There are many reasons to enroll in an IEM School. One of the top #7Reasons is personalized learning – meeting the standards in a way that works best for your student. Out of the box learning is a significant focus at Sky Mountain, Ocean Grove, and South Sutter Charter Schools. Here are 4 ways that we accomplish this:

1. Personalized Learning Plans

In IEM’s parent choice model, students have the opportunity to learn according to their learning style and educational philosophy. At the beginning of each school year, the Education Specialist (ES), parent, and student collaboratively work together to create their student’s personalized learning plan. This plan incorporates and addresses the learning style assessment, Kidzmet, and the student’s i-Ready pre-assessment to identify his/her academic performance in English-Language Arts and Math. Students in the 8th grade and high school will have the opportunity to meet with the school’s guidance counselor to create a 4-year high school personalized learning plan.  Throughout a student’s high school experience, their guidance counselor is available to ensure that students are on track to graduate and/or to update their high school plan. 

A student’s personalized learning plan can include any combination of:

• print and online curriculum
• in person or online vendor classes and/or ESI courses
• field trips and flexible field trips
• services provided by our local vendors

Can you imagine the limitless possibilities you as a parent can choose from to give your child the greatest opportunity to learn according to your child’s learning style? With over 2,000 vendors to choose from, our students have an endless amount of options from all core subjects, life skills, VAPA (visual and performing art), foreign language, and/or career pathways that are right for them.

2. Intervention Program

Are you finding that your student may be struggling in English-Language Arts and/or Math? Did you know that IEM Schools offer the opportunity for our students to participate in the school’s intervention program? Through the use of LCAP funds, our school is able to provide additional academic support for students who score two or more grade levels below on their i-Ready assessment in English-Language Arts and Math. A variety of supplemental curriculum and in person or online tutoring is available to support your child academic needs. These options are offered at no cost to a student’s instructional funds if LCAP funding is available. With our parent choice model, a student is not required to participate in the program but is highly encouraged. Please reach out to your ES to learn more about student qualifications or check out the school’s website regarding our intervention program.

3. Science and Art in the Park

Did you know that IEM Schools offer a Science and Art in the Park program? The mobile science lab travels to various locations within the geographical regions of all three schools.  Students can participate in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) classes and much more!. All science and art classes are taught by credentialed and trained ESs or qualified vendors.  All three schools also offer a-g science labs for high school students. All of these classes are a great learning opportunity for IEM students. For more information and course schedule contact your ES.

4. Field Trips

Another way to incorporate out of the box learning in our student’s personalized learning plan is to participate in our school’s field trips and flexible field trips. Through these activities, students get to experience hands-on learning opportunities in group settings with other students from our school. Students and parents can choose from a wide variety of field trips all over California, covering various topics and focusing on different age groups.  Some examples include Disney Youth Education Series Classes at Disneyland, sailing on Historic Tall Ships, exploring Yosemite on snowshoes in the winter with Naturebridge, playing the role of Pioneer at Sutter’s Fort (circa 1848), or measuring velocity and acceleration while riding a roller coaster at California’s Great America Physics, Science and Math Day.  We are firm believers in hands-on learning and our field trips bring this to life!

We know that you have many choices when deciding on a school for your child. We put #7Reasons at the top of our list as to why you might choose to enroll in an IEM School.

IEM Schools offer an expansive high school program providing maximum choice right up to your graduation day! We have a proven track record of our graduates getting into state schools like UCLA and Berkeley, as well as Ivy League Schools like Columbia and Stanford. If you are prepping for college, a-g is the way to go. Is your student planning on going to a community college after high school? Do you know you can get a head start on college while still in high school? Concurrent enrollment classes can catapult you into your college journey. With free tuition at most community colleges now for high school students and IEM instructional funding to pay for books and materials, your high school student can take college courses completely free. Are you career oriented? Every year we have students graduate with a career certification in hand and move right into the workforce, with the ability to support themselves on a mid-level career wage. We have partnerships to prepare you now to start a career as soon as you graduate. No matter what path you decide our Guidance department personnel are tuned in to the rules and laws you need to know about your path of choice to be successful.

Expansive high school program

IEM Schools are proud to offer our high school students many different options to meet the variety of different ways our students learn.  For our college bound students, we offer 500 a-g courses, including AP and Honors courses, 100 of them written by IEM and are designed for use by homeschooled students,  tailored for student choice as they offer a number of assignment choices for each unit. Students seeking other options after high school can complete classes in our non a-g program with customized or prepared syllabi. Some students prefer to learn in an online environment and some in-person. Thanks to our vendors, we offer both!

