Polaris Charter Academy

The mission of Polaris Charter Academy is to educate students to be self-motivated, creative, critical thinkers, with the ultimate goal of shaping life-long learners and citizens with a strong sense of personal and civic responsibility. While on sabbatical in the fall of 2005, three Golden Apple Award winning teachers identified the common thread of their best practices in teaching: learning by doing. Each founder had attributed their success in the classroom to a specific approach focused on participatory, hands-on, project-based learning and in-depth study of compelling topics. So what would it look like if an entire school was focused on this approach? The vision of these award-winning teachers came to fruition when Polaris Charter Academy opening its doors in 2007 as the citys first Expeditionary Learning school, a comprehensive educational reform model which grew out of a partnership between Harvard University and Outward Bound. PCA opened with grades K through 2nd and ...