Murdock-Portal is an alternative school in the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD) that creates an enriched environment that engages students in a well-rounded education. Our multi-age classrooms, modified year round calendar, balanced instructional focus and strong staff creates a strong learning environment for students.

•  A purposeful grouping of students consisting of several ages.  (K/1, 2/3 and 4/5 grades) Each class is configured with a 50% ratio of each of the two grade levels.  (For example: 12 kindergarteners and 12 first graders make-up one K/1 class of 24 students.)
• Students work together by developing collaborative, mentoring, co-teaching relationships.
• Students remain with the same teacher for more than one year.
• Project based topics are planned on a two-year loop
• Students are measured against their grade level Common Core Standards.

Murdock-Portal is an Alternative Education School in Cupertino Union School District.  As a school of choice parents can investigate and choose to attend Murdock-Portal through the open enrollment and the lottery process.

What is a Village?

It is an open spaces learning environments and consists of groups of "Family Rooms" which all teachers work together and share student for instruction as appropriate. 

• Students are grouped in multi-age classes and learn in villages with a team of teachers for 2 years. 
• Students work with multiple teachers and staff. Input from various points of view can provide deep insights into the strengths, needs, and learning attributes of a child.
• Students are guided to be reflective learners and provided opportunities to be self-directed learners.
• Planning time is provided to teachers so they can meet in teams to reflect on student learning, plan lessons, and discuss intervention strategies.
• Parent/Teacher conferences take place twice a year.  At these meetings Learning Goals are developed and reviewed for each child.
• Our calendar is unique to Murdock-Portal.