2019 Chinese Charter Schools | Thewholeelephant

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School of Seattle

Application submitted on March 1st, 2019

CATEGORY 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Section 1: Executive Summary

School Vision

The Whole Elephant concept is derived from the famous “The Blind Men and the Elephant” story which is deeply rooted in the culture of almost every ethnicity throughout the world. Human being, due to the nature of the physical body, is bound to be BLIND to the Truth of the Universe. Therefore, the most important goal of learning, in the human world, is to find the Way of gaining true vision. From the East, the five thousands of years of Traditional Chinese Culture have laid down the foundation for human beings to gain true vision of human being and the entire Universe; in the West, modern science especially the field of frontier modern life science have laid down the foundation for humanity to use rationality to understand the limitations of the human body and human technology in face of the vastness of the Universe (Appendix I); The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School of Seattle (WECCSS) will combine the best fruits of mankind development of both the East and the West to nurture and awaken the Masters within each child; our students will be led by Master Educators who are leading scholars in the myriads of subjects of the sophisticated traditional Chinese culture as well as scientists in the areas of frontier modern physics and frontier modern life sciences; through wisdom teaching, students will master both Chinese and English Languages; Mathematics; Humanity and Arts; History and frontier Science; the education methods will be an innovative combination of the traditional style of Martial Art Schools from China and the most successful education style in the West: the Graduate School style of Modern Life Science; the relationship between Master Educators and students is a Master-disciple relationship, which makes the education of a Whole Person possible.

School Mission

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School carries out the mission to establish an innovative education system which integrates the most frontier science of the West with the ancient science of mind-body-spirit from the East, with a goal to bring out the Master within each child whose unique passion and talent will be cultivated to blossom and whose mind will be cultivated to reach true maturity with great wisdom of human life and the entire universe.

School Objectives

The objective of the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School is to establish a new set of education philosophy and practice integrating the best of the fruits of development of humanity, from ancient to present, from East to West, from the visible material world, to the invisible and intangible spiritual world, in the area of science, arts and culture, so that the students graduated from the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School shall be young scholars in both the English and Chinese Culture as well as young scientists of human body, space-time and the Universe, besides meeting the standards required upon them by the State Education Department of Washington.

Educational Need, Target Population and Challenges

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School is urgently needed for any communities with rapidly increasing student populations of immigrants from the Communist China, which, under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party controlled government, has been carrying out constant violence and deception to dehumanize the Chinese people. Upon their entering the regular American public schools, children from the Communist China demonstrated great learning crisis due to immense differences between the Chinese Communist Party Culture-based prior education with the modern American Culture-based education; the English language skills are usually much easier to master for these students from China, while the greatest challenges are the understanding of American values, culture, and the recovery and maintenance of their emotional and spiritual health rooted in their own unique culture and traditional value systems.

The District of Seattle Public Schools in Washington State is now welcoming such a rapidly increasing population of Chinese immigrant children, and the current existing public schools or the newly opened public charter schools in the school district so far are still lacking the ability to resolve such a learning crisis of this population of students. The wonders of the five thousands of years of Chinese Traditional Culture are sadly lost in the Communist China and banned from the entire communist education system in China, but now are starting to be known by people from all over the world through the efforts of those brave Chinese artists, scholars and especially through the immense efforts of the over 100 million persecuted Falun Dafa practitioners (www.falundafa.org) in the past seventeen years. Since 2006, the Shen Yun Performing Arts Group (www.shenyunperformingarts.org) started to tour all over the world to deliver the message that the five thousands of years of Chinese culture is in fact created by people from all over the world and is a divine arrangement to establish human morality and wisdom for mankind to live in peace and harmony with the universe and ultimately to find the Truth of Return, or spiritual awakening and spiritual perfection.

Such a Whole Elephant Concept contains the mind-awakening power of Truth that has triggered a cascade of responses all over the world among those who having been seeking for solutions and breakthroughs in their area of expertise, such as art, music, fashion design, entrepreneurship, science, health, education, and more. A wave of renaissance of traditional Chinese culture is taking place globally.

