TRCS Approach
The primary goal of Three Rivers Charter School is to provide an educational setting tailored to the special needs of each learner. This setting will allow students to obtain a meaningful education, establish short-term and long-term life goals, and develop the academic and social tools required to live a healthy and productive life in the 21st century. The objectives of the TRCS are:
- Create for each student a customized education plan that will access learning at the current level, direct academic growth towards each individuals highest abilities, and recognize student achievement by advancing the learner into further challenging settings.
- Foster collaboration between director, teachers, parents, students and community partners to create an ethos of reflection, an atmosphere of growth, and the refinement of practice - a community of learners.
- Provide flexible, thematic curricula, utilizing subject integration, contextual learning, and the application of technology to develop skills needed within the 21st century. Technology will be utilized to enhance student expression, to provide collaboration with other small school networks and to communicate with a larger international community.
- Provide opportunities in small learning environments with a flexible schedule, allowing the school day to be opened to a variety of experiences and formats.
- Develop and define intellectual programs and curriculum according to the high standards of the Oregon Education Act for the 21st Century.
- Infuse critical thinking and creative experiences into our daily school lives that allow students to communicate effectively through listening, speaking, writing, reading and visual forms. The Essential Learning Skills (as outlined by ODE) will serve as an umbrella for all curricular work.
- Establish the Arts as a significant backdrop for all intellectual pursuit that will provide the setting for defining our community lore.
- Embed technology, as a cornerstone of our future, within our curriculum and emphasize it as its own discipline, as well as, utilize it to enhance the instruction and assessment of all other learning domains.
- Combine learners of all ages, allowing for leadership as a distinct aptitude, to be cultivated and used to inspire each to reach their highest potential.
- Provide a roadmap of achievement goals that a student can see, understand, and be motivated by to further advance his/her achievements.
- Forge community partnerships that allow students the opportunity to contextualize their learning as well as, deepen their understanding of the framework of the larger community.
- Provide a center for parents to access resources that will develop and enhance their parenting skills (Parent Resource Center).
- Enrich, through mentorship, our students’ ability to visualize their desired future, and assist them in creating goals that will allow them to consciously achieve it.
- Provide opportunities, through mentorship, for high school students to define, explore and experience leadership.
- Promote education, through our mentorship program, as a potential career for high school students with an aptitude for teaching.
- Encourage students and adults to take risks, where a safety net protects those who are at risk.
- Honor and respect the differences of philosophy, style and passion within and beyond the fellowship of learners.
- Disseminate models of teaching practices and program implementation that can be replicated district-wide and statewide, as well as, on the national and international levels.
- Broader range of grade levels (4 - 8th, which leads to a more extended relationship with students/families)
- Individualized education plans for all students
- Well-defined character goals used both as a learning and assessment tool
- Upper grade assessment tool (reporting format) linked directly to state benchmarks
- School of choice for West Linn/Wilsonville families
- Smaller, more flexible middle school environment
- Parent and student involvement within school governance