About Us

BASE is an EL Education school. EL Education provides a powerful, coherent framework for engaging learning with a focus on rigorous student outcomes in academics and character. Students experience expeditions (real-world, in-depth studies both inside and outside the classroom), share their learning and achievements with authentic audiences through public exhibitions, and belong to a Crew (EL’s advisory vehicle for fostering relationships and the habits of scholarship that every student needs to be successful.) 

BASE focuses on the EL Education three dimensions of Student Achievement:

Mastery of Knowledge & Skills - through our rigorous curriculum 6 - 12 and our PLTW Pathways for Middle School Students and CTE Pathways for ALL high school students. BASE students experience AVID Instructional and Support Strategies in every classroom. Through expeditions and hands-on learning experiences our students have opportunities to apply their learning. Critical thinking and effective communication through writing, speaking and presenting are key elements at BASE. BASE uses our Pathways and AVID as the vehicles to reach the EL Education Dimension of Mastery of Knowledge & Skills. We believe that every student can be successful and achieve.

Character & Culture - Not only through CREW, but throughout our classes students develop mindsets and skills to become learners, treat people ethically, and contribute to a better world. With a diverse student population and teachers grounded in equity and social justice, BASE strives to reach this EL Education Dimension of Character & Culture and show through our actions that every student belongs.

High Quality Student Work - BASE students create complex work in classes, that require students to demonstrate craftsmanship. We provide the structures for students to create unique, authentic work - not only work for themselves but for the broader community when possible. We expect every student to create high quality work and provide supportive structures to help them reach this expectation.

We offer three different Project Lead the Way pathways, namely in Computer Science & information Technology, Engineering, and Biomedical Health Careers. To the best of our knowledge, we would be one of a very few, if not only, EL Education and Project Lead the Way schools in the country sponsoring three complete pathways.

In line with our EL Education philosophy, our partnership with PLTW provides students with unique opportunities to apply their knowledge. The PLTW approach "provides students with unique opportunities to work collaboratively, identify problems, apply what they know, persevere through challenges, find unique solutions, and lead their own learning." 

All high school students at BASE complete at least Pathway. Every middle school student enrolls in classes that support the high school Pathways.

The focus of our middle school provides students the opportunity to explore the Pathways that become available in high school. Sixth and seventh grade students take “wheel” classes that last for nine weeks and rotate through experiences in Computer Science & Informational Technology, Engineering and Biomedical Health Careers. In the 8th grade year, students focus on two Pathways featuring semester long classes, so by their 9th grade year, students have a clear idea of which Pathway they will focus upon in high school.

Most students in grades 6 - 8 have a Supervised Study class. This class provides time for students to receive academic completion time every other day. In Supervised Study, students also receive lessons on student study, collaboration & organization skills as part of our AVID Schoolwide efforts. Some students may choose to use this time to work together in small groups within the classroom. In addition, all Supervised Study classes begin with 20 minutes of choice reading. Students choose a book of their choice from either a teacher classroom library or the school library for this time. There are a few class options that may take the place of supervised study such as individualized support classes for a student's learning plan or an AVID Elective class.