Career Technical Education (CTE) Partnerships

Is your student career oriented?  High school is a great time to explore careers and study deeply one or two of them, sometimes even completing a pathway and earning a certification to work in a mid-level career. For those who have no idea what career they might like, we can help you with interest surveys. For students just beginning to think about career interests, we have a variety of 1 semester courses designed to introduce you to the career. For students who know they want to graduate with a mid-level career certification in hand, our CTE partnerships can help them earn their high school diploma while preparing for a career at the same time. Guidance coordinators can help students design a CTE  pathway to be able to be certified at graduation. Our pathways can include both online classes, in-person classes, and even community college classes. Some of our CTE/career exploration partnerships are listed below:

• Brighton College-12 career pathways leading to certification in a mid-level career
• eDynamic Learning–career exploration courses
• COMPREHEND Learning (coming Fall 2018)
• Odysseyware
• Apex

Guidance Coordinators

When you are ready to plan your high school path meet with one of our Guidance Coordinators from each of our IEM Schools. Every student at IEM Schools has the opportunity to participate in a meeting with their parent, Education Specialist, and Guidance Coordinator beginning in eighth grade to create an individualized 4 year high school plan.  During each of their 9-12th years, these meetings occur again to ensure they are on track to achieve their goals or make changes as goals change. Want a little preview? Have more questions before you sign up?  Reach out to our Guidance hotline at (714) 865-7473 or jsanchez@ieminc.org. Then once you have completed enrollment paperwork for an IEM school, feel free to make an appointment to find out which path is the right path for you (South Sutter, Ocean Grove, Sky Mountain).

Reputation is the foundation of the power of IEM schools.  We take pride in being a pioneer in the charter movement. The first IEM School was established in 1998 and we have been trusted by thousands upon thousands of families since then to bring quality education to students in the form of a parent choice education with individualized learning plans.  We have a history of clean audits, financial stability, and being policy compliant. But most importantly we have caring and devoted staff who are as passionate about independent education as you are.

THE BEGINNING

In 1993, the California Charter Act went into effect and Randy Gaschler opened what was then known as Horizon Charter, the fifteenth charter school in California.  In 1998, Randy formed the nonprofit charter management company, Innovative Education Management, Inc. (IEM). Today IEM manages three charter schools that serve 18 California counties with current combined enrollment of over 6,000 students, and has graduated more than 13,000 students.  Randy and IEM take pride in the reputation they have built over the last 19 years so that students can benefit from the power of an IEM school today.

FISCAL MANAGEMENT

Clean audits, financial stability, and policy compliance ensures long term sustainability. IEM takes pride in the trust we have built with students, parents, employees, sponsoring districts, and the California Department of Education by taking seriously the importance of accountability, fiscal management, and policy compliance.

TRANSPARENCY

Many of our reports are available for public view.  Check out our school accountability report card  (SM, SS, OG).  Governing Board and Parent Council meetings agendas and minutes are available to the public via our website (SM, SS, OG). Our Local Community Action Plan (SM, SS, OG) is a way that we can include our parents in financial decisions that impact students the way you feel is most needed. “As founder and President of IEM, I have the experience, historical knowledge, wisdom, and passion to keep IEM legally, financially and the vision on the path it was intended to be on. It is hard to match my passion when it comes to IEM and the IEM vision for education. I am in the process of training up new leadership teams to ensure the sustainability of IEM, not just financially, but to continue the vision and purpose,” President and Founder of IEM Randy Gaschler. The power of an IEM school means you can trust us to be here for generations of students to come.

STAFF

Most importantly, IEM Schools have staff who are as passionate about independent education as you are. The real power of an IEM school is its people.  IEM Guiding Principles are all about people – the driving force of providing individual learning opportunities and maximum choice when it comes to curriculum. When teachers, administration, leaders and parents are all on the same page, with the same common vision, working towards the same goal, great things can happen.

At IEM schools we love our Education Specialists (ES). They are passionate, caring, credentialed, independent study experts, working with parents and students to design unique educational opportunities. Call it your own one-on-one individualized support system. Go ahead…put your ES on speed dial.

