The Green School opened in 2006 and recently moved to the Belair-Edison neighborhood in Baltimore City. The school is located in the building that was formerly home to the Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic School. The Green School has retained 100 percent of its teachers since opening. In 2006-2007, 93.8 percent of 3rd graders scored at proficient and advanced levels on the reading MSA and 87.5 percent scored at proficient and advanced levels on the mathematics MSA.

Program Model/Philosophy

• The mission of The Green School is to motivate every student to participate fully and to achieve high standards.
• The Green School follows an educational approach called “using the Environment as an Integrating Context (EIC) for learning.” EIC uses the school’s surroundings and community as the context for reading, math, science, and social studies. This approach integrates learning from textbooks, problem-solving opportunities, and hands-on experiences. (For more information on EIC, visit the State Education and Environment Roundtable at www.seer.org.)
• The Green School is committed to providing a rigorous educational program to meet the diverse needs of our students.
• Teachers at The Green School have experience with special education, inclusion, differentiated instruction, and gifted and talented programs.

Learning Environment

• Students are involved in projects that align with Maryland State standards and require the students to apply skills learned in all subject areas.
• Projects include: creating rain gardens; planning and growing an edible, organic garden; developing a recycling program; and creating a tree nursery.

Student Support Programs and Services

• The Green School’s approach to instruction and school design is informed by staff’s years of experience with the Instructional Consultation (IC) model.
• The IC model emphasizes a shared responsibility for the education of ALL students and believes that early intervention and a strong student-teacher relationship is essential to successful learning.
• The IC model views barriers to learning as a mismatch between a student’s skills and the school setting rather than as a defect within the student.
• The Green School uses a collaborative and systematic problem-solving process to make adjustments to mismatches using data specific to each student.
• Through their experience, The Green School believes that behavioral distractions stem from an academic nature and can be addressed through aligning instruction with a student’s current level of performance.

Partnerships

• The Green School has developed strong partnerships with several organizations with complementary missions, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc.; and the Herring Run Watershed Association.