More and more children and parents in America, from the mainstream society, are seeking for opportunities to gain such a long-lost heritage, which is like Mother’s Milk, is proven to have the power to nourish human spirits to true maturity for great accomplish in all areas. From this perspective, the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School is also much needed for children born and raised in America and are experiencing great trials in their emotional and spiritual journey and are lost and drowning in the ever enlarging sea of information gained from modern technology and modern science, which is truly a double-edged sword.

In metropolitan cities like New York, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, there are many children are lost in their life due to not having the nourishment of human spirit and human wisdom of life, and are handicapped by wrong ideology and self-destructive practices such as immoral behaviors and substance abuse. Modern human society is facing such crisis and parents and many public schools feel helpless in face of the rapid down-sliding of human morality and the devastating effects on their beloved children. Such crisis is deeply rooted within the falsehood of each modern human being’s current belief systems, and such falsehood departing from the fundamental nature of the universe needs to be cleaned out from the current education system.

Most of the falsehood of the modern mankind belief system is due to the Blind-Men Syndrome created by the over enthusiasm, or arrogance, of the near elementary level understanding of the larger truth of the Universe so far accomplished by modern Science and Technology.

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School recognizes this crisis and has designed ways to rectify such a crisis by delivering a new education system that can lead students to an elevated vision of the life and the universe.

The University of Washington and the Benaroya Research Institute are the original home institutes of Dr. Lotus King Weiss before her journey to the East Coast and now she will tap into these resources to combine with the treasure she gained from her journey in the area of 5000 years of traditional Chinese Culture, to face these educational challenges all Seattle Educators are facing daily.

The successful operation of the proposed Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School shall effectively meet and advance objectives of Charter School Laws, such as in raising education levels beyond the proficiency standards on state tests, in expanding the learning opportunities for students at risk of academic and personal development failure; in helping low income, minority students as well as English Language Learners and Learners with disabilities; in delivering innovative teaching and learning methods and in providing new professional development and opportunities for teachers, parents and students.

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School will be a great success for advancing the overall quality of public school education in America.

Category 3: Section 4: Curriculum and Instructional Design

The Whole Elephant Curriculum Design

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School’s curriculum Design is featured with Ten Domains as follows:

Curriculum Part I. English Language

Curriculum Part II. Chinese Language

Curriculum Part III. English-based Math and Chinese-based Math

Curriculum Part IV. Global Culture and History

Curriculum Part V. Chinese Culture and History

Curriculum Part VI. Modern Science (Theory and Practice)

Curriculum Part VII. Ancient Chinese Science (Theory and Practice)

Curriculum Part VIII. Western and Chinese Physical Training

Curriculum Part IX. Humanity and Arts

Curriculum Part X. Law Media Entrepreneurship

Design Rationale Relevant to Washington State Public School Education Goals

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School education model is deeply rooted deeply in the wisdom of the splendid five thousands of years of the traditional Chinese Divine culture as well as the fruits of human intellectual pursuits culminating in the area of frontier modern sciences of human body, space-time and the universe. Recognizing the urgent challenges educators are facing in Washington State, and the basic goals outlined in RCW 28A.150.210 for basic education programs for Washington State Public Schools, we have designed an innovative set of education program that tailored into the unique geographic, cultural, social, political, economical and historical features of Washington State. The WECCS Curriculum has fully incorporated all essential elements of the basic public school education goals, such as:

To train students to become responsible and respectful global citizens:

For students to be responsible and respectful global citizens, they must master Chinese language and true Chinese Divine Culture. China has 1.4 billion people and has a culture of over five thousands of years full of wisdom for modern people to find true solutions of current crisis in education, health, law, business and media. Washington State has been heavily engaged in the cultural and economical interactions with China under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party and has also been heavily infiltrated by Chinese Communist Government and Chinese Communist Ideology. The outcome of such interaction for Washington State is determined by the ability of people in this state to make the right choices and decisions, and the wisdom to differentiate good Chinese people and the great splendid heritage of Chinese traditional culture from the Communist Chinese Party (CCP)-tainted CCP culture, CCP ideology, and CCP cultural junk and poisons. When public schools in Washington State are teaching students with CCP-edited Chinese history, CCP-ideology infiltrated Chinese language textbooks, employing CCP-member Chinese teachers, and doing educational and cultural exchange with CCP-officials who are criminals of human rights, how can Washington State public schools bring out students of responsible and respectable global citizens?

