We first learned about Two Rivers Public Charter School in 2015 when we supported Washington DC’s CityBridge BreakThrough Schools. From the beginning we’ve been impressed by Two Rivers PCS as an Expeditionary Learning school as it embodies EL Education’s mission “to create classrooms where teachers can fulfill their highest aspirations, and students achieve more than they think possible, becoming active contributors to building a better world.” We can attest to Two Rivers PCS fulfilling EL Education’s powerful vision statement: “When students and teachers are engaged in work that is challenging, adventurous, and meaningful, learning and achievement flourish.” As a BreakThrough School, Two Rivers has been developing a set of innovative student assessment tools – next generation assessments that measure students’ cognitive skills beyond those captured by traditional standardized tests, including critical thinking and problem solving, complex communication and writing, deep content mastery and character. The goal ultimately is for Two Rivers PCS to share the assessments broadly to any schools wishing to investigate new measures for student success. We respect Two Rivers’ vigilant attention to using ongoing assessments as a tool within its entire school, consistently creating feedback loops for teachers to gauge learning as a part of a broad context measuring student progress.
Read more about Two Rivers’ approach to promote critical thinking at Education Week . We recommend watching the three-minute video embedded in the article.