Strategic Plan
Igniting Innovation in Learning
The Spark
Parker fosters critical thinking and powerful communication through rigorous and imaginative learning experiences that are deeply connected to life beyond the classroom. Progressive education at Parker is rooted in intellectual challenge, experimentation, social justice, and the belief that schools exist to prepare young leaders to engage in a democratic society. That belief asks us to design pragmatic, experiential learning organized around real questions, real challenges, and ideas that cross disciplines. It also requires us to use emerging technologies with intention, building fluency, ethical judgment, and agency through meaningful, collaborative engagement.
The Catalysts
List of 6 items.
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Define and Refine Parker’s Progressive Philosophy and Practice
- Build a shared language and framework that clearly articulates what Progressive education means at Parker, how it manifests in classrooms, and why it matters for students.
- Create a Portrait of a Parker Learner and a Living Playbook for Progressive Education to translate Parker’s values into consistent, actionable practice across the school.
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Connect the Curriculum
- Design courses and learning experiences that combine traditionally siloed subjects in recognition that life is not organized by subject, but by problems, possibilities, and people.
- Optimize opportunities to apply classroom learning to real-world situations.
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Spotlight Skill Development
- Determine the skills that matter for each discipline in each grade.
- Create a JK–12 scope and sequence of skills to vertically align what students learn, practice, and develop over time. Increase transparency regarding our educational processes.
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Meet the Digital Moment
- Establish a JK–12 Ethical AI, Digital Citizenship, and Media Literacy curriculum.
- Support faculty learning to keep Parker at the forefront of technological education.
- Infuse digital-age learning experiences with humanistic values and social responsibility.
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Create Signature Experiences
- Feature interactive experiences in every division that celebrate each student’s unique educational journey.
- Incorporate specialty programs, like capstones, seminars, action-based portfolios, and shared exhibitions to ensure that students develop and communicate their own points of view.
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Amplify Faculty and Student Leadership
- Invest in the leadership capacity of Parker’s faculty and students by generating opportunities for them to share learning, practices, and expertise with students and educators within and beyond the school.
Why Light This Fire Now?
Parker students will be called upon to solve problems we cannot yet imagine. The adaptive thinkers and ethical leaders of tomorrow will need to learn how to blend humanistic inquiry with technological fl uency today. To ensure Parker students are “future-ready” now, we will strengthen our academic program by leaning into our Progressive education roots, building bridges between disciplines, expanding opportunities for student leadership, and elevating the skills and mindsets that life demands.
Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.