Casady School Strategic Academic Plan

STRATEGIC ACADEMIC PLAN by Josh Bottomly Associate Head of School for Academics

For the past 12 years, I have taught a Senior English seminar on J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy Lord of the Rings. For three months, my students and I traipse across Middle Earth with Frodo and Sam from the Shire to Mount Doom. Notably, Joseph Campbell’s archetype of the “hero’s journey” provides the lens through which we interpret the hobbits’ quest. As Campbell points out, every hero’s journey begins with a call to a larger purpose. Frodo and Sam leave their cloistered hobbit holes in hopes to save the Shire from Sauron. That’s their why. Their transcendent purpose. The story of our new schedule and our Strategic Academic Plan begins like Frodo and Sam with a call to a common purpose. After listening to the parent, faculty, and student surveys conducted in the winter of 2016, we have spent the last 24 months in a Strategic Academic Plan focused on what we believe to be a more holistic educational approach. One of the key initiatives in this forwardthinking, outcome-driven plan includes a new daily schedule for Middle and Upper Divisions beginning in 2019-2020, along with a set of pedagogical and programmatic distinctions that will shape our future curriculum.

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CASADY MAGAZINE

Over these last two years, students, faculty, and administration have given their input into “what” a new schedule could look like. The process has been intentional from the beginning, including extensive research, and consultation with Independent School Management (ISM), a nationally-renowned organization known for its expertise in schedule research and design. As we collaborated as faculty and administration to develop this Strategic Academic Plan, our why became clear that we wanted to create a schedule where our focus could be based on: • Student Wellness • Student Engagement • Durable Learning • Community Engagement • Continuing our Mission to Develop Skills and Knowledge