Independence School Local 1
Baltimore City Public School System
Cranston Dize, Erik Sunday, Helen Atkinson, Principals
Converted to charter school status in August 2007
Grades 9-12, 98 students
www.Independenceschool.org

About Independence School Local 1

Independence School Local 1 converted to charter school status in 2007. It uses the city, the wilderness, and city and local partnerships as instructional tools to link learning with real life. Many students of Independence School Local 1 have received awards for their participation and success in debate. One hundred percent of students have successfully completed a wilderness experience.

Program Philosophy and Model:

• Independence School Local 1 is organized around a few key adults who develop trusting relationships with the students.
• It is organized around individualized learning plans because students need a voice and ownership in planning their futures as well as clear support in meeting performance expectations.
• It is organized around demonstrated achievement rather than prescribed course sequences.
• It is organized around technology and taps the potential of on-line learning.
• It is organized around a commitment to traveling, surviving and thriving in the City and in the Wilderness.
• Finally, it is organized around strong local and citywide partnerships recognizing that community commitment to youth is necessary for students to achieve at high levels.

Learning Environment:

• Independence School Local 1 is small, but well organized and full of interesting materials, technology, media, art work, and literature.
• Every student has a computer.
• The school is set in beautiful grounds with vegetable and flower gardens, and a bird sanctuary.
• The workshop space includes all the equipment needed for a group of students to go wilderness backpacking or to take a 5-day bike ride.
• Students engage in large scale painting, wood, mosaic, and metal projects with practical and aesthetic applications such as building an outdoor stage for assemblies and concerts, making scenery, building a trebuchet, fixing broken and abandoned bikes, making a mural surrounding the school, and making picnic tables for the school.
• Students spend part of every week outside on field trips and one or two weeks a year on overnight wilderness trips.

Student Support Programs and Services:

• The small size ensures that every student receives individualized attention.
• Students join an advisory class of 14 students and an advisory teacher in ninth grade and remain in that class until graduation
• Parents are required to attend four individual meetings each year—one at the start of the year to set goals and three throughout the year to observe their child demonstrate mastery of the content areas leading to credit.
• In addition to small class sizes and individualized instruction, students have access to a number of consultants and tutors who provide one-on-one tutoring as needed.

Partnerships:

Independence partners with several groups including:

• Youth Organizing for Urban Revitalization Systems (Y.O.U.R.S.), which provides an extended day program
• The Wilderness Art Initiative, which leads our wilderness trips