Open Meadow

Open School’s mission is to develop connection, capability, and confidence in disconnected youth through relationship-based, quality learning experiences that result in academic, personal, and community success.

• About Us
  Over four decades Open School has carefully refined a process of wrapping an entire organization around youth that sets them up for success in the classroom and in life. Open Learning, as we call it, is an intentional set of practices involving three key components: Academics, Equity and Advocacy.
  
  We get results when others can’t.
  
  Open School North helps kids develop a sense of connection, capability, and confindence in 6th–8th grade so they are set up to do their best in high school. Located in North Portland, it serves 60 students from Portland Public Schools.
  
  Open School East is a new 7th–12th grade college prep school in East Multnomah County that works with kids who are most likely to drop out of public schools. At Open School, these same students excel academically, graduate, go to college, and pursue meaningful careers. Starting with a class of 46 in 2014, the school will serve 270 students from six school districts by 2019.
  
  Strong, healthy communities have pathways to success for everyone. Education is central to creating these pathways. It is the key to disrupting core issues of racism, poverty, and violence that are barriers to success. Open School focuses on young people: endowing them with the skills, power and hope to be agents of change in their communities. Investing in the education of every student motivates and empowers them to create the vibrant, equitable communities we all deserve.
• Our Impact
  Open School is committed to providing a high quality educational experience for every student who participates in our program. Given that most of our students come to us significantly behind academically, we have the challenge of re-engaging, remediating, and then accelerating their learning curve. To do this effectively we believe it is our responsibility to provide an education that is rigorous, relational, and relevant.
  
  At Open School, we work with an extremely diverse student population (73% students of color in 2013-14). This diversity ranges from socio-economic class to race, from sexual orientation to geography. We are committed to providing an education in which this diversity is celebrated and reflected in how and what we teach. An equitable education at Open School is embedded into how we operate programmatically and organizationally.
  
  At the heart of Open School lies our role as an advocate for students and families. It is through advocacy that we support our students and families in successfully navigating their educational experience at Open School.
  
  The ultimate goal of advocacy at Open School is to ensure that every student and family have the support necessary to stay engaged and excel in school. Through our Advocate model, where every student is part of a 12-15 person advocate group and has a teacher who is responsible for that group, support is tailored for each student’s situation. We believe that education is not an individual endeavor and that all students and families thrive with proper supports. We also believe that given the challenges our students and families face this support isn’t optional; rather it is a pre-requisite for success.