Linscott Charter School is a mature charter school that was founded in 1986. The strength of the original vision of the founders of Linscott Charter School is stated in our charter document and was reaffirmed in 2008 when the school community completed its renewal process. We are a free, public school of choice with a capacity to serve 218 students in grades K-8. Those who chose to enroll at Linscott Charter School agree to become part of a parent cooperative school and to participate in the school community. Participation may include but is not limited to classroom support, fundraising, or school governance. Linscott is guided by our mission statement and a vision based on a set of assumptions about human nature that guide our curriculum, program, and policy decisions. Linscott aims to develop students who are responsible, respectful, responsive and resourceful.

Mission Statement

Linscott Charter School is a parent participation school, collaboratively governed by parents and staff. Dedicated teachers and supportive families provide individualized, active, hands-on learning that fosters each child's academic success, encouraging excellence. Students become self-motivated, critical thinkers, demonstrating creativity and confidence. Our focus on community, in and out of the classroom, allows students to gain social and environmental awareness.

Statement of Purpose

Linscott Charter School was established as a cooperative parent participation school in 1994 with the purpose of providing an active, hands-on experiential approach to education that includes parent involvement. Parents receive regular parent education about the developmental needs of their children and apply that knowledge as they work in the educational environment. Due to the high level of parent participation Linscott is able to provide a rich, nurturing, individualized curriculum that exceeds state academic standards.

The three principal components of our school are:

Student Education:

We provide a caring learning environment for K-8 students under the direction of a trained teaching staff with the assistance of parents.

Parent Education:

We provide ongoing parent education to help parents develop parenting skills that will support their child's growth in both the home and school environment.

Cooperative Organization and Management:

Linscott is a cooperative organization. The parents and staff of the school work as partners to ensure the student's success. Their collaborative efforts are built-in to every aspect of the school's management which includes decision making, fundraising, governance, and the educational program.

Educational Philosophy

For many years researchers have been demonstrating the importance of developmentally-based, experiential learning for education that produces well-rounded, capable, critically thinking citizens who become life-long learners. Our program reflects the State and District standards and draws on both classical educational theory and current research.

Our goal is to develop in students a sense of responsibility, initiative, autonomy, self-motivation and cooperation as they work and play in the classroom. To encourage these qualities the enviroment is set up to provide children opportunities to make choices, to initiate and carry out their own projects, and to take part in decision-making.

The Philosophy in Practice

We respect and support the needs and talents of the individual and seek to empower each learner to reach his or her fullest potential. An awareness of each child's learning style, skill levels, interests and abilities is crucial to building a successful learning experience. Activities in the classroom are individualized to meet the range of realities each child brings to school.

This does not mean that each student gets an individualized program with private instruction, although there may be some of that in the usual day. Individualizing the curriculum means that we try to find out what each student is interested in, how students approach the learning process, what strengths and limitations they have; what skills they have for solving problems, getting information, and working with others. Then we work to fit these interests, strengths, limitations and skills into the ongoing curriculum. In this way each learner is supported as a unique, valuable member of the group.

Standardized Test Scores

Linscott parents and staff believe that our approach to education leads to well-rounded, eager learners who are likely to perform well on standardized tests. However, Linscott Charter School does not focus on standardized test preparation or test achievement in our classrooms. We do not dismiss testing as without merit, nor do we endorse "teaching to the test" as a valuable tool for education.

Linscott's progress is rated in a number of ways. STAR is an acronym for Standardized Testing and Accountability Report. The STAR tests consist of the CST (California Standards Test) and the CAT 6. All public schools are required to administer these tests each year. The API (Academic Performance Index) is a California measure of the results of these tests as they relate to the school's demographics. The national measure, AYP (Annual Yearly Progress), is part of the No Child Left Behind legislation and uses state measurement from standardized tests to determine if appropriate growth has been made for the school and for student sub-groups as required by NCLB. As of 2006 there is yet another set of letters, APR (Accountability Progress Report), which will show the results of both the API and the AYP. All of this information is available at the California Department of Education website.

• [Click here for STAR results]
• [Click here for API results]
• [Click here for AYP results]

Linscott Charter School 220 Elm Street Watsonville, California 95076 (831) 728-6301