Mission and Philosophy

The Mission of WEDJ PCS is to provide a rigorous, college-preparatory academic and artistic learning environment that challenges students to reach their maximum intellectual, social, emotional and artistic development as rapidly as their talents permit. Combining a rigorous program with high educational standards, the school is committed to graduating well-rounded, responsible young men and women.

The philosophy of WEDJ PCS reflects our full support of the ideology of child development presented in Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. We believe that all children learn differently, that comprehensive Education in the Arts is one of the greatest gifts one can provide a child as they learn and grow, and that success comes from full community support of and focuses on collective goals. WEDJ PCS is offering an academic and artistic program to students whose creative outlook may be unique to the regular educational classroom setting. Unlike standard academic settings in schools that reward students whose strengths lie primarily in linguistic and/or mathematical skills WEDJ PCS will include other areas of strength, teach through them and cultivate these gifts. 

The theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner acknowledges and incorporates those unique qualities within individuals as gifts to be appreciated and encouraged in the school. The eight intelligences are: 


Each of these intelligences has its own set of strengths and weaknesses that drive our ability to perform certain tasks with proficiency. Simultaneously, if students are receiving instruction in a manner that does not address their particular strengths or learning styles they are almost certainly going to fail. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers are trained to present lessons in a variety of ways that incorporate art, music, dance, role play, field trips and more.  While most people possess the full spectrum of intelligences, each reveals distinctive cognitive features.  We possess varying amounts of the eight intelligences and combine and use them in highly personal ways.1  Instruction through the method of Multiple Intelligences addresses the three major areas of learning:  cognitive, affective and psycho-motor.

The application of the eight intelligences will be incorporated into the academic and artistic programs at WEDJ PCS to meet the needs of all students. These principles are already included in the America’s Choice program, The University of Chicago Math program, History Alive! Social Studies program and The Prentice Hall Hands-On Science Series.  In addition, WEDJ PCS plans to use the assessments and study skills series produced by the All Kind’s of Minds Institute.  Mel Levine and the All Kinds of Minds Institute have developed a series of products for schools, teachers, students and parents based on Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.  WEDJ has also recently established a partnership with Imagination Stage, Bethesda, MD and will utilize its professional development program, Imagination Quest (IQ).  Imagination Quest, also based on Gardner, trains instructors on teaching traditional subject matter through the senses and in a hand-on approach.   Through the use of survey assessments as well as teacher led observations, an individual’s primary intelligences and their corresponding learning styles will be identified. Once identified, this information will be utilized by instructors to assist with the appropriate instructional approach for students. This approach is especially helpful when determining strategies for students who might have learning difficulties but who have not been identified for special education. The advantage of incorporating this approach to learning for our students will be that all learning styles will be addressed, ensuring that each student’s ability to learn in more than one way is met.   Regardless of the teaching approach, the goal of all students is to master the same performance standards.

In addition, WEDJ PCS will use the DCPS Performance Standards to help develop measurable outcomes for school improvement and the MENC National Standards for Education in the Arts to guide our design of content and performance standards in the Arts.                                                  

1. Campbell, Linda and Bruce Campbell and Dee Dickinson.  Teaching and Learning through Multiple Intelligences, 3rd Edition.  Pearson Education, Inc.  Boston, MA, 2004. Student Content and Performance Standards

Student Content and Performance Standards

WEDJ PCS will follow a standards-driven, performance-based developmental curriculum. Our curriculum is carefully framed around knowledge about children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive growth. It is based on our collective knowledge about how children learn and what children need to know and to be able to do in both the artistic and academic arenas.  The task of teachers, with the guidance of the school’s Leadership Team, then is to adjust the curriculum through their understanding of each child both as an individual and a member of a class. 

WEDJ PCS will meet or exceed all DCPS content and performance standards for all grades PreK- 12. WEDJ PCS will use the National Standards for Education in the Arts published by the Music Educators National Conference as a model for the theater, music, dance/movement and visual arts.  The Dance/Movement program is being designed in cooperation with the CityDance Ensemble.  The New Standards Performance Standards, published by America’s Choice and the NCEE, is the model for English/Language Arts, Mathematics and Science.  Social Studies content standards are adopted from the National Standards for Social Studies developed by the National Council for the Social Studies as they apply to the Teachers’ Curriculum Institute’s Social Studies/History Alive! program and the DCPS Social Studies standards.  The World Language curriculum is adapted from the National Standard for Foreign Language education and their Standards for Foreign Language Learning: preparing for the 21st Century, DCPS Foreign Language Standards and the Deaf Studies Curriculum Guide by Melvia Miller-Nomeland and Sara Gillespie.  A Study Skills program will come from the All Kinds of Minds Institute.   

Those board members who have worked in schools chose these standards and programs because of their familiarity with the programs’ success.  These standards are both performance- and research- based.  They allow us the flexibility to choose materials while providing a scope and sequence for high-level performance standards.  Blending the America’s Choice Performance Standards with the National Standards for Education in the Arts will also allow us to integrate the Social Studies content standards and create a humanities-based scope and sequence.    

The entire WEDJ PCS program is built on an inclusive model for LEP and Special Education students.  The need to express and communicate transcends most disabilities.  Children with Limited English Proficiency and Learning Disabilities find the arts as stimulating as students without special needs.  The arts involve these students in activities that awaken other talents and strengths not tapped in a traditional curriculum.  Participation in the arts also leads to greater self-confidence and empowerment that can only boost the students’ achievement in all areas.

High quality learning experiences will form the core of teaching and learning at WEDJ PCS. Our interdisciplinary program, as dictated by the National Standards for Education in the Arts, will provide for long-term, in-depth explorations of a theme or topic across the curriculum. It will reinforce both skill and content for all students and thereby enable students to approach a topic from many different learning and teaching perspectives. This will promote high academic achievement, critical thought, essential work skills and habits, personal and social development and high-quality original demonstrations/presentations. Each term or year, depending on the age of the student, will end with a formal presentation/demonstration by each student in front of audiences of family and community members.  Many informal presentations and demonstrations are already embedded within the standards.

In addition to working with such programs as Urban Learn and products produced by the All Kinds of Minds Institute, an interdisciplinary curriculum combining arts standards with traditional subjects “contributes significantly and uniquely to personal development in several essential ways, changing people’s in-look and outlook, thought processes and abilities, and generally making them more capable of coping with the world around them”2.  Not only will this integrated curriculum improve general education, but arts education helps children to define who they are, to see themselves as part of a larger culture, broadens their perception, expands their ability to express and communicate, teaches them to evaluate and make judgments and develops their imaginations. 

Materials

English/Language Arts –  Scholastic Reading Guided Reading     Junior Great Books     Write Group  Books, magazines, and other reading material on a variety of subjects will be in classroom libraries.   

Math -   University of Chicago Mathematics Program Science-   Prentice Hall Hand-On Science Series

Social Studies-  Teacher’s Curriculum Institute Social Studies/History Alive!

Study Skills-  All Kinds of Minds Institute 

Books, magazines, and other reading material on a variety of subjects will be in classroom libraries. 

 Materials for Performing Arts will be determined by the subject need in each classroom and the resource center will have music recordings, scripts, sheet music, videos, etc. for study.