Proposing to open it doors for the 2011-2012 school year, Thunderbird Early College Charter School, Inc. was established as a non-profit entity in June 2008. Its purpose is to establish, develop and operate a public, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering &Math) early college charter school for grade 5-12, as authorized by Mat Su Borough School District and State of Alaska.
Thunderbird Early College Charter School, Inc.
What are Our Hopes? With this community-minded charter school, we hope to develop more defined and engaging pathways to higher education for our students. In doing so, we hope to nurture culturally responsive, civically-minded scholars that will help design and sustain a prosperous future in our communites, state, nation and world.
Where is the proposed school to be located? TECC is proposed as an e-school with supporting facilites. A Request for Proposal to lease a charter school facility will be created and it will go up for public bid. So, we cannot specify facilities at this time.
For Whom? The school is proposed for students grade 5-12, including Gifted, students with special needs, “At Risk” and English Language Learners. All students will be admitted through a lottery process. Lottery applications will be available during specified application periods each year. If you would like to be notified of lottery application deadlines, please click on "Updates by email" link on the navigation list and join our list serve.
School Mission: Thunderbird Early College Charter School, Inc. proposed to serve students in grades 5-12 shall be cultural responsive, and utilize Alaska Standards and GLEs, current research and technology in the design of curriculum, teaching methods and assessments. By providing a virtual school with supporting facility-based activites and facilitating culturally responsive service-learning opportunities and operate under an umbrella of UN Simulations. Intensives in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and the Humanities shall inspire our students while nurturing their global cultural awareness and leadership qualities. Progams are proposed to help them understand their civic duty, and provide them with clear, well lit pathways to higher education. Qualified students will be provided the opportunity to simultaneously complete high school and post secondary coursework at regionally accredited college and universities thereby encouraging them to excel and help shape the future of the world.
Introduction:
The vision for the new school includes an e-school that helps to facilitate service-learning projects by local student, parent, school and community members, thereby supporting lifelong learning and cultural awareness. Small e-classes, Model UN Committee Meetings, Elders, scientists and other professional guest speakers and service-learning project meetings are proposed to be facilitated through elluminate or similar communication facility, the use of Moodle for assignments and uploading information and images as well as, supplementary activities in physical facilities are proposed.
Additionally, the vision for the new school is that it will provide not only a cultural awareness of Alaskan cultures through local community activities, but that it will also will provide global learning opportunities involving global cultures and student access to middle, high school and college courses that may not be currently available to schools in our state’s smaller communities. Enrolled students, who are proficient to do so, are proposed to be funded through the school to enroll in regionally accredited college courses while still in high school.
In the 21st Century, the internet has not only made e-learning a viable option for instruction, but also for globally orientated collaboration for teachers’ students ‘and communities. The rationale behind working together to create the new school is that by bringing students and communities together through virtual classrooms, global learning opportunities and local service-learning projects, we can bring both new cultural understandings and more rigorous learning into more communities of our state.
Service-learning is an educational model which features strategies that have been proven to engage students. It is both a teaching and a learning strategy that integrates student-led meaningful community service with instruction, and reflection, while enriching the learning experiences. We seek to create a new opportunity that will enable Alaskan communities to discover that e-learning combined with service-learning offers all its participants a chance to take part in the active education of its youth while simultaneously addressing the cultural aspects, concerns, needs, and hopes of their community.
Thunderbird Early College Charter School, Inc. shall design its innovative curriculum, assessments and learning activities to meet or exceed Alaska Performance & Content Standards and Grade Level Equivalencies, as well as, create classroom thinking cultures by using ‘thinking routines’(Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero, 2009)
Within this framework, curriculum and assessments shall be designed using ‘backwards design’ as defined in UbD, (Understanding by Design) (Wiggins & McTighe,2005)
Authentic demonstrations of learning, formative assessment, student self assessments and summative assessment data will drive our RTI (Response to Intervention) mulit tiered program. Readiness, interest and learning styles will be differentiated for our students. Each student will have a Certified Advisor to help design indiviudalized learning contracts, monitor progress on measurable learning goals and provide a strong parental link to the school through multiple conferences held during the year. Learning opportunities shall be designed to nurture students’ culture awareness, critical thinking skills, creativity, curiosity and promote literacy across the curriculum. Each student shall have an Individualized Learning Contract (ILCs) designed in collaboration by certified teachers, parents and students. ILCs shall contain an on-going assessment plan that includes assessments that target specific instruction and measure student proficiency.
Student research, synthesis, reflections and authentic demonstrations of their learning will be included in STEM and Humanities Intensives, United Nations Simulations, community service-learning projects, and independent study. Online e-class learning opportunites will include, Model UN Committee Meetings, guest speakers, peer-to-peer learning opportunities, trade books, virtual labs, e-museums visits and field trips, student internet research and reflections, and other resources will be deliberately selected to help students reach specific goals - curriculum will not be limited to textbooks only. When learning goals are met curriculum has quality!
Partnering with communites, Elders, parents, the STEM Coalition, regionally accredited colleges, universities and other experts from their fields, the school shall provide integrated educational opportunities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and the Humanities under the umbrella of school wide United Nations Simulations.(Model UN)
TECC shall work to inspire our students’ global cultural awareness, leadership qualities, and civic duty, while leading them to clear, well-lit pathways to college.
Contact Information:
Thunderbird Early College Charter School, Inc.
7362 W. Parks Highway, # 635
Wasilla, Alaska 99654-9131
(907) 232-9470