To help the students to gain essential knowledge and skills so that they can contribute to the economic well-being of their families and communities:

Economic well-being can only be achieved through intellectual and physical talent mastered through diligent learning from teachers who are experts in the relevant fields of profession and then practiced out according to human morality. These elements and goals are exactly what the WECCS education philosophy has embodied and WECCS curriculum design has enclosed.

To enable students with the power of knowledge and intellectual skills to explore and understand different perspectives:

(1) Read with comprehension, write effectively, and communicate successfully in a variety of ways and settings and with a variety of audiences

Curriculum Part I and part II:

WECCS curriculum included two most important languages for students to master in order to become responsible and respectable global citizens: Chinese and English. Chinese language is used by the largest population of people on the earth and is the only survival ancient language that is hieroglyphs in nature. The Wonders of the Chinese Characters are still beyond the understandings of most of the American educators, unfortunately. In fact, although more and more American general public are seeking the art of the ancient Chinese Science in the area of traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese holistic practices, Chinese spiritual sciences, none of these subjects can be fully appreciated without the mastering of Chinese language skills. Chinese language is proven to have the ability to empower children with greater ability in comprehension in general, and thus greatly enhance the communication skills and enlarge the communication audiences. Gaining the skills of Chinese language for students is the Gold Key for Washington State public school students to succeed in the future at an international scale.

(2) Know and apply the core concepts and principles of mathematics

Curriculum part III:

WECCS curriculum includes Mathematics education in theory and practice for children K-12, with both English and Chinese language-based instruction. It is a phenomenon commonly recognized by educators in America that Chinese students easily excel in Mathematics. This is in fact due to the profound inner contents of Chinese language and Chinese culture. Numbers in Chinese are subjects of meditative realization of the mysteries of the Universe, as demonstrated by the famous book of the Book of Changes (I Ching) and the historic records regarding the subjects of Hetu and Luoshu, both became cornerstones for prediction of human societal evolution laws as well as human individual life event progression laws. In fact, it is now clear that the ancient book of I Ching (易经) contains the very binary system of modern computer technology, a great example of the full cycle of human civilization.

(3) Know and apply the core concepts and principles of social, physical, and life sciences; (4) Know and apply the core concepts and principles of civics and history, including different cultures and participation in representative government; (5) Geography

Curriculum Part IV-VII: Social core concepts and principles will be delivered through WECCS curriculum Part IV and V, which include social studies of Chinese, America, and the World. In fact, it will become apparent for students when these studies combined to generate a whole picture of the progression of human civilization, that the five thousands of years of Chinese culture is at the center stage for all world events and contains the most profound wisdom for modern people to take a leap forward. Physical as well as life sciences core concepts and principles together with the subject of Geography will be delivered through WECCS curriculum Part VI and VII, under the subject of Science, from ancient to modern time. The ancient book “Classic of Mountains and Seas” or “Shan-Hai Ching” 山海经 is included as the Geography textbook, which is indeed the first Geography book in human history. WECCS will have the most comprehensive Science education team, which include a team of scholars fluent with ancient Chinese sciences such as the book of “I Ching” 易经 and all theories and practices associated with human body sciences of traditional Chinese medicine, and a team of scholars in various frontier fields of physics and modern life sciences: such as anatomy, physiology, histology, cell biology and molecular biology. The core concepts of separate fields of subject will be correlated, compared and allow the students to form a Whole Elephant Concept of the physical world along the progression of time and space and the mysterious metaphoric correspondence of the physical world life phenomena with that of the human body life phenomena: the Dao of Human Body “What is inside of human body corresponds to what is outside of the human body”.

