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AUSA Position Paper
This concept paper is an indication of our intention to apply for a New York City Charter School, K-12 for 2008/09 academic year in the Bronx.
No more perplexing question has beset social science and politics in the past half-century than the educational gap between African Americans and whites. From Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 to the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, every decade has brought new theories and strategies, but a persistent theme has been that better neighborhoods would produce better students. Testing the hypothesis has taken decades, and some important and sobering results are now in. (The Wilson Quarterly, Surveying the World of Ideas, 2006)
The African Union Day Foundation is equally distressed by these findings. For that reason they are working to design a new school to reduce the achievement gap among black students.
The Board of Directors of the African Union Stars Academy is determined to create an ideal world, where all our children would feel valued, understood, and heard. In the AUSA students will be excited about learning, and they will work together to protect their school experience. Our educators will know every child, will be interested in every child, will be alert to every change in relationship and mood and intervene to keep things positive and forward-moving. The frustrations and misunderstandings and bullying that leads to violence would never happen in our school because each child would have his or her educational and emotional needs met by interested, attentive adults and motivated, caring classmates.
Although a disproportionate number of minority children experience school failure we do not accept the theory that correlates this inequality to the fact that many of these students come from neighborhoods, cultures, and backgrounds much different from those of teachers and school administrators.
The African Union Day Foundation is concerned about what Reg Weaver, NEA president said: “If you're a 17-year-old Black or Hispanic student—old enough to take up arms for America, odds are you probably read no better than a 13-year-old white kid. Likewise, if you live on the "other" side of the tracks, you'll probably struggle to graduate from high school; one out of three poor students drops out of school without a diploma. And if you're a white boy, you're about nine times more likely to take an advanced computer class than your white girlfriend. (NEA Today, January 2005)
The African Union Stars Academy will study the factors that place children at risk for school failure and antisocial behavior to develop and implement prevention strategies. Our focus will be on Prevention, a process of intervention designed to alter the circumstances associated with problem behaviors. Effective prevention practices decrease problem behaviors and subsequent difficulties children and adolescents experience in school and in the community. The AUSA will include a wide range of activities that will address the needs of an equally wide range of children and youth.
Our goal is for ALL our students to be successful in school and in life. To reach that goal, we will adopt a three-tiered model of behavioral support. Interventions will be developed at (school-wide), Targeted (small groups or individual students), and Intensive (wraparound) levels to teach ALL students what they must do to be successful.
One of the best predictors of serious problem behavior and school failure is a history of similar problems. While early intervention typically connotes actions taken during early childhood, a more productive definition should include prevention practices directed at students of all ages, at the first sign of problems. The AUSA will not initiate any suspensions and will not accept one grade level behind in reading or math.
We do not accept research findings that tell us that Children’s homes and families constitute one of the earliest indicators of potential academic failure, or that there is a connection between poverty and school dropout for black and minority students. Neither, we accept that addition to poverty, students at risk often come from families where academic skills such as reading are not modeled, and where multiple family stressors are present (e.g., alcohol and other drug abuse, divorce, child maltreatment). High levels of poverty are also associated with forms of community social disorganization (e.g., high rate of unemployment, insufficient resources for after-school programs) that place youth at risk for school failure and delinquency.
Similarly we reject the assertion that home, community, and school risk factors are connected and negatively affect outcomes in each of these domains. They say that children in poverty often have less verbal interaction with their parents, resulting in significantly lower vocabularies at the time they enter school (Hart & Risley, 1995). Further more they believe that once in school, they typically are served by teachers from middle or upper income backgrounds that use a more complex vocabulary and assume a level of familiarity with print materials that is far above that of many low income children. Therefore, they say, early academic failures are second only to poverty in predicting school failure. Thus, through no fault of their own, these students are academically behind their age peers at the time they first enter school - and these deficits negatively affect school outcomes.
All those assertions are made to justify the lack of good school leadership, quality of instruction, inferior teachers, lack of academic rigor, lack of staff motivation, etc.
