Overview

Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy Public Charter School's curriculum is standards-based as required by the District of Columbia Board of Education. A special program focus is a dual language immersion program for Pre-Kindergarten through Fifth Grade.

The purpose of education at Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy Public Charter School is to provide students with learning experiences, which lead to academic and talent development, and everlasting love for learning. MMBDA believes in preparing our students for the 21st century. One indicator of a twenty-first-century learner is his/her ability to interact with current technology and use this technology to improve his/her learning. Students use laptop computers, iPads, and calculators daily. For example, in music students use iPads to create musical compositions. Teachers are reliant upon technology in their instructional delivery. Classrooms have LCD projectors, SmartBoards, document cameras, and computers to plan and deliver instruction.

MMBDA uses the co-teaching model with a 10:1 student-to-teacher ratio, which allows for intentional and targeted instruction. The co-planning process facilitates collaboration, sharing of ideas, reflection, and mentoring to promote creative and effective teaching. Co-teaching facilitates inclusion, which allows special education students in the general education setting.

We believe that Foreign Languages, Art, and Music are critical subjects for developing well-rounded, creative, thoughtful, and intelligent children. We believe that a high-quality education is an inherent right and one of the most important things that we can provide a child. Further, we believe that Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy Public Charter School will ensure that the right to high-quality education will be actualized. Our Board of Trustees, faculty, and staff are committed to fulfilling the responsibility of providing a high-quality educational program that will produce children who possess the ability to think critically, creatively, and analytically.

We believe that the child should be able to experience and participate in a program that gives an opportunity for:

Exposure to a variety of topics, people, and adventures
Exposure and acquisition of languages of the world
Developing creativity
Identifying, cultivating, and developing unique and individual talents
Developing proficient communication skills through reading, writing, speaking, and using technology
Developing character traits of integrity, honesty, fairness, compassion, diplomacy, and responsibility
Developing a quest for learning, investigation, and sharing knowledge

Using science, world events, and literature as a catalyst for contributing toward the good of the child's neighborhood, District of Columbia, and the world.

Our Academic Program is developmental, rigorous, and engaging. Our teachers instruct each student using differentiated instruction methods to make sure that no child is left behind. Students will demonstrate mastery of learning through performance-based assessments as well as through their performance on the District-wide standardized test.

Reading/ Language Arts - Students develop reading, speaking, listening, and writing skills through a comprehensive language arts program. Each student is instructed through a language arts block of 90 minutes per day. Reading instruction includes the elements of scientific-based reading instruction - systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, comprehension, and verbal expression. Teachers utilize differentiated instruction and flexible grouping strategies to best suit children's needs.

Math - Students develop mathematical literacy during a dedicated block for math instruction. Students learn math skills for computation, application, and analysis. Students work in small groups, teacher-directed, and independent activities.

Foreign Language - All students take a foreign language. Beginning in prekindergarten, students learn Spanish in a dual language immersion environment. Dual language immersion in Spanish continues through grade 5. Students in grades 6, 7, and 8 take both Spanish and Latin instruction. Science - Students learn Science concepts through hands-on, experiential learning situations. Using the scientific method, students explore, observe, predict and analyze life, earth, and physical sciences.

Social Studies - Students learn about their community, their city, their nation, and the world. They investigate and discuss current local and world issues and discover the many ways they can be a part of making their city and the world better.

Visual Arts - All students receive art instruction with an art teacher, twice per week. Many of our other content areas integrate art expression. Students enjoy art activities as they explore, develop, and expand their creativity and self-expression.

Performing Arts - Students engage in music, drama, and dance activities as a part of the curriculum. Students participate in class and in after-school activities. Every class leads assembly programs during the school year.

Physical Education - Fitness and health consciousness are a goal for every student at Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy. Team activities, fitness exercises, and organized sports are P.E. components for every grade.

An important aspect of the Common Core Standards movement is to fully enable students to be College and Career ready. Our classrooms must not only reflect the 21st century but they must be inclusive of the everyday resources we all use daily. Cell phones, social media, video, computers, the internet, live streaming, and webinars, are just some of the vocabulary we have added into our everyday vocabularies in the past 15 years. Even our toddlers look to tablets for entertainment, learning, and fun. Blended learning is student-centered in its approach, allowing students and schools to use time and resources more flexibly than in traditional school environments. Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy PCS believes that blended learning requires an effective teacher to guide and support student learning.

