Right now, the Emerald City School has an elementary school and a middle school serving grades 1 through 9. As those children mature, the school will keep adding grades. The school has about 12 to 16 students, double the number of students compared to when the school started a year ago.
Nicole Nichols, special education teacher and a Seattle-based leader in education, was recently named as the school’s Executive Director. “Emerald City School is a learning community that provides a safe and nurturing environment,” she said. “Research-based and results-based interventions and curriculum are carefully selected for students based on learning profiles and responses from each student.”
Ken Woolcott notes that Education is highly subjective and highly fashionable things come and go. “I’m very dedicated to an evidence-based, research-based method of developing curriculum to students with learning challenges,” he said. “Our philosophy is not based on fads or magic bullets. Emerald City School offers students a research-driven, evidence-based curriculum.”
Much of the school’s Learning philosophy is based on the research and findings of Marshall H. Raskind, Ph.D., who is the school’s Director of Education and Research and is widely recognized as an expert on learning disabilities. According to Ken Woolcott, “Being a small school is one of our greatest strengths because we have developed intimate relationships among the parents, children, staff and teachers.”
Another great strength is the downtown location of the school that takes advantage of some of Seattle’s finest museums and non-profits. The school has a great relationship with the Pacific Science Center, the Space Needle Corporation and the leading-edge museum EMP.
Woolcott notes that most learning disabilities are life-long issues, which is why the school fosters a culture of self-advocacy for the kids to understand their challenges and to learn how to advocate for themselves. The school focuses on imbuing students with a love of lifelong learning and of acquiring the success attributes that they will carry with them on into adulthood.
“We’re not a tutoring center,” Woolcott points out. “We have some incredibly happy kids who can’t wait to be at school. If you want to be at school, then that’s a good start in life.”