Francesca Peck

Background

About Francesca Peck

Francesca Peck is currently the Principal at Polaris Charter Academy, an independent single site charter school located on Chicago's west side, serving grades K-8. As a founding teacher of Polaris, she helped open and develop Chicago's only EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) school. Francesca's past 17 years has been dedicated to her belief that access to a high quality educational experience is an issue of social justice. As a classroom teacher she designed interdisciplinary integrated authentic project-based learning that challenged students to master standards while empowering them to be active citizens and stewards of their community. As an Instructional Guide and Director of Culture and Character she designed and led teacher professional development and created materials on academic and social-emotional topics to promote and maintain a joyful and rigorous school culture that fosters student character development. She currently leads the implementation of inquiry-based PLCs, provides coaching and feedback, and designs research-based ongoing professional development on the topics of project-based curriculum design, standards-based grading, elements of the Deeper Instruction framework, EL Education literacy curriculum, social-emotional learning, and restorative justice.