BCCS provides a rigorous curriculum that is demanding yet accessible and that builds both content knowledge and critical-thinking skills. Our selected curricula are research-based and described briefly below:

ELA: EL K-5 English Language Arts excels in text quality, knowledge building, standards alignment, and usability. It develops foundational literacy through structured phonics while also providing comprehensive English units that allow students to delve deeply into topics and connect their studies to their communities.

Math: Bridges Mathematics provides a focused, rigorous, and aligned curriculum that uses robust visual modeling to support students in developing understandings of mathematical concepts, proficiency with essential skills, and the ability to solve complex problems through mathematical practices.

Innovations (Science): Project Lead the Way is aligned to meet Next Generation Science Standards and uses proven teaching strategies and a hands-on approach to achieve consistent, positive classroom results.

Community Studies (Social Studies): Based on the highly successful Integrated Studies at Community Roots Charter School, the curriculum is aligned to social studies and literacy standards. The curriculum interweaves critical literacy strategies, anti-bias, and equity and inclusion concepts in a structured scope and sequence.

Critical thinking and creative problem-solving are interwoven throughout our curricula, and we specifically offer science and social studies courses which bolster students’ academic and 21st century skills, as well as their creative problem-solving skills through a blend of project-based learning and design-thinking methods. Driven by our core values, these courses regularly provide real-world, community-based, problem-solving experiences that link students with the shared goals of contributing to their community. For example, kindergarten students study families in community studies, with the unit culminating in a project that asks students to reflect on their family, and create a presentation that includes bringing in a member of the family to share about important values, elements of culture, and traditions. Projects like these require mastery of content, critical thinking, the ability to analyze different perspectives, as well as collaboration and leadership skills.

More broadly, coursework like this benefits students’ academics and engagement. Academically, when compared to traditional instruction, this type of coursework can increase long-term retention of content, help students perform as well or better on high-stakes tests, and improve problem-solving and collaboration skills. Additionally, it is effective in diverse settings and can help reduce the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged students and their peers. Lastly, students engaged in project-based learning exhibit greater engagement, are more self-reliant, and have better attendance than in more traditional settings.

Our instructional vision brings together the work of Marzano’s Classroom Instruction that Works, Antonetti’s 17,000 Classroom Visits Can’t Be Wrong, Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, and Bambrick-Santoyo’s Get Better Faster. The synthesis of these approaches creates learning environments that emphasize students' belonging, high academic expectations, and culturally responsive teaching techniques, significantly increasing student achievement and engagement. Our focus on classroom culture, high expectations, and culturally responsive practices create shared values and a shared vocabulary for teachers and instructional leaders that ensure our instruction includes strong differentiation, robust opportunities for higher-order thinking, and relevant methods for our diverse student body. All faculty participate in our rigorous professional development program to achieve this instructional vision.

Additionally, teachers are partnered in collaborative teams to plan, teach, monitor student progress, and manage classroom culture. Collaboration provides a strategy to meet the needs of our diverse student body in a targeted way. For example, we will use Marilyn Friend’s six co-teaching models to offer parallel instruction to two smaller groups of students within one class, differentiated by student ability.