Curriculum

The New Roots curriculum will nurture young peoples' ability to use their skills as world citizens to promote sustainability. They'll learn to create democratic, green economies that consider all peoples' needs and restore the natural world.

Our cross-disciplinary, experience-based curriculum will help students see the intersection of social and ecological systems, cultivating a practical intellect that produces solutions to the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in the 21st-century. For more about what has inspired the New Roots curriculum, go to What Inspires Us.

Grounded in rigorous academics, students will partner with community organizations to meet critical real-life problems. They'll use democratic decision-making and teamwork skills to take action together with members of their local community. They might, for example, support neighborhood planning teams, restore wetlands, participate in climate-related research, develop local food enterprises, help plan neighborhoods, or retrofit low-income housing with green technology.

Blending careful instruction, global perspective, and an abiding commitment to the local community, New Roots School will act on a vision of a sustainable and democratic future. Transforming high school education at its roots, we will create a living laboratory for educators and community members who want to transition to a way of teaching and living with potential to turn the tide.

New Roots Curriculum: Fostering Authentic Learning

The New Roots curriculum fosters authentic learning - learning that is real, relevant, and meaningful for students - in an environment that prepares them to be successful in higher education and in meeting all of life's challenges.

At New Roots School, we concentrate on complementary pieces of an educational puzzle: academic excellence, student engagement, high expectations, individual support, state standards, and an education for sustainability. These priorities are articulated in the New York State Learning Standards and will help all students succeed on the Regents examinations required for graduation. Additionally, New Roots students will earn college credits before high school graduation, and will have the option of pursuing a Regents Diploma with distinction. But rather than focusing just on skill-and-drill learning, we will challenge our students to take on real problems and projects, work in teams, and perform for real audiences. Research shows that authentic learning most effectively raises student achievement across racial, ethnic, and gender groups.

Our core academic courses focus on four traditional subject areas: science, social studies, literacy, and mathematics. Students will gain essential skills and knowledge while investigating critical sustainability and social justice questions and themes. In other words, traditional learning will dovetail with a "whole earth approach" to motivate students to use their education to make concrete changes in their communities.

Students will take a four-year sequence of courses in all four core subject areas, and will receive college credit for required classes by their senior year. An array of elective courses - and a rich assortment of options at Tompkins Cortland Community College - will allow students to delve into areas of interest in more depth.

Science courses include Earth Systems Science I and II and Contemporary Science I and II. The Systems Science sequence transcends disciplinary boundaries, treating the earth as an integrated system to understand its past, current, and future states. It embraces earth science, chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and technology. Contemporary Science I and II examines how science has fueled the developments of the 20th century and asks how scientific understanding can potentially develop new, sustainable technologies to address our emerging environmental problems.

Our Social Studies courses add another dimension of our "whole Earth studies" curriculum. Featuring cross-disciplinary links with the science curriculum, our social studies and history courses will emphasize the connections between the characteristics of different bioregions and how culture and history develop in relation to the various bioregions. Through these connections, the students will come to understand Earth's social and ecological dimensions as interwoven systems, and will use this understanding as motivation for actions that move towards greater sustainability. Studying Economics and Participation in Government in their senior year, students will develop the orientation and skills of a "green" entrepreneur, and participate in the wider Ithaca community's governance processes, preparing them for civic engagement and economic opportunity in the years beyond high school.

Developing literacy skills of analysis and expression will be a focus across all disciplines but will find particular emphasis in our English courses. These classes will focus on literature seminars and writing workshops that teach students how literature helps us understand how individuals construct images of themselves and their surroundings. As such, literature courses offer a window into issues of social justice, as students examine the terms of their definitions of themselves and culture.

Our innovative Math courses will focus on problem-based mathematical modeling and statistics, integrated with science and social studies courses. Using the local Ithaca community as a springboard, students will use mathematics as a way of interpreting the world's bioregions.

Our Foreign Language curriculum offers students an opportunity to learn spoken and written Spanish, the second most prevalent language used in our country and the world. Students who wish to study another language will be connected with opportunities at Tompkins Cortland Community College.

Our integrated Physical Education and Health courses will focus on the development of lifetime personal wellness plans that encompass personal fitness, nutrition, emotional well-being, and a healthy balance between work and play.

Music and art will be a vital part of the life of the school as they are in our community and throughout the world. Instruction will be provided to develop the talents of our students. In addition, there will be an emphasis on studio time and performance and exhibition.

A core experience of all students will be mentoring communities, groups of students and faculty who develop strong relationships with one another through daily engagement in school decision-making processes, portfolio development, service learning, physical recreation, wilderness mentoring, meditation and reflection, the arts, and other activities that are essential to building a sustainable learning community. We will seek to support each individual's growth and development through the development of strong community relationships that honor the contributions of each member.

Read the complete proposed curriculum included in our charter school application. Go to "Related Files" below.