The Four Keys to College Readiness
The educational program at VIP is informed by the work of Dr. David Conley at the University of Oregon. Citing the monumental shifts in the global economy, Conley pointed out that the traditional approaches of schools were not preparing students for a high-skills environment where essentially everyone needs to keep learning beyond high school.
“Think, Know, Act, Go” speaks to the four holistic areas of a student’s education that VIP focuses its resource allocation and improvement efforts on. Read more below about how VIP is preparing our students for college and life in the 21st century.
Critical thinking skills are at the fore-front of teaching at VIP High