The Impact Ready Project

THE IMPACT READY PROJECT A

Journey of Purpose

OUR PURPOSE

Mission Statement

We are a school of inquiry, innovation, and impact. Grounded in Christian values, we prepare all students to be college ready, globally competitive, and engaged citizen leaders.

OUR COMMITMENT

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Action Statement

We commit to creating and sustaining a school culture where all members feel valued and safe, sharing their authentic selves to design a better world...together.

OUR STRATEGY Foresight & Strategic Plan

We cultivate and inspire growth through a strategic response to the disruptive shifts in the literacies, skills, attributes, and relationships required for current and future, local and global contexts.

OUR APPROACH

Teaching & Learning Program

We design relevant, transformational curricular and learning competencies from Preschool through Upper School, explored through an inquiry-based approach and assessed on levels of proficiency.

THE YEAR IS 2039.

THE SETTING IS COMMENCEMENT.

As family, friends, and mentors gather to celebrate the culmination of their wondrous experiences and accomplishments, current Preschool students (PK2) graduate from The Mount Vernon School.

We will be proud. We will be in awe. We will be ready to follow their lead.

Like any other generation before them, these young, energetic learners will run, skip, and even charge into their Preschool classrooms with intense excitement, bold naivete, and pure joy, ready to take on the world.

Unlike alumni before them, the pathways, experiences, and classroom settings enroute to 2039 will probably be less familiar, not as linear, more ambiguous, yet even more of a purpose-driven adventure filled with creative possibility and exciting opportunities.

We acknowledge that innovation and technology are revolutionizing the way we live, work, play, and gather. Yet, we value human connection and the ability to connect with various types of people from different backgrounds is of great importance.

Navigating the complexities of these paradoxes, how will we be ready? How will an intricate network of educators, parents, industry experts, non-profit leaders, and civic officials adapt to support the journey for future generations of Mustangs to discover their purpose and make their own impact?

While we cannot predict the future of 2039, the rapidly changing contexts in the world will require something different from the learner, from the teacher, from the parent, and from the community.

We must ask new questions. We must create new insights. We must design new ideas with integrity and quality.

Like the Class of 2039, we are being called to step forward with curiosity and courage.

So….What are we waiting for? Let’s go!

THE IMPACT READY PROJECT

Combining the wisdom of our community with the collected signals shaping an ever-changing future, The Mount Vernon School community has designed a strategic roadmap – THE IMPACT READY PROJECT: A JOURNEY OF PURPOSE – ready to embrace this moment.

Our journey ahead will be filled with opportunities and challenges. Approaching certain destinations along the way, there will be times we will feel like we are strolling through green meadows and at other times like we are canoeing a mountain.

There will be moments to find shelter for an approaching storm, rejuvenation under a waterfall, nourishment along a river, and celebration with fireworks illuminating from the ocean shore. This exhilarating adventure will take us to familiar landscapes, yet require off-roading to navigate unrecognizable margins at the edges of the Earth.

Embarking on a hopeful and exciting decade ahead, we are going on a journey to:

> Discover where knowledge searches for maximum impact

> Traverse all dimensions of community

> Leverage emerging innovation in education

> Cultivate an inclusive, regenerative school culture

Ultimately, reaching our destination will be defined by how well we live out our mission, preparing and graduating learners and leaders who are Impact Ready.

impact /'im,pakt/ ready /'redē/ agency to explore, discover, and act on what is meaningful to self and consequential to others

LITERACIES, SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES

Discover where knowledge searches for maximum impact

At Mount Vernon, knowledge is not just about knowing that, knowing how, or even knowing why. For us, knowledge extends beyond these foundations. Knowledge is doing. Knowledge searches for maximum impact.

At every stage from early childhood to adolescence to adulthood, the acquisition of knowledge and the application of knowledge optimize full engagement and deep learning when constructed through relevant and contextualized pathways of differentiating, customizing, and personalizing

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

learning experiences. Being active participants in wondering and wandering through the fields of knowledge gives learners greater ownership of their learning and extraordinary meaning and purpose to their world.

When “learners are placed in the front seat of their learning journey and supported to become drivers of it” (Education Reimagined), positive identity is nurtured, purpose emerges, and impact is realized.

Embarking on a new decade of opportunities, the School has established agile, strategic objectives focused on impact readiness, capability building, and learner agency.

