education
S chool is a place to learn. middle and high school. The school’s innovative project-based learning (PBL) philosophy allows students to focus on the “Five Cs” emphasized by the school — communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and citizenship, which is the cornerstone of the A+ philosophy, as Principal Rachele Reese explained. “At A+ Charter school, we see students as the future of our community and nation,” she said. “Our students are not a number, but an individual who we empower to make the right decisions no matter what their current circumstances are. The PBL model connects students’ learning to real life experiences, with the end goal in mind. This end goal is embodied into our Portrait of a Graduate and the 5 Cs. We believe these are the essential skills that will make our students successful at whatever they decide to do after high school.” A+ Director of Development Lauren Gray said that the school’s educational model provides graduates with the foundation to become productive members of the community. “It starts at micro level and grows from family to school, then expands to Maricopa and to Arizona,” said Gray. “When our students graduate, we want to see them be engaged in their community because then they will leave the school community and have a work community and a family community. This helps prepare them for all of those.” A+, which opened in the 2019-20 school year with students in grades 7-10, now features grades 7-11 with an expansion of 12th grade for next year. Mrs. Reese explains that their first graduating class (2023) is composed of great leaders who have had the unique opportunity to “imprint future generations of students at A+”. But what sets A+ Charter School apart from your ordinary place to learn is that its faculty believes there is more to learning than the traditional subjects associated with Lealani Escalade, a junior, will graduate a full year early thanks to early-enrollment classes through Central Arizona College and will have most of her education at Northern Arizona University paid for as she pursues becoming a math teacher. She’s seen to the right of Rachele Reese, the principal at A+ Charter School.
Price pointed out that the curriculum at A+ provides Archers with an expanded set of tools to meet the needs of an ever-changing job market. Researchers predict the workplace of tomorrow will value the agility that allows workers to successfully navigate a work environment that requires them to deal with automation and the ever-increasing role of technology. “The Department of Labor identified the following skills as being in the highest demand in the coming years,” Price said. “Creative thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, learning how to learn, collaboration, and self-management will be things employers are looking for. A+ integrates instructional approaches to support the development of these academic and non-academic skills to help graduates be ready to succeed in their post high school endeavors from day one.” Gray said the A+ curriculum is designed to address those needs.
is by placing each student with an advisor and a group of no more than 20 students from enrollment through graduation. This is another way of fostering the Five Cs, as it ensures community and collaboration are built into the structure of each student’s school day. Reese explained that Price takes groups of students on tours of colleges and businesses to give them insight into what is required to succeed in those areas and provides them with additional voices and points of view. “The advisory program exposes students to different colleges, businesses and the like to give them broad perspective,” Reese said. “The students get to meet with doctors, engineers, writers — we even had one who works on Grey’s Anatomy — and they share their paths from school to professional life. This is one more way we use innovative strategies to focus on each individual student’s growth.”
Gray pointed out that the PBL curriculum emphasizes that students work together in small groups, or learning units, that emphasize workforce readiness. These lessons are applied across all disciplines to provide real-world context to what they are learning. This, in turn, fosters curiosity in learning, as well as transferable skills and concepts gained from multiple disciplines that are necessary for lifelong learning and success. The project-based learning curriculum gives all students a chance to find their strengths. For example, students who do not test well on paper can show what they know in other ways. Another advantage that this curriculum brings is that it allows students to take ownership in their learning by developing their critical thinking skills, with their teachers as facilitators. They teach the students how to ask probing questions, think about a problem from different angles, or do extra research. Dean and Academic Advisor Justin Price feels this type of learning also builds a sense of community. “We live by a creed of ‘Stronger Together’ at A+,” he said. “A single Archer can only be so effective; however, hundreds of arrows loosed at once can make a stronger impact. We work together to achieve our goals as we are all stronger, faster and smarter as a conglomerate rather than acting on our own.” Another element of the PBL model that enables students to implement the Five C’s is its focus on cooperative learning. “Students need to be able to communicate effectively with people across a variety of diverse groups,” Gray said. “They will need to work with peers, adults, and supervisors, and work together in a team environment in order to succeed. In today’s global society, the role of cooperative learning with the mentoring and coaching of a teacher is key to developing the soft skills necessary to transition out of the K-12 environment by learning to work together to accomplish shared goals.” Price said that characteristic is crucial in a smaller, but growing community like Maricopa. “We live in a growing community, and A+ is a growing school,” he explained. “We are always looking at how to not only better our own lives but the lives of those around us. Maricopa still has the small town feel where neighbors watch out for each other; A+ Archers also live this way, looking out for one another both on and off campus.” Another way A+ fosters the group dynamic
“The one certainty for all of us is that the world is full of challenges, and we need to teach this new generation to step up and be problem solvers.” PRINCIPAL RACHELLE REESE
“In industry, there’s a great emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you go into engineering. You still need strong reading, writing and communications skills. We have extremely strong math and science teachers, as well as English language arts teachers. That well roundedness is important because you can’t project what factors will be important 10 years from now. That’s why our focus on those five Cs helps kids transfer skills and knowledge to whatever careers exist when they enter the work force. We work on the whole student because it’s not just academics that will lead them far in life.” Reese said that the big philosophy behind A+ is to prepare students to solve challenges because that is the one thing that students will have to confront every day of their lives. Reese explained: “The one certainty for all of us is that the world is full of challenges, and we need to teach this new generation to step up and be problem solvers. Our school had to open online due to the world’s biggest health challenge in this century- Covid-19. We had to open our school, and work around the pandemic.” Reese added that the sports
The school also considers the socio- emotional needs of students through the implementation of advisory classes and character curriculum. These teach the whole student to engage in learning and develop their intrinsic motivation, with advisors serving as mentors and working with each student to reach their greatest potential. Gray said A+ provides this kind of instruction because its class sizes are typically smaller than those found in public schools, allowing for more individualized attention. “We focus on small class sizes, no more than 25 per section,” Gray said. “One primary benefit of those small class sizes is that every student is known by name by all of their teachers. We have advisory first thing every morning, so their advisors are constantly in tune with their progress and helping them develop the best strategies for success. And being in a smaller school environment gives kids more opportunities to get involved in multiple activities and have more leadership opportunities.” While academic development is obviously a priority, at A+, it coincides with preparation for life after school.
A+ Charter School SHAPES WHOLE STUDENT BY JAY TAYLOR
38 New Resident & Visitor Guide 2022 • InMaricopa.com/NewResidentGuide
InMaricopa.com/NewResidentGuide • New Resident & Visitor Guide 2022 39
Powered by FlippingBook