Columbia Heights Educational Campus

CHEC is a standards-based school, which means that standards have been set for teacher performance, principal performance, and student performance. The academic standards set for students include what students should know and be able to do at each grade level. Curriculum is designed so that students can develop their learning through the lenses of rigor, relevance and social justice.

Our goal is to provide the highest quality instruction possible, so that every student is motivated to learn, experiences rigor that will prepare him or her for college, and is supported in areas where he or she needs it. Every classroom is a community of learners, and as a school we have chosen instructional strategies that will make sure that every student can develop to the highest level.

In all our classrooms, students should experience the following instructional strategies:

• Reciprocal Teaching - students work in groups of four to building reading comprehension skills.
• Socratic Seminar - students sit in a circle and discuss essential questions, based on something they have read.
• Writing to Learn - students are asked to write frequently, formally and informally, as a way of thinking and reflecting.
• Vocabulary Building - every student will learn 5 new words per week in every class.
• Cornell Notes - students learn how to take notes in a way that will help them in college.
• Accountable talk - student classroom conversations should be about the academics.
• Sourcebook - students keep a special notebook which becomes their guide for studying and reflecting on their reading and learning.