■ Identify, incorporate, and measure “impact ready” outcomes for learners in advance of graduating from respective campus

■ Cultivate capability in authentic exploration of differentiated, customized, and personalized learning contexts through iterated literacies, skills, and attributes and assess learners against these competencies over time, for timely feedback and self-reflection

■ Advance the structures, systems, and formats to deepen a learner’s engagement in purposedriven projects, initiatives, and experiences that require discovery, teamwork, and application of knowledge to achieve impactful, viable solutions

■ Support the positive identity development and agency of learners through a personalized and contextualized portfolio a. exploring each learner’s background, circumstances, lived experiences, strengths, interests, and aspirations b. assisting learners to become the drivers and managers of their learning goals and pathways for reaching them c. measuring the attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of learners about their work, the School environment, and their participation, and or impact within the community d. connecting learners with a network of mentors

The way in which MV creates the environment to really learn and explore things of interest to each student, as well as this overwhelming feeling of being supported that you give to our kids is invaluable. I love the curricula and the way in which you help our kids navigate what courses they should take, what courses they should try, and ensure they are tapping their own inner stories and passions.

- MV Parent

©2022 The Mount Vernon School. All Rights Reserved.

RELATIONSHIPS & NETWORKS

Traverse all dimensions of community

On the joyous endeavor of traversing all dimensions of community, there are no defined limits, no barriers to entry. At Mount Vernon, learners have equal permission to seek and to explore, traveling over and through, sometimes sideways, back and forth, and around again.

Engaging the world with curiosity, learners cultivate and create intermingling rivers of connection between people, ideas, and sectors. It is through these connections that learners wrestle with voices and perspectives that challenge their assumptions.

Being more proximate, learners become story-informed, experience-informed which bridges the distance between me and we.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

Fostering deep relationships inside the School and extending them beyond its boundaries (in-person, virtual, or blended) are truly foundational to learning, service, and engaged citizen leadership.

Additionally, preparing learners to be competent and competitive in a culturally diverse society and in a globalized world, learners must be equipped with the means of accessing and analyzing a broad range of cultural practices and meanings as well as to engage in experiences that facilitate global and intercultural relationships. It is through these experiences and shared contexts that learners accrue meaning, revealing the next step along the journey and ready to make an impact.

The School has designed key strategic objectives, setting the conditions for learners to traverse all dimensions of community.

■ Engage learners in their interests, talents, and aspirations and how they, as engaged citizen leaders, can meaningfully serve their communities and the world

■ Expand the integration of vibrant opportunities for learners through inquiry-based projects, local expeditions, and or domestic/international travel by examining issues of local, global, and cultural significance; recognizing and empathizing with the perspectives and worldviews of others; and communicating ideas effectively with diverse audiences

■ Empower learners to build the kind of social capital needed to effectively navigate the community, the economy, and the world with access to the development of a more sophisticated diverse MVXpert network model, expanding external partnerships across all industry sectors in all regions of the world (local to global ecosystems)

■ Assist learners to form their own social and professional network and assess from year to year the learner’s innovation network across multiple dimensions — quantity, quality, structure, and ability to mobilize relationships.

I was drawn to the promise that learning in a more innovative empathy-fueled way with students would be the journey of a lifetime. It still is – and sharing it with people I call colleagues and friends makes the work urgent and joyful.

-MV Faculty Member

In order to meet the needs of this generation, we must remain agile to new ideas.

As producers of research, strategy, and design, we are committed to leveraging emerging innovation — modifying certain systems and methodologies, adopting new approaches, and thinking differently as if our industry no longer existed.

We value being research-informed with data-driven evidence in successful instructional practice and emerging innovative models.

We value people-centered design principles that guide teaching and learning. Central to this, robust partnerships within a diverse network are imperative.

We choose to experiment with extraordinary ideas that one day might become the norm. We will not just build a roadmap for future generations, but we will continue to carve a path for the future of learning itself.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

As the next generation campus looks decidedly different, the School has developed a set of strategic objectives, learning from the future as it emerges.

■ Strengthen and exercise foresight and futures practice by scanning for signals of change, stress testing existing plans, gaining deeper insight into research areas external to as well as affecting the education sector

■ Organize, develop, and deploy new technologies to automate data resources to enhance a more sophisticated learning and assessment dashboard as well as to enable personalized pathways, adaptive to the needs, knowledge/skill gaps, and curiosities of learners

■ Transform School into “smart” campuses, leveraging emerging interactive learning models, boosting operational efficiency, conserving resources, supporting well-being, and deriving insights using data analytics

■ Conduct research on relevant, data-driven teaching and learning models — in-person, virtual, hybrid, metaverse — in order to leverage formats, platforms, and structures congruent with experiences beyond disciplinary modes of education

©2022 The Mount Vernon School. All Rights Reserved.

RESEARCH & INNOVATION

Leverage emerging innovation in education

As technology advances to bring us new immersive worlds, how we educate children and prepare teachers must also advance to meet these new opportunities.

– Brookings Institute

CULTURE & CONNECTION

We reflect on the past to play a role in informing our preferred future for the next decade. Looking back, we have built something exceptional, an incredible foundation that will continue to push the mission and vision forward for generations to come. Transformation is not possible without the dedication of a high performing faculty and staff, a committed and connected parent community, and most importantly, an engaged and passionate student body.

