IC Community School

A Progressive Spanish Immersion School

IC Community is a new independent Spanish-bilingual school in Oakland with an innovative approach to education that will grow to be an intimate preK-8th grade community. At the heart of our school is our belief that all children are creative, intelligent, contributing members of our society who are curious and motivated to learn.

Inquiry-Driven, Child-Inspired & Arts-Based

Our school year is divided into broad inquiry themes that students will wrestle with and consider from different perspectives each year. We believe that children learn best when they are actively engaged in challenging projects that take as inspiration their interests, questions and curiosity about each inquiry theme.

As a Reggio-inspired school, our students will learn to collaborate with their peers to co-construct new theories and ideas as they negotiate each inquiry project. In addition to learning to engage in meaningful conversations, we believe that becoming adept at using a broad spectrum of symbolic languagues - such as drawing, writing, drama, sculpture or dance - supports our children in expressing their ideas, uncovering new perspectives and collaborating with others.

Honoring Community, Culture and Identity

We believe that children deserve to learn in a school community that supports the identity of each child and provides a safe place for all children to explore the rich and multifaceted histories and cultures within our larger community in an honest and sensitive manner. Our school will be intentionally small with the mission that each child feels seen and supported by the entire community. Our school offers extensive tuition assistance and work-exchange options to make our independent school accessible to the diverse spectrum of families in the Oakland area.

Our Purpose

To reimagine education for our rapidly changing society that urgently needs citizens who can think critically, collaborate creatively and work across cultural, racial and linguistic differences.

Our Mission

We want to redefine the concept of educational success. Instead of comparing our children against standards, we want to cultivate creative individuals. Instead of focusing on academic knowledge, we want to foster the development of the fundamental mental abilities that make learning, imagining and living in community possible. And within the process of this paradigm shift, we want to take a flying leap over our nation's achievement gap (in part a result of the system's obsession with standardization) and leave it completely behind as we create a school in which our Latino and African-American students feel seen, supported and reflected in every aspect of our school community.