Mosaica Model

Mosaica opens portals of opportunity.

The following pillars, the tenets of our model, create these openings that give each school its unique personality and customized attributes, its portals.

Mosaica Model - Eight Pillars

 

1.  Student Achievement

Mosaica’s students have achieved rates of educational improvement substantially greater than they had achieved prior to enrolling at Mosaica schools, and better than achieved by students at surrounding schools. Part of this success stems from continuous and challenging instruction in core subjects that improves student performance. Teachers instruct students in reading including phonics for K-2, writing, mathematics, science and social studies everyday using research-based curricula and best teaching practices, including teaching to the Multiple Intelligences— a foundation for recognizing and making the most of individual student’s different abilities and talents.

2.  Extended Learning Time

Mosaica’s approach to improving student learning includes extending the school day by one hour and the school year by 20 days. Research shows that many students need additional time to master academic skills and knowledge. The extended school day and school year enables our students to graduate from High School with the equivalent of nearly four years more schooling than other children.

3.  Secure Environment

Mosaica provides emotionally and physically safe learning environments. We recognize that effective instruction requires an orderly environment focused on learning and that schools have an important role to play in supporting parents’ efforts to teach their children principles of excellence. We also are committed to provide students with a sense of belonging and a feeling of significance so that they feel safe to learn, to grow, and thrive.

4.  Professional Development

Mosaica hires, trains and is committed to retaining star teachers and talented leaders in educational management. Teachers are qualified, experienced individuals with a strong commitment to instilling a love of learning in their students. Mosaica teachers consider themselves to be life-long learners, who keep abreast of current research, tools and educational strategies. To support this, Mosaica provides 15 – 20 days of professional development each year— twice the number of most public schools.

5.  Community Support

Mosaica partners with the community—neighbors, cultural centers, universities, school districts and local businesses—and enlists their insight, professionalism, and commitment to providing world-class education for all children. Eight times each year, the community is invited to Paragon Night— student performances illuminating the historical era studied in Paragon. These inspiring nights quickly become a source of joy and pride in each school community.

6.  Integrated Technology

Mosaica provides students with unprecedented access to computers, to the Internet and to other technological tools that significantly enhance learning. Combining high tech learning tools with rigorous training in the essential skills and applying those skills in a solid, sequential humanities-based education enables Mosaica students to fill the urgent need in tomorrow’s workplace for analytical employees with a command of computer literacy and broadly informed problem-solving capacities.

Technological Advances

Technological advances accelerate at a rapidly changing pace, mandating a need in today’s workplace for literate, analytical employees with a command of computer literacy and broadly informed problem-solving capacities.

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for the purpose of solving practical problems, extending human capacities, and improving the quality of life. The Mosaica Educational Model emphasizes the use of technological tools to facilitate and enrich learning across academic disciplines. Information technology is the most frequently used technological tool. Students use computers to communicate via the Internet, to express themselves creatively, to solve problems, to organize data, to conduct research, and to explore mathematical and scientific principles through simulations.

To master true computer literacy, students require hands-on access to computers in real time, rather than isolated visits to a computer lab. A Mosaica Charter School is equipped with a computer for every two to three children, as well as with a laptop for each teacher and administrator. The personal desktop computers are linked to the Internet, affording access to curriculum and resources available in cyberspace or on disk. Daily Paragon lesson plans direct students to specific Internet sites on a regular basis.

A Mosaica Charter School library is styled as a Multimedia and Resource Center, supplying a library of excellent books and CD-ROMs, as well as TV/VCRs, overhead and slide projectors for pedagogy. The Multimedia Center also features a Multimedia Arts and Sciences Studio for student radio and video portfolio productions.

Each classroom is equipped with a TV/VCR to support the Paragon Curriculum, which features film clips from classic and quality motion pictures to make history come alive for students. Overhead projectors in every classroom further facilitate student engagement with the captivating transparencies that support the Paragon Curriculum.

7. Parent Involvement

Mosaica believes and worldwide studies concur that a close connection between home and school is crucial to student performance. Mosaica compels parents to be actively engaged in their children’s education. Because every child needs stability, continuity and a champion who believes in his or her human potential, Mosaica teachers conduct regular goal setting conferences with individual children and their parents so that all cooperate to ensure the student’s success.

8.  Paragon

The Paragon Curriculum is Mosaica’s own integrated humanities and social studies curriculum. Through content rich, hands-on learning, Paragon looks to the past to prepare students for the future, providing students with a solid understanding of history by exploring the literary, artistic, mathematical, scientific, social, political, and philosophical ideas that have culminated in our contemporary cultural climate.

By studying the great ideas of human genius that transcend time and place, Mosaica students will cultivate a multicultural perspective and global awareness. The program teaches students to work collaboratively on complex questions relevant to their own experiences and features the latest technology as a tool for inquiry and research.

Read more about Paragon