The AUSA will lead the Bronx public schools in the standard for educational quality. It will set high standards, high expectations, and a rigorous curriculum, listening to the data, if an inadequate number of students are learning to high standards, develop tutoring and test prep strategies to improve the numbers. We will carefully select our teachers and create a culture where the administration works for the teachers, not the other way around. We will provide timely and intensive intervention strategies for students who are experiencing difficulties providing upward and downward opportunities for students who are strong or weak in specific content areas. We will ensure the principal spends a lot of time in classrooms and knows what is (and is not) happening. To improve the academic achievement of our students AUSA will address these key concepts:
· Differentiation - the general approach to providing variation in teaching pace, content, level and method · Individualization - the process of producing a curriculum matched to the special needs of an individual child · Adaptation - differentiation and individualization may require a teacher to adapt the learning outcomes or attainment targets of the 5 - 14 curriculum · Enhancement - in some cases the curriculum will need to be enhanced to meet individual needs
Elaboration - for some children the advice on curriculum and assessment within the 5 - 14 program is inappropriate, and additional learning outcomes, strands or attainment targets are required.
The African Union Stars Academy is committed to maintaining students’ natural curiosity and confidence in them as learners while developing the student behaviors that will enable them to become active and focused learners in a classroom setting. In the Language arts curriculum we will adhere to the following principles:
The African Union Stars Academy Language Arts Principles Guiding Principle 1 The African Union Stars Academy believes that an effective English language arts curriculum develops thinking and language together through interactive learning.
Effective language use both requires and extends thinking. As learners listen to a speech, view a documentary, discuss a poem, or write an essay, they engage in thinking. The standards in The AUSA will specify the intellectual processes that students draw on as they use language. Students will develop their ability to remember, understand, analyze, evaluate, and apply the ideas they encounter in the English language arts and in all the other disciplines when they undertake increasingly challenging assignments that require them to write or speak in response to what they are learning.
Guiding Principle 2 An effective English language arts curriculum develops students’ oral language and literacy through appropriately challenging learning.
The AUSA will provide students with a well planned English language arts instructional program with a well planned English language arts instructional program a variety of oral language activities, high-quality and appropriate reading materials, and opportunities to work with others who are reading and writing. In the primary grades, systematic phonics instruction and regular practice in applying decoding skills to decodable materials are essential elements of the school program. Reading to preschool and primary grade children plays an especially critical role in developing children’s vocabulary, their knowledge of the natural world, and their appreciation for the power of the imagination. Beyond the primary grades, students will continue to refine their skills through speaking, listening, viewing, reading, and writing.
Guiding Principle 3 The AUSA will implement an effective English language arts curriculum drawing on literature from many genres, time periods, and cultures, featuring works that reflect our common literary heritage.
American students need to become familiar with works that are part of a literary tradition going back thousands of years. Students should read literature reflecting the literary and civic heritage of the English-speaking world. They also should gain broad exposure to works from the many communities that make up contemporary America as well as from countries and cultures throughout the world.
In order to foster a love of reading, English language arts teachers encourage independent reading within and outside of class. School librarians play a key role in finding books to match students’ interests, and in suggesting further resources in public libraries.
Guiding Principle 4 The AUSA will implement an effective English language arts curriculum emphasizing writing as an essential way to develop, clarify, and communicate ideas in persuasive, expository, narrative, and expressive discourse.
At all levels, students’ writing records their imagination and exploration. As students attempt to write clearly and coherently about increasingly complex ideas, their writing serves to propel intellectual growth. Through writing, students develop their ability to think, to communicate ideas, and to create worlds unseen.
Guiding Principle 5 The African Union Stars Academy believes that an effective English language arts curriculum provides for literacy in all forms of media.
Multimedia, television, radio, film, Internet, and videos are prominent modes of communication in the modern world. Like literary genres, each of these media has its unique characteristics, and proficient students apply the critical techniques learned in the study of literature and exposition to the evaluation of multimedia, television, radio, film, Internet sites, and video.
Guiding Principle 6 The AUSA will implement an effective English language arts curriculum providing explicit skill instruction in reading and writing.
In some cases, explicit skill instruction is most effective when it precedes student need. Systematic phonics lessons, in particular decoding skills, should be taught to students before they try to use them in their subsequent reading. Systematic instruction is especially important for those students who have not developed phonemic awareness — the ability to pay attention to the component sounds of language. Effective instruction can take place in small groups, individually, or on a whole class basis. In other cases, explicit skill instruction is most effective when it responds to specific problems students reveal in their work. For example, a teacher should monitor students’ progress in using quotation marks to punctuate dialogue in their stories, and then provide direct instruction when needed.
