In alignment to KIPP's mission of providing a college-preparatory education, a high standard of excellence for scholarship and character is expected of our students, teachers, and parents. In her book, Mindset, researcher Carol Dweck articulates the impact of how approach our work, ability, and intelligence has on our success. She discovered that people who had a positive outlook about themselves, believed in their current abilities, and understood that they could improve, would ultimately be more successful than those who did not. At KIPP Sunnyside High School, teachers understand that patient persistence and a strong belief in the ability of each child is what will allow our students to take ownership of their lives and command their future. It means truly doing whatever it takes for our students to be successful while simultaneously building on the strengths that our students arrive with everyday in a positive and caring environment.

To meet this ambitious end, we believe that perfect practice changes habits and attitudes and will seek to awaken the intellectual consciousness of each student through a range of diverse learning activities and experiences. Student voice is a key element to this process and our teachers will work to develop student-centered learning environments rooted in the research from Understanding by Design and Rick Stiggin's Assessment for Learning. Our classrooms will be platforms for students to utilize the skills they learn and practice engaging with one another, the content they are leaning, and their teachers under the tutelage of caring and experienced teachers who will develop lessons that will engage the various modalities of all learners.

Teachers at Sunnyside High are expected to be teacher-learners who work collaboratively across disciplines and grade levels. This collaboration and partnership will create alignment opportunities, common language and cues for instruction, and a forum for how to meet the reading and writing initiatives established at the beginning of each year. As learners, they will be expected to seek opportunities for their own development through workshops, mentoring programs, and content-related self-study. We believe that teachers as learners will provide the academic environment where teachers can continue to develop their craft with the support of their colleagues and, at the same time, work with their students with the same 'student' mindset to identify the best methodologies for teaching and learning.

These efforts will be anchored through our liberal arts approach where students are presented with learning opportunities to understand, interpret, and act on the challenges of their generation through the core disciplines of Science, English, Social Studies, and Math. We expect each student to graduate from Sunnyside High with a plan of action for what subjects/majors they are most interested and how to reach their ultimate careers and career goals. Therefore, teachers are expected to develop a praxis-based learning environment and incorporate enduring questions and themes that align with college readiness standards and the themes and headlines of outside world.

Our emphasis on the liberal arts guarantees our graduates will exceed the state graduation requirements in English language arts, social studies, and foreign languages. (The state requires a combination of 8 credits in these areas. KSHS' standard graduation plan will have 16.) Our program will also focus on creativity and written, visual, and oral articulation. British creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson, cites that "being creative is looking for new ways of doing things within whatever activity you're involved in...It's a process, not a single event..." At Sunnyside High, our teachers will not just develop lessons with this goal in mind, but will provide the space for students to develop a creative process that will enable them to own their learning process. To prepare students for the demands of reading comprehension and writing fluency needed in college, all courses will provide students with opportunities to employ school-wide reading and writing strategies aligned to the College Board's reading and writing standards.

Underlying all aspects of our academic program is our four academic foci: Literacy for Liberation, Writing for Justice, Analytical and Creative thinking skills, and metacognition. The literacy for libration focus draws an immediate connection with our students reading ability and their future success in college classes. We want our students to be empowered to love read any text and access and explore topics and themes from across time, place or space. Writing for justice will focus on our student's ability to advocate and express themselves in writing. We want all of our students to be able to, whether through stories or responding to an issue or concern, advocate for themselves and others. We want the ideas that swim through our students mind to come to life on paper and be engaging, thought-provoking, and inspiring to all who read their work. We will teach Analytical and Creative thinking skills via inquiry based instruction and will strive to establish connected courses through teacher collaboration. Finally, we will explicitly teach metacognitive thinking skills. We will encourage our students to be reflective and slow down their thinking, think about thinking, and act accordingly to maximize their achievement or to make better personal choices for themselves. These four foci will be an ongoing topic in professional development and empower teachers with a cornerstone to plan, design, and implement instruction.