Less Testing, More doing.

Learning Program Overview

Our Mission

“Learn by doing, embrace your place in the world, prepare for success, and make friends along the way.”

Our Vision

Our vision is a generation of young people who can navigate the world with the awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to make a positive impact.

Core Values

At Academic Arts High School, we continuously inform our teaching practices to ensure that they are reflective of the values aforementioned in our Mission and Vision. Our curriculum utilizes traditional, research-based teaching methods in combination with project-based learning for core subjects and electives. Students engage in experiences, conversation, problem solving and hands-on learning related to course content, as a means of developing real world readiness. All content is aligned with state standards.

 
 

Project-Based Learning

Project based learning within the structure of a class is teacher designed and guided with the expectation being that students display mastery of concepts learned during the course of the class. Exhibition days are held at the end of each quarter. On this day students share their projects with the larger community through displays and presentations. They also interact with and view the work of their peers.


Students who meet certain requirements are able to design their own projects for approval by the school’s curriculum committee which is composed of the General Education teaching staff.

Themes

Within a quarter, classes and experiences (field-trips, speakers, etc.) align with cross-curricular themes. Themes are typically announced at the beginning of the year. The themes, with brief descriptions, for the 2019-2020 school year are below:

  • Quarter 1 - We are A Natural Disaster: humans have the capability of messing stuff up

  • Quarter 2 - We Are Survivors: Humans are really good at overcoming obstacles

  • Quarter 3 - We Are Connected: Humans are social and are really good at learning from each other through connection of information, technology

  • Quarter 4 - We Are The Future: The decisions that humans make affect the future

Testing Philosophy

Our curriculum does not rely on traditional testing. We believe in order to meet the demands of a 21st century workforce and foster real-world skills, students need to APPLY informed perspectives and knowledge to show mastery of new concepts. 

We do utilize traditional methods of testing such as the MCA and NWEA as a means of providing data-driven instruction and to identify student specific needs. Additionally, we have developed our own diagnostic assessments in core subjects to inform our project-based instruction.

We have recently (school year 2019-20) made the decision to dedicate resources specifically to ensuring that our curriculum design continues to provide our students access to courses that are engaging, rigorous and aligned with state standards. Please contact us directly with further questions regarding our curriculum at Academic Arts High School.


Sex Education

Sex Education will be woven into the curriculum during the school year. It’s also a section of the Health courses offered. Teaching Sex Ed is required in the state of Minnesota. This slideshow shows the Sex Ed topics that are discussed: Sex Ed Topics

State Law

Minnesota Statutes §§ 120B.20(link is external) and 121A.23(link is external) require every school district to develop and implement a comprehensive risk-reduction program “including but not exclusive to human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] and human papilloma virus [HPV].”  While the state has not developed a specific curriculum, each school district must have “a comprehensive, technically accurate, and updated curriculum that includes helping students to abstain from sexual activity until marriage” and must target “adolescents, especially those who may be at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections [STIs] and [sexually transmitted] diseases [STDs], for prevention efforts.”

Minnesota also requires each school district to:

[H]ave a procedure for a parent, guardian, or an adult student (18 years of age or older) to review the content of the instructional materials to be provided to a minor child or to an adult student and, if the parent, guardian, or adult student objects to the content, to make reasonable arrangements with school personnel for alternative instruction.