From their website:
http://www.civacharterschool.org/history.htmA History ofThe CIVA School
District 11, Colorado SpringsThe CIVA charter high school "opened its doors" to students in September 1997 after nearly three years in planning by a group of Colorado Springs teachers, parents, and other community members. CIVA, whose name stands for Character, Integrity, Vision, and the Arts, is Colorado Springs' only charter high school serving a general population of students.
During its first three school years, CIVA was housed as a "school-within-a school" at Mitchell High in School District 11. For the 2000-2001 school year, CIVA moved to the Benet Hill Center that previously had been home for a private, parochial high school in Colorado Springs. CIVA relocated for three compelling reasons:
- An increasing number of families wanted to enroll their students in CIVA, and Mitchell High School has limited space for this expansion.
- The mission and goals of CIVA contrasted sharply with the larger public school environment, and CIVA must secure its own site to maintain the integrity of its programs.
- CIVA's larger aim is to serve as a model for other public schools to adopt its philosophy and practices; to do so as a school-within-a school is not feasible.
Future Enrollment Projections for CIVAUpon entering Benet Hill, CIVA's enrollment increased from 110 students to 160 with approximately 40 students in each grade. Since that time, CIVA has continued to grow gradually and anticipates enrolling about 210 students for the coming 2004-05 school year. Over the next four to five years, CIVA plans to expand its enrollment to 240 students. The intent of this growth is to insure that all students continue to receive individual attention and all families are optimally involved in the school.
Currently, CIVA's instructional staff consists of a school head, eight full-time classroom teachers, and three other staff members. CIVA also employs part-time teachers as needed. The school head is referred to as the Principal, who teaches one class each day.
The CIVA PhilosophyThe concept for CIVA is based on that of The Hyde School, an independent secondary school in Bath, Maine. While CIVA uses Character First© principles developed over the years at Hyde, CIVA has added it own unique features. Like Hyde, CIVA developed a student-centered curriculum in contrast to the traditional subject-centered curriculum. Whereas the traditional school maintains standards by emphasizing test scores, grades, and similar standard measures of achievement, CIVA emphasizes the unique abilities, talents, attitudes, and ultimately, the
character of students.
While it is important what students
know and can
do, CIVA emphasizes who the student is. This shift has a profound effect upon teachers, students, and parents alike, as well as upon the school curriculum and its culture. At CIVA, a student's educational progress depends less on traditional objective measurements than on deeper measures of an individual's character, such as courage to confront issues, care for others, and a love of learning. In doing so, CIVA places a major responsibility for learning on students and parents.
The philosophy and spirit of the CIVA School also draws on the wisdom that motivated this nation's "grandmasters of education." These early leaders conceived the unique idea of public schools to serve and nurture the vision of our democratic republic. For example, Horace Mann knew that at its core, education was a moral enterprise, in which developing both the
character and
intellect of students are inexorability linked. The word "education" is derived from its Latin roots meaning, "to lead out." This suggests that the fundamental purpose of education is to help the young identify their unique potential and discover their calling in this world, so that each might better advance both their own welfare and that of society.
Like other schools, CIVA values intellectual qualities, or knowing, which it defines as the
head level of learning. However, CIVA recognizes that what students know and can do are controlled by the ego and doesn't get to who they are. To this end, the school helps develop the
heart, or a deeper level of learning that involves emotions and feelings, which have the power to control the ego and therefore head learning. It is for this reason that CIVA emphasizes the arts and that all students become involved in athletics, service learning, community work, the performing arts, and leadership activities.
Once students are able to express deeper emotions and feelings, and move beyond them, they can open themselves to what CIVA calls the
soul of learning -- our deepest and spiritual level of understanding. At the
soul level, students eventually develop a conscience that serves as the
compass of one's destiny.
The Family CenterParent involvement is integral to philosophy of CIVA and a key to the intellectual and ethical growth of students. At CIVA, parents simply don't drop their kids off at the schoolhouse door and expect the staff to provide custodial care for eight hours a day. CIVA considers parents the "first teachers" in their children's lives and involves them in much of the school's learning, particularly in character development.
To this end, CIVA has set up a Family Center guided by a director. Parents attend monthly seminar sessions in which they discuss family issues related to the academic, emotional, and spiritual development of students. Parents also participate in outdoor, experiential activities with the school staff and students. Likewise, parents are invited to take part in the school's performing arts productions on stage as well as behind the scenes.
CIVA's EvaluationsThe beauty of CIVA, as it has unfolded, is that it is reaching its students in very personal and rich ways. For many families, this means that the school is transforming otherwise struggling adolescents into those with confidence, integrity, a sense of purpose, respect for learning, and caring for others and their community. These are young people that the school staff has mined for the gifts and talents that for many students has yet to surface.
During the 2001-02 school year, CIVA received a thorough assessment from a School District Eleven's Evaluation Team. This assessment was conducted as a precursor to the school district renewing CIVA's charter. CIVA passed this evaluation with "flying colors" and had its charter renewed for five years. In doing so, the district evaluator described a unique school, guided by a profound philosophy, that is accomplishing impressive education goals with students that tended to under perform in the traditional secondary school setting.
In additional, CIVA was reviewed after its first three years by a team of evaluators from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and commissioned by the National Education Association (NEA). CIVA was one of four schools to be part of NEA's Charter School Initiative. The UCLA evaluation reports were designed to inform the school community and district officials about the quality of the educational practices taking place at CIVA and to help the school staff and governing board improve.
In December 2002, CIVA students were assessed on character development using a measure developed by the Center for Character Development at the U.S. Air Force Academy. This study found that CIVA students showed significant progress on both a Behavioral Desirability and Character Assessment scale as they progress from their first year at CIVA to becoming upper class students. In addition, CIVA junior and seniors scored significantly higher on both scales than did a comparable group of students at a traditional Colorado Springs District Eleven high school. And they scored at the same level of character development as did freshman cadets at the Air Force Academy.
