The Pocatello Community Charter School, a center of Expeditionary Learning, is a public school of choice serving just under 330 students in Pocatello, Idaho from kindergarten through the eighth grade. At our school, students learn in multi-age classrooms with the same teacher for two years. Multi-age classrooms allow students of different ages and abilities to learn together and develop friendships that expand beyond one grade level.

Our school’s mission is to work with parents in order to provide each child with an academically rigorous plan that is both innovative and flexible. We believe that each child has a unique set of talents, interests and challenges. We understand that no single approach can reach each child, and so we work to create learning environments within classrooms that respond creatively to the needs of all of the children. The five core values of our school are a can-do attitude, respect for diversity, creative leadership, honesty and integrity, and personal responsibility.

Our school is a center of Expeditionary Learning. Expeditionary Learning  is a network of schools that emphasize active learning, literacy, character growth and teamwork. As an Expeditionary Learning school, we teach reading, writing, science, math, and social studies through a challenging set of connected, real-world projects called learning expeditions. Expeditions call upon both students and teachers to collaborate, revise our work through multiple drafts, achieve our personal best, and reflect upon what we have learned. Some of the learning expeditions that our school has embarked upon include a fifth and sixth grade study of water quality in Rapid Creek, and a seventh and eighth grade study of flight.

Expeditionary Learning schools are centered around the following design principles:

• The importance of self-discovery I am in school to discover what I can do, to learn about myself, explore my own ideas, and discover how I learn best.
• The having of wonderful ideas I have wonderful ideas to share.
• The responsibility for learning I try my hardest to learn and I help others learn.
• Intimacy and caring I help and care for others, and others help and care for me.
• Success and failure My success is sweet, and my mistakes are good food.
• Collaboration and competition We work together as friends, and I compete with myself to improve my skills.
• Diversity and inclusivity Making use of our differences makes us stronger, and everyone is welcome here.
• The natural world Nature is our teacher.
• Solitude and reflection I enjoy time to be with myself and to think about the work that I am doing.
• Service and compassion We do thoughtful things for others.

Being part of the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound network allows our teachers to collaborate with other educators throughout the country, refine their own teaching practices, and participate as leaders, researchers and curriculum developers within their own school.