(6) Arts and (7) Health and Fitness

Curriculum Part VIII-XI:

Chinese Music Instruments, Chinese Chess, Chinese Calligraphy and Chinese Paintings, Chinese Arts and Crafts are included in WECCS curriculum as an integral part of standard art education subjects in American public schools. Chinese music, chess, calligraphy and painting are also considered to be healing arts and play a key role in the cultivation of mind-body of the practitioners of these arts. Modern people are overly stimulated by external signals of all kinds which make the physical body operates at a high metabolic state and the mind disturbed by forces that tip over the required balance of human physical and mental health. “Stress” is the word summarizes such a state which when lasted over an extended period of time without proper adjustment, the physical body will develop system-level diseases that are beyond the reach of modern medicine, such as cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The art of cultivating mind-body-spirit will be systematically introduced to the students through Part VIII and XI of the WECCS curriculum. The cultivation way of Falun Dafa (www.falundafa.org) is an art, or Science of Mind-Body-Spirit, and has been practiced by people from all walks of life of all different age groups all over the world. The practice has been now taught in schools in India, Taiwan and recently even introduced into the curriculum of university. The health benefit associated with the practice of Falun Dafa is validated by large scale health surveys as well as cellular and molecular level studies of frontier life sciences (Section 3 Appendix II: Falun Dafa Health Benefit). At the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School, students will be given the choices of different forms of art according to each student’s individual interest and be integrated into their individualized curriculum by the Master Teacher each student choose. Physical training will include both Chinese style physical training, such as Chinese martial arts and classical Chinese dance and Western style physical training, such as football, basketball and volleyball.

(8) Think analytically, logically, and creatively, and to integrate technology literacy and fluency as well as different experiences and knowledge to form reasoned judgments and solve problems

Curriculum Part VI-VII:

While analytical, logical, creative skills and technology literacy and fluency will be taught throughout all subjects of studies when applicable, WECCS curriculum Part VI and VII in the field of Science will be a practical training ground for all these skills, through the Shen Nong Laboratory Platform. The Whole Elephant Institute will establish the Shen Nong Education Laboratory which allows students to raise questions about a subject of life science, write a proposal, apply for funding, work with life science mentor to carry out the research project, to gather data, analyze data and synthesize data to present in the format of research papers and seminars. A team of science mentors are being assembled, led by Dr. Lotus King Weiss, who is an expert in the frontier life science field.

(9) Understand the importance of work and finance and how performance, effort, and decisions directly affect future career and educational opportunities.

Curriculum Part VI-X:

When students learn ancient Chinese science and modern frontier science from Part VI and VII, students will gain necessary knowledge and skills for creative new ideas, and through Shen Nong Laboratory Research projects, will experience the development of new produces and thus pave new industries for the future; throughout the project-based learning, students will gain technology literacy and fluent in applying technology to solve problems in a collaborative setting; the various forms of art of cultivation of mind-body-spirit will assure the tranquility of mind and the health of the body and the wisdom from ancient Chinese culture combined with the clear practical rationality of approach in face of the real complex world lay the foundation of productivity, success and leadership roles of our students. WECCS Part X curriculum includes the subject of Law, Media and Entrepreneurship which will be taught through internship programs. The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School has the unique opportunity to bring together entrepreneur teams from China and America for the education program. Vocational and academic instructions will be integrated for school to work transition; collaboration between WECCS and local community colleges, technical colleges, universities in the frontier Biomedical Research Science Field (such as the Benaroya Research Institute, University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) will be established. Three large media groups, the New Tang Dynasty Television Group, the Epoch Times Newspaper, and the Sound of Hope Radio Station, will be connected for student internship. Law in the field of human rights, health, business and immigration will be introduced to students through seminars delivered by invited legal professionals in relevant fields.

The Whole Elephant Instructional Design

Philosophy

The WECCS Instructional Model is based upon the philosophy that each child is unique and different; the relationship between Student and Teacher is sacred and is life-long, thus is a Master-disciple relationship; the most successful education model was established by Confucius in China and Socrates in ancient Greece; parents and grandparents are key players in education thus shall be integrated into the school education team.

