Eagle Rock School

Eagle Rock is both a school for high school age students and a professional development center for adults, particularly educators. The school is a year-round, residential, and full-scholarship school that enrolls young people ages 15-17 from around the United States in an innovative learning program with national recognition. The Professional Development Center hosts educators from around the world who wish to study how to re-engage students in learning, keep them in school, get them graduated, and help them go on to make a difference in the world.

Location: Estes Park, CO

Highlights:

FOCAL POINTS OF THE EAGLE ROCK PROGRAM AND CURRICULUM

• Creating a community of learners
• A set of guiding principles — "8 themes + 5 expectations = 10 commitments"
• Challenging new students with a wilderness trip
• Personal growth as well as academic growth
• Service, being of "use"
• Standards-based education with high expectations
• Documentation of learning to prove mastery or proficiency
• Active, interactive, interdisciplinary, and project-based experiential learning
• Orientation toward application of learning
• Courses regarded as vehicles for learning and documenting proficiency
• No grades for courses and, therefore, no failure
• Learning in a variety of modes, including times and spaces
• Performance assessment that enhances learning

Initiatives of the Professional Development Center include hosting visiting educators from around the world; speaking at conferences; sponsoring twelve fellowships with Public Allies; offering a variety of learning opportunities to pre-student teachers, student teachers, graduate students and researchers; providing technical assistance to schools and districts; helping fellows become certified through an approved alternative licensure program; and publishing articles (in educational journals as well as the New York Times and Teacher magazine) and books about Eagle Rock.

Links:

• Eagle Rock School - http://www.eaglerockschool.org
• Eagle Rock School - Professional Development Center - http://www.eaglerockschool.org/pdc/index.aspx

Submitted by lmeier on: Thursday, August 25, 2011 - 7:21 am

Tags for this entry:
professional development, project-based learning, experiential learning, service learning, eagle rock school