Guiding Principle 7 The AUSA will implement an effective English language arts curriculum teaching the strategies necessary for acquiring academic knowledge, achieving common academic standards, and attaining independence in learning.
Students need to develop a repertoire of learning strategies that they consciously practice and apply in increasingly diverse and demanding contexts. Skills become strategies for learning when they are internalized and applied purposefully. For example, a research skill has become a strategy when a student formulates his own questions and initiates a plan for locating information. A reading skill has become a strategy when a student sounds out unfamiliar words, or automatically makes and confirms predictions while reading. A writing skill has become a strategy when a student monitors her own writing by spontaneously asking herself, “Does this organization work?” or “Are my punctuation and spelling correct?” When students are able to articulate their own learning strategies, evaluate their effectiveness, and use those that work best for them, they have become independent learners.
Guiding Principle 8 The AUSA will implement an effective English language arts curriculum building on the language, experiences, and interests that students bring to school.
Teachers recognize the importance of being able to respond effectively to the challenges of linguistic and cultural differences in their classrooms. They recognize that sometimes students have learned ways of talking, thinking, and interacting that are effective at home and in their neighborhood, but which may not have the same meaning or usefulness in school. Teachers try to draw on these different ways of talking and thinking as potential bridges to speaking and writing in standard English.
Guiding Principle 9 The AUSA will implement an effective English language arts curriculum developing each student’s distinctive writing or speaking voice.
A student’s writing and speaking voice is an expression of self. Students’ voices tell us who they are, how they think, and what unique perspectives they bring to their learning. Students’ voices develop when teachers provide opportunities for interaction, exploration, and communication. When students discuss ideas and read one another’s writing, they learn to distinguish between formal and informal communication. They also learn about their classmates as unique individuals who can contribute their distinctive ideas, aspirations, and talents to the class, the school, the community, and the nation.
Guiding Principle 10 While encouraging respect for differences in home backgrounds, the African Union Stars Academy believes that an effective English language arts curriculum nurtures students’ sense of their common ground as present or future American citizens in order to prepare them for responsible participation in our schools and in civic life.
Teachers instruct an increasingly diverse group of students in their classrooms each year. Students may come from any country or continent in the world. Taking advantage of this diversity, teachers guide discussions about the extraordinary variety of beliefs and traditions around the world. At the same time, they provide students with common ground through discussion of significant works in American cultural history to help prepare them to become self-governing citizens of the United States of America. An English language arts curriculum can serve as a unifying force in schools and society.
The African Union Stars Academy Mathematics The African Union Stars Academy envisions that all students in our academy will achieve mathematical competence through a strong mathematics program that will emphasize problem solving, communicating, reasoning and proof, making connections, and using representations. Acquiring such competence depends in large part on a clear, comprehensive, coherent, and developmentally appropriate set of standards to guide curriculum expectations.
Problem Solving The AUSA will implement a problem solving curriculum developing students’ knowledge of mathematics and a critical outcome of a good mathematics education. As such, it is an essential component of the curriculum. A mathematical problem, as distinct from an exercise, requires the solver to search for a method for solving the problem rather than following a set procedure. Mathematical problem solving, therefore, requires an understanding of relevant concepts, procedures, and strategies. To become good problem solvers, students need many opportunities to formulate questions, model problem situations in a variety of ways, generalize mathematical relationships, and solve problems in both mathematical and everyday contexts.
Communicating The ability to express mathematical ideas coherently to different audiences is an important skill in a technological society. Students will develop this skill and deepen their understanding of mathematics when they use accurate mathematical language to talk and write about what they are doing. They clarify mathematical ideas as they discuss them with peers, and reflect on strategies and solutions. By talking and writing about mathematics, students will learn how to make convincing arguments and to represent mathematical ideas verbally, pictorially, and symbolically.
Reasoning and Proof From the early grades on, students develop their reasoning skills by making and testing mathematical conjectures, drawing logical conclusions, and justifying their thinking in developmentally appropriate ways. As they advance through the grades, students’ arguments will become more sophisticated and they are able to construct formal proofs. By doing so, students learn what mathematical reasoning entails.