While appreciating the progress of the past, we choose to meet current and future dynamic circumstances head on, accept them, and even incorporate them as a part of our journey. A readiness disposition will continue to strengthen our identity and resolve as we transform into a better version of ourselves.

Facing the future with courage, embracing the journey requires the School to stand firm by creating the ripples on the water needed to scale innovative, transformative experiences.

> A school of inquiry, innovation, and impact requires all learners to dialogue respectively with voices and perspectives that challenge us to grow.

> A community grounded in Christian values reflects a collective conviction to be givers rather than takers, to serve rather than be served, and to build up rather than tear down.

> A mission to prepare all students to be college ready, globally competitive, and engaged citizen leaders demands for us to develop the literacies, skills, and attributes to actively design a better world.

Ultimately, relationships and trust are foundational to our community. We grow, fail, and progress together.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

The School has designed a set of strategic objectives focused on embracing the journey to cultivate an inclusive, regenerative school culture.

■ Examine the current School paradigm — pedagogy, programs, and process — to determine where limitations on a learner’s opportunity to learn and thrive in this changing world exist and reframe or regrow a more learner-centered, network-era paradigm in targeted systems

■ Deepen the School’s engagement with underrepresented members of our community gaining insights through stories and experiences shared in order to cultivate authentic relationships, design impactful programs, and build effective strategies, to ultimately, advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and action at the School

■ Develop a resilient and adaptable School culture committed to the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health in our community and devoted to upholding the School’s values through dialogue, empathy, and appreciation of perspective

■ Apply and evaluate corporate ESG (environmental, social, governance) criteria within the School to identify goals and priorities for continuous improvement, transformation, and sustainability

– MV Student

Cultivating an inclusive, regenerative school culture

Plenty of people are good, but you can’t just be good, you have to do good.

Preparation for the journey ahead and the strategy behind where we will be going are critical foundational steps. However, the true indicator of success will depend on the conviction and commitment of Catalysts, providing the conditioning and fuel required for sustained growth, performance, and accountability over time.

CORPS OF IMPACT

The Corps of Impact — engaged students, high performing faculty & staff, connected parents, diverse network, and adaptive organization — will steer our navigation through calm seas and turbulent flight paths, will cause us to slow down, stop, and reflect at outposts along the way, and will celebrate the progress and achievements of reaching monumental heights. We grow, fail, and progress together.

ENGAGED STUDENTS

In a complex world of exponential change, the most important thing is to be a learner. To continually develop the literacies, skills, and attributes to actively design a better world, one must learn to thrive in any context. This requires engaging with a diverse network and participating in a variety of project teams — giving/ receiving feedback, reflecting on one’s learning, and revealing next steps along the journey.

HIGH PERFORMING FACULTY & STAFF

To ensure a quality and equitable learning experience for student learners, the faculty and staff are committed to robust standards in differentiating, customizing, and personalizing learning through inquiry-based and competency-based education. As a team of designers and co-creators of experiences, a high performing faculty & staff understands and values people-centered design principles — relationships are foundational for learning; curiosity and passion drive learning; learning demands interactive and flexible spaces; empathy influences learning; and ultimately, learners apply knowledge to make an impact. Stewarding professional development with genuine curiosity and advancement, faculty and staff must be plugged into multiple networks to guide, mentor, and support learners along the journey.

CONNECTED PARENTS

Connected parents at the School reflect three core principles — learn, serve, give. Parents learn when exploring the School above and beyond the day-to-day, expanding one’s capacity of understanding through learning walks, educational workshops, or special events. Parents serve when investing time and talents in any capacity, especially as experts answering questions, evaluating a learner’s work, or providing feedback on a project. Additionally, parents are critical to strengthening and deepening the partnerships within the School’s diverse network. Parents give when enhancing the learner experience, providing supplemental resources and activities, and supporting capital initiatives of impact.

DIVERSE NETWORK

A diverse network creates and cultivates connections between people, ideas, and sectors throughout the world. Developing meaningful relationships catalyzes local and global partnerships within the (higher) education community, corporate sector, non-profit organizations, and civic environments. These experiences are not limited to time, place, or space. Wandering beyond the walls of the School (in-person, virtual, metaverse, blended) mobilizes a more relevant, contextualized opportunity to collaborate and contribute with peers and experts. Ultimately, as an active participant in the ownership of learning, this allows the learner to follow sparks of motivation, interest, and curiosity.

ADAPTIVE ORGANIZATION

An adaptive organization is a learning organization, actively seeking ways to grow and better itself and the world. In order to meet the needs of this generation, we must remain agile to new ideas and adapt. As producers of research and design, we are committed to tweaking certain systems and methodologies, adopting new approaches, and/or thinking differently as if our industry no longer existed. The School values being research-informed in successful practice and emerging innovative models. Central to achieving this, robust partnerships within a diverse network are imperative. Therefore, ongoing input from students, parents, and partners is collected to identify progress, opportunity, and gaps.

