Compass Charter School

Compass is a free, public school where children learn through hands-on experiences. Our students develop critical thinking skills in innovative and flexible ways and are inspired to make a positive impact on their communities. Compass is uniquely positioned to deliver a rich and responsive education to all of its students because every classroom has two teachers delivering instruction throughout the day. All of our classrooms include children with special needs and are designated Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) classes. All students participate in a variety of research practices including observations, question development, interviews, artifact collection, field visits, note-taking, and hands-on experiments. In an ever-changing world, we believe that it is crucial for our students to learn to meet the needs of the present generation while simultaneously keeping the needs of future generations in mind. To cultivate this thinking, our students will study their relationship with the world using a lens of sustainability. Our students will participate in integrated projects focused on the living world, social justice, and economic justice. We support the use of literacy skills across subject areas by creating units of study to teach specific reading, writing, listening, speaking, and language content outlined in the New York State Standards. Using a balanced literacy framework, our students will engage in a daily reading workshop, writing workshop, word study session, and read aloud in addition to integrated literacy work. The mathematics program emphasizes student-driven exploration, problem solving, collaborative group work, and discussion that supports the conceptual understanding of mathematics. We will draw from multiple resources to plan standards-aligned units of study including TERC Investigations and Contexts for Learning. We view the arts as a channel for learning, communication, expression, and creativity.