North River Charter Academy will provide a highly structured and engaging educational program that promotes the school’s mission, vision, and guiding principles. In accordance with NRCA’s purpose, goals, and the key tenets of its mission and vision, the NRCA will focus on providing students with a challenging, innovative, authentic, and student-centered educational program that is comprised of four key components: 

 

1. STEAM FOCUS - Integrated Approach 
2. SCIENCE OF READING - Structured Literacy Approach 
3. WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM (WAC) - School-Wide WAC Initiative 
4. STUDENT LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK - Leader in Me Program 
 

 

STEAM FOCUS 

 

NRCA recognizes the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) education in students’ college and career preparedness. Most of the fastest growing-growing occupations in the United States depend upon proficiency in mathematics, scientific knowledge, and technological skills. STEAM is an approach to learning that allows students to take risks, engage in hands-on learning and problem solving, embrace collaboration, and work through the creative process. STEAM adds “the Arts” into STEM. The addition of Arts to STEM to create STEAM is about incorporating creative thinking and applied arts in real situations. By integrating the Arts into lessons, students can see how disciplines connect and work together. According to Lathan (2023), “an important part of this educational approach is that students who are taught under a STEAM framework are not just taught the subject matter, but they are taught how to learn, how to ask questions, how to experiment and how to create.” STEAM addresses the 4 C’s identified as key in 21st Century education: Creativity, Collaboration, Critical thinking, and Communication.  

 

GUIDING PRINCIPLES​

 

North River Charter Academy’s Eight Guiding Principles are as follows: 

 

1. Provide a challenging, innovative, and authentic learning environment where all children learn through hands-on experiences and problem-solving. 

2. Provide a student-centered and collaborative learning environment that allows students to become active participants in their own learning. 

3. Recognize the individuality and potential for each child to succeed both academically and personally. 

4. Motivate students to take risks and build self-confidence and independent thinking by providing students with a learning environment that invites students to express opinions and ideas.  

5. Nurture the individual and unique talents and skills of all children to help them reach their full potential. 

6. Foster a caring and supportive learning environment that emphasizes the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual development of each child. 

7. Promote life skills such as leadership, responsibility, accountability, problem solving, adaptability, effective communication, collaboration, teamwork, initiative, self-direction, self-reliance, self-discipline, and self-confidence.  

8. Build trust with families through open communication, positive relationships, and a welcoming environment that encourages and empowers parents to be full partners in the academic success of all students. 

 

NRCA will provide an opportunity for parents of students in grades K-8 to enroll their children in a school that will offer a challenging, innovative, and authentic learning environment with a focus on STEAM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics). NRCA aims to meet high standards of student achievement and provides parents with another option to choose for their children’s education in accordance with their children’s interests or talents. 

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LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

NRCA will provide a learning environment that is aligned to its mission, vision, and guiding principles. The School’s main focus will be to ensure that all students in grades K-8 reach their maximum levels of achievement and to provide a learning environment that is welcoming, nurturing, and supportive. The learning environment at NRCA will actively promote the School’s Guiding Principles. As such, classrooms will share common practices and characteristics that include the following: 

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• Active student engagement in lessons that promote and encourage individual students’ ideas and opinions. 

• Innovative and authentic learning activities where all children are able to learn through hands-on experiences and problem-solving. 

• Student-centered and collaborative lessons that allows students to become active participants in their own learning. 

• Facilitation of learning by teachers, rather than lecture-format lesson delivery, to promote critical thinking and active engagement amongst all learners. 

• Problem-solving and inquiry-based lessons that require student creativity and higher order thinking. 

• Classroom activities and assignments that require collaboration and teamwork to solve problems or complete assignments. 

• Lessons that include authentic, meaningful, real-life learning experiences for students that include classroom lessons as well as field trips. 

• Lessons that promote student agency and management over their own learning  

• Development of life skills to instill positive character traits and leadership qualities amongst students.

 

NRCA’s facilities, classroom layouts, and student schedules will be designed to support the School’s educational program. The learning environment at NRCA will support the four key areas that comprise the School’s educational program—STEAM, Structured Literacy, Writing Across the Curriculum, and Student Leadership Framework—by providing the following: 

 

• Explicit and systematic instruction in reading and writing through a Structured Literacy approach  

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  Daily writing opportunities across all curricular areas 

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  Integrated instruction focused on STEM areas 

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  Integration of the Arts within content instruction 

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  Classroom that are focused on STEAM and literacy through the inclusion of anchor charts, exemplars and models, student work, publications, artwork, and projects on display 

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  Classroom libraries that include fiction and non-fiction texts, magazines, and periodicals in the STEAM areas to promote content knowledge, literacy skills, vocabulary, and a love of reading 

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  Daily class meetings to provide instruction on leadership and life skills necessary for academic and personal success 

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  Common board configuration, daily essential questions, and exit tickets to help student focus on daily objectives and learning goals, and to help teachers monitor student understanding and mastery 

 

 

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