8 essential curricular principles.
  1. All students take a rigorous college preparatory course of studies.
  2. The student is at the center of all academic programming, surrounded by an environment that fosters their upward academic mobility.
  3. A consistent, content-based curriculum is implemented across three major academic disciplines: Humanities, Math & Science, and Arts & Wellness. The curriculum focuses on themes both contemporary and historical in scope.
  4. The development of a student’s basic literacy skills is emphasized across all disciplines of the curriculum. The accountability measures used to verify this development are the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) assessment for elementary students and the ACT college entrance exam for high school students.
  5. The critical thinking skills of all students are developed through an emphasis on teaching conflicting interpretations and an orientation to controversy.
  6. The curriculum focuses on the civic purposes of education: educating citizens for economic and personal success.
  7. The program is operated by a collaborative staff, purposefully focused on student achievement, with decisions informed by data and qualitative measurements.
  8. A Civitas School is a learning community: one in which students learn as a community, and one in which students learn about community.