What is the price for tuition?
Tuition for the 2024-2025 school year will be $1000 per month for ten months. Founding families will receive a lifetime 10% discount. There is an annual enrollment/supply fee of $300. Sibling discounts apply. Tuition may be adjusted for inflation annually.
How do I know my child is ready for a learner-driven environment like Acton Academy?
Here are some of the things that will likely indicate if our learning environment may be a good fit for your child.
SPARK Studio (ages 4-7)
Here are some of the things that will indicate that your child is ready for the next studio.
DISCOVERY Studio (ages 7-11)
SPARK Studio (ages 4-7)
- Exhibits a positive attitude about learning in general
- Participates willingly in classroom activities
- Follows simple oral directions
- Actively engages in his/her own learning and is generally curious
- Displays the following social and emotional skills most of the time
- Makes friends and plays cooperatively
- Manages strong feelings like frustration and disappointment without becoming aggressive or withdrawn
- Separates from parent without distress
- Engages in an activity for at least 15 minutes
- Possesses basic communication skills
- Is physically self-reliant
- Is able to care for studio materials and contribute to cleaning the physical space
Here are some of the things that will indicate that your child is ready for the next studio.
DISCOVERY Studio (ages 7-11)
- Follows basic written and oral instructions
- Can set, remember, and pursue a goal for 30 minutes or more without being distracted
- Able to participate in a 15-minute discussion with peers and follows rules of engagement
- Reads simple books
- Can write a simple letter
- Plays well independently and with others and respects others' space and goals
- Expresses oneself calmly and safely and resolves conflicts with others
- Cleans up independently (cares for oneself and the environment)
- Can operate a laptop
Is there a trial period to assess if Masterpiece is a good fit for my child and family?
Yes. We realize it takes time for learners to acclimate to our model. The first session (usually 6 weeks) is considered a trial period. By the end, you and I will have a good sense if our school is the right fit for your family and child.
Is there an attendance policy?
No.
Will there be assigned homework?
No, but learners may choose to take work home. We do not assign homework because we believe there are many skills and lessons children can learn outside of school, and we want you to have the time you need to be the family you have always wanted to be. We believe time spent bonding as a family, pursuing individual interests, hobbies and passions, and serving the community is more valuable than time spent doing assigned homework.
Will my child learn history? PE? Art? Music?
History (known to our learners as "Civilization"), physical development, and art will be a part of the weekly schedule starting in Discovery Studio. If you're looking for a program with a large, extensive in-school sports program, language-immersion, band/or orchestra program, we are likely not a good fit for your family.
What are your class sizes and student-to-teacher ratios?
Maria Montessori said, “We consider that in its best condition, the class should have between 28-35 children, but there may be even more in number.” In our first years, we are intentionally keeping enrollment low. Eventually, we will grow up to 35 learners per studio with an approximate Guide to learner ratio of 18:1. In conventional schools, smaller class sizes are generally associated with more positive learning outcomes. However, at an Acton Academy, which incorporates many of Maria Montessori's philosophy, bigger (within reason) is better. Why?
In a traditional classroom, teachers are transmitting uniform knowledge to all children. The teacher is in charge of correcting the students' work and spends a significant amount of time managing the classroom, providing motivation and validation, mediating conflicts, and so on. Hence, a low teacher to student ratio is ideal.
At Acton, teachers are Guides who hold guardrails; offer real-world challenges, encouragement, and choices; and hand over leadership of the studio to the learners. This blog explains it nicely: "Too many adults in the room leads children to look to their teachers too much for guidance—when they could help themselves or learn from their peers. Also, teachers with too small a group of children may be tempted to teach too much—and become more like a traditional teacher, rather than the Guide we want them to be."
In a traditional classroom, teachers are transmitting uniform knowledge to all children. The teacher is in charge of correcting the students' work and spends a significant amount of time managing the classroom, providing motivation and validation, mediating conflicts, and so on. Hence, a low teacher to student ratio is ideal.
At Acton, teachers are Guides who hold guardrails; offer real-world challenges, encouragement, and choices; and hand over leadership of the studio to the learners. This blog explains it nicely: "Too many adults in the room leads children to look to their teachers too much for guidance—when they could help themselves or learn from their peers. Also, teachers with too small a group of children may be tempted to teach too much—and become more like a traditional teacher, rather than the Guide we want them to be."
