Dimensions Collaborative School, a TK-12 tuition-free public charter school serving students throughout San Diego County – where students lead the way! Our WASC accredited school is authorized by the San Diego County Office of Education and serves students residing in all areas of the county.
Based on a model in which the community and world are our classroom, natural curiosity and self-determined education come alive through a variety of learning experiences ranging from project-based activities, home-study, and field trips to clubs, competitions, and global educational travel.
Our PURPOSE is to partner with parents and students to design personalized learning plans through which students find their unique element and become self-directed learners for life. We believe education is, at its best, helping students discover, refine, and develop their gifts, talents, passions, and abilities in ways that benefit themselves and others as they prepare for the future.
Our MISSION is to curate robust, personalized learning plans in partnership with students and parents which prepare students to be ready and thrive in their chosen life paths. These learning plans are at the heart of our work. Individualized and flexible, the result of the ongoing collaboration between parent, student, and their CA credentialed Educational Facilitator (EF), the learning plan is designed to promote mastery, autonomy, and a sense of purpose as well as facilitate growth, performance, and achievement. In this plan, a combination of curriculum, resources, experiences, and personalized learning environments needed to support the learning plan in ways that engage student interests and unique styles of learning are identified and facilitated.
Our VISION is to develop self-directed learners who are self-aware, confident, creative, connected, and whole – ready to thrive in the 21st century.
“I recommend this type of school to any kid that wants to succeed in sports or arts. This school gives you the time that you need to train and practice. The teachers work with you to be successful.”
— Dimensions 2021 Graduate
At the heart of Dimensions educational philosophy and practices is the belief that all students can become successful self-directed learners prepared to meet the challenges of an ever-changing world.
Power Traits
Personalized learning begins with understanding your child's Power Traits. A learner’s Power Traits refers to how the child best relates to how your child learns, works, and communicates. These traits are discovered through The Self-Portrait™ Power Traits Assessment, which has been helping students for over twenty years to rediscover that they can learn and reawaken a desire for learning. It’s more than making learning more feasible, it's about creating authentic learning.
Learn more about our Learning Success Model.
Educational Facilitator Collaboration
Parents and students collaborate with their education facilitator to design and implement personalized learning plans that incorporate student power traits, personal interests, and passions.
Curriculum, materials, resources, and community-based partners are identified and accessed to support the students’ unique learning plan.
A California credentialed Educational Facilitator meets with the parent and student at least once a learning period to collaborate around student progress and support.
Positive Discipline
POSITIVE DISCIPLINE (PD - www.positivediscipline.com) is a model for learning social-emotional competencies for child guidance, classroom leadership, parenting education, discipline, and organizational development. Practiced in 88 countries around the world, the books and workshops by Dr. Jane Nelsen and Lynn Lott, MFT promote self-discipline: doing the right thing when no one is watching, forcing, or bribing, and in the face of opposition. Using kindness and firmness together, and encouragement for both children and adults, PD tools invite the intrinsic motivation to develop characteristics and life skills long term to create relationships of mutual respect. Positive Discipline aligns with Dimensions’ approach of self-directed learning and the development of mastery, autonomy, and purpose.
Element Education, along with twenty schools worldwide in the 21-22 school year, has again been selected to pilot the Positive Discipline Lab School project. PD Lab Schools are recognized for their commitment to broadly implement Positive Discipline. Lab school teachers and staff receive ongoing training in PD and work closely with a Positive Discipline Certified Trainer or Lead Trainer to support program development. Positive Discipline experiential activities for students are used to model and teach social-emotional and academic competencies, and the PD Class Meeting model engages students through integrated practice to solve real-life problems.
Dimensions Collaborative School regularly hosts complimentary Positive Parenting workshops so parents can also learn and use the model in the home learning environment.
