Mission Statement
Dehesa School provides a challenging curriculum in a supportive, family-oriented, country environment. It equips each student to excel academically, socially, emotionally and culturally in a competitive world as a life long learner.
We believe...
- a safe, secure environment fosters relaxed, confident, and happy learners.
- consistency and fairness creates equality.
- respect, kindness, honesty, and integrity build trust, and friendship.
- striving to produce quality work with attention to detail leads to success.
- challenging a child's mind enables him/her to achieve their greatest potential.
- a genuinely caring staff creates opportunities for all children to learn.
No Excuses University (NEU) Systems
We believe in and practice the Six Exceptional Systems
Culture of Universal Achievement
A Culture of Universal Achievement takes place when the critical mass of the staff believes that each student is capable of meeting academic standards in reading, writing, and math, and that the school has the power to make that opportunity a reality.
Collaboration
Great schools have talented professionals who find the very best ways to work together in order to get results. This is the first most important system. Dehesa's staff collaborates informally on a daily basis and formally at weekly meetings. We also have an NEU Team that meets regularly to look at school goals.
Standards Alignment
As professionals, we are called to participate in activities that improve our results while learning from our successes and failures. Aligning standards provides an objective framework that can guide our path. Dehesa is working hard to align our students learning experiences to 21st Century Learning and the new Common Core Standards.
Assessment
Assessment is about our students. All of it! Our reason for assessing students has to be grounded in a commitment to use the information in a way that helps us to generate greater success for them. Dehesa uses the data from both formative and summative assessments to drive our goal setting and our classroom instruction.
Data Management
We analyze data for one reason and one reason only, to use it as a means of securing greater success for each individual student. In order for it to be used as a means for driving instruction, data must be easily accessible, openly shared, and deliberately arranged. The staff openly shares student data across grade-levels and collaborate to help EVERY teacher and EVERY student.
Interventions
Good schools are able to take interventions and analyze their effectiveness through the use of data. Great schools, however, are able to take data and translate it directly into the creation of appropriate interventions. Dehesa has worked hard to put Response to Intervention (RTI) Programs in place to ensure that ALL students reach proficiency.
"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion."
-Edward Deming
