Educating For Tomorrow
The schools of the Independent Curriculum Group put students at the center of the education process. We are part of a growing movement of leading college preparatory schools that emphasize site-based, teacher-generated curriculum for advanced courses.
“My friends at other schools tend to complain about their classes. It’s not about the learning for them. It’s about getting into college. Students at Fieldston sign up for classes because they love the subject.”
A Student at Fieldston School
Students retain more knowledge, probe more deeply, and have more motivation when they are active creators rather than passive recipients of information. Students who graduate from ICG schools attend the nation’s best colleges and excel by every measure of academic achievement, including standardized tests. But each school’s curriculum reflects the passions of its faculty and students.
Read the profiles of Our Schools, which describe each with primary emphasis on its program in grades 11 and 12.
Our section for Educators tells more about the movement toward curricular independence and includes a variety of helpful documents and articles from the national media. For those looking to discuss educational issues with like-minded colleagues, we have created an ICG networking/discussion area at ning.com that includes interest groups, forums, and event announcements.
Anyone interested in further information should Contact Us. We want to hear from students, parents, and fellow educators. We are particularly interested in contact from like-minded colleagues in the public sector, with whom we look forward to working in partnership.
Contemporary brain science has revealed why student-centered education is much more meaningful than test-centered education. Educators everywhere recognize the unfortunate consequences of our national over-emphasis on teaching to the tests, and public awareness of the problem continues to increase. At the Independent Curriculum Group, we look forward to a better tomorrow for students in all our nation’s schools.
“Our classes are not so much about the transfer of knowledge, but about students constructing knowledge for themselves.”
Mark Salkind, Head of School
The Urban School of San Francisco
The Urban School of San Francisco
Center For Innovative Teaching Offers Summer Sessions
ICG members and friends are urged to check out this year’s slate of summer offerings from the Center for Innovative Teaching (CIT), sponsored by The Urban School of San Francisco, an ICG Founding School. Sessions will be hosted by the Urban School (June 18-22) and The Chapin School in New York City (August 13-17).
Hewitt Hosts Conference on Assessment
The Hewitt School in New York City will host New Directions on Assessment on Saturday, April 21 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The conference will feature educators from schools participating in ICG’s National Assessment Project devoted to assessments of critical inquiry, creative problem-solving, collaboration, oral communication. For more information about the conference, visit ICG’s conference page.
Annual Meeting Set For NAIS Conference
ICG will hold its Annual Meeting on Wednesday, February 29 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Tower, the primary hotel of the NAIS Annual Conference. The meeting will be on the third floor, Greenwood Room. Our primary agenda will be ICG’s plans for 2012-13. All teachers and administrators from member schools are invited. Guests are also welcome.