Schools That Can

Jurate Krokys, CEO:

What We Stand For:

Independence Charter is a K-8 public charter school in Philadelphia. It serves children who enter in an open lottery and who represent 46 zip codes in the city of Philadelphia.
We are nine years old and have in that time garnered local, regional and national recognition for our unique program and our student achievement.

Independence Charter’s mission focuses on raising students to be great citizens locally and globally. This is accomplished in part by providing intensive second language training (Spanish) in two unique programs starting in Kindergarten and going through to grade 8. In addition, all of our students are immersed in global studies.

Our student body is diverse and is similar to the makeup of the city of Philadelphia with 79% minority students, 54% eligible for federally supported lunches. Independence Charter embraces our diversity and provides for the unique differences of all students by supporting the whole child. This includes using the Responsive Classroom framework as a process for resolving conflict, making good choices and supporting lifelong skills. Most importantly, it is the expectation that all students will achieve that is the driving force for many of the decisions we make and the opportunities we provide.

Effective Practices:

At ICS we also believe in providing students with a wide array of experiential learning which includes participation in such competitions and projects as Odyssey of the Mind, National History Day, Young Playwrights, science fairs and the like. In addition, we provide all students with an infusion of the arts as a core subject including the fine arts, music, and dance/movement.

ICS would not be who we are if it were not for our partnerships with parents, and community organizations. Independence is a parent founded school and continues to engage parents in all areas of school life. Our partnership with the International Visitors Council has allowed us to host visitors from over 40 nations. Our partnership with the National Resource Centers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Asia Society has aided us in our goal of integrating global studies across the curriculum.

Recent Accomplishments:

We gauge our success with students in a variety of qualitative and quantitative ways. Here are some:
Over 700 on the waiting list
97% average daily attendance
97.3% family retention
95% graduating eighth graders enter the top special admissions schools in the Philadelphia region
Our PSSA standardized test score averages meet and in some cases surpass the state average