Our School

There isn't just one type of student who will do well at PoDS. Students of all abilities and backgrounds have found success with us. There are a few factors that increase the likelihood of a student doing well at PoDS: a willingness to dive into learning, work hard, and be willing to work both independently and collaboratively.

Yes! Our doors are open to any interested student. Our student demographics mirror those of the entire district, and we have students from each Stevens Point elementary school. Additionally, about 15% of our students were not attending public school in the district before this year.

We’re both! We are a public charter school and an instrumentality of the Stevens Point School District. We are overseen by both the Point of Discovery School Governance Board and the Stevens Point Area Public School Board.

Students at PoDs participate in semester-long learning expeditions, which are in-depth studies of compelling topics or themes. Learning expeditions are interdisciplinary, engage students in critical thinking as they conduct original research to create original projects, and emphasize communications, collaborations, and service.

Crew is the heart of everything we do. Crew is our version of an advisory but goes far beyond the typical logistics and housekeeping is common in most homerooms. In Crew, students focus extensively on building positive relationships with their peers and teachers, as well as being explicitly taught about the Habits of Success. Crew teachers also monitor the academic progress of their students. Learning Expeditions drive all of our instruction. These expeditions are a long-term study (10-12 weeks) of a compelling topic or theme. Expeditions begin with a kick-off event, which includes consultations with experts and fieldwork opportunities, the conducting of original research, and the culminating celebration of learning where students publicly share and reflect on their learning and growth. Students are put in charge of Student-Led Conferences. Instead of a conversation between teacher and parent(s) without the child present, the student shares their best work and openly discusses his/her successes, failures, areas of growth, and areas in need of improvement. Passage presentations allow students to show academic growth during their entire PoDs career. They document their progress and best work in their portfolios (both physical and digital), then use that work to argue that they have met all pertinent learning targets. Students regularly participate in a critique process, where they learn how to give and receive feedback. One draft is never enough at PoDs as students constantly seek to exceed personal bests and produce high-quality work beyond that which anyone expects.