Making Connections Mathematics is not a collection of separate strands or standards. Rather, it is an integrated field of study. Students will develop a perspective of the mathematics field as an integrated whole by understanding connections within and outside of the discipline. It is important for teachers to demonstrate the significance and relevance of the subject by encouraging students to explore the connections that exist within mathematics, with other disciplines, and between mathematics and students’ own experiences.
Representations Mathematics involves using various types of representations for mathematical objects and actions, including numbers, shapes, operations, and relations. These representations can be numerals or diagrams, algebraic expressions or graphs, or matrices that model a method for solving a system of equations. Students will learn to use a repertoire of mathematical representations. When they can do so, they have a set of tools that significantly expands their capacity to think mathematically
The African Union Stars Academy Mathematics Guiding Principles
Guiding Principle I: Learning Mathematical ideas should be explored in ways that stimulate curiosity, create enjoyment of mathematics, and develop depth of understanding.
The African Union Stars Academy believes that students need to understand mathematics deeply and use it effectively. To achieve mathematical understanding, students should be actively engaged in doing meaningful mathematics, discussing mathematical ideas, and applying mathematics in interesting, thought provoking situations. Student understanding is further developed through ongoing reflection about cognitively demanding and worthwhile tasks.
The African Union Stars Academy believes that tasks should be designed to challenge students in multiple ways. Short- and long-term investigations that connect procedures and skills with conceptual understanding are integral components of an effective mathematics program. Activities should build upon curiosity and prior knowledge, and enable students to solve progressively deeper, broader, and more sophisticated problems. Mathematical tasks reflecting sound and significant mathematics should generate active classroom talk, promote the development of conjectures, and lead to an understanding of the necessity for mathematical reasoning.
Guiding Principle II: Teaching The AUSA will implement an effective mathematics program focusing on problem solving and requires teachers who have a deep knowledge of mathematics as a discipline.
The African Union Stars Academy believes that mathematical problem solving is the hallmark of an effective mathematics program. Skill in mathematical problem solving requires practice with a variety of mathematical problems as well as a firm grasp of mathematical techniques and their underlying principles. Armed with this deeper knowledge, the student can then use mathematics in a flexible way to attack various problems and devise different ways of solving any particular problem. Mathematical problem solving calls for reflective thinking, persistence, learning from the ideas of others, and going back over one's own work with a critical eye. Success in solving mathematical problems helps to create an abiding interest in mathematics.
Guiding Principle III: Technology Technology is an essential tool in a mathematics education.
The African Union Stars Academy believes that Technology enhances the mathematics curriculum in many ways. Tools such as measuring instruments, manipulative (such as base ten blocks and fraction pieces), scientific and graphing calculators, and computers with appropriate software, if properly used, contribute to a rich learning environment for developing and applying mathematical concepts. However, appropriate use of calculators is essential; calculators should not be used as a replacement for basic understanding and skills. Moreover, the fourth and sixth grade state assessments do not permit the use of a calculator. Elementary students should learn how to perform thoroughly the basic arithmetic operations independent of the use of a calculator. Although the use of a graphing calculator can help middle and secondary students to visualize properties of functions and their graphs, graphing calculators should be used to enhance their understanding and skills rather than replace them.
Technology enables students to communicate ideas within the classroom or to search for information in external databases such as the Internet, an important supplement to a school’s internal library resources. Technology can be especially helpful in assisting students with special needs in regular and special classrooms, at home, and in the community.
Technology changes what mathematics is to be learned and when and how it is learned. For example, currently available technology provides a dynamic approach to such mathematical concepts as functions, rates of change, geometry, and averages that was not possible in the past. Some mathematics becomes more important because technology requires it, some becomes less important because technology replaces it, and some becomes possible because technology allows it.
Guiding Principle IV: Equity All students should have a high quality mathematics program.
All our students should have high quality mathematics programs that meet the goals and expectations of these standards and address students’ individual interests and talents. The standards provide for a broad range of students, from those requiring tutorial support to those with talent in mathematics. To promote achievement of these standards, teachers should encourage classroom talk, reflection, use of multiple problem solving strategies, and a positive disposition toward mathematics. They should have high expectations for all students.
At every level of the education system, teachers should act on the belief that every child should learn challenging mathematics. Teachers and guidance personnel should advise students and parents about why it is important to take advanced courses in mathematics and how this will prepare students for success in college and the workplace.
