We understand that you might be concerned that your child is missing out on critical content and skill development during this time of remote learning. Over the spring break, our faculty worked to identify the critical content and skills to work toward at each grade level for the remainder of the school year and we are confident that our home / online learning plan will provide opportunities for students to continue approaching grade-level learning goals.
At the same, time we know that conditions for learning are not optimal and that we will need to be strategic in our work to ensure that all of our students meet their individual learning goals. Our academic leadership team is already exploring strategies that will help to address this challenge and we are confident in our ability to do this work. We know our students well and have the resources we need to adapt and differentiate our curriculum and teaching to meet needs that arise as a result of this temporary campus closure.
We, like many others in the education community, encourage you to remember the big picture and take the long view when considering the impact that temporary distance learning will have on a lifetime of learning. While learning from home is different from learning on campus, there are great opportunities for your children to continue to develop the 21st-century learning skills (creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking) that frame the CDS approach. How can your child continue to be creative, collaborate, communicate and think critically while learning from home? What routines, structures and activities can you engage in as a family that might nurture these skills? To learn more, you can read this message to families from Denise Pope at Stanford’s Challenge Success.