MANTRA MAP

Living life and traveling together, relationships are foundational for the journey ahead. Culturally and collectively, the Mantra Map reflects the conditioning and fuel required for sustained growth, performance, and accountability over time. They are the behaviors that thrive in this culture. Remaining committed to utilizing and following our Mantra Map will allow us to achieve our bold vision and design an incredible future together.

FUNDING & RESOURCES

With a people-centered approach, mapping our bold vision for the journey ahead will require the funding and resources necessary to support the Corps of Impact, fulfilling our mission, achieving our strategic objectives identified, and responding to the shifting, dynamic circumstances in the world.

THE IMPACT READY PROJECT INVESTMENTS

The Impact Ready Project will invest in faculty & staff, capital projects, technology, and business development in order to reinvest in student learners at Mount Vernon.

Faculty & Staff

> Retention, attraction, and development of high performing talent, committed to inquiry, innovation, and impact

> Engagement of faculty & staff, deepening the connection to their craft and to the School community

> Growth of their professional network of experts supporting, challenging, and evaluating interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work in real world contexts and/or settings

> Regenerative and responsive professional learning programs and opportunities, accelerating organizational learning and organizational capacity in inquirybased learning, competency-based education, IDEA, technology, and well-being

> Development of a robust talent management approach with a reimagined compensation and benefit model, reflective of professional learning competencies, growth, and accountability

Capital Projects

> Expansion of new indoor and outdoor facility spaces, meeting community needs and programmatic demands created by growth

> Renovation of current facility spaces to enhance or alter due to shifts in programmatic expectations

Technology

> Comprehension and acceleration of digitization, automation, and cognitive immersion and its impact on this generation of student learners and equipment of faculty & staff

> Construction of a “smart” technology infrastructure and efficient ecosystem of platforms

> Development of a comprehensive organizational dashboard, measuring organizational health and performance

Business Development

> Reorientation of philanthropic programs, supporting larger capital projects, launching an endowment, and cultivating a planned-giving program

> Expansion of diverse local, regional, and global partnerships

> Identification of new market segments, growing beyond the Lower Campus and Upper Campus

> Scaling consulting services and product development through Mount Vernon Ventures

BRANDING & STORYTELLING

The Mount Vernon Brand is not based on any one symbol, product, promise, or impression. While we are one school with many voices, the Brand is the transformational story of living out our mission, our commitment, our strategy, and our approach more fully.

OUR PURPOSE Mission Statement

We are a school of inquiry, innovation, and impact. Grounded in Christian values, we prepare all students to be college ready, globally competitive, and engaged citizen leaders.

> How might we reflect a story of wisdom, adaptability, grace, and speed, preparing our student learners to be impact ready?

> How might we connect the historical, Christian values story of the School and deepen our common ground with people of various denominations and faith in our community?

OUR COMMITMENT Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Action Statement

We commit to creating and sustaining a school culture where all members feel valued and safe, sharing their authentic selves to design a better world...together.

> How might we design a more inclusive and equitable classroom story through scaling the School’s dialogic model, Inclusion Network, and cultural proficiency framework, welcoming every voice?

> How might we empower, amplify, and prioritize IDEA storytelling on all mediums – revising digital strategy with current family and faculty testimonials and forging partnerships with community organizations?

OUR STRATEGY Foresight & Strategic Plan

We cultivate and inspire growth through a strategic response to the disruptive shifts in the literacies, skills, attributes, and relationships required for current and future, local and global contexts.

> How might we empathize with the 360 story and journey experience for students, alumni, faculty & staff, parents, grandparents, trustees, and external partners?

> How might we capture emerging innovation stories and signals and develop a responsive roadmap to shifting landscape?

OUR APPROACH Teaching & Learning Program

We design relevant curricular and learning competencies from Preschool to Upper School, explored through an inquiry-based approach and assessed on levels of proficiency.

> How might we support learners to discover their story of purpose through passion and challenge-based experiences?

> How might we empower many voices to curate and share authentic reflections of learning and impact?

©2022 The Mount Vernon School. All Rights Reserved.

HOW DID WE PREPARE? > Looking back to look forward > Learning from the future as it emerges

While concludiing MVX (2017-2022 Strategic Plan), Mount Vernon launched an eighteen month, comprehensive visionary process for the journey beyond. Giving voice to questions, wonders, and curiosities, the School engaged our community and external experts through a thorough and thoughtful process of addressing two key areas.

LOOKING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD

We reflect on the immediate past to play a role in informing our preferred future for the next decade. Looking back, we have built something exceptional, an incredible foundation that will continue to push the mission and vision forward for generations to come. This level of transformation could not have been possible without the dedication of a high performing faculty and staff, a committed and connected parent community, and most importantly, an engaged and passionate student body.

During the previous decade, Mount Vernon’s bold, compelling vision — purpose, commitment, strategy, and approach — set the conditions to strengthen, deepen, and scale the School’s brand identity and reputation as a leading, innovative independent school in Atlanta and throughout the country.