All students should have the benefit of quality instructional materials, good libraries, and adequate technology. Practice and enrichment should extend beyond the classroom. Tutorial sessions, mathematics clubs, competitions, and apprenticeships are examples of mathematics activities that promote learning. Because mathematics is the cornerstone of many disciplines, a comprehensive curriculum should include applications to everyday life and modeling activities that demonstrate the connections among disciplines. Schools should also provide opportunities for communicating with experts in applied fields to enhance students’ knowledge of these connections.
Guiding Principle V: Assessment Assessment of student learning in mathematics should take many forms to inform instruction and learning.
A comprehensive assessment program is an integral component of an instructional program. It provides students with frequent feedback on their performance, teachers with diagnostic tools for gauging students’ depth of understanding of mathematical concepts and skills, parents with information about their children’s performance in the context of program goals, and administrators with a means for measuring student achievement.
Assessments take a variety of forms, require varying amounts of time, and address different aspects of student learning. Having students “think aloud” or talk through their solutions to problems permits identification of gaps in knowledge and errors in reasoning. By observing students as they work, teachers can gain insight into students’ abilities to apply appropriate mathematical concepts and skills, make conjectures, and draw conclusions. Homework, mathematics journals, portfolios, oral performances, and group projects offer additional means for capturing students’ thinking, knowledge of mathematics, facility with the language of mathematics, and ability to communicate what they know to others. Tests and quizzes assess knowledge of mathematical facts, operations, concepts, and skills and their efficient application to problem solving. They can also pinpoint areas in need of more practice or teaching. Taken together, the results of these different forms of assessment provide rich profiles of students’ achievements in mathematics and serve as the basis for identifying curricula and instructional approaches to best develop their talents.
The African Union Stars Academy believes that assessment should also be a major component of the learning process. As students help identify goals for lessons or investigations, they gain greater awareness of what they need to learn and how they will demonstrate that learning. Engaging students in this kind of goal-setting can help them reflect on their own work, understand the standards to which they are held accountable, and take ownership of their learning.
AUSA History and Social Science Curriculum
The AUSA will teach our students the cultural heritage as Americans is as diverse as we are, with multiple sources of vitality and pride. But our political heritage is one – the vision of a common life in liberty, justice, and equality as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution two centuries ago.
Liberal and humane values are neither revealed truths nor natural habits. There is no evidence that we are born with them. The African Union Stars Academy is committed to promote devotion to human dignity and freedom, equal rights, justice, the rule of law, civility and truth, tolerance of diversity, mutual assistance, personal and civic responsibility, self-restraint and self-respect–all these must be taught and learned and practiced. They cannot be taken for granted or regarded as merely one set of options against which any other may be accepted as equally worthy.
While the realities of our own society are daily evident, many students remain ignorant of other, quite different, worlds. How can they be expected to value or defend freedom unless they have a clear grasp of the alternatives against which to measure it? The systematic presentation of reality abroad must be an integral part of the curriculum. What are the political systems in competition with our own, and what is life like for the people who live under them? If students know only half the world, they will not know nearly enough.
The kind of critical thinking we wish to encourage must rest on a solid base of factual knowledge. The central ideas, events, people, and works that have shaped our world, for good and ill, are not at all obsolete. Instead, the quicker the pace of change, the more critical it will be for us
African Union Stars Academy Science Curriculum The AUSA believes that excellence in science education requires equity, including high expectations and strong support for all students.
A comprehensive science education program engages all students K-12 and provides opportunities for all students to access challenging science learning. Students benefit from studying science throughout all levels of schooling. They should learn the fundamental concepts of each content area of science, as well as the connections across those areas.
Students learn best in an environment that conveys high academic expectations for all students. A high quality education system simultaneously serves the goals of equity and excellence. At every level of the education system, teachers should act on the belief that students from all backgrounds can learn rigorous science.
Curriculum Learning science is an active process. Curriculum builds on students' understanding and engages them in important content and connections across domains.
In a coherent curriculum, scientific ideas are linked and build upon each other so that students' understanding and knowledge deepens as their abilities to apply science expands. An effective curriculum focuses on important science that will prepare students for continued study and for understanding phenomena in multiple settings. An articulated curriculum challenges students to learn increasingly more sophisticated science concepts and skills as they progress.
An effective science program builds students' understanding of the fundamental concepts of each content area of science and their understanding of the connections across these areas. Each content area of science has its particular approach and area of concern.
