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A Micro-School is a focused environment with a limited number of students. At Embark, we only have capacity for thirty 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

This small number of students allows for deep connections, personalized experiences and a profound middle school experience.

True learning occurs when students are engaged and invested.

We have built our curriculum and the entire education experience around relevant and real world experiences that engage, inspire and meet or exceed all state standards for middle school students.

These real work experiences take place within local businesses, Framework Cycles & Pinwheel Coffee.

Embark students will not only have a love of learning rekindled, they will head into High School with a deeper understanding of core knowledge and how to apply it.

We are not a school of desks and rows or traditional classrooms. We have a space that we call the “Learning Hub,” where we gather, engage, study and research, but we engage with the bulk of our learning in real world environments.

We learn about centripetal force by going out and riding our bikes through a banked turn and measuring and calculating forces. As we decide on ordering beans for the coffee shop, we sit at a table in the shop and research the regions, the way the climate affects coffee flavors and what geo-political factors exist.

Our classroom is the real world.

The vast majority of our curriculum is work that can be done as a part of our week’s schedule, thought at times a special project or area of chosen exploration may result in work outside of school hours.

We are an evidence based education environment and current research shows that in middle school, limited homework produces the best learning outcomes.

For the 2022/2023 school year we are excited to continue to be tuition free. Embark (along with Framework Cycles and Pinwheel Coffee) is currently an initiative supported by Great Work, Inc., a Denver based non-profit organization committed to strengthening education environments. The launch of Embark comes from a Foundation grant and the belief that a truly learner-centered model of education that is embedded and integrated into real world experiences provides an incredible learning experience that will put kids on a path to being life-long learners.

Future tuition will be kept as minimal as possible and proceeds from Framework and Pinwheel will supplement or ideally mitigate completely the education expenses and need for tuition.

Embark has a core team of dedicated educators and curriculum developers. Each have extensive experience, advanced degrees and Colorado teaching credentials.

Operationally, Embark is an initiative of Great Work, Inc. a Denver based non-profit organization committed to supporting education environments through teacher training, professional development and supporting learner centered education in general. Great Work, Inc. is an independent organization and not associated with any other charter school, charter management organization or national network.

Pinwheel Coffee and Framework Cycles both operate as fully staffed enterprises open to the public so that the focus for Embark students will always be on education. That said, because we use the businesses as the backbone of the education projects and real world learning, the students are deeply involved. Students do real work in the shops as they shadow and are given training that is relevant both to the shop operations and their education projects. They are also given ownership over many business decisions as a part of their studies and we plan to hire former students after they graduate Embark and are in High School to work weekend and evening shifts.

There are 30 students max with a 1:10 ration of educators to students.

30% Enterprises
20% Personalized Projects
20% Learning Hub
15% Social, Emotional, Relational
15% Off-site excursions