Why Another High School
I have often been asked why we need another high school in the area. The answer is quite simple - we don’t.
The SA Upper School expansion is not another traditional school. Salisbury Academy seeks to provide a new model for 9-12 education that is designed for the needs of learners in the 21st century.
A brief history on the traditional model of 9-12 education
In 1843, amidst the Industrial Revolution, Horace Mann traveled to Prussia and witnessed a model of education organized by age, ability, and subject. Prussia was trying to improve the skills and compliance of their populace to build a more powerful military and was experiencing success. (Learn more here https://vimeo.com/463226375)
Horace Mann was inspired by the organized and scalable system of schools for the United States where expanding factories and assembly lines demanded a standardized workforce.
This standardized “factory model” took hold across the country and has remained primarily unchanged for over 100 years!
It worked, until it didn’t
The traditional factory-model system saw us through two World Wars and made America a world competitor, a leader of democracy, and an economic powerhouse.
But, in the second half of the 20th century, “A Nation At Risk” (1983) reported that our schools were now failing to create a competitive, global workforce. The Information Age required more complex skills like critical problem solving, creativity, and resilience. The factory model’s outcomes of compliance and competence are simply no longer meeting society’s expectations.
Enter Salisbury Academy Upper School
Jose Rose (2012) in the Atlantic article How to Break Free of our 19th-Century Factory-Model Education System explains that we must begin “by understanding what it is we want students to be able to do, the measures of success, the resources we have to work with, and our own sense of possibility.”
The SA Upper School’s measure of success is our 5 core graduate competencies of the graduate profile.
The traditional model requires that students “fit” into the system resulting in highly variable outcomes. The SA model, by contrast, is designed to fit the student and thereby ensure consistently high outcomes in our graduate competencies and the content learning that supports them.
Embracing a model designed for the current day - not centuries past - improves daily success, increases joy in the learning, and provides a long-term advantage as students skills carry them forward. This is the model of 9-12 education Salisbury Academy is bringing to the community.
We invite you to learn more by clicking here.