Transitioning from Acera to High School
Document Executive Summary:
Acera students who go through our middle school program and then go on to high school after grade 8 are consistently adapting and
performing well in high school, according to surveys filled out by parents and students and according to live, in-person Alumni Panel
event. Development of critical thinking skills and self confidence are the two key things consistently referenced when discussion
transition to HS and how students from Acera MS are set up for success. The transition from the intrinsic motivation based
environment of Acera into more typical extrinsic rewards / external expectation setting of high school goes well for former Acera
students. Students also talk about a deep sense of belonging and community from their time at Acera “like a second family.” Issues
which have on occasion emerged for some students as weaker areas of former iterations of our MS program have been addressed.
Below is information that will help parents understand a couple of specific components of Acera’s program (writing skill
development, math class placement in High School, and how our program evolves to fit child development stages). Acera middle
school prepares students to be successful both in high school and in life.
At Acera, each student experiences a program that is different. We focus on understanding each students’ capacity, interests, and
needs, and support their self knowledge and engagement to learn, grow, and manifest work which makes their learning visible.
As a result of the uniqueness of each Acera students’ profile, it is hard to draw generalities; the most important factors of student
success in their transition to high school is self knowledge, parent / school partnership, and finding the right high school fit.
Across years, we have seen students transition into traditional high school programs and do well. Over the years, we continue to
upgrade and evolve our middle school program to make it better -- keeping the emergence of voice and clarify around identity,
keeping and augmenting opportunities for individual passion projects support by scaffolds and mentors, and engaging consistent
supports and coaching in writing and proactive math path planning.
In winter 2017 we conducted an Alumni Survey of former students and their parents and held an Alumni Panel discussion about
students’ high school experiences. We share information from survey and panel, as well as updates about Acera program shifts,
below.
How do they do when they “go back?” & How Has Acera’s MS Program evolved?
A multi part communication / newsletter series
1. Overall “Success” in HS
2. Math
3. Writing
4. Stages of Child Development and How Acera’s Program adapts
Part 1: Overall Success in High School Transition and Experience
What happens when Acera students transition or “go back” to a more traditional school setting of high school – where course
syllabi may be driven by a program which does not adapt to student interests and where students progress is measured with
grades? At Acera, we build our program around, very consciously, approaches which enable students to engage deeply and have a
sense of purpose and meaning in their learning. This is the “secret sauce” within Acera. This is why students are joyful and why
many students “count down” in summer for the beginning of the school year! Why do we frame our program this way?
Fundamentally, Acera’s program is designed around intrinsic motivation. Tapping into that core inner curiosity of children is what
enables them to “come back alive” and engage in new ways when they come to Acera from more traditional programs. (<Intrinsic
Motivation Definition Link> <research study which reveals how intrinsic motivation driven behaviors sustain over time vs. how
extrinsically rewarded behaviors and attitudes extinguish when the rewards disappear>)
We consistently have seen – and heard from parents – that when students transfer into Acera from other programs that “the lights
go back on” and that they engage in new ways.They develop the ability to ask questions with confidence, engage in real
conversations with adults, wonder about things and dig in, and grow to show confidence to be themselves in the world. This has
occurred across all ages and classrooms every year at Acera. It is a particularly compelling time for this emergence of self and
identity in Middle School. Adolescence is a time when students’ explore and uncover their identity (<link to an article about
adolescence, their search for identity, and brain development>); Acera allows them to do that in a place which safeguards their
ability to show their capacity, yet to express it with humility and self awareness of their concordant deficits. This happens because of
our deep focus on developing students’ emotional intelligence throughout our program. (<Daniel Goleman article defining
emotional intelligence>)
It is natural for parents to be hesitant about new situations. Though parents consistently see their children’s engagement, fearless
asking of questions, growth in confidence as well as knowledge, and sense of belonging with peers, they still can end up feeling
fearful about what happens when students “go back” or transition into more traditional educational settings. Some fear that this
transition will be harder because they were at Acera, where there is so much choice, honoring and respect of students interwoven in
the educational experience and it can seem there is no such pathway in traditional schools for students to explore and learn deeply
in areas of their interest.