Design

In the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School, parents and grandparents, especially the later, will be an integral component of the education program. Each student will be led by their individual Master Educators specialized in various subject fields (curriculum I-X): each student will have ten Master Educators to follow them all the way from K to 12th grade and make their individualized curriculum according to their learning ability and interest; among the ten Master Educators, each student will choose one as the Lead Master who will stay in close contact with the parents or grandparents for communication of all necessary education issues. For the first year, with the enrollment of 20 students from each grade of K-8, our Charter School will be staffed by one Grade-specific Master-assistant Teacher (GSMA) for each specific subject of study for each grade. For example, for English Language, we will have GSMA for each Grade, each will be in charge of 20 students for that grade; with eleven (since arts are differentiated into American and Chinese categories) different subjects of studies ongoing for each grade, we will be staffed with (9 grades x 11 subject=) 99 GSMA Teachers. That is, each Master Teacher among the eleven subjects of curriculum has a team of nine GSMA teachers to help accomplish the education goal through forming a subject education team, and constantly work together to perfect the education skills, and work with parents and grandparents of their students as a large community based education team; in this regard, the integral involvement of community represented directly by parents and grandparents will be a distinct feature of our Charter School.

Administrative Staffing: besides the staffing of 11 Master Teachers and 99 GSMAs for the eleven different subjects of studies in our Charter School, we will be staffed with the following administrative team: the Principal, the Vice Principal, eleven secretaries serving each team of Master Educators and parents/grandparents, an Accountant, a Treasurer, a Director for Transportation, a Director for Food, a Director for Health and Safety, a Director for Media, Advertisement and Community Outreach, a Director for Staff Straining and Recreation, a Director for Events and Workshop Management, a Director for Scholar Seminar Organization.

Governance: the Board of Trustees of our Charter School will work closely with the Administrative Staffing team listed above to govern the Charter School; the Board of Trustees will be responsible for bringing both personnel and financial resources to the Charter School and do everything possible and necessary for accomplishing the proposed mission of the Charter School; the Administrative Staffing Team will be responsible for the successful and safe daily administrative operation of the Charter School; the teaching team of Master Educators will be focused upon the delivery of high quality education to the students.

Section 04: Attachment 3: The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School Chinese Language Education Course Sample Scope in Elementary, Middle and High School Division

Section 04: Attachment 4: The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School Curriculum Development Projection in 2017

Category 3 Section 05: Student Performance Standards

As the first Chinese Charter School in Washington State, the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School carries out the mission to set a new model of innovative public school education for Washington State, with new education philosophy, new curriculum design, new instruction methods, and also new student performance standards that match with the mission of the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School, which has a much higher standard for students than what is stated in the learning standards currently adopted by the Office of Superintendent for Public Instruction (OSPI) in Washington State.

Critiques on Washington State Learning Standards

A careful overview of the details of the current state level learning standards for various education subjects of K-12 public schools in Washington State, as listed below, reveals the current overall public school education philosophy to be based upon the modern empirical science ideology, evolution theory, and atheism, which are the main guiding ideologies of American public schools:

Learning standards for Arts as adopted from National Core Arts Standard:

http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/#sthash.8T32MukB.dpuf;

Learning standards for English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics as adopted from Common Core State Standards (CCSS): www.corestandards.org;

Learning standards for English Language Proficiency Standards: http://www.elpa21.org/standards-initiatives/elp-standards;

Learning Standards for Early Learning and Development: https://www.del.wa.gov/helpful-resources/washington-state-early-learning-and-developmental-guidelines

Learning standards for Computer Sciences: http://www.k12.wa.us/ComputerScience/LearningStandards.aspx

Learning standards for Science as adopted from Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS): www.nextgenscience.org;

Learning standards for Social studies: http://www.k12.wa.us/SocialStudies/EALRs-GLEs.aspx;

Learning standards for Health and Fitness: http://www.k12.wa.us/HealthFitness/Standards.aspx;

Learning standards for Environmental and Sustainability: http://www.k12.wa.us/EnvironmentSustainability/Standards/default.aspx;

Learning standards for world language, such as Chinese Language: http://www.k12.wa.us/WorldLanguages/Standards/default.aspx

The falsehood of such standards for public school education is the “Blind Men Syndrome”, which limits the mind of young learners to the tangible and visible material world, which has been the subject of research and studies of modern empirical sciences with empirical science approaches based upon empirical science philosophy.