As a result, the School experienced a transformational period demonstrated by an exponential growth in enrollment; acceptances to top tier colleges and universities; a revision of mission statement and creation of an IDEA statement; establishment of partnerships with major corporations; a reorientation of teaching and learning; an exceptional accreditation status; renovation, building and acquisition of spaces; an expansion in athletic and arts programs; and consulting for hundreds of schools and educators throughout the world.

OUR PURPOSE

Mission Statement

We are a school of inquiry, innovation, and impact. Grounded in Christian values, we prepare all students to be college ready, globally competitive, and engaged citizen leaders.

OUR COMMITMENT

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Action Statement

We commit to creating and sustaining a school culture where all members feel valued and safe, sharing their authentic selves to design a better world...together.

OUR STRATEGY

Foresight & Strategic Plan

We cultivate and inspire growth through a strategic response to the disruptive shifts in the literacies, skills, attributes, and relationships required for current and future, local and global contexts.

OUR APPROACH

Teaching & Learning Program

We design relevant, transformational curricular and learning competencies from Preschool through Upper School, explored through an inquiry-based approach and assessed on levels of proficiency.

QUESTIONS, WONDERS & RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONSIDER ABOUT THE JOURNEY AHEAD

In spite of the speed, scale, and impact of transformation we value and benefit from today, Mount Vernon remains a learning organization, actively seeking ways to grow and better itself and the world.

In order to meet the needs of this generation, we must remain adaptive to new ideas. As producers of research and design, we are committed to tweaking certain systems and methodologies, adopting new approaches, and/or thinking differently as if our industry no longer existed. Therefore, ongoing input from our community is collected to identify progress, opportunity, and gaps.

Looking back to look forward included an extensive process of analyzing and synthesizing data from students, faculty & staff, parents, trustees, and alumni. During a period of eight months, the School engaged the Mount Vernon community through a variety of experiences.

> community-wide surveys (three-part series)

> faculty RDI sessions and divisional meetings

> student advisory, community, and homeroom gatherings

> parent focus groups and learning walk sessions

> trustee committee meetings

> alumni focus group session

Giving voice to questions, wonders, and recommendations about the journey ahead, our community responded to topics focused on the Mount Vernon Mission, IDEA Statement, teaching & learning, mindsets, norms, impact readiness, and even co-curricular programs.

Major themes of agency & permission, clarity of terms, and measuring impact appeared in all sets of experiences. Additionally, seven strands emerged from synthesizing hundreds of narrative responses from our community — Christian values, IDEA, precision of language, brand identity, whole child, voice & choice, and accountability and retention. Consequently, these strands informed the School’s driving focus areas — global landscape, health & self, and future of learning.

Driven by the larger global landscape, two areas surfaced by all of our feedback communities.

> The School’s focus on IDEA stood out as a continued point of investment

> Our commitment to be “Grounded in Christian values” is both a point of connection as well as a source of questions

Feedback received from our students and faculty and staff centered around health & self, consistently supported the value from the themes identified.

> Voice & Choice — feeling sense of control over their actions and consequences

> Precision of Language — feeling confident in expectations

> Whole Child — focus on “who you are” rather than “what you know”

> Retention — valuing our teachers and staff in the decision-making process

Three drivers were highlighted as ways Mount Vernon could orient ourselves to contribute to the future of learning

> Innovative and student-centered teaching and learning through intentional curriculum, assessment, and instruction

> Providing opportunities for measurable impact

> Making a mark on the educational communities in our regional, national, and international networks through coaching, cascading, and curating our practice-informed successful practices

Looking back to look forward - celebrating the transformational period from the immediate past while engaging our community about the current conditions of the School — will continue to prepare us for the journey ahead as we ask new questions, gain new insights, and design new ideas for an inclusive future.

Learning from the future as it emerges, the Mount Vernon Foresight Team conducted a comprehensive study, scanning for impactful signals, innovations, and disruptions in education, business, science, technology, economy, and the environment. Evaluating their potential impact on a school like Mount Vernon, the team focused their research through three major lenses.

> Future of Global Landscape

> Future of Health & Self

> Future of Learning

Each lens summarizes the signals scanned, questions explored, and recommendations considered. Through this year-long process, they gained insight from leading global firms and companies while interviewing Fortune 1000 executives, higher education leaders, behavioral scientists, and non-profit experts. Ultimately, the research study revealed an emphasis on skills, jobs, and technology; wellbeing and behavioral health literacy and competencies; retention and recruitment of talent; and time, place, and space for learning, competing, and performing.

