8y
I appreciate you sharing this feedback and giving me an opportunity to weigh-in. You’ve hit on something that I think is really important for people considering working at AF or families considering applying to one of our schools. So first, I’ll cut to the case: we do expect academic engagement during 100% of the instructional day. It’s actually a core belief that we hold: every child should maximize every moment of learning time. Ultimately, that doesn’t mean hands-folded – and certainly doesn’t mean silent (though it does mean not calling out or talking out of turn). In fact, one of the things that we evaluate our teachers on is how much they’re ensuring the kids are doing the “heavy lifting” and whether the majority of their time is spent either in discussion (partner, small group, or whole group) or through written expression of ideas. But there’s no question that we strive for 100% of kids to be engaged, on-task, and learning – and no question that it’s really hard. It takes a lot of focus and skill from our teachers and a lot of effort and hard work for our kids. We support our kids with community time (during meals), recess, and more-physical pursuits and outlets like dance, phys-ed, choir, etc. We’re also on a multi-year journey as a network to more deeply motivate our kids and tap into their own powerful drive. It doesn’t mean that it’s not challenging – for adults AND kids - to hold such a high bar and truly treat learning time as sacred. In that spirit, I thank you for speaking to your experience and highlighting this challenge. We truly want every family or candidate to know what we expect.
-Joey Roane, Director of School Culture
