Mountain View High School

Mountain View utilizes a collaborative support structure for freshmen called Freshman Academic Success Teams. FASTeams are made up of three or four teachers from different content areas and teams of between 90 and 120 students. These students engage in interdisciplinary learning during a three or four hour instructional block during which teachers utilize flexible grouping, project-based inquiry, and cross-curriculum instruction. The result is real-world, rigorous, and personalized learning experience for each student.

FASTeam FAQ

Philosophy

High school can be a space of curiosity, challenge, and individual growth for students of all ability levels. 

    In FASTeams, students and teachers

• CO-CREATE interdisciplinary learning experiences paved with lessons learned from both failures and successes

• PARTICIPATE in learning cultures focused on developing academic, social, and emotional skills

• CULTIVATE the development of the whole student, producing individuals who collaborate frequently, value opposing viewpoints, and embrace academic challenges

Team Skills

• Communicate ideas clearly and persuasively

• Collaborate with all classmates

• Critically think about different viewpoints

• Create various solutions to problems and implement plans of action

Individual Skills

• Analyze or generate questions/problems

• Devise plans to find solutions

• Implement those plans

• Reflect on, revise, and improve work

• Provide evidence of thinking

What FASTEAMs Is

• For any incoming freshman 

• Innovative, empowering, and rigorous academics

• Interdisciplinary and inquiry-based

• A flexible, interactive environment

• Teacher-facilitated deeper learning

• Grounded in student interest and choice

• Standards & skills focused

• Developing the the whole student

• Committed to applying education to real life

• Goal-centered

What FASTEAMs Is Not

• A remedial program

• Honors-only course load

• A faster path to graduation

• Learning without structure 

• Collaboration-only class work

• A  one-size-fits-all approach to learning