FUTURE

LEARNING FROM THE FUTURE AS IT EMERGES LEARNING HEALTH&SELF GLOBALLANDSCAPE

FUTURE OF GLOBAL LANDSCAPE

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, a rapidly changing strategic and technological landscape is right in front of us — workforce is automating faster than expected, displacing 85 million jobs in the next five years; 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025, as adoption of technology increases; robot revolution will create 97 million new jobs; and jobs for data analysts and scientists, AI and machine learning specialists, and digital marketing and strategy specialists are increasing in demand over the next five years.

Signals Scanned

> Innovation and technology are altering the way we live, work, play, and gather

> Work, education, and healthcare are not limited by location or person-to-person interaction

> Soft skills and attributes now as important as technical knowledge of jobs

> Productivity and emotional & physical wellness are linked

> Robotics and AI replacing routine jobs and workers

Questions Explored

> What will work look like in the future, where will work take place, and how will people interact at work?

> How will schools develop skills and attributes in learners and employees?

> How do technical skills integrate into all disciplines?

> How do we utilize a diverse set of resources and experts external to the boundaries of the School?

> With whom should we partner in transformational technology innovations, especially with a merger of physical and digital spaces?

Recommendations Considered

> Explore curricular adjustments in artificial intelligence, advanced engineering and science, and technology & ethics

> Create transdisciplinary research lab working to invent the “future of” (i.e. art, health, design, well-being)

> Consider various hybrid instructional schedules throughout the year, extending and or accelerating learning

> Update Mount Vernon mindsets delineating knowledge, skills, attributes, and relationships

> Strengthen the integration of “globally competitive” in existing and emerging programs

FUTURE OF HEALTH & SELF

"Well-being is at the heart of the students’ ability to achieve and to become healthy, welladjusted members of society. Current challenges to student well-being and resilience include persistent trends of increasing depression and anxiety among adolescents. Students attending high-achieving schools, those where pressures to achieve and excel are intense and constant, have higher instances of anxiety, depression, and substance use than do their peers in the general population” (National Association of Independent Schools).

Signals Scanned

> Human connection and the ability to work with different types of people from different backgrounds are of great importance

> Health issues in one area tend to have a chain reaction

> Building resilience is imperative for future growth, development, and adaptability

> Positive identity is associated with cognitive development

> Emotional regulation, empathy and appreciation of perspective, and deep self-knowledge are essential skills necessary to be valuable contributors in society

Questions Explored

> How to build the cognitive, social, and emotional skills needed for a culturally diverse world?

> What is required to design a personalized “real-time” coaching experience?

> How to track and measure student and employee well-being?

> How to deepen adult capacity for well-being and resilience, supporting students and employees?

> What are the professional resources required once mental and emotional signals are identified?

Recommendations Considered

> Explore pathways to bring concepts of well-being and mental health in the curriculum

> Engage in an internal study to consider how providing specialized cognitive and social-emotional services would improve the Mount Vernon experience

> Adopt language that encourages use of support services as opposed to stigma associated with use of resources

> Use dialogic model across all areas of the School to promote a culture of understanding

> Identify foundational behavioral health literacy skills and competencies (self-leadership)

> Consider co-curricular programs — arts, athletics, and PlayMaker, Inclusion Network — and the resources and facility spaces required to support health and well-being

FUTURE OF LEARNING

“Today, an emerging learning economy is changing all that as learning becomes a currency for everything we do. Unbounded learning resources are creating opportunities for continuous growth, opening the future to new possibilities and aspirations. Blends of digital and physical experiences are creating platforms that make it possible to integrate learning into workflows that are blurring the boundaries between life and work and between learning and living. These platforms provide continuous actionable feedback that helps us adapt and shape our environments to our personal needs, passions, and life circumstances. They use computer algorithms—intelligent programs—to match us to people and opportunities that can help us find ever more value and meaning. They support collaborative networks that can change the way we think about the problems we face and help us find workable solutions at work, at home, and in our communities. In the process, we build our individual working-learning-living brands: the distinctive roles we’ll play in a fast-paced economy of change” (Institute for the Future).

Signals Scanned

> Tension and synergy exist between artificial intelligence and human connection

> Corporate headquarters are becoming full-service communities

> Boundaries for creativity & play, foresight, and leadership & ethics are blurred

> Attention and regulation around sustainability, efficiency, and energy are growing

> Self-regulated learning platforms and how people get what they learn are increasingly democratized

> Use of time and space have been disrupted by global pandemic

> Advances in neuroscience are revealing new understanding of the brain, its plasticity, and its responsiveness to the environment

Questions Explored

> How to manage talent? What are the optimal and innovative ways to build capacity, leverage talent, and organize for the future?

> How should we think about time? How might we rethink our use of time in various ways?

> How are learners and learning changing?

> How might AI enhance and improve the ways that teachers could benefit from data and resulting personalization?

> What if more student learners graduate with knowing their desired purpose?

> How might we enhance the student body’s opportunities to work on big problems, entrepreneurial endeavors, sustainability goals?

> How might we expand expeditionary learning opportunities for students?

