Hillcrest Academy
Academics Character Leadership
Academics Character Leadership
Hillcrest Academy has a proud history, with 35 years of teaching and developing young minds. At the core, then as now, is the balance of academics, leadership and character. The program has developed over that time to include foreign languages, art, music, library and PE, each taught by experts in their field. Today we look to the challenges of the future, confident that our foundation is firm. Every year the pace of change increases, not only in the obvious area of technology but also in the areas of social and pedagogical development.
The future being unclear challenges us to offer the richest childhood experience possible. A child centric program of enquiry is paramount, with an emphasis on conceptual understanding in all disciplines and a very broad set of skills. Learning should have both depth and complexity, should be challenging, developmentally appropriate, and fun.
Students should be engaged and positively involved in their activities, not passive recipients of a pre-ordained set of knowledge. Teachers need to craft a program that allows for experimentation and discovery, but clearly reaches well defined goals, and meets their diverse needs. The goals and needs are a constantly moving target, so the program needs constant evaluation and meaningful assessment.
Hillcrest measures itself against the best, utilizing the ERB CTP 4a as a benchmark for progress, as well as maintaining its accreditations with both CAISb and WASCc. But we want to be even better.
This year our middle school began the journey to International Baccalaureate authorization. This prestigious program of worldwide educational excellence will challenge our small community to have an international presence, utilizing the best, research based, educational practices. This year we were accepted as a candidate school, so over the next three years we will be examining every aspect of our program to make sure that it reaches the lofty goals outlined in the second paragraph. We will be embracing the IB Primary Years program as soon as it is feasible, so that soon, our small school will be the only IB World School in Riverside County.
To attempt such program development relies on the extraordinary professionalism and commitment of the teaching staff, with a substantial investment of time and resources in training. To be successful the entire community, from the Board of Trustees to the youngest student, needs to work together. This has always been one of Hillcrest Academy's great strengths. The sense of community on our campus is exceptional, being richly diverse, supportive and inclusive.
You don't attend Hillcrest, you belong.