Taken together, they present a coherent view of the world. Students need to understand that much of the scientific work done in the world draws on multiple disciplines. Connecting the content areas of natural science with mathematical study and with one another, should be one goal of science education. In the elementary grades, coursework should integrate all of the major areas of science every year. At the middle and high school level, science teachers may choose either a discipline-based or an integrated approach in science.
Teaching The African Union Stars Academy believes that effective science teaching requires understanding what students know and need to learn and then challenging and supporting them to learn it well.
Students' understanding of science, their ability to use
science to explore phenomena and explain their
surroundings, and their confidence and disposition
toward science are all shaped by the learning
opportunities they encounter in school. To be effective,
teachers must know and understand the science they are
teaching and be able to draw on that knowledge with
flexibility in their teaching tasks. They need to be
committed to their students as learners and as human
beings, and be skillful in choosing and using a variety
of pedagogical and assessment strategies. Teachers
establish and nurture an environment conducive to
learning science through the decisions they make, the
conversations they orchestrate, and the physical
settings they create. Teachers' actions encourage
students to think, question, solve problems, and discuss
their ideas, strategies and solutions.
However, these mental models may be inaccurate even though they may make sense to the students, and the inaccuracies work against learning. Teachers must be skilled at uncovering inaccuracies in students' prior knowledge and observations, and in devising experiences that will challenge inaccurate beliefs and redirect student learning along more productive routes.
The students' natural curiosity provides one entry point for learning experiences designed to remove students' misconceptions in science.
Learning The African Union Stars Academy believes that students learn science actively, using inquiry to acquire new knowledge from experience and by interacting with their teachers and peers. Investigation, experimentation, and problem solving are central to science education.
Investigations introduce students to the nature of original research, increase students' understanding of scientific and technological concepts, promote skill development, and provide entry points for all learners. Teachers should establish learning goals and a context for experimentation by helping students develop their own questions, by guiding student activities, and by helping students focus on important ideas and concepts. Puzzlement and uncertainty are common features in experimentation. Students need time to examine their ideas as they learn how to apply them to explaining a natural phenomenon or solving a problem. Opportunities for students to reflect on their own ideas, collect evidence, make inferences and predictions, and discuss their findings are all crucial to growth in understanding.
Successful science learning engages students in the active construction of ideas and explanations. Effective programs in science give students opportunities to collaborate in scientific endeavors and to communicate their ideas. Science is a human enterprise done by members of professional communities. Ideas are tested, modified, extended, and reevaluated by those professional communities over time. Thus, the ability to convey ideas to others is essential for scientific advances to occur.
Students need similar opportunities to talk about their work in focused discussions with peers and with those who have more experience and expertise. This communication can occur informally, in the context of an ongoing student collaboration or on-line consultation with a scientist or engineer, or more formally, when a student presents findings from an individual or group investigation. Effective communication of scientific and technological ideas requires practice in making written and oral presentations, fielding questions, responding to critiques, and developing replies.
Assessment The African Union Stars Academy believes that multiple and varied assessment should support the learning of science and furnish useful information to both teachers and students.
Assessment should enhance students' learning. Good assessment conveys messages to students about what kinds of scientific knowledge and performances are important. These messages influence the decisions students make. Teachers need to move beyond simple factual knowledge and discern how students are thinking about a particular question or investigation. In helping students achieve the standards, teachers should use a variety of questioning and performance-based assessment strategies that allow students to demonstrate what they have learned in the context of solving a complex problem. This kind of assessment requires students to refine a problem, devise a strategy to solve it, conduct sustained work, and address both complex concepts and discrete facts.
Assessment also assists teachers in improving classroom practice, planning curricula, developing self-directed learners, and reporting student progress. It provides students with information about how their knowledge and skills are developing and what can be done to improve them. Assessment informs parents know how well their students are doing with respect to the standards and what needs to be done to help them do better. Assessment should reflect classroom expectations and the outcome of those expectations.
The African Union Stars Academy believes that
Mathematics is integral to science.