Recommendations Considered

> Explore personalized approaches to learning supported by adaptive technology

> Pursue even further with use of goals, individualized pathways for learning, and portfolios of learning journeys and artifacts

> Audit our progress and detailed next steps with competency-based education and continue to reimagine experience

> Set up innovation team that devotes more attention to futures scenarios

> Prototype and pilot different use of time and space in School calendar

Peering into and learning from the future as it emerges sustains an organization like Mount Vernon to be better prepared to anticipate the unknown future, to capture innovations early or before they become obvious, and to leverage understanding at the margins and edges of the world. Designing and deploying a realigned picture of future opportunities over the next decade will require a shared commitment by all community members in order for Mount Vernon graduates to be impact ready.

THE YEAR IS 2023.

THE SETTING IS THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.

Emotional yet excited Preschool parents walk hand-in-hand into the School with their energetic, eager learners. They are welcomed by a warm, loving set of Mount Vernon teachers, saying, “We have been anticipating your arrival.” Parents with tears in their eyes send their child in to make an impact.

The journey begins.

GLOSSARY

360 Story and Journey: capturing the illustrative experience of an individual with a product or a service from the moment of awareness to engagement to advocacy/departure

Adaptability: an attribute to adjust and act on what matters (to see, to act, to invent)

Agency: ability to act reflective of interests, values, and inner motivations

Artificial Intelligence: ability of a machine to perform cognitive functions associated with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, and problem solving

Attributes: the dispositions and the behaviors that contribute to or impede the exercise of certain skill sets or abilities; how we act particularly in unknown situations and show up through challenging, stressful, or uncertain moments

Authentic: real and relevant applications of knowledge; applied to setting, action or outcome

Behavioral Health & Well-Being: a set of behavioral health and well-being learning competencies in PS-12 focused on recognition, knowledge, attitudes, and action

Be Brave to Try (and Try Again): a mantra focused on confronting fear, taking a risk, overcoming a setback, failing up, and persevering through

College Ready: an integral missional term focused on setting the conditions for learners to be prepared for the academic standards and executives functions required for entry into colleges and universities

Competency-Based Education: the foundation of all faculty and student learning focused on mastery and grounded in equity; with a common set of rigorous standards, meaningful assessment practices, and evidence-based grading, learners employ personalized pathways, receive differentiated support, and are empowered daily to make decisions about their learning

Communicating: an active skill focused on storytelling and public speaking, asking meaningful questions, synthesizing messages, effective listening, dialoguing across difference, and adjusting to audience

Connecting: a people-centered skill cultivated to maintain healthy relationships along with the ability to create spaces where people from different backgrounds come together, collaborate, and connect the dots to create something meaningful to self and consequential to others

Creativity: an attribute that imagines, improvises, and adapts as new challenges and opportunities arise, creating new and original ideas, methods, or expressions

Critical Thinking: a circular skill that uses reflection and logical reasoning of knowledge and perspectives to reach a conclusion by challenging assumptions, suspending judgment, considering alternative viewpoints, while being able to see how multiple ideas are interconnected in a bigger picture

Curiosity: an attribute that seeks to gain more knowledge through active inquiry, staying open to the flow of information, a the willingness to expand and adjust existing paradigms to accommodate new information

Customized: teaching and learning approach; starts with the pre-identified needs of the individual learners where materials, resources, and strategies are adapted to support the learner’s needs; teachers customize learning tasks based on individual needs

Differentiated: teaching and learning approach; starts with groups of learners where content, product, process or learning environment is adapted to meet the needs of learners; teachers often choose the topics and determines how students should demonstrate their learning

Digital Fluency: a set of digital learning competencies in PS-12 focused on a) digital literacy, learning, and ethics; programming, b) data analysis and statistics, and computational thinking; and c) data literacy and smart systems

Diversity: representation and appreciation of a range of differences that together assist in pursuing missional goals and objectives

Empathy: an attribute that fuels connection through recognizing the emotion another person is experiencing while staying out of judgment

Engaged Citizen Leader: an integral missional term focused on setting the conditions for learners to empathize and impact others through service, advocacy, and leadership

Equity: a commitment to meeting the needs of individuals – responsive to voice, choice, and differentiation through learning, assessment, and building community

ESG: environmental, social, and governance standards that organizations adapt and evaluate themselves against real world demands

Foresight and Futures Practice: an organizational discipline that prepares for the future by a) analyzing current drivers and signals of change, b) exploring multiple versions of the future, c) reframing our understanding of current conditions; and d) revealing options for action in the present

Global & Cultural Proficiency: a set of global and cultural proficiency learning competencies in PS-12 that begins with fostering trust and autonomy at infancy and builds toward empowering adolescents to refine their personal values and positive individual identity; ability to investigate the world, recognize diverse perspectives, to communicate effectively with diverse audiences, and to make an impact