At IEM schools we love our Education Specialists and we recently learned how much you do too! We asked for reasons why our parents thought their ES was the best and the responses back were phenomenal. Here are a few examples:

• “She brought so much positive energy to our first homeschooling year! She was a constant support in ensuring our overall learning experience was inspiring and productive. Always available to answer any questions we had!”.
• “He is always willing to help in what we need and he is always ready to provide our materials. He also always find a way to accommodate our schedule. We’ve only known him one year and it’s been a true blessing and a great year.”
• “She is organized, passionate, willing to help, on time”.
• “He has been a huge support, always thinks of his students and what they need, and communicates extremely well about all the information we need as parent teachers. He has made our experience with Ocean Grove so wonderful.”
• “She has a heart for learning and she is always positive with her support and goes above and beyond. Her joy resonates through all she does and lifts us up when things get tough. We all look forward to meeting with her.”

Year-long support

Go ahead…put your ES on speed dial.  S/he is ready to help you and your child from that hectic first day of school until the exciting rush of the last. They are ready and able to make sure your child starts off on the best foot, then guiding and supporting them to make sure they stay on track and achieve their academic goals.

Credentialed

Go ahead…put your ES on speed dial, s/he knows the curriculum and how to apply it.  Every ES at all three IEM Charter Schools is a California credentialed teacher.  In addition to his/her education s/he can use the results from your students’ Kidzmet learning assessment combined with our Curriculum Wizard to ensure your student receives curriculum that teaches them the way they learn. Individualized Learning at its best!

Independent study experts

Go ahead…put your ES on speed dial, s/he is continuously trained by IEM through our professional development options and activities, advisors, and our hiring coordinator. The best learning comes from the day to day learning experiences through serving students and families.

One-on-One

Call it your own one-on-one individualized support system. Go ahead…put your ES on speed dial, s/he is there for you! Your ES is there to support you and your student every step of the way.

Ever wonder how one size could fit all? So do we. At IEM schools we know everyone is unique; what is learned, how it is learned, and when and where it is learned is up to you. We want your child to walk to their own beat. When your student walks to their own beat we recognize it and walk right alongside them, helping them to achieve their individual educational goals. Is your student at grade level? Above grade level? Below grade level? No matter where your student is, we can meet them there through individualized learning and move them forward. IEM schools keep pace with your child’s beat by providing curriculum that is tailored to your student. Provided resources such as i-Ready and Kidzmet assessments allow parents and teacher valuable insight into your whole child.

i-Ready:

i-Ready is an adaptive diagnostic assessment of reading and mathematics for grades 1st through 11th. It provides beginning and mid-year progress data for students which pinpoints student’s needs down to sub-skill levels, giving valuable insight into your student’s strengths and areas of need.

Kidzmet:

Kidzmet, on the other hand, is an online assessment for 2nd through 8th grade students, which considers Jungian personality type (the basis of Myers-Briggs), multiple intelligences and cognitive style preferences to provide parents and teachers with a well-rounded view of your child as a person. Using both i-Ready and Kidzmet in conjunction with our ILP (Individualized Learning Program) Wizard, which offers curriculum recommendations based on a student’s individual learning style, IEM schools can ensure your student has curriculum that will match their personality and learning style as well as learning level.

Above grade level:

Is your child’s beat a little faster? Great! We want to support them in walking to that beat! Students who work above grade level can take advantage of approved vendors who provide courses for advanced and gifted students. These vendors include Johns Hopkins University Center for Gifted and Talented Youth, and Redbird Learning. High school students also have the opportunity to complete dual enrollment courses through approved vendor Brighton College or their local community college. In addition to providing advanced coursework, the student earns college credit while completing high school courses.

Intervention:

Is your child’s beat a little slower? Your student can still walk to their beat. IEM schools provide the support needed to help your child move forward and even catch up. Our Intervention program offers a diversity of supplemental curriculum and tutoring services to help students performing below grade level.

Vendors Options:

Does you child have passions not typically addressed in school? With an IEM school, they can keep that beat going strong as well. IEM schools offer students the opportunity to explore their passions. Over 2,000 approved vendors offer classes for everything from horsemanship and wilderness survival skills to drone flying or computer engineering. Electives and having the time to enjoy them are some of the joys of the homeschool community.

IEM Schools:

“My five children have taught me more than all my teachers and professors about how a one size fits all mentality of teaching students will never work” – Randy Gaschler, President and CEO of IEM.

One size does NOT fit all. You know this. We know this. We are prepared to get in step with your child and help foster in them an excitement for learning their way. Students working at their own pace within their own individual academic needs? About time, right?