No teachers? How does that work?
A common misconception is that there are no teachers at Acton Academy. That’s not true. At Acton Academy, the teacher-to-learner ratio is nearly infinite, because our learners have access to subject matter experts from all over the world — from Sal Khan to Richard Feynman to an unknown genius on a YouTube video — plus Socratic coaching from Guides; mentors from scores of professions; and heroic role models from antiquity to the present. We equip learners to engage teachers, coaches, experts, and mentors whenever they need one.
What do Guides do?
1. Guides lift the eyes of learners to the horizon.
Guides believe each learner is a genius who deserves to find a calling that will change the world. Guides inspire learners by offering a Hero’s Journey through life, beginning with the end in mind, and to discover precious gifts and use them in a joyful way to serve others as they build a strong community.
2. Guides are gamemakers who provide challenges, frameworks, processes, tools, milestones, and world-class examples.
Guide’s offer real-world challenges that resonate with young heroes. A Guide is a gamemaker who describes an exciting Quest; sets incentives and rules; and invites learners to play.
3. Guides hold up a mirror of accountability.
Guides sets boundaries and encourage learners to create covenants to govern the studio and then allow learners to learn from mistakes. Guides insist on due process, and if the studio isn’t living up to its promises, hold up a mirror so the learners can enforce or amend their covenants.
4. Guides shepherd the energy of the learning community.
Guides feed and nurture learner-driven communities through the rhythms, rituals, and reflections that build a healthy community. Guides propose intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for individuals, squads, and the Studio to boost intentionality and energy. Guides praise process, not results.
5. Guides hand over responsibilities to the learners.
A Guide’s role is to document and simplify processes so learners can lead the studio. Guides celebrate as learners take on more and more of a Guide’s responsibilities and become servant leaders in the studio.
What do Guides NOT do?
1. Guides do not act as parents.
Guides do not nag or try to force learners to work. Instead, Guides trust parents to parent. Guides never offer parenting advice.
2. Guides do not offer insights about individual learners.
Many parents wish a trusted adult to ensure them their child is “above average.” We believe it is impossible for one adult to make accurate insights into the thinking and motivation of dozens of young people.
3. Guides do not grade, lecture, or directly answer questions.
Guides adhere to the Socratic method so children learn to think deeply and critically. This means Guides answer questions with a question.
Guides believe each learner is a genius who deserves to find a calling that will change the world. Guides inspire learners by offering a Hero’s Journey through life, beginning with the end in mind, and to discover precious gifts and use them in a joyful way to serve others as they build a strong community.
2. Guides are gamemakers who provide challenges, frameworks, processes, tools, milestones, and world-class examples.
Guide’s offer real-world challenges that resonate with young heroes. A Guide is a gamemaker who describes an exciting Quest; sets incentives and rules; and invites learners to play.
3. Guides hold up a mirror of accountability.
Guides sets boundaries and encourage learners to create covenants to govern the studio and then allow learners to learn from mistakes. Guides insist on due process, and if the studio isn’t living up to its promises, hold up a mirror so the learners can enforce or amend their covenants.
4. Guides shepherd the energy of the learning community.
Guides feed and nurture learner-driven communities through the rhythms, rituals, and reflections that build a healthy community. Guides propose intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for individuals, squads, and the Studio to boost intentionality and energy. Guides praise process, not results.
5. Guides hand over responsibilities to the learners.
A Guide’s role is to document and simplify processes so learners can lead the studio. Guides celebrate as learners take on more and more of a Guide’s responsibilities and become servant leaders in the studio.
What do Guides NOT do?
1. Guides do not act as parents.
Guides do not nag or try to force learners to work. Instead, Guides trust parents to parent. Guides never offer parenting advice.
2. Guides do not offer insights about individual learners.
Many parents wish a trusted adult to ensure them their child is “above average.” We believe it is impossible for one adult to make accurate insights into the thinking and motivation of dozens of young people.
3. Guides do not grade, lecture, or directly answer questions.
Guides adhere to the Socratic method so children learn to think deeply and critically. This means Guides answer questions with a question.
How do you ensure excellence if Guides don't grade?
First, excellence at Acton is not defined as an "A" by an adult. It's defined as incremental improvement (getting better one step at a time) in one's Hero's Journey. It's hard to see the improvement day by day – only when you step back over six months or so do you see the exponential impact of “excellence” being “better than last time” and coming from within, not from an adult teacher. And yes, we arm learners with every motivational tool in the box.
We trust the learners to judge excellence based on answers to the following questions:
1. If this is the first time: "Is this my best work?"
2. If attempted before: "How is this better than last time?"
3. As work quality plateaus or soars, "How does my work compare to a world-class example?"
4. Finally, "Have I won a contest or been approved for a public exhibition?"
Our observation is there is always progress when learners ask themselves constantly, "Is it my best work?" and "How did I improve from last time?" When in addition, they get feedback from peers (and not controlling adults), they progress even more. This process allows the love of learning to flourish as learners do not feel intimidated or ashamed. There is a large body of research which shows that children are able to accurately evaluate each other's work (as accurately as a teacher) and are more motivated to implement feedback given by peers (vs adults).
Second, transparency. Every piece of work done by a learner can be seen by the entire Studio. Such transparency in itself can be a powerful motivator.
Third, Badge audits. Starting in Discovery Studio, learners earn a Badge after they complete a series of learning challenges that demonstrate mastery in something (similar to badges earned at Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America). Badges are signed off by peers. Every session, a confidential survey asks “Who should be audited?” Those selected by peers plus a handful of learners selected at random are audited by an Audit Committee. If a Badge is rejected by the Audit Committee, both the learner and the peer who approved the Badge lose a Badge, and a deeper audit of Badges with both parties begins.
We trust the learners to judge excellence based on answers to the following questions:
1. If this is the first time: "Is this my best work?"
2. If attempted before: "How is this better than last time?"
3. As work quality plateaus or soars, "How does my work compare to a world-class example?"
4. Finally, "Have I won a contest or been approved for a public exhibition?"
Our observation is there is always progress when learners ask themselves constantly, "Is it my best work?" and "How did I improve from last time?" When in addition, they get feedback from peers (and not controlling adults), they progress even more. This process allows the love of learning to flourish as learners do not feel intimidated or ashamed. There is a large body of research which shows that children are able to accurately evaluate each other's work (as accurately as a teacher) and are more motivated to implement feedback given by peers (vs adults).
Second, transparency. Every piece of work done by a learner can be seen by the entire Studio. Such transparency in itself can be a powerful motivator.
Third, Badge audits. Starting in Discovery Studio, learners earn a Badge after they complete a series of learning challenges that demonstrate mastery in something (similar to badges earned at Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America). Badges are signed off by peers. Every session, a confidential survey asks “Who should be audited?” Those selected by peers plus a handful of learners selected at random are audited by an Audit Committee. If a Badge is rejected by the Audit Committee, both the learner and the peer who approved the Badge lose a Badge, and a deeper audit of Badges with both parties begins.
What systems are in place to ensure learners get a well-rounded academic experience?
You may wonder what happens when a learner chooses to focus on one area that they really love to the detriment of other areas. We believe deep, transformative learning tends to be uneven. It's rarely a smooth progression across all areas the same pace. So as an Acton parent, you will most certainly face some unnerving moments in the journey. That said, several things are embedded in our learning design to encourage learners to (eventually) pursue a well-rounded skill set.
1. Required milestones: Moving along the journey requires work in all Core Skills areas (reading, writing, math). Learners "level up" to the next studio only after they have have completed all the requirements of a particular Studio (i.e., all the checklists in Spark and all the required Badges in upper studios).
2. Schedule: Focused work sprints may be inserted into the daily schedule from time to time such as DEAR Time (Drop Everything and Read) or Math Power Hour (everyone works on math goals for 1 hour).
3. Frameworks: Learners are equipped with frameworks like Growth Mindset and Positive Intelligence to help them face and work through the discomfort they may feel when trying to master a new skill that they might otherwise avoid.
4. Integrative Quests: Often, the motivation for acquiring new skills can come from the desire to tackle learning challenges presented in a Quest format. Quests are four-to-six week series of challenges bound by a compelling narrative and designed to deliver 21st century skills. Quests start in Discovery Studio and initially focus on broad explorations of the world. We dive deeper and add rigor in upper studios. Quest is an exciting opportunity for learners to utilize the Core Skills they are mastering to solve real-world problems and bring new ideas to life! For example, in the Detective Quest, learners work through a series of hands-on crime simulations where they apply forensics and biology to solve crimes. The detectives-in-training are tested in a final crime-scene simulation at the end of the Quest.
5. Parenting decisions: It's certainly your prerogative as a parent to set boundaries to help motivate your learner to focus on areas they may be avoiding, and we fully support you in this!
1. Required milestones: Moving along the journey requires work in all Core Skills areas (reading, writing, math). Learners "level up" to the next studio only after they have have completed all the requirements of a particular Studio (i.e., all the checklists in Spark and all the required Badges in upper studios).
2. Schedule: Focused work sprints may be inserted into the daily schedule from time to time such as DEAR Time (Drop Everything and Read) or Math Power Hour (everyone works on math goals for 1 hour).
3. Frameworks: Learners are equipped with frameworks like Growth Mindset and Positive Intelligence to help them face and work through the discomfort they may feel when trying to master a new skill that they might otherwise avoid.
4. Integrative Quests: Often, the motivation for acquiring new skills can come from the desire to tackle learning challenges presented in a Quest format. Quests are four-to-six week series of challenges bound by a compelling narrative and designed to deliver 21st century skills. Quests start in Discovery Studio and initially focus on broad explorations of the world. We dive deeper and add rigor in upper studios. Quest is an exciting opportunity for learners to utilize the Core Skills they are mastering to solve real-world problems and bring new ideas to life! For example, in the Detective Quest, learners work through a series of hands-on crime simulations where they apply forensics and biology to solve crimes. The detectives-in-training are tested in a final crime-scene simulation at the end of the Quest.
5. Parenting decisions: It's certainly your prerogative as a parent to set boundaries to help motivate your learner to focus on areas they may be avoiding, and we fully support you in this!
What happens if my child appears to be "behind" according to traditional school's standards?
The short answer is, nothing. At Masterpiece, learners are free to pursue mastery at their own pace (with support and encouragement from parents and peers, of course). This can be unnerving for some parents who want to see a smooth, even progress. Now for the longer answer:
First, as a parent, it is your right and responsibility to decide how best to support your learner - this may look like boundaries or incentives for meeting (or not meeting) learning goals. We respect these choices as parenting decisions and encourage you to forge whatever contracts you deem appropriate with your learner outside of the Studio.
Second, state-prescribed math and language arts benchmarks don't come into play until Discovery Studio, where learners begin working with the latest adaptive learning platforms like Khan Academy, Clicknspell, Goodreads, etc. These platforms are designed to help pinpoint mastery in specific skills and reveal skills they still need to practice. Because these learning platforms serve so many learners in the public school system, they are also designed with state standards in mind. This means that it's relatively easy to "map" where learners are at to a typical "grade level". At Masterpiece, we don't do this - there is no real emphasis on matching grade level to age. What we want to see is 1) What are your learning goals? 2) Are you working hard? 3) Are you making progress towards your goals? When looking through this lens, at Masterpiece "behind" means you aren't on track with your individual goals... and therefore need to put in more effort or need extra help.
First, as a parent, it is your right and responsibility to decide how best to support your learner - this may look like boundaries or incentives for meeting (or not meeting) learning goals. We respect these choices as parenting decisions and encourage you to forge whatever contracts you deem appropriate with your learner outside of the Studio.
Second, state-prescribed math and language arts benchmarks don't come into play until Discovery Studio, where learners begin working with the latest adaptive learning platforms like Khan Academy, Clicknspell, Goodreads, etc. These platforms are designed to help pinpoint mastery in specific skills and reveal skills they still need to practice. Because these learning platforms serve so many learners in the public school system, they are also designed with state standards in mind. This means that it's relatively easy to "map" where learners are at to a typical "grade level". At Masterpiece, we don't do this - there is no real emphasis on matching grade level to age. What we want to see is 1) What are your learning goals? 2) Are you working hard? 3) Are you making progress towards your goals? When looking through this lens, at Masterpiece "behind" means you aren't on track with your individual goals... and therefore need to put in more effort or need extra help.
What is the Acton Academy journey like from a learner's perspective?
Every learner's experience will be different, but here is glimpse through the lens of Charlie and Sam Sandefer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WonzIRMrjqo