Many scientific concepts and skills are grounded in an understanding of the quantifiable attributes of objects, their composition, functions, motions, and the forces that act upon them in complex environments. Mathematical expressions and relationships are key to understanding scientific relationships and to being able to use those relationships to explain the natural world. Because of the importance of mathematics to science, all teachers, curriculum coordinators, and others who help implement science education must be aware of the level of mathematical knowledge needed at each grade level to ensure that the appropriate mathematical knowledge has already been taught or, at the least, is being taught concurrently.
The African Union Stars Academy believes that technology is essential; it influences the science that is taught and enhances students' learning. Modern technologies are essential tools for teaching, learning, and doing science. These tools furnish visual images of scientific ideas, facilitate organizing and analyzing data, and compute efficiently and accurately. They support investigation by students in every area of science and allow students to focus on inquiry through experimentation, reflection, reasoning, and problem-solving. Technology also supports effective science teaching and learning. In this context, technology is not used as a replacement for basic understanding; rather it can, and should be, used to foster greater understanding.
Technology provides a means of viewing scientific ideas and relationships from multiple perspectives by extending the range and quality of investigations. Technology can assist students understand information from investigations and can provide opportunities for students to discuss with one another the scientific information they examine.
AUSA Art Curriculum The AUSA will implement a balanced and sequential art education program to foster our students’ perception of both their real and imagined worlds. Through structured course work which includes knowledge of artists, art principles and educated critique the students will be exposed to cultures around the world. Our art program will enables each student to develop positive attitudes toward self, others and the environment through creative experiences. Problem solving and creative learning will encourage the student to relate visual knowledge to other core subjects and to respond with originality, appreciation, flexibility and imagination. The use and application of skills, processes and mediums will encourage self-expression, creative growth, discovery, and the realization of ideas. Assessment will be made on individual achievement related to each student’s stage of growth and development. Our art program will be sequential and cumulative enabling knowledge, aesthetic judgments, skills and abilities to be strengthened. Our commitment to this program is essential to every student’s development as a well-rounded, creative and productive citizen.
In general the African Union Stars Academy will advance research and knowledge, the values of democracy, nonviolence, pluralism, human rights and peace building. In addition to the English Language, other adopted African Union Languages, such as, Arabic, French and Spanish will also be taught. We are anxious to design our school and to work with the department of education.
African Union Stars Academy Board
1. Dr. Muhammad Nurhussein, Professior of Medicine, SUNY HSCB Medical College, New York. 2. Dr. Clyde Anderson, Executive Director and CEO, City Society, United Methodist Church, New York. 3. Dr. Michael J. Cole, Secretary General, United African Congress, New York 4. Dr. Mujib Mannan, ESQ., FacultyCollege of New Rochelle, City University of New York, New York 5. Dr. Luonne Abram Rouse, Pastor, United Methodist Church, New York 6. Dr. Daniel Mba, Professor, Physics, Chemistry and Mathmatics, New York 7. Dr. Elba Lopez, Chair of Education Committee, Bronx Clergy Task Force, retired NYCDOE Pricipal, New York 8. Mr. Charle Vasser, Director Government/Community Relations, Wildlife Conservation Society, New York 9. Mr. Mamadou Niang, Producer, French Television, New York 10. Hon. Sidique A. Wai, Administrative Community Relations Specialist, NYPD, National President, United African Congress, New York 11. Arch Bishop Angelo Rosario, CEO, Bronx Clergy Task Force, New York 12. Professor Muhammad Abdurahman, CEO, Muslim Family Services Coalition, New York 13. Mr. Emillio Bermiss, MBA, CEO, Action Adviser, Inc, New York 14. SGT. Djikiba Camara, School Safety Division, New York City Police Department, New York 15. Mr. John Magoola, Treasurer, United African Congress, New York 16. Elhadji Souleymane Konate, Imam Masjid Aqsa, New York 17. Mr. Elias Hagos, Social Security Administration, New York 18. Hon. Eleanor Tembe, Director of Environmental Controls, Kings County Hospital Center, HHC, New York 19. Hon. Carolyn Sanders-James, Brooklyn Borough Director, Mayor's Office, New York 20. Mr. Thomas Moverman, Esq, Lipsig, Shapey, Manus & Moverman, LLP, New York 21. Mr. William Traynham, Vice President, NAACP NYCHA Branch, New York 22. Mrs. Toni Knight, President, Adopt-A-Friend, Inc. New York 23. Sheikh Moussa Drammeh, CEO, Islamic Cultural Center of North America, New York
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