ABOUT CPLC COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
HISTORY
CPLC Community Schools is a non-profit charter holder for Envision High School and Toltecalli High School. We are an affiliate of Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc., a statewide non-profit Community Development Corporation. CPLC is a progressive community-based organization that is recognized locally, nationally, and internationally as a model for unified human and economic development. CPLC, as the parent advocacy organization of CPLC Community Schools, builds proactive alliances, unifies borders, and empowers the community.
In 1995, CPLC's Executive Vice President, Lorraine Lee, had a vision of creating a high school to advance the organization's educational goal of increasing educational achievement and graduation rates, developing leadership, promoting civic participation, and encouraging college entrance and graduation among Latino youth. An education model was developed to integrate cultural knowledge and community service into the core curriculum in order to advance CPLC Community Schools' goal. Chicanos Por La Causa operates two high schools serving the Tucson area: Toltecalli High School and Envision High School. In 2021, CPLC added GLAAZ to its network. Founded in 2011 and located in midtown Phoenix, GLAAZ is Arizona’s first single-gender charter high school. GLAAZ empowers young women to succeed as leaders in their classrooms, in their communities, and in their own lives.
VISION
To grow the future leaders of our community.
MISSION
We are an alternative school, committed to serving graduate leaders responsible for their community who are academically prepared, empowered to make informed decisions, and confident in their ability to succeed.
PHILOSOPHY
At CPLC Community Schools, we believe in a curriculum of community focused education consisting of six unique elements:
Recognition and use of languages commonly spoken in the local community to provide a better context for instruction.
Curriculum that stresses the importance of cultural context in learning and celebrates the fundamental beliefs of the community.
Knowledge, understanding, and use of social norms and political values that are important to the community.
Teaching strategies that contextualize learning from the perspective of the students and take their unique experiences into account.
Strong community participation in educating students, planning events, and making decisions regarding the operations of schools.
A strong desire of all stakeholders to improve the outcomes of the community through problem solving and action research.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
At Chicanos Por La Cause Community Schools, we believe that an effective education doesn’t just come from memorizing or lecturing. Active participation in the learning process entails analyzing, discussing and collaborating - in order to comprehend and retain. All of our courses are designed to encourage deep mental processing and student engagement with the class material.
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We believe that every student learns in their own way, and we try our best to design the class based on the needs of each student to further connect the coursework to real life. Individual help is also provided to ensure every student understands the class material. To better prepare our students for their future life out of school, we offer individualized advising service to students in their senior year to discuss potential college or career opportunities.