We aim to nurture confident readers and writers who display independence, flexibility, and critical thinking in all their encounters with text and media, as well as in the communicative challenges with which they are faced.

Young people are faced with an increasingly complex world that demands skills in critically evaluating information, communicating in diverse ways, and sensibly distilling large quantities of information.

During the Literacy Block, learners are engaged in authentic reading and writing experiences that increasingly progress in sophistication. Most of the academic time is spent actually reading and writing, within a supportive community of fellow readers and writers.

High-level instruction from very knowledgeable teachers is focused around a variety of units of study. These reading and writing units of study focus on narrative, argument, informational, and poetic genres.

We read ambitiously (2 hours a day) and learn to have deep and constructive discussions across texts. As writers, we use our studies of a variety of genres to learn that, ultimately, as a writer we can immerse ourselves in our own study of any genre, and then write into that genre, even if it is new to us. We work to develop strategies to clarify and elevate thinking (after all, good writing follows from clear thinking!), to develop opinions and provide evidence, to experiment with and ultimately internalize various craft moves, to learn to “read as a writer,” and to find our voices.

Science sparks passions and provides a platform for looking critically at evidence or looking at problems through a solution-seeking lens. 

In Long-View Science Blocks, students engage in the practices of scientists and engineers in order to develop an accurate and nuanced understanding of the natural world.

Our kids work towards developing a sophisticated skill set to help explore solutions to complex real-world problems using the engineering design process. These skills include designing complex tables with forethought on how to communicate data, applying concepts of statistics and probability to data analysis, developing models to show relationships among variables, determining if additional information is required to resolve contradictions, and producing discussion boards and lab reports to communicate their findings with others.

Our mathematicians are immersed in a multi-dimensional experience that engages them to reach toward an ideas-focused understanding of the discipline.

We create learning experiences in which curiosity, open-mindedness, flexibility, wonder, and quality thinking are intimately connected to deep knowledge of the discipline. 

Our Math Block is more of an experience than a class. It is rich and multi-dimensional. There are multiple goals at any one time and the content isn’t explored in a strict, linear trajectory. We don’t follow the script of many math classrooms in which we introduce something, practice it in class and through homework, then move onto the next thing the next day. That traditional math-class pattern seems to us to be more about filling time and covering content than providing an experience that will transform thinking.

When you walk into a Long-View Math Block, you’ll see kids involved in sophisticated discourse. You’ll see them evolving their understanding of mathematical concepts through carefully moderated discussions. And you’ll see kids working in partnerships at whiteboards constructing algorithms. You’ll hear them make conjectures, reason, provide proof, make critical observations of the work of their peers, and productively argue as they make sense of the math before them.

At the center of Long-View math is our Generative Framework for the construction of arithmetic concepts — it is applicable to all number forms and removes the need for instruction focused merely on discrete procedures, a mainstay of American schools. The Generative Framework means children are not restricted to only learning “grade-level-based school mathematics;” they experience math as a connected discipline and reasoning is unleashed.

We want our kids to be creators —and not consumers— of technology.

We believe that Computer Science is a crucial literacy and that, from a young age, children should be taught to understand code and create code for themselves.

Computer Science prepares kids for something we know will be required in nearly every profession they may one day choose: the ability to look at problems or systems in a way that considers how computers could be used to help solve or model the problem.

Our curriculum focuses on computational thinking, with Python as the core language of focus because it is approachable, portable, and expressive. Our more experienced learners pause on Python at intervals in order to develop knowledge of web development (CSS, HTML, and JavaScript), Jupyter Notebooks, and data science.