However, such a philosophy is now fully challenged and disputed by the frontier discoveries in the field of human life sciences as well as modern physics, especially in the fields of theoretical physics and astrophysics. Metaphorically, the empirical modern science approach is like the seven blind men who were presented with different parts of the Elephant and were then presented with the question: “What is an Elephant”, one blind man confidently answered, “It is just like a Tree”; the second blind man disputed such a statement with more confidence, “That is totally ignorant, It is not like a Tree at all. It is like a Sword”. The third blind man was furious upon hearing such “ignorance” of both statements, and could not help but burst out, “Both of you are crazy. It is neither like a Tree, nor like a Sword, but it is definitely like a rope”…The current state of public education in Washington State is depicted by the above metaphor. Children trained in public schools under such philosophy and measured with such standards at most can grow up and become outstanding argumentative intellectual blind men, for their families, communities and for America.

Setting New Learning Standards at the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School therefore will lead in setting up new learning standards for subject of studies as outlined in the Whole Elephant Curriculum. The current Washington State Level Standards will be carefully observed as the base line, since it falls at the beginning level of learning according to the standards of scholarly learning by Confucius:

Level One: 格物

To gain the basic knowledge of the world is the beginning step of learning, but one cannot be satisfied by the superficial gathering of the knowledge given by others.

Level Two: 致知

One needs to seek for the Truth, through raising questions carefully, think with a calm tranquil mind, and gain the ability to distinguish good from bad, right from wrong, Truth from Falsehood.

Level Three: 诚意

One’s mind and heart will be inspired and nurtured by the Truth gained through studies and validation of real experience in lives and become genuinely determined to be a seeker of Truth in life.

Level Four: 正心

On the journey of becoming of a Leader and a true scholar, one gains the strength and brave heart to face all adversities and challenges in life with a righteous mind and unshakable faith to Truth.

Level Five: 修身

The student matures the opportunity to embark on the path of spiritual upgrading through the art of cultivation of mind-body-spirit; learning is no longer gathering information but gaining of higher vision through the expansion of the capacity of brain: going beyond ordinary human level and reaching spiritual perfection as an individual.

Level Six: 齐家

When one can take full responsibility for himself as a Whole Person, he will elevate further in his worldly training ground of character improvement by being a member of the basic cell unit of human society: family and to practice all the gained knowledge and skills in harmonizing the family.

Level Seven: 治国

When one gain the spiritual wisdom and power to harmonize the family, he will then elevate further in his knowledge and wisdom in governing the Nation.

Level Eight: 平天下

When one gains the mighty virtue and wisdom to govern a nation, he will elevate further to bring peace and prosperity to the whole world.

Thus, the WECCS student Performance Standards will go beyond the standards set by the State standards, which are limited to the Level One Performance and Learning. Master Teachers will follow the above described levels of performance to formulate their own unique performance standards tailored into the education subject at each level. At each level, WECCS students will be evaluated from seven different aspects of their performances of learning:

律 Self Discipline

言 Speech and Communication

视 Reading and Observation

听 Listening

思 Comprehension

行 Practice

教 Leadership

School Level Performance Assessments:

The performance of students, both skill and content assessment will be carried out by each Master Teacher at the end of every day. It can be the standard quiz format, examination format, or one-on-one Question and Answer Format, or in project-product format. Each aspect will be scored at a scale of 1-100, with 20-40 as Level E, 40-60 as Level D, 60-80 as Level C, 80-90 as Level B and 90-100 as Level A. At the end of each education domain, which refers to the completion of a specific education topic, a comprehensive assessment will be carried out by the Master Teacher and cored for both content and skill mastering levels, as well as moral practice level during the education period, which is Excellent (A), Fine (B), Good (C) and Fail (D). A Final Assessment will be given at the end of each semester, with thesis defense for graduation.

