Common Ground is the nation's longest-running environmental charter high school, embedded within a community organization that also operates an urban farm and environmental education center. Our goal is to grow a new, more inclusive generation of powerful leaders and successful college students, ready for meaningful careers and healthy, just, purposeful lives.
We use three sites as laboratories for learning: The city of New Haven, West Rock State Park, and our urban farm. Our 20-acre site is home to beautiful science labs, art facilities, and classrooms, as well as rich outdoor learning opportunities.
Common Ground students come from across New Haven and from more than a dozen surrounding towns, and are mixed across racial, economic, gender, linguistic, sexuality and cultural differences.
Because Common Ground is a small school, every student is known well and challenged as an individual. Challenging academic classes push students to investigate and build new skills. All students work with an advisor from 9th grade through graduation, and beyond. The result: Common Ground students graduate high school and go on to college at rates far above the state average.
The environment and social justice are the heart of our curriculum. An integrated 9th grade core curriculum allows students to explore their identities, our place, and how they fit. In 10th grade, students study the City of New Haven, with a focus on our community's stories, justice, power, and health. In 11th and 12th grade, students experience a range of elective courses and opportunities for dual enrollment, alongside strong core academic courses, junior seminar, and a Senior Social Justice Experience course.
Experiences outside the school building extend academic learning. Students take on paid green jobs, enroll in courses at local colleges, and explore their passions through three dozen after-school programs.
