Academics
The QPS System assumes that students learn best when they are actively engaged and advancing along their individual learning paths at their own best pace. Our exceptionally low student-teacher ratio, experienced and forward-thinking staff, and ongoing pursuit of the most effective resources and activities are the keys to our success in making this happen. QPS’s learning managers know each student’s stage of progress at any given time. They are skilled in supporting learning processes and in seizing the learning opportunity inherent in any expression of interest.
Our academic standards exceed what is found in most schools because we integrate thinking and inquiry skills into all subject areas. At the core of QPS’s curriculum is the well-established fact that, in order to be retained and applied, all knowledge and skill must be integrated conceptually and fluently accessible.
English/Language Arts
Queens Paideia’s English/Language Arts program is designed to strengthen communication skills and an understanding of the world and our place within it.
By reading literature we learn how others experience the world, and reflect on how we experience it. We are introduced to communities, places, and lives different from our own, yet we also discern the commonalities that unite all of us. Through informational texts, we learn about how the world operates, how the opinions of others differ from our own, and new skills and knowledge. Through writing, we learn to share our stories and knowledge and to communicate our thoughts. Given QPS’s goal of preparing students for high school and beyond, we expose them to and engage them in literacy experiences that extend beyond the standard school-type assignments. All of this starts from the moment a student starts at QPS, regardless of age.
Math
Queens Paideia’s uses Singapore Math, one of the most comprehensive and proven math curricula available, as a primary resource, and supplements it with manipulatives, math-based games, online programs, economic transactions, and accounting scenarios. Our total math program helps students develop an early and firm fluency in basic computational and problem-solving skills. Students learn to apply geometric concepts in spatial reasoning; concepts of probability in areas like decision making, prediction, sampling, uncertainty, interpretation of data, and statistical reasoning; and problem-solving strategies that require logical and algebraic reasoning skills, algorithms, and heuristics.
Our approach to mathematics education gives our students the practical tools they need to enhance their thinking and problem-solving skills, and to make sense of their world.
Science
Queens Paideia’s science curriculum covers the subject matter of the life sciences, the physical sciences, and earth/space science, along with practical applications of this knowledge in engineering and human affairs, throughout history. A distinct aspect of QPS’s curriculum is focus on the methods of science as the primary means to find things out, put questions to nature, and make sense of the answers received. Students apply critical thinking and analysis to approach scientific questions and create strategies for answering them. They learn these skills through discussion, independent research, hands-on experiments, and demonstrations, and they practice them in projects they originate on topics that interest them.Our approach to mathematics education gives our students the practical tools they need to enhance their thinking and problem-solving skills, and to make sense of their world.
Social Studies
QPS’s Social Studies program prepares students to navigate the world with understanding and with the inquiry skills necessary to make sense of it. Through a comprehensive survey of human civilization, our students learn to make comparisons and perceive connections among past and present events and among happenings in economics, politics, science, cultures, and the arts. Every year adds another layer to our students’ understanding and questioning, starting with our youngest and continuing with increasing complexity to our oldest.
The program emphasizes the development of research, writing, and presentation skills through an ongoing combination of activities.
Other Subjects
Queens Paideia’s daily program includes classes in subjects that round out our students’ education and enhance their adult lives. These classes, though non-core subject areas, are constructed and implemented with the same degree of thought and detail found in the major components of our program. They are opportunities for students to learn new and enriching content and to apply their growing body of skills from other areas.