Educational Program & Philosophy

School Philosophy

La Cima Charter School’s school philosophy is grounded in the behavioral psychology of Dr. Carol Dweck, the theories of Paolo Freire, and Lisa Delpit which speak to education for social and political change. We believe that through creating an excellent school organization, we can create innovative opportunities that support and develop wider community change. The school becomes a location for social and political change to take root, through our scholars, our team, families, and our work together.

CARE Principles

Expectations for interaction between adults, children and adults, and between children are communicated to all stakeholders, and are of a high standard. The culture of our school is based on the following principles:

Community: Together, we are stronger
Accountability: I am responsible for you and for me.
Reconciliation: I make peace with my words and actions.
Effective Effort: I learn from my actions, and never give up!

Families

At La Cima, we believe that families are our most important advocates. Family Congress is a family-run organization whose mission is to provide a venue through which parents/family members can participate in how the school is run. Family Congress meets on a monthly basis and is a mechanism for:

Two-way information dissemination /communication
Community celebrations (i.e. Literacy Night, End of Year BBQ and movie night)
Family workshops (i.e. Effective Home Learning Environments, Understanding Standards-Based Report Cards)
Fundraising

Academics

La Cima’s academic program is designed to provide quality educational opportunities to public school students in central Brooklyn. We seek to strike a balance between hands-on (constructivist) methods, and standards-based assessments and curriculum. Our goal is for all of our scholars to meet or exceed the state standards in order to graduate college and positively impact the social fabric of our world. For students to be active participants in a global society, they must have a solid foundation in the problem-solving, investigative, and other critical thinking processes.

Curricular Program

La Cima’s curricular program is rigorous and rich and is grounded in the New York State Learning Standards. We provide our scholars with a combination of standards-based programs, and research-based programs to ensure that students are receiving the highest quality instruction. This combination, along with an assessment system which is also aligned to NY State performance and learning standards, and excellent teaching, prepare students to meet and exceed grade level expectations. We’ve intentionally selected programs that provide students with ample opportunity to develop higher level thinking skills, while offering teachers enough structure to ensure that students are focused on standard mastery. Although each of our core curriculum components are rooted in the standards, we continually review and refine our programming based on student performance and teacher feedback.

English Language Arts

Scholars are engaged in reading and writing for 2 hours per day. We take a balanced literacy approach to developing reading and writing skills in scholars. The key components to this 90 minute daily reading block are Shared Reading, Guided Reading and Independent Reading. An additional 45-60 minute writing block connects the strategies that the readers are practicing to their writing. We expect scholars to read daily at home for 20 minutes with a grown-up and independently.

Math

Math is taught through a constructivist methodology. We believe that it is crucial for students to have strong conceptual understandings in mathematics to be successful in high school and college. At the same time, we recognize that students must develop a procedural competency for efficiency as math concepts become more complex. TERC Investigations of Number, Data, and Space provides students multiple entries into a concept, with the use of the workshop model for concept introduction, and the use of manipulatives and blocks to construct meaning and to personalize understandings. In addition, this curriculum will be supplemented with elements like a daily “Fact Review," "Explain Your Thinking,” and “Spiral Review” that require students to show what concepts they have mastered or are still acquiring, to engage meta-cognitively with the concepts, and to continually review and solidify their concept acquisition.

Science

Science is structured around investigations and experiments both inside classrooms, and in partnership with our community garden partner, the Hattie Carthan Community Garden. Curriculum is focused around the investigative process which affords multiple and various opportunities to transfer the skills of inquiry into reading. For example, the skill of prediction is a key developmental component in both science and reading. Students benefit by teachers explicitly drawing such connections.

Social Studies

La Cima develops its social studies curricula in house. Teachers work together to develop a culturally appropriate and responsive set of units grounded in the belief that scholars benefit most in a schooling environment that values and reflects their home heritage, social histories and legacies. Our exploration of Bed-Stuy as our school’s community home begins in Kindergarten.

Physical education

Our commitment to developing the health of our scholars extends into the physical education curriculum. We partner with Super Soccer Stars

Spanish

La Cima Charter School’s Spanish Language Arts (reading and writing) program is designed to explicitly teach phonics skills in a developmentally appropriate sequence so they can develop reading fluency at a young age. Both native and non-native Spanish speakers will develop a solid foundation in phonics that will lead to reading comprehension.

The Arts

At La Cima, we believe that the arts are a vibrant and important component of human development. Scholars engage in visual arts and music instruction twice a week.

Uniforms

All students must come to school in La Cima Elementary’s uniform – burgundy polo shirt and khaki bottoms (pants, skirt or shorts) - every day. All students must wear black sneakers everyday; students may not change shoes for recess or soccer. If a student arrives to school out of uniform, the family will be called and asked to bring in a uniform before the student is sent to class. We have a required school uniform for several very important reasons:

Uniforms unite us as a community.
Uniforms reduce distractions and clothing competition.
Uniforms make us all equal.
Uniforms make a statement about school being a very important and special place.