Evolving Pedagogy

Updated August, 2025 (yearly)

Evolving Pedagogy

PSCS staff strive to frame all curriculum and programs in Abolitionist Teaching, “teaching with the goal of intersectional social justice for equitable classrooms that love and affirm Black and Brown children.” (Dr. Bettina Love).

PSCS staff do not pretend to have all the answers for reaching true equity and harnessing the power of community access. But we do commit to collaborating on behalf of all students; trusting in the experience and expertise of the people in the building; framing our goals around what we know and understand of the students and staff in this community at this time.

Opportunities at PSCS include progressive, cross-age, project-based courses and activities, middle and high school Seminars, collaborative scheduling, restorative and transformative processes, all school Business Meetings, 1:1 Advising, student facilitation and leadership, Intensives, Off-site independence privileges, Independent Study hours, Running Start, and more. Guidance from staff and Advisors is meant to help hold us accountable to our choices and to assume we can all do hard things. They are collaboratively tailored to individual student needs, and the needs of the community, as we grow to understand them in our space.

In most schools, rigor is determined by the pace each student sets over time, in competition with their peers, often based on heavily biased standards. We believe that offering students opportunities for rigorous engagement, mindful choices, scaffolded independence, and leadership in the community, young people feel more empowered, and more fully embody the learning and skills that will serve them most on any pathway they take through life.

To that end, we challenge each of one of us to be wholly collaborative and expansive in our pursuit of deeper learning, intersectional social justice, and ending systemic racial violence.

Key Learnings & Questions for Students to Consider

Students at PSCS

PSCS is intentionally small. While most of us are not actually related, we are a type of family or team. Community Building is a skill and relies on knowing that each one of us has a purpose and skills we need in order to grow and thrive. The PSCS experience for students depends on how they choose to engage.

PSCS does not quantify or standardize success or achievement. Students most successful at PSCS are often genuinely interested in process as much as outcomes; are creative, community-minded, willing to practice patience, critical thinking, and flexibilty, show bravery and willingness to step up into challenge, and to work fully through conflict in support of each other’s growth and humanity. By the time PSCS students graduate, they are more rooted in their identity as a learner and as a community member; PSCS alum are consistently well-prepared for higher education, community-building, and to follow their curiosities.

Staff Collaboration

PSCS staff facilitate individualized, distinct, responsive courses that take into account the needs and interests of our students and those of the whole community. Staff support educators who are collaborative, empathetic, and multi-skilled; who are passionate about education, building community, and understanding systems in order to tear them down.

Staff work together to engage students in their learning and to grow a sustainable future. Staff connect each other to resources, propose plans and initiatives, rotate facilitation, bring in consultants, and update each other on what’s needed to meet student needs and address family challenges. PSCS staff regularly share approaches and perspectives to better serve each person in the building. Collaboration and consensus allow staff to model the skills, compassion, and flexibilty needed for the opportunities, challenges, and realities ahead.

PSCS staff meet every moment as it comes by practicing “process in pursuit of progress.” We trust in collaboration and consensus as mechanisms for anticipating outcomes and in support of young people. Staff engage in regular and intersectional professional development with cultural and equity consultants, healing-based organizations, and local partnerships. Truly collaborative community grounds us in hope and solidarity, and allows us to see through the fog and envision what’s possible for systemic change.

PSCS Defining Terms for Collaboration

Hiring at PSCS

At PSCS, hiring is a collaborative, community effort tailored to follow a collaborative process and to be more equitable. During the school year, and over the summer, job descriptions are created, shared broadly, and posted in a myriad of networks and opportunity boards by the collaborative staff. Then, a Hiring Committees is formed by our Director of Program, composed of current students, alum, parents, admin, teachers, and board members.