Curriculum & Lifeskills
Meeting the needs of our students impels us to address a variety of learning styles and individual differences. We accomplish this objective by carefully analyzing the academic, social, and artistic potentialities of each student through interviews, initial testing, and continuous observation and evaluation after enrollment. The comprehensive growth of every student requires enriching experiences in every area of development – intellectual, personal, emotional, cognitive and physical. We balance successes in the classroom with different types of experiences in academics, art, music, drama and physical education; areas that open up a wide array of further knowledge and growth.
Through our program, students are expected to demonstrate 85% mastery level of skills and knowledge in order to progress through each increasingly more complex and sequential skill. Students who are not able to demonstrate 85% mastery are provided with additional instruction specifically designed to correct areas of misunderstanding. During the re-teaching process, the strategies utilized vary from the original instructional methods to ensure greater retention. Through this methodology, critical concepts are mastered before new content is introduced. If mastery is not demonstrated on a test, a supplemental assessment is provided to allow the students a new opportunity to achieve mastery. We provide the conditions and activities through which our students are challenged to learn and to grow.
The methodology at Killian Oaks Academy is based on the latest educational concepts, and the structure of the curriculum is essentially traditional. While in the early grades our major concentration is the development of skills, as the child progresses and matures increasing emphasis is put upon content and the traditional subjects. In our Upper School, students are required to meet the state standards.
Our educational method stresses personalized instruction and mastery. It is an eclectic approach in that all available resources are utilized; it is humanistic in that success is the goal. We attempt to change the disposition of children from “failure avoidance” to one of “success-striving,” thus producing a change in both attitude and in lifestyle. We give careful attention to the child’s response to educational accommodations and strategies while modifying the approach according to the student’s response to educational interventions.
Our belief in providing students with opportunities for social and emotional growth inspires our character-building program. Integrity, honesty, friendship, loyalty and caring for others are among the many lifeskills that are consistently reinforced. The program emphasizes those positive attributes that bring students personal success. Through our character-building program, we help students use critical thinking skills to make sound choices and give them the tools with which to solve their problems with integrity and compassion. We give careful attention to the child’s interaction with other children and his or her peers.