The curriculum at AXIS is student-centered; our students are at the center of everything we do. Student-centered curriculum is commonly defined as the student’s ability to construct meaning of the content through their passions. The role of the teacher is to guide the students in their learning toward a commonly agreed goal. In this case, the student is actively engaging and directing their learning with their teacher serving as a facilitator toward the end goal. In short, students are responsible for their own learning.

As a student-centered school, we implement an inquiry-based instructional model. Using this model, the teacher's guide students through questions, explorations, and real-life examples. Students actively explore information to support their investigations and construct meaning.

Our curriculum is aligned to the Common Core standards. Being aligned to standards ensures that our students meet an approved level of quality that is accepted among schools using the same standards. Teachers use backward planning design, known as Understanding by Design (UBD). By knowing the end result and where students need to be, teachers can create lessons that incrementally build-up to the end result.

Students' progress is assessed in all subject areas through a variety of assessments including formative, summative and standardized. Report cards are key for future goal-setting and celebration of accomplishments and progress. Standardized achievement tests are a supplement to classroom achievement information and are one data point in monitoring individual growth of students.

At AXIS, we use standard based reporting to report the students’ level of proficiency on the Common Core education standards and their approaches to learning. Student learning is assessed using rubrics reflecting each child’s progress. The standards-based report shows where students have excelled and where they can grow. The approaches to learning report identify the skills and dispositions that accompany the academic standards to complete the curriculum. The levels of proficiency are Emerging, Developing, Proficient, and Exemplary.

At AXIS, we believe that:

• Students benefit academically with feedback that describes their proficiency levels against identified standards.
• Feedback on skills and dispositions accompany the academic standards to complete the curriculum and are given separately.

Students are assessed at the end of a unit and our students receive continuous assessments and feedback, which are both formative and summative. Formative assessments are used by teachers to check for understanding and allow the teacher to modify their instruction to meet the needs of students. Summative assessments monitor progress at predetermined checkpoints throughout the unit.