Throughout the day at MMBDA, students are engaged in inquiry, learning, and creativity as they utilize iPads, Kindles, laptops, desktops, document cameras, and LCD projectors. This access to high-quality digital content and effective teacher facilitation magnifies, extends, and increases learning opportunities for all of our students. MMBDA has selected digital resources that increase teacher opportunities for data analysis, personalized instruction, differentiated instruction as well as more decadent curriculum offerings. Here are just some of the digital opportunities for our students:

iReady (K-8): i‑Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment designed to provide teachers with actionable insight into student needs. It offers a complete picture of student performance and growth, eliminating the need for multiple, redundant tests. By adapting to student responses and assessing a broad range of skills—including skills above and below a student’s chronological grade—the i‑Ready Diagnostic pinpoints student ability level, identifies the specific skills students need to learn to accelerate their growth, and charts a personalized learning path for each student. i‑Ready Standards Mastery provides flexible assessments designed to measure specific grade-level standards. Built to map to your scope and sequence, Standards Mastery allows educators to quickly identify when reteaching or remediation is needed as standards are covered across the year. The program’s intuitive reports visualize student performance on recently taught material and highlight misconceptions that may prevent students from making progress. We use iReady as diagnostic and benchmarking tool for Grades K-8.

IXL (Pre-K-8): IXL helps students excel! Featuring a comprehensive curriculum, the IXL Real-Time Diagnostic, and actionable analytics, IXL delivers everything teachers need to help students reach their full potential. Released in 2007, IXL has set a new standard for online learning by delivering a truly personalized learning experience. Trusted by schools in all of the top 100 U.S. school districts and used by over 13 million students, IXL is proven to accelerate learning. In studies of 66,790 schools across 34 states, IXL schools consistently outperform non-IXL schools, ranking as much as 18 percentile points higher on state assessments. We utilize IXL for ELA, Math, Science, and World History (Middle School).

Edulastic (3rd-8th): Edulastic is an educational assessment platform trusted by teachers, school leaders, and education coaches across all 50 states. The easy-to-use platform provides educators with a time-saving and customizable solution for assigning digital quizzes, tests, assessments, or worksheets to students. Technology-enhanced items and state-specific test players familiarize students, while administrators control test consistency and security.

State-specific test players
Browser lockdown functionality
Timed assessments
Student supports and accommodations

We utilize Edulastic as a benchmark testing tool for grades 2-8 in ELA, Math, and Science.

Teaching Strategies Gold (Pre-K) System for Preschool offers a comprehensive collection of resources to support all educators, from knowledge-building volumes, student progress tracking, assessment, to daily practice resources. It also includes a seamless assessment system for children from birth through kindergarten. With professional development and guidance for strengthening family connections included in every resource, the Teaching Strategies® System for Preschool helps our teachers build high-quality preschool programs.

Teaching Strategies GoldTM (Pre-K) is based on  38 objectives for development and learning that are predictors of school success and aligned with state standards. Ongoing assessment is an essential part of effective teaching.  Teaching Strategies GOLD TM is used by prekindergarten teachers to support the Creative Curriculum and provide a seamless assessment system for students.

Reading A to Z: The website has more than 2,500 downloadable books (including English, Spanish, and French versions) and thousands of teaching and learning materials. In addition to the K-6 market, Reading A-Z materials have found widespread use at a range of grade levels in special education and special needs, remedial reading, ESL, and ELL. Each month, Reading A-Z adds new books, lesson plans, and other resources, thus continually expanding its wealth of materials. We use this as a supplemental resource for ELA in grades Pre K-5.

Zearn: Zearn is the top-rated math learning platform that helps kids explore concepts, discover meaning, and make sense of math. We use this as a supplemental math resource for Grades K-8.

While serving students in grades PreK-3 through 8th grade, MMBDA offers robust course offerings and experiences that are challenging, varied, age, and developmentally appropriate, while remaining harmonious to its mission. MMBDA has three curriculum foci that are unique for Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle School programs that all foster critical thinking skills, inquiry within an interdisciplinary manner, and intellectual curiosity. Each curriculum area empowers learners and teachers to make connections across all subject areas to the outside world. Teachers collaborate and integrate subjects in thematic units across disciplines. For example, while fourth-graders were exploring decomposition in math, they were studying decomposition in studio art: breaking complex compositions into simpler component shapes.