Ocean Studies Charter School

A Tuition Free Public Charter School

About Ocean Studies Charter School

A Free Public School with innovative goals and learning methods.

Small school atmosphere, only 72 students.

We have one teacher for every twelve students.

7 hour school day - No early-release or teacher furlough days.

No homework, all work completed at school* (details below)

Opportunities for family involvement as reading listeners, science helpers and more!

Many community partners in the marine sciences have offered to enrich our program

Please scroll down for more information & details.

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*Why is there no homework at OSCS?

OSCS students will spend at least seven hours at school each day. Six of their most productive hours will be spent in academic learning activities, one hour more than their fellow students at the local public schools. Many of the students have working parents who may not get home with their children until 5:00pm or later, and then must prepare dinner. Other students may have sports programs or martial arts, dance or gymnastics, music lessons, religious education classes filling their afternoons. The academic productivity of a student in the evening results in very little learning, does not build good study habits since the child is tired, and often results in negative family interaction when Mom or Dad has to coax the child to complete the assignment.

At OSCS, instead of nightly homework, the extra hour spend in class working on interesting curriculum material under the supervision of trained teacher more than equals the lower elementary homework struggle.

We do ask that parents have their student read for one half hour each evening, or if the child is not yet a reader, that the parent read to the child for a half hour, preferably good children's literature.

For first grade and above the children may sometimes have a long-term assignment or project they are working on that could use some effort at home. The teacher might occasionally offer a “challenge” to the students to prepare for at home, such as things to be experienced like visiting a museum or going to a play. The challenge might be learning to do something that could be taught to one of the younger students. The challenge might be a product to be submitted, such as a model, story, experiment, essay or play. It could be to help someone or something less fortunate or raise some money for a charity with your friends. These types of home-based challenges help the child to grow in skills, empathy, experiences, kindness and build character.

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