State Level Performance Assessments:

All students will participate in state level tests as required for each grade in Washington State.

Final Assessments:

The final school year grade for each subject of studies will be determined by each Master Teacher based upon the incorporation of all assessment results of the state level assessments and school level assessments.

Grade Promotion and Graduation Criteria:

Students must have a minimum score of C in all subjects of studies as well as a minimum moral score of Good to be promoted to the next grade and pass the thesis defense for graduation.

Students at risk of academic failure will be helped timely through one-on-one meeting with Master Teachers, assistant Teachers and parents. Master Teacher will take full responsibilities for each student and find solutions to assure each student’s academic success and well beings of mind-body-spirit.

Section 05: Attachment 5: The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School Learning Standards for Grade Promotion and Graduation

Attachment 5

The Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School Learning Standards for Grade Promotion and Graduation

Besides meeting the learning standard of the Washington State as posted on the site of Office of Superintendent Public Instruction for each subject of studies, the Whole Elephant Chinese Charter School also sets up the WECCS school standards for grade promotion, exit and graduation from school. Since the Master Teachers are still in the process of finalizing the details of such standards, the following is presented using English Language Arts as an example to illustrate the points:

Curriculum Part I.

English Language

State Level Learning Standards (www.corestandards.org; http://www.elpa21.org/standards-initiatives/elp-standards)

WECCS School Specific Learning Standards:

K: Master the English translation contents of the Chinese Early Childhood Education Classics: “Classic of the Three-Character Verses” (三字经 Part One)

Grade 1: Master the English translation contents of Chinese Elementary School Education

Classics: “Disciplinary Studies for Students” (三字经 Part Two 弟子规)

Grade 2: Master the English translation contents of the Chinese Elementary School Education

Classics: “Classic of One Thousand Chinese Characters” (弟子规 Part One)

Grade 3: Master the English translation contents of the Chinese Elementary School Education Classics: “Classic of One Thousand Chinese Characters” (弟子规 Two)

Grade 4: Master the English translation contents of Chinese Poems from Tang and Song Dynasty (Part One)

Grade 5: Master the English translation contents of Chinese Poems from Tang and Song Dynasty (Part Two)

Elementary School Graduation

Grade 6: Master the English translation contents of Confucius Teachings Part I (论语 Analects of Confucius)

Grade 7: Master the English translation contents of Confucius Teachings Part II (大学Great Learning)

Grade 8: Master the English translation contents of Confucius Teachings Part III (孟子 Mencius)

Middle School Graduation

Grade 9: Master the English translation contents of Confucius Teachings Part IV (中庸 The Doctrine of the Mean)

Grade 10: Master the Selected Readings from the English Translation of Confucius Teachings Part V (Five Kings or Five Classics)

Grade 11: Master the English Translation contents of Lao Zi’s Teachings (道德经 Dao De Jing)

Grade 12: Master the English Translation contents of the Book of Changes (易经 I Ching)

High School Graduation

Assessment: Students will be evaluated by English Master Teacher Daily and scored for Content and Skill

(seven aspects: 律Self Discipline; 言Speech and Communication; 视Reading and Observation; 听Listening; 思Comprehension; 行Practice; 教Leadership)

Performance level as well as moral performance level, at a scale of 100: 20-40: E; 40-60 D; 60-80 C; 80-90 B; 90-100 A. Performance data will be communicated with parents or student guardian biweekly; there are also education domain specific assessments and a school year final assessment, which will be in the format of a thesis defended in front of a panel consisting of Master Teachers, Assistant Teachers, Grandparents-Parents Team, and School Expert Advisory Board.

Grade Promotion Policy: a student must have a grade of C or above to be promoted to the next higher grade.

WECCS Elementary Graduation Policy: a student must have a grade of C and above in the Fifth grade School Year and need to pass the thesis defense to be graduated from WECCS Elementary School.

For the following subject of studies, a similarly detailed WECCS Learning Standards, Grade Promotion and Graduation Criteria will be designed in the following months by the assigned Master Teachers of each Curriculum Subject.