We are delighted to announce that Saint Hilary School has been selected as a partner school in the Challenge Success Program at Stanford University for the 2010-2011 school year. It is an honor to be selected and this is an incredible opportunity for our entire school community.
Challenge Success is a coordinated program that helps schools, parents, and students develop models of success that align with what is known about children’s needs. The program was founded by Dr. Madeline Levine, a psychologist with over 25 years experience, Dr. Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education, and Jim Lodbell, an educational consultant with expertise in curriculum design and parent education.
This summer, the program parameters for our school will be carefully defined and crafted to maximize the benefits of our community participation. What we can tell you now is that starting in October, key stakeholders from our school, including administration, teachers, parents and students, will begin meeting with interdisciplinary experts from Stanford University who will visit our campus and classrooms to provide insights that will help us all grow and learn.
We are a professional learning community and as such, we will all benefit from this experience. Our teachers will be exposed to high-quality professional development opportunities providing them the latest and best practices for teaching for engagement (the key to real learning); our curriculum will be evaluated to make sure our students are getting the most out of their valuable hours on campus; our homework policies will be examined to make sure we’re “making homework work.” What is the purpose of homework? How much is too much? And our parents will be exposed to child-centered research that will support their children’s healthy emotional development.
Please visit the Challenge Success website at www.challengesuccess.org to learn more about this exciting opportunity for our school. Together, we will explore the healthiest and most effective strategies to increase our children/ student’s well-being, engagement, and integrity.
Note: If you’re looking for some summer reading in anticipation of this year long exercise, please pick up a copy of Madeline Levine’s book The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage are Creating a Generation of Materialistic and Unhappy Kids, or Denise Pope’s book “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students. We’re growing, we’re learning, and we’re striving to be the most effective child-centered academic community we can be. Please join us!
Challenge Success
