at CICS West Belden
Get a glimpse of the student experience and the community-centered and learner-centered approach West Belden takes to support learners in this short video.
CICS West Belden, a K-8 charter school in Chicago’s Belmont-Cragin neighborhood, demonstrates how strong community connections enhance personalized learning. Through their Community Schools Coordinator, the school transforms parent-teacher conferences into community resource hubs while addressing student needs beyond academics. This family-driven approach—born from pandemic challenges that revealed hidden student needs—creates a foundation where students feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. Read the first post of the blog series here.
At CICS West Belden, strong family ties, community support, and a focus on the whole child make all the difference. In this post, we explore the ways in which CICS West Belden enacts the six key practices of community schools:
- Powerful student and family engagement
- Collaborative leadership and shared power and voice
- Expanded and enriched learning opportunities
- Rigorous, community-connected classroom instruction
- Culture of belonging, safety, and care
- Integrated systems of support
Discover the inspiring work happening at CICS West Belden, from their remarkable successes to the challenges they’ve overcome and their vision for continued growth.
In this post, we explore the ways in which CICS West Belden is implementing several of the seven key elements that define competency-based education. Although CICS West Belden is still on its journey toward becoming a fully competency-based school, it has established a strong learner-focused foundation that’s yielding impressive results. Dive in to discover how students at CICS West Belden are flourishing in an evolving environment that increasingly emphasizes personalized, competency-based approaches.