Saved Schools

Chautauqua Charter School

Chautauqua Charter School, nominated by Center on Reinventing Public Education, is a high school in Panama City, Florida that describes itself as a public charter school serving learners from a primarily urban/suburban/rural area.

View Website

Location Panama City, Florida

Governance Public charter school

Grades High

Students 52

Locale suburban

Founder/Director/Teacher/para Cynthia McCauley

Demographics

Percentage of students*

100%

Students with Disabilities

100%

Free/Reduced Lunch

—

English Learners

White 59%

Hispanic/Latino 14%

Black/African American 23%

2+ Races 2%

American Indian —

Asian 2%

Hawaiian National —

Why Chautauqua Charter School was nominated

The school focuses fully on students with significant exceptionalities, providing service learning and peer learning opportunities to broaden the definition of a school experience for students with disabilities. Students engage meaningfully in the community and take international trips to meet with similar peers abroad. It's an off the beaten path charter school partnered with a public high school (to staff student mentors) led by a veteran special educator Cynthia McCauley. She has also worked to rebuild the school after a category 5 storm hit the community in 2018 and threw many students and families into disarray and poverty. https://www.emeraldcoastmagazine.com/the-chautauqua-school/

Student experience design

Substantive, inclusive service-learning projects completed on every continent on Earth and designed to empower the natural allies of those with disabilities--the elderly, the marginalized, the poor, and other disabled, advance the most significant learning priority--self-determination. Self-determination requires an individual to know: I am competent, I belong, and I am in charge of me! Joining the gifted and disabled in world-changing service-learning does just that.

Core Practices

Core Practices Length of Use

All Courses Designed For Inclusion
5+ years

1:1 Mentoring
5+ years

Social Justice Focus
5+ years

Students Develop Projects
5+ years

All Practices

Adaptive Learning Software

Advancement On Mastery

Student Advisories

AI For Learning Materials

AI For Teacher Productivity

AI-assisted Tutoring

Assessments For Agency And Self-directed Learning

Bilingual Assessments

Assessments For Career Readiness

Assessments For Deeper Learning

Assessments For Social-emotional Skills

Blended Learning

Career Prep And Work-based Learning

Co-leadership

Community And Business Partnerships

Competency/mastery-based Education

Competency Framework

Disaggregated Data On Student Participation

Dual Language Programming

Early College High School

Extended Learning Opportunities

Extended Learning Time

Flexible Staffing & Alternative Teaching Roles

Grading Policies Focus On Mastery

Hiring For Equity And Inclusion Values

Students Earn Industry Credentials

Interdisciplinary

Interoperable Data From Multiple Technologies

Individual Learner Profiles

Individual Learning Paths

Multi-tiered System Of Support (MTSS) In Academics

No Tracked Classes

Multiple Opportunities To Demonstrate Mastery

Project-based Learning

Peer To Peer Support

Performance Based Assessment

Place-based Learning

High Quality Instructional Materials

Student-led Conferences

Students Access Their Own Data

Student-led Goal Setting

Self-paced Learning

Tutoring

Universal Design For Learning

key reasons for innovating

Increase student agency

Date Updated: April 2025

*Canopy profile data is self-reported or sourced from NCES data, then verified by school leaders.