Q: What is the primary difference between traditional and progressive education?
A: There are many differences and also many similarities between traditional and progressive education. One primary difference is that traditional settings often (but not always) encourage rote learning (i.e. reading and memorizing information and regurgitating that information in some written or oral form); progressive settings encourage hands-on, proactive learning, interaction with the material, and a connection between the material and the students’ lives right now. Traditional learning environments are typically competitive and “grade-oriented,” whereas progressive environments are mainly cooperative and “critical thinking-oriented.” In progressive schools, you may do more group projects, community service projects, and take more field trips.
Q: What High Schools do children attend after they graduate from Foundations School Community?
A: FSC graduates have been accepted to a variety of high schools, both public and private, traditional and non-traditional, throughout Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. 86% of our graduates have been accepted into their first-choice high school.
Q: How do kids who are educated in progressive schools compare scholastically to their peers in more traditional environments?
A: In the early years, our children are not pushed academically and hence may not have been exposed to all that their peers have been exposed to. However, in our experience, children who are educated in progressive schools are scholastically on par or above their traditionally educated peers by 3rd or 4th grade. We have found that because our children have not been cognitively pushed too hard a t a young age, they become more prepared and eager to learn, and become active participants in their own learning as they move through their primary years.
Q: How do students who graduate from Foundations School Community typically handle the transition to high school?
A: We have seen our graduates transition very well into high school. FSC middle school children are very well prepared for high school. Not only are they equipped with critical thinking, organizational and problem solving skills, but they are prepared to be proactive members of their school and outside community. One consistent message that we have heard from our graduates is that in high school they are often asked to memorize and regurgitate information. They feel memorizing and regurgitating is much easier than what they have been trained to do at FSC, which is to compare, contrast, analyze, summarize, and contribute their own thoughts and opinions about the material they learn.
Q: Since FSC provides a non-competitive environment, how are children prepared to take tests when they transfer to other environments?
A: Our students take a variety of test throughout their years at FSC. These testes begin in 3rd grade and continue through 8th grade. From 5th grade on, all children are given a standardized state test every year. Although we do not believe that standardized tests measure academic ability or achievement, most FSC children score in the above average range in comparison to other students who take this test. We give students standardized tests in order to teach them test-taking skills, and to help them gain familiarity with the test-taking process.
Q: How does the curriculum at Foundations School Community parallel the guidelines of the California State Education Standards?
A: In the early grades (K-1), FSC curriculum focuses mainly on experience-based learning. All academics are incorporated into a social studies core, hands-on curriculum. This is not aligned with the California Standard, although FSC children are learning much of what is taught in public K-1st grade classrooms. From 2nd grade on, FSC’s curriculum begins to parallel the California State Standards more closely.
Q: How much homework is assigned each evening?
A: Homework is given at FSC to reinforce skills taught at school and to help children learn essential time management, accountability and organizational skills. Homework ranges from twenty minutes to and hour per night in elementary school and up to one and a half hours per night in middle school.
Q: When are children taught to read?
A: Because we believe that reading is developmental, (it happens for most children anytime between the ages of approximately 4 to 8 years), we do not teach formal reading skills in Group 1. Instead, students are immersed in a rich, hands-on language arts program. This program helps students develop a love of books, as well as an eagerness and readiness for the more formal reading work they will encounter n Group2.
