Welcome to Branciforte

About Us

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Welcome to Branciforte Middle School in Santa Cruz, California. We recently proudly celebrated Branciforte’s 65th year of student and staff excellence. A comprehensive middle school serving 465 students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, Branciforte is a learning community that provides an academic and extra curricular program that promotes the success of all students.

 

We believe middle school is a big step that deserves a warm welcome.
 

Mission Statement

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B40 is a creative and stimulating learning community built on a foundation of respect and integrity, where individuals are safe, known well, and cared for, where everyone contributes and values the contributions of others, where everyone learns every day, and where scholarship leads to academic excellence.​

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Student Learning Outcomes

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High School Students and Staff will be:

• Effective Communicators Who:

  • Communicate and interpret information in a variety of ways: verbally, visually, artistically, and technologically

  • Actively listen and effectively speak, read, and write

• Complex Creative Thinkers and Problem Solvers Who:

  • Identify, diagnose, and use appropriate complex reasoning processes such as comparison, classification, induction, deduction, analysis, investigation, experimentation, and invention

  • Access, select, and evaluate information from a variety of sources

  • Form conclusions based upon relevant data

  • Connect ideas across the curricular areas to accomplish meaningful tasks

  • Understand essential concepts, facts, and procedures taught in each course

• Knowledgeable Self-Directed Learners Who:

  • Demonstrate initiative, self-advocacy, self-discipline, and self-evaluation

  • Discover, develop, and pursue individual passion

  • Create and use an education plan to move purposefully toward personal and career goals

  • Develop positive attitudes about the strategies that promote physical and mental health

  • Appreciate the relationships between personal accomplishments and a sense of self-esteem

  • Apply subject matter knowledge and skills

  • Apply knowledge and skills to every day experiences as well as real world situations

  • Make responsible choices

• Responsible and Active Citizens Who:

  • Demonstrate knowledge of diverse cultures, languages, and genders that fosters tolerance for individual differences

  • Confront significant ideas and issues of the day

  • Understand the global interrelationships of political, environmental, and economic decisions and their effects on the individual

  • Use appropriate interpersonal skills when working within groups or systems

  • Engage in ethical decision-making and assume responsibility for their actions

  • Display skills to join the workforce and/or to attend college