Many of the senior citizens who come to eat at the restaurant stay onto help in the day-care program or tutor students with special needs. Assessment includes some standardized testing, but is done primarily through portfolios of student work, projects, exhibits and demonstrations, dramatic productions, videotaped interviews, and learning logs. The data from these assessments are continually used to improve instructional practices. Because of the age-span of individuals participating in the center's operation, there is little problem with discipline. Motivation is high as students recognize that they are part of a dynamic group in which individuals of all ages are continuing to learn.
All students are responsible for keeping the learning environment clean and attractive.
This community learning center has been created by a collaborative group of representatives from all the stakeholder groups, including teachers, school administrators, students, parents, business people, social service professionals, and members of the community at large. This group also has responsibility for the management, supervision, and evaluation of the center, using Total Quality management principles. An effective feedback system guarantees that the results of the evaluation continually affect the planning and operation of the center. The students who attend this center know how to use their strengths is productive ways, are motivated to learn, and take responsibility for their own learning. They move on to become lifelong learners who have open, flexible minds, know how to work both independently and cooperatively, know how to access and process information, understand how to apply what they have learned ethically and responsibly, and have the skills to learn and unlearn and relearn in this time of increasingly rapid change.