Primary School FAQs
What are the expectations for the behavior of Next Generation School students?
Students are held to a high behavioral standard in order to ensure safety and to maintain a focus on academic achievement. Next Generation School emphasizes the academic, social and emotional development of each student. In order to facilitate that development, we have adopted the Nurtured Heart Approach for our social curriculum.
The Nurtured Heart Approach is based on the principle of building "inner wealth" within each student. Teachers make very specific observations linked to each student's actions and describe what those actions reflect about the students-the qualities that make them valuable as people and successful as thinkers and learners. This, coupled with clear and consistently enforced expectations, enables students to succeed in school and in life because they learn that they are responsible and accountable for their own actions and choices.
The Nurtured Heart Approach was developed by Howard Glasser, M. A., Executive Director of the Children's Success Foundation in Tucson, AZ.
How do Next Generation School faculty assess and report student progress and achievement?
The faculty use real-time assessment procedures, basing their daily observations of each student on the following criteria:
- Independent student activities
- One- on-one student/teacher interactions
- Whole group interactions
For the Primary School, student progress and achievement are communicated through Trimester Progress Reports. The content of the Progress Reports is based on curriculum assessment rubrics and teachers’ real-time assessments (see above):
- Everyday Math achievement checklists
- Fountas & Pinnell curriculum continuum
- Exceeds/Meets/Below expectations level rating for each skill, accompanied by the classroom teachers’ narrative comments.
Primary School classroom teachers provide weekly progress reports for each student. These provide an overview of student progress in Mathematics, Language Arts and Social/Emotional development.
For both the Primary and Middle Schools, parent/teacher conferences are scheduled twice a year, as well as on an as-needed basis.
How much time are students expected to spend on homework assignments?
Next Generation School faculty expect that students are reading, or being read to, for 15 – 30 minutes each day. In addition, we encourage parents to use everyday situations to further learning; for example, helping in the kitchen (measuring for recipes), practicing math facts while in the car, playing board games.
Does Next Generation School administer standardized tests?
We not not administer standardized tests. Thorough teacher observation, documentation of student work and performance-based assessment, all of which involve the direct evaluation of students’ academic progress on real learning tasks, provide more accurate and useful information for teachers, parents and students.
For parents who would like their children to take a standardized test, we provide the following options, offered for an additional fee:
For Middle School students, we offer after-school SSAT tutoring, focusing on test-taking strategies.
For interested families, we make arrangements with the Sylvan Learning Center for students to take the California Achievement Test. The test is administrated by the Sylvan Learning Center in both the fall and the spring, on a Saturday.
What types of field trips does Next Generation School arrange for students?
Our students frequently attend events at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Art Museum and the Spurlock Museum, all on the University of Illinois campus.
Primary School students enjoy at least one field trip per month. The cost of field trips is covered by each classroom’s “fun fund” (part of the enrollment fees). Field trips have included:
- The Field Museum (Chicago)
- Shedd Aquarium (Chicago)
- Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
- St. Louis Arch
- Lincoln Museum (Springfield)
- Staerkel Planetarium (Parkland College)
- The Great Pumpkin Patch (Arcola)
- Miller Park Zoo (Bloomington)
What are the lunch options for students at Next Generation School?
For students who do not bring a packed lunch from home, we have healthy hot lunches prepared by a local catering service. Hot lunch menus include whole-wheat breads and pastas, white meat and fresh fruits and vegetables. Vegetarian entrees are also available.
Milk is provided for all students, but at an additional cost for students bringing lunches from home.
Hot lunches can be ordered by the month or by the week. The cost of the monthly option is determined by the number of days of school each month; the weekly option is a flat fee. Lunch menus are available well before the order deadline.
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