Research by national education experts shows that young adolescents need a smaller, more personal learning community with close relationships to teachers, other adults and their peers.

Adolescents need opportunities for enriched, hands-on learning, creative projects, inventive explorations, and to be accountable as mentors to younger children. The same experts question whether these needs can be met at the large, impersonal middle schools where students often face anonymity, bullying and repetitive textbook assignments. Consider Willow, a public and charter school alternative.

Research also shows that eighth-graders in K-8 schools have higher self-esteem and higher test scores than their middle-school counterparts, even when adjusted for socio-economic disadvantages. These eighth-graders also transition well both academically and socially to larger high schools, according to studies.

The Willow School program, a private alternative to our local public and charter schools, strives to create hands-on learning activities and opportunities that:

• build student motivation

• promote individual responsibility

• keep students enthusiastically engaged in the learning process.
   

Cross-age tutoring and parent volunteers also help to build a close community.

Our K-2 students eagerly look forward to sharing time each week with their older reading buddies or during one of our weekly “all school get togethers”. By having regular student interaction across the grade levels the incidence of teasing and bullying is dramatically reduced.

We all want our children to be in a safe, loving, supportive and dynamic school environment when we drop them off in the mornings – to know that they will academically challenged while supported as human beings.

At The Willow School, we strive to meet the needs of our students both young and adolescent by providing an enriched and stimulating educational environment for academic excellence and social well-being. Consider enrolling your child at Willow, an excellent alternative to public and charter schools.

There is a growing recognition that in order to educate children for an unknown future in the 21st century, we cannot simply dictate curriculum and “content” such as what math, language, and science skills children need to know or memorize.

We must address and teach children other kinds of skills: thinking, analyzing and communication.

People work in jobs today that simply did not exist five years ago. In order to prepare our students to meet these future demands and needs, it is imperative that they learn how to live and adapt in a global workplace.

One of the driving forces behind adding the 21st century skills to today’s education are colleges and universities who find that incoming students are not able to communicate articulately, analyze and synthesize data and information. Part of this can be attributed to the emphasis on high stakes testing which rewards rote learning and memorization instead of encouraging creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. Colleges often have to provide remedial courses for students in order to help them learn these skills.

Willow decided our students needed these skills incorporated into the curriculum. As a result, our graduates excel in high school and the competitive colleges in which they have been admitted.

Willow incorporates the list below into the school’s curriculum. It comes from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a non-profit organization advocating for the integration of these skills in education.

These skills include:

• Civic, Health & Environmental Literacy

• Creativity

• Critical Thinking

• Collaboration

• Communication

• Global Awareness

• Information, Media and Technology Skills

• Initiative & Self Direction

• Leadership & Responsibility

• Problem Solving

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