Common use of Focus of the Curriculum Clause in Contracts

Focus of the Curriculum. The philosophy of education and educational goals reflect the school’s deep and central commitment to strong student achievement. We believe that the primary needs of our students are to develop the strongest standards based skills and build upon that foundation through the increasing application of those skills to real world problems and the development of critical thinking skills necessary for a college preparatory high school and the demands of college. The academic focus for V Prep School is centered on researched-based, best instructional practices for primary and intermediate learners. This includes reading instruction in phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, robust vocabulary, and comprehension; math instruction in counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations in base ten, number and operations in fractions, measurement and data, and geometry. Village Prep also emphasizes hands on, literacy based instruction in writing, science, and social studies. Core programs are support through writing across the curriculum using various genres, through science experiments and demonstrations, and with thematic-based projects. Common instructional practices sustain the core curriculum, such as close reading, text dependent questions, and citing evidence from the text in both writing and discussion. Technology is used in classrooms as appropriate to further reinforce lessons, to ensure exposure and to prepare students for the demands of the career force. Enrichment programming may be provided to the students through collaborative curriculum implemented with a number of partners, including partnerships with local colleges and universities. The instruction is predominantly classroom-based and led by one or two teachers per classroom, and is complemented with non-classroom based experiential learning through field trips (i.e. Cleveland Museum of Art, Holden Arboretum, Great Lakes Science Center, Washington, D.C.). The academic program remediates individual students’ basic skills and knowledge gaps to ensure that all students can read, write, and compute on grade level. As a result of this focus on the core academic skills, it is expected that English/Language Arts and Math take a larger portion of the students’ scheduled academic time. The school will make use of this additional time to ensure all students are achieving to very high academic expectations while still allowing students to develop and practice social emotional and college readiness skills through a variety of experiences in the daily curricula and beyond. Village Preparatory School’s core faculty is hired based upon their full commitment to the school’s mission and their high degree of knowledge and experience in successfully promoting strong student achievement in English Language Arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES NEEDED Pursuant to the Sponsorship Contract, the Performance Framework enclosed herein ensures that each CMSD-sponsored charter school provides high-quality education to their students. The Framework includes the academic, organizational, and financial standards by which sponsored schools will be evaluated. The Performance Framework will be used to evaluate whether a charter school’s contract should be renewed. It will also be used throughout the life cycle of the school to communicate the school’s performance to its staff, governing authority, sponsor, and other stakeholders. The Framework will provide the basis of the annual report that CMSD must provide annually to the Ohio Department of Education. In addition to establishing performance criteria for charter schools, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District performance framework holds the Cleveland Metropolitan School District accountable to charter schools. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is accountable for implementing a rigorous and fair oversight process that respects the autonomy that is vital to charter school success. It is this mutual obligation that drives the Cleveland Metropolitan School District Performance Framework– a collaborative effort with the common objective of providing Ohio students with a high quality education that prepares them for post-graduation academic and career success. Finally, the Performance Framework is a living document, subject to continuous review and improvement. Part 1: Academic Performance Framework 2 Part 2: Organizational Performance Framework 8 Part 3: Financial Performance Framework 11 Part 4: Intervention Protocol 13 Pursuant to the Sponsorship Contract, the Accountability Frameworks include the agreed-upon goals that the Governing Authority and Sponsor will use to evaluate the performance of the Community School during the term of this contract.

Focus of the Curriculum. The philosophy of education and educational goals reflect the school’s deep and central commitment to strong student achievement. We believe that the primary needs of our students are to develop the strongest standards based skills and build upon that foundation through the increasing application of those skills to real world problems and the development of critical thinking skills necessary for a college preparatory high school and the demands of college. The academic focus for V Prep School is centered on researched-based, best instructional practices for primary and intermediate learners. This includes reading instruction in phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, robust vocabulary, and comprehension; math instruction in counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations in base ten, number and operations in fractions, measurement and data, and geometry. Village Prep also emphasizes hands on, literacy based instruction in writing, science, and social studies. Core programs are support through writing across the curriculum using various genres, through science experiments and demonstrations, and with thematic-based projects. Common instructional practices sustain the core curriculum, such as close reading, text dependent questions, and citing evidence from the text in both writing and discussion. Technology is used in classrooms as appropriate to further reinforce lessons, to ensure exposure and to prepare students for the demands of the career force. Enrichment programming may be provided to the students through collaborative curriculum implemented with a number of partners, including partnerships with local colleges and universities. The instruction is predominantly classroom-based and led by one or two teachers per classroom, and is complemented with non-classroom based experiential learning through field trips (i.e. Cleveland Museum of Art, Holden Arboretum, Great Lakes Science Center, Washington, D.C.). The academic program remediates individual students’ basic skills and knowledge gaps to ensure that all students can read, write, and compute on grade level. As a result of this focus on the core academic skills, it is expected that English/Language Arts and Math take a larger portion of the students’ scheduled academic time. The school will make use of this additional time to ensure all students are achieving to very high academic expectations while still allowing students to develop and practice social emotional and college readiness skills through a variety of experiences in the daily curricula and beyond. Village Preparatory School’s core faculty is hired based upon their full commitment to the school’s mission and their high degree of knowledge and experience in successfully promoting strong student achievement in English Language Arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES NEEDED Learning opportunities at this school include: • Classroom instruction, in subjects described previously • Tutoring • Student projects • Character education • Technology • Field trips/field lessons • College prep • Partnerships with area businesses and non-profits • After-school programs • Family/parent events • Community events • Outdoor classroom Pursuant to the Sponsorship Contract, the Performance Framework enclosed herein ensures that each community school sponsored by Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD-sponsored charter school ) provides high-quality education to their its students. The Framework includes the academic, organizational, and financial standards by which sponsored schools will be evaluated. The Performance Framework will be used to evaluate whether a charter community school’s contract should be renewed. It will also be used throughout the life cycle of the school to communicate the school’s performance to its staff, governing authority, sponsor, and other stakeholders. The Framework will provide the basis of the annual report that CMSD must provide annually to the Ohio Department of EducationEducation (ODE). In addition to establishing performance criteria for charter community schools, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District performance framework holds the Cleveland Metropolitan School District CMSD accountable to charter community schools. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District CMSD is accountable for implementing a rigorous and fair oversight process that respects the autonomy that is vital to charter community school success. It is this mutual obligation that drives the Cleveland Metropolitan School District CMSD Performance Framework– —a collaborative effort with the common objective of providing Ohio students with a high high-quality education that prepares them for post-graduation academic and career success. Finally, the Performance Framework is a living document, subject to continuous review and improvement. Part 1: Academic Performance Framework 2 Part 2: Organizational Financial Performance Framework 8 Part 3: Financial Organizational Performance Framework 11 13 Part 4: Intervention Protocol 13 21 Pursuant to the Sponsorship Contract, the Accountability Frameworks include Performance Framework includes the agreed-upon goals that the Governing Authority governing authority of the community school and Sponsor CMSD will use to evaluate the performance of the Community School school during the term of this contract.