Galapagos Charter Schools

Based in Chicago, Illinois, Galapagos Charter School ensures that students receive the best education possible by providing highly qualified instructors who are dedicated to teaching. As part of Chicago's public school system, Galapagos Charter School accepts any student who lives in the city. A private group runs Galapagos Charter School, which does not charge a fee for students to attend and is open to children of all races, ethnicities, and genders. Galapagos Charter School also hires its own staff and performs student assessments of its own design.

Moreover, Galapagos Charter School provides a unique curriculum that differs from other public schools in the city. Additionally, Galapagos Charter School uses the Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding Vocabulary (CAFE) system for its reading curriculum assessment. Through the use of small groups and one-on-one conferences, CAFE identifies students' individual reading goals and targets those areas in which they need to improve. At Galapagos Charter School, the CAFE system places students in groups based on their academic needs so that they can gain the attention they require in order to develop reading skills.

Besides the CAFE system, Galapagos Charter School utilizes the Singapore Math curriculum. The method focuses on teaching mathematics through the use of a progression of lessons, moving between concrete experiences to a visual representation and an explanation of the abstract concept. As a result, students gain an understanding of the concepts of a problem before learning the abstract components. Singapore Math has proven so successful that third-grade students at Galapagos Charter School can solve problems taught to most sixth-grade classes at other Chicago public schools.

With a commitment to students, Galapagos Charter School operates under a set of core principles that focus on character development, individual instruction, and high academic expectations. In order to ensure that these goals are met, the instructors at Galapagos Charter School receive more than 300 hours of professional development training each year. The school maintains a second campus in Rockford, Illinois.