all the requirements for admission to California’s public university systems (a standard unheard of in most California public schools), meet all of California’s core academic standards, and demonstrate a breadth of leadership and cognitive skills that demonstrate that they have meaningfully integrated what they’ve learned.
To ensure our students meet and exceed all three of these goals, we employ Project-based Learning, a dynamic approach to teaching in which students put their knowledge to work solving real-world problems and challenges, and deepen their learning and engagement in the process. Learning this way also allows for the development of skills and strategies that make academics more useful over the course of their college and professional careers.
Students at Envision Schools:
- Develop confidence, self-direction, and meta-cognition
- Hone organizational and research skills
- Learn to communicate effectively with their peers and adults
- Use sophisticated technology and artistic media while they learn
Rigorous Teaching: We invest heavily in teacher professional growth. Teachers also hone their craft and share their expertise in an online platform for sharing curriculum and curricular methodology. Principals, teachers, and administrators work together to pursue data-driven, continuous improvement. The Envision Cycle of Inquiry focuses explicitly on the goals of college success for all students.
Rigorous Testing: Student assessment at Envision Schools goes beyond traditional forms of testing, to emphasize a student’s deep understanding and growing mastery of an academic discipline. Envision’s Performance-based Assessment meets the California core content standards as well as the more rigorous subject and grade point average requirements for the California State University and University of California systems. Envision students publicly present and reflect upon their work and demonstrate how their work both meets the school’s criteria for graduation and supports their personal and professional goals.
