Effective Practices: Erie Elementary Charter School

Many of the STC schools are like a second home for their students. Not only does the enrichment of their success come from the academic work, these schools create an environment ready to support and nurture the young scholars growing right in front of them. Erie Elementary Charter School, located in Chicago, is the guiding hand to helping their students one day become confident adults proud of the culture they come from. They strive to push their K - 8 pupils to academic success as well as social success. Their programs greatly encourage the whole child as an individual and as a student: Looping At EECS, students stay with the same teacher for two years to allow for stronger partnerships between students, teachers and parents. Keeping students and teachers together creates more meaningful relationships and contributes to a sense of comfort in the classroom, which ultimately has a positive impact on student achievement. Socio-Emotional Learning Development (SELD) Program To respond to the needs of every child, we have crafted a comprehensive program to support the social and emotional development of every EECS student. We believe that a child who has socio-emotional issues will face considerable difficulties in their academic life as well—if a child feels isolated or scared, he or she will have trouble building relationships and taking appropriate risks, and will face obstacles in the classroom. Dual Language The dual language program is new in the 2009-2010 school year. Beginning with one kindergarten and one first grade classroom this year, the program will add a grade level each year, through 8th grade. The goal of the dual language program is to develop bi-literate students--children who can read, write and speak in both Spanish and English by the time they reach 8th grade. In dual language classrooms, half of the student are English-dominant and half are Spanish-dominant and serve as language models for one another. In the dual language kindergarten, 80% of instruction is in Spanish. Literacy is taught in the child's native language, while Math, Science and Social Studies are taught in Spanish. This balance gradually shifts, so that by 5th grade, instruction is 50% in English and 50% in Spanish. To learn more, please visit their curriculum page here. What do you think about what Erie Elementary Charter School has to offer? Let us know below.