Portland Village School takes inspiration from private Waldorf schools, but our principal model in designing the curriculum and classroom environment are the dozens of public Waldorf methods schools across the country. While the traditional private Waldorf curriculum serves as a framework, we have modified it to align with the Common Core State Standards for Oregon, as much as possible. We teach formal reading and writing earlier, and we are held to the same Oregon state testing regimen as all other public schools. We strive in the Portland Village School to ensure that these required annual tests do not intimidate or disrupt a child from their appropriate learning developmental cycle. Instead of instructing toward tests, our pedagogy puts great emphasis on ensuring that a child's learning and development holds primary influence on student performance.
It is important to understand that as a public school we cannot completely follow the strict, pure Waldorf educational philosophy as practiced at private Waldorf schools. The Portland Village School adapts a subset of the Waldorf educational philosophy, remaining as true to the ideals as practical within the public educational framework.