Big News on Campus
At our opening assembly for the last mod of the year, Rosanna Salcedo, Tad Lawrence and I unveiled CSW’s latest thinking and approach to the Mod System and some exciting news about programming to our students. After a lot of planning and helpful input from community members (faculty, families, and students) we are pleased to let you all know about some changes anticipated for the 2019–20 school year.
At our opening assembly for the last mod of the year, Rosanna Salcedo, Tad Lawrence and I unveiled CSW’s latest thinking and approach to the Mod System and some exciting news about programming to our students. After a lot of planning and helpful input from community members (faculty, families, and students) we are pleased to let you all know about some changes anticipated for the 2019–20 school year.
As a student-oriented, progressive school, CSW is always evolving; it is what keeps us alive and relevant. We consistently strive to meet the needs of our students and respond to the demands of the diverse, complex, and ever-changing world around us. As part of our evolution, and beginning in the 2019–2020 school year, CSW will shift from 7 five-week mods to 6 six-week mods.
Since its inception in 1973, the Mod System has been an adaptive and flexible model for our programs — a structure, or schedule format, that enables us to deliver a program that prepares our students for the rigor of college study, allows them to dig deep into current areas of interest, and invites them to explore new fields of study. Building upon this highly successful foundation, this reconfiguration — which we are calling the 6x6 model — will provide additional teaching time, allow for greater depth and focus in each course, and create dedicated, consistent time throughout the year for co-curricular programming that furthers our school’s mission in experiential learning, social justice, service opportunities, and leadership and character development.
The co-curriculum’s three program tracks — social justice, core life skills, and social emotional learning — will closely complement each student’s academic experience, which will continue to be as challenging, multi-dimensional, and personalized as it has always been. Students will still enjoy the same agency when it comes to choosing their courses and designing their schedules, and the arts will remain embedded into the curriculum, carrying the same weight as traditional academic classes. The difference is that community members will now be operating at a pace that gives course material just a bit more time and attention, while simultaneously opening up time for year-long opportunities in service-learning (to give one example).
This is a generative time for the school as we solidify our role as a pioneer and a leader in progressive education. We are pleased to take this next step forward and ensure our place in the world of progressive innovative schools that serve the students of today. In making these changes, we are explicitly addressing and committing to the mission and values we hold as vital to who we are. Big, bright news for CSW indeed.
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.