We believe every young person deserves to have aspirations, and to be supported in every way possible in developing the will, knowledge, skill, and capacity to achieve their aspirations. Every young person deserves to graduate from high school with options: the option to go to college, and the option to work. Every young person deserves to have the skills and know-how to co-create their public world, to participate in their community and help shape the local and global decisions that will impact their lives. Every young person deserves to know their strengths, to know how to leverage their strengths to overcome or compensate for their challenges, and to know how to access and effectively utilize resources.

To that end, our learning community design is based on four Guiding Principles:

  • We are all learners with aspirations and passions that deserve to be supported in every way possible.
  • Learning changes lives by helping us develop the will, knowledge, skill and capacity to achieve our aspirations.
  • Learning needs to happen in different ways, so we use various strengths and resources to engage with the world around us.
  • Learning empowers us to co-create our public world and to shape the local and global decisions that impact our lives.

Making Community Connections Charter School is grounded in the four characteristics of effective learning environments:  learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered and community centered (How People Learn).  The MC2 system builds on successful existing models that leverage NH’s unique educational context of competency-based graduation to engage young people in negotiating personally meaningful standards based application, documentation, and defense of learning, combines research-based best practices with technological tools, and establishes reciprocal partnerships where youth are learning from and contributing to their communities.

MC2 begins with a definition of “what success looks like” in the form of a Graduate Profile that delineates the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind needed to be college and career ready and globally competent. The MC2 design provides a comprehensive approach to school organization and culture, curriculum and instruction, teachers’ professional development, and parent and community involvement that guides the implementation of practices needed to achieve the tenets of the Graduate Profile. The design provides clear guidance on how to accelerate achievement within the New Hampshire framework of standards and accountability, while thoughtfully infusing global perspectives.