Globally Competitive: an integral missional term focused on setting the conditions for learners to be equipped with the means of accessing and analyzing a broad range of cultural practices and meanings as well as to engage in experiences that facilitate global and intercultural relationships and concepts

Grace: an attribute giving yourself and others the space to grow; disposition to show kindness and compassion

Grounded in Christian Values: an integral missional term focused on the values of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol; rather than creating a theological perspective, the lived out Christian values anchor us, cultivate common ground to design a better world

GLOSSARY

Grow & Give: a mantra expressing the willingness to learn to achieve and the willingness to serve to make others better

Have Fun: a mantra reminding all learners in community to enjoy the moment, celebrate each other

Help Me See What You See: an empathy-building mantra that acknowledges one’s own perspective may be incomplete and seeks to understand the viewpoint of someone else

Humanities: a set of humanities-based learning competencies in PS-12 focused on the knowledge and study of human society and culture through philosophy, history, literature, and the arts

IDEA: a commitment to advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and action through relationships, programs, and strategy

Impact Ready: the agency and autonomy to explore, discover, and act on what is meaningful to self and consequential to others

Inclusion: a commitment focused on belonging to the point of ownership where each member actively makes positive contributions to the experiences of others and knows that others are doing the same in return

Innovating: a responsive skill focused on exploring, reframing, and designing in a climate of change by regenerating unique ideas with value and meaning that optimizes, transforms, or disrupts a program, product, methodology, system, or industry

Inquiry-Based Learning: a teaching and learning approach focused on the tenets of design thinking, project-based learning, and visible thinking routines where learners ask questions, conduct research, explore new ideas, and make an impact

Integrity: an attribute that exhibits honesty and respect demonstrated through personal accountability and social and civic responsibility

Lead from Where You Are: a mantra expressing one’s capacity to lead and influence regardless of position; the ability to meet the moment of one’s circumstances

Literacies: the theoretical or foundational framework acquired through formal programs of study or informal interest-driven projects and circumstances

Maker, Art, & Design: a set of maker, art, and design literacies in PS-12 centered around the School’s design thinking model to create, make, design, and engineer people-centered solutions

Mantra: a virtue reflective of the conditioning and fuel required for sustained growth, performance, and accountability over time; thriving behavior in this culture

Metaverse: an immersive, three-dimensional environments in which users interact with their surrounding and other users in a shared space, including both the physical and digital/virtual worlds

Numeracy: a set of numeracy learning competencies in PS-12 focused on the knowledge and study of foundational skills in number sense and operations, algebraic thinking, proportionality, geometry, and measurement and data experienced through authentic problem solving and justification of ideas and arguments

Personalized: teaching and learning approach; starts with the learner connecting with personal interests and passions where the learner plays an active role in the learning process, working closely with the teacher to develop learning goals; teacher acts a coach or facilitator by supporting students to uncover how they learn best, and how they choose to demonstrate evidence of learning

Professional Learning Competencies: a set of professional competencies in the practices of faculty and teacher leaders to serve as the foundation of professional practice at MV

Reading & Writing: set of reading and writing learning competencies in PS-12 focused on foundational phonemic awareness and word analysis to build reading skills and comprehension, interpretation and evaluation of a variety of texts, and using spoken, written and visual language to express ideas, write clearly, and communicate effectively

Regenerative: relating to the improvement of a system, especially by making it more active or successful, or to build on by generating patterns of growth

Relationships: the meaningful connections foundational to learning needed to effectively navigate the community, the economy, and the world; diverse, social, professional, and innovation network across multiple dimensions

Scientific Inquiry: set of science learning competencies in PS-12 focused on observing, questioning, predicting, testing, theorizing, challenging, and refining understanding through the study of biology, chemistry, physics, earth and environmental science

Self-Leadership: an attribute focused on self awareness and self management (understanding one’s own emotions, self-control and regulation, understanding own strengths and areas of growth, self-motivation and wellness, self confidence), entrepreneurship (courage and risk taking, energy, passion and optimism, driving innovation) and goals achievement (ownership, grit and persistence, achievement orientation, coping and uncertainty, and self-development)

Skills: the capacities or abilities to apply knowledge in known, predictable, and contextual situations; adding value beyond what can be done by intelligent machines

Smart Campus: an ecosystem leveraging innovative next-generation technologies to create a digitally connected campus through fostering engagement, guiding insight-driven learning pathways, leveraging interactive learning models, and improving operational efficiency and effectiveness

Social Capital: access to, and ability to mobilize, relationships that help further their potential and their goal; relationships that offer resources that drive access to opportunity; diverse, social, professional, and innovation network across multiple dimensions

Solution Seeking: a linear skill that discovers solutions to complex problems through the formulation of meaningful questions, observation, interpretation of data, experimentation, iteration, and evaluation

Start with Questions: a mantra that calls one to begin with a careful construction of active inquiry which requires self-reflection and self-restraint, free of preconceived notions