The good news is that – with the most recent studies that have been published as of 2016, intrinsic motivation stays alive and awake
after students transition from progressive programs into more traditional settings that have a philosophy to motivate students
through extrinsic rewards and markers (aka, grades.) (<link to 2016 research study published about maintenance of internal
motivation when students move from progressive programs to traditional rewards based programs.)
While parents want their students to stay curious and alive, they also want them to “succeed” by the markers of traditional high
school. They often have fears that students will no longer be able to perform successfully when they transition or “go back.” And
then, sometimes parents get so worried about this that they seek to accelerate the transition in order to cut off the pain kids will
feel or the struggles with performance in a teacher- driven and grades- based environment.
So, over the years at Acera, what have we learned about this, as we now have conducted interviews and alumni surveys about
students’ transition and “going back” and have heard directly from students in an alumni panel about this topic?
Parents and Alumni share Consistent Positive Feedback about how Acera MS Supports Students’ HS Transition and Success
1. The strong skills developed in critical thinking and deep reading enable their success in high school
2. Development of habits of complex and systems thinking capacities combined with depth of engagement foster a love of
learning and engagement in the world and in an array of disciplines which manifest externally in HS, through HS admissions
interviews, HS admissions counselors’ desire to have Acera students in their programs, and in MS students’ overall happiness
during their MS program
3. Sense of belonging to a community, with deep care and connection among students. Acera is referred to by alumni as a
“second family” where students can be themselves
4. Students’ comments that they developed a strong self knowledge, including their awareness of their weaknesses, and
concordant ability to self – advocate in high school to get supports they need to fit with their learning profile
5. Parents’ observations that the level of sophistication of Middle School content area prepares students well for the types of
learning in high school
6. Acera students who finish 8th grade and go to HS are consistently engaged, happy and enjoying their hHigh school experience
7. Most students report that a transition to a more conventionally structured setting with teacher-led course syllabi and grades
goes very well immediately; some report that it is a bit of an adjustment at first and then quickly they adapt and the transition
goes well. Most Acera MS students who leave Acera for HS receive good and exceptional grades out of the gate, including in the
fall of their 9th grade year. In general, the Acera Alumni Survey results show that almost all former Acera MS students got all A’s
or A’s and B’s in their freshman fall.
8. Students’ internal motivation and love of learning survives when they leave Acera and transition to traditional environments
Some things We Have Learned and How Our Program is Different Now Than in Previous Years:
1. Development of executive functioning skills and frontal lobe neurological maturity during middle school years supports a
very different set of skills to be manifest as 14 and 15 year old high school students as compared with 11 and 12 year old
middle school students. This is empirical, regardless of program (<link to frontal lobe development information / article>)
2. Additionally, our program has evolved over time to proactively “double down” on developing students’ skills in
organization and writing to further support a strong transition into high school. This shift has been conscious and is
adopted throughout our whole middle school program.
3. We now have a secondary math program with pathways that clearly enable families to proactively plan for where their
student will “land” for grade 9 math, interweaving the Acera philosophy of engagement with the typical high school course
progressions and expectations. As of spring 2017, we are implementing a new Grade 6 Math Pathway Planning Checkpoint
in which families and teachers plan where their middle schooler should “land” for high school. The goal is to align capacity
and motivation--now that new frontal lobe skills are developing and teachers can get a better glimpse into what is realistic
and possible for each student. Families will be able to compare notes, hopes and observations to make a plan. As new
things progress thereafter, the plan can evolve. Once the high school is chosen, math teachers can give guidance about
how the Acera math path plan should directly correlate with that unique math program, since all high schools are
different.
4. The biggest factor of happiness and “success” (we will define that by grades for this moment) for former Acera MS students
has to do with finding the right fit between the students’ learning profile and motivations and the high school program
they attend. The asynchrony in capacities so often present in gifted children and in Acera students means that deep self
awareness by the student, depth of parent partnership and support between school, student, and parents enables the best
supports for each student. We have better staffing at Acera to engage this throughout students’ enrollment in our school
than we have in prior years, and we have better knowledge and ability to partner with families to support good high school
placements which fit each student.
5. We now have counseling ability in our school, and this allows us to deeply partner proactively with each family across years
and more proactively support the high school application process with recommendations of programs that are a fit. We
now have a better sense of the high school landscape and we have good relationships with HS admissions officers.
Part 2: Math Program
The balancing act of engagement, love of the subject, and coverage while proactively planning to slot into HS programs
In math, we have learned a lot over the years about how to balance the potentially mutually exclusive need to keep students
engaged with loving math combined with supporting practice and assuring that there “are not holes” as they transition into high
schools. For most of our students, a conventional “math curriculum” and following a textbook approach results in a pace that is too
slow, and a loss of love of math and/or not uncovering their skill and capacity.
One example of this is math facts. Math fact fluency can become, for a student, the marker of “being good at math” when that rote
recall and speed is emphasized in math classes. In fact, working memory and processing speed is not a marker of mathematical
ability. Speed and intelligence are not the same thing. We know this, and this is why we, for example, take a games based approach
to support elementary students’ development of math fact fluency, as opposed to inculcating a negative math identity through
timed math fact tests which often result in anxiety for students who are great thinkers and problem solvers but whose speediness
may not be as high as their conceptual capacity.
It takes great skill and juggling by Acera math teachers, combined with our approach to place students in math groups that fit their
readiness to learn. Additionally, the goal is not “vertical acceleration” but rather a combined path of both higher levels of math
alongside a depth of understanding and elective types of mathematical learning (probability, statistics, logic, number theory) which
are learned in a way that is highly engaging and contextually relevant. These types of topics are interwoven in both elementary and
middle school math at Acera especially for our most talented math students, and they enable a much broader and deeper
mathematical skill set and engagement. We are now formalizing the various pathways that have existed in math. We are putting
into place a math pathway planning checkpoint in MS to uniquely align students’ raw capacity and mathematical motivation. We
will proactively plan a target “landing spot” for grade 9 math placement which will enable optimization between students’ math
engagement with their innate capacity, motivation, family hopes, and teacher observations in MS, and our knowledge about how HS
math programs are structured.
Given what we have offered over the years and what we have learned, we are formalizing how we articulate middle school math
course offerings and paths. Checking in about what approach is the right fit for your child will be a focus in MS, with a specialized
math pathing planning meeting in the spring of Grade 6, moving forward. Here is a current snapshot of Acera’s math course
offerings and pathways: (<link to math course offering doc>)
Part 3: Writing Skill Development Throughout Acera MS Program
Additionally, we have received somewhat inconsistent reporting for students about their transitions around topics of writing (some
report they landed very well as writers; one current grade 11 student reported that she had not had the support she needed in
writing skills). Writing Skill Development is at the core of conscious shifts in the Acera MS program. There has always been a high
level of rigor and complexity in the types of primary source materials and texts read and discussed in our MS program, across all
years. The writing expectations in the early Acera MS years focused on putting complex ideas into writing and enabling students to
express their own unique voice in their writing. We also have often had many students at Acera who, while being many grade levels
ahead in reading and conceptual thinking,have been at or even behind grade level in writing and executive functioning due to their
profile. This makes the scaffolding supports uniquely complex for many Acera students. These more asynchronous students are the
ones who – in traditional MS programs – can get poor grades (science teachers giving grades about how organized the student’s
notebook is rather than recognizing that students’ science and math conceptual thinking and problem solving skills are independent
from their ability to turn in their homework in a timely and consistent way. Typically, these two different capacities collapse into
one grade, and students with vulnerabilities in executive functioning get poor grades. This affects their ego/ identity about being
“smart’ in that topic area and then they stop trying to do well because they fear failure. Often the cycle repeats and turns into
overall poor grades and low sense of self in spite of the native conceptual thinking capacity which is strong. These students need
middle school to have time for their frontal lobe to mature – so that their ability to persist in the face of frustration can get the
school scaffolding needed combined with a teaching community which understands these factors of executive functioning and
frustration tolerance as unique from raw problem solving and conceptual thinking capacity. This is why we feel that a narrative
report card and not a grade based approach makes sense in middle school. As students get more motivated and capable to
demonstrate a “growth mindset” in school (<link to Carol Dweck growth mindset article>) this is relevant for all students, but
particularly gifted students who need to know that school is a place where they can learn, not a place that they show what they
already know. It is even more important for gifted students who also may be asynchronous in their organization and/or writing skill
level as compared to their strengths.
Particular ways we have expanded our focus on developing writing and organizational skills include:
1. Acera’s program evolves through elementary and middle school to support students’ growth in a way that fits the stage of
development, focusing in new ways at different stages on frustration tolerance in the face of adversity, writing skills,
organization, planning, assignments and follow through.
2. Implementation of a MS1 program explicitly focused on scaffolding these skills for students in their transition from
elementary to middle school
3. Hiring a former journalist career changer turned progressive middle school teacher to be one of the core MS program
teachers; Ruma focuses her development of student relationships and emergence of voice for each skill around intensive
one-on-one writing coaching which uniquely fits each students’ needs, profile and interests.
4. Consistently include in both MS1 and MS2 programs a robust literature / book club and extensive writing coaching
approach as part of the middle school experience, starting in 2015/2016 school year, in addition to the writing already
required in other aspects of the MS program.
5. Consistently requiring, starting in 2017/2018 school year, that all MS Humanities electives (rather than just most of them)
include a writing component as part of the course syllabus and student project set
Part 4: Developmental Stages through elementary and middle school and how
Acera’s program adapts
Throughout childhood, students’ innate capacities,needs and readiness changes. Our program changes substantially over the years
to align with those developmental stages. It also does so in a way uniquely suited to gifted students.
In younger elementary years, students need a bigger academic focus on basic literacy skills. At Acera, we do this in a way which
uniquely differentiates deeply, expecting that many kids will be a year or many years ahead of typical performance expectations in
reading and math. Additionally, they need depth of learning in emotional intelligence realms, to start to develop a sense of
self. Gifted students uniquely crave a desire to think and create across disciplines, and have a rate of learning of facts and ideas
which is more rapid than typically developing students. Additionally, most gifted students are asynchronous in their development in
some way; at Acera, our philosophy is always to understand those unique profiles and learning styles to customize a program that
fits the student, and to leverage each student’s strength areas and deep interests to support engagement, ownership and
motivation to develop in areas of relative deficit.
In older elementary years, students are capable to operate with more sophistication in their abstract thinking skills. They also start
to need to develop better organizational planning, writing and follow through skills in order to express their sophisticated
ideas. Most Acera students’ thinking and creativity surpasses their ability to create output that truly showcases their sophisticated
understanding. Concordantly, we create ways students can savor, participate, and show their systems and complex thinking in ways
unique to the student. We continue, as we do in younger elementary years, to enable learning within a framework that has meaning
and supports interdisciplinary thinking. At the same time, teachers teach and start to expect more consistent follow through and
output in writing, in particular. This also becomes more important in math, as students start to need to be able to show their work
in more robust ways in order to continue to develop their higher level mathematical skills.
In middle school, students continue to develop in their emotional intelligence and sense of themselves, exploring even more
robustly in areas of identity. Additionally, approaching this time in their lives, frontal lobe development matures enough for many
students so that they can start to take on responsibility for assignments and homework, and have these aspects of learning as part
of their school program yet still do so in a way that enables student ownership (rather than it being about parent
management.) Teachers support growth through gradually longer assignments and continue to give verbal support,coaching and
feedback as occurs throughout elementary. This enables iterative re-writes and a new ability to generate output which starts to
show, more consistently, the sophisticated understanding and ideas Acera’s students have through their study of primary source and
complex materials, most of which are at a high school level. While most of Acera’s middle school students experience fewer hours
of homework than occur in typical middle school programs, our expectations align with brain development and allow for a balance
between increasing expectations of performance and output without undue anxiety or stress. We continue to seek great
partnership with parents to assure the right approach and level of expectation to fit each student.
We have heard from parents and students who attend Acera MS that the level of work in our program enables the kind of critical
thinking and emotional intelligence which sets up students for success in a wide variety of high school programs.
This is a brief framework about how Acera’s program evolves through different stages. (<link to Acera Ages and Stages guide.>)