The CAPCS curriculum for the middle school years places a discipline-specific approach to core academic subjects within a multi-discipline context so that students understand how the skills and concepts of the learning standards apply to all subject areas. The curriculum design seeks connections across disciplines that highlight skills and concepts requiring similar ways of thinking or processing information. For example, in Language Arts a student may be asked to explain how an author uses word choice and organizes text to achieve his purposes while in Social Studies the student may be asked to analyze the philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The Social Studies standard is a thematic and content-specific adaptation of the Language Arts standard.
The curriculum for each content area is centered on a series of focus standards. These standards identify the students’ expected proficiencies for each grade, the extent to which students have mastered the standards by the time they finish the grade, skills and concepts in priority order as identified by the DC-CAS blueprint, and learning necessary for succeeding grades. The focus standards are organized into thematic units of study. Curriculum maps provide guidance and assistance to teachers by identifying essential questions, clarifying standards, suggesting resources, and providing assessment exemplars.
The curriculum framework provides enormous flexibility for teachers to deploy curriculum resources, design projects and other non-traditional assessments, differentiate instruction for under-prepared and advanced students, and make accommodations for other exceptional children.
Create a caring learning community where students acquire the knowledge, skills and habits of mind to think critically; to read, write, speak and listen effectively; to reason mathematically; to inquire scientifically; and to develop the social competence that ensures meeting the qualifications for acceptance to a competitive high school.
The vision of Community Academy Public Charter School is to raise children to become competent, responsible adults who actively pursue lifelong learning opportunities.
