Independence Charter School
Independence Charter School (ICS) is a community-oriented public K-8 charter school located in Center City Philadelphia.
At Independence Charter we provide our students with an intellectually stimulating and internationally focused environment emphasizing the arts, languages and world cultures. Recognized nationally for our innovative global studies program, we are the only Philadelphia school to deliver an integrated curriculum that uses world cultures and second language acquisition to introduce and connect content disciplines. One of our ultimate goals is to develop a bilingual, interculturally-competent and high achieving student body.
All students at ICS study Spanish within two distinct programs: the Spanish Enhanced program, which includes 30-40 minutes of Spanish daily; or the Spanish Immersion program, in which students begin in Kindergarten with a 90% Spanish and 10% English infusion. By fifth grade that balance is 50/50. Middle school students are also introduced to Arabic with sixth graders receiving one hour of weekly instruction (which increases to two hours in the seventh grade) while continuing their Spanish studies. By the time they graduate, all ICS graduates are bilingual and biliterate in Spanish and have introductory knowledge and skills in Arabic.
Independence Charter serves over 800 students from almost every zip code in Philadelphia. Students are randomly chosen through an annual blind lottery. Independence Charter was founded in 2001 by a group of parents and community members devoted to raising their families in Philadelphia. These founding members developed ICS’s mission and program, and many remain instrumental today as parents of current students and in founder seats on our Board of Trustees.
Independence Charter School (ICS) is a K-8 community-based public charter school of academic excellence located in an urban environment that serves a diverse community of learners. ICS provides an intellectually stimulating curriculum with a global focus that emphasizes second language acquisition and integrates the arts, ideas and histories from around the world. ICS seeks to develop independent, thoughtful global citizens.
Donate to ICS throught JustGive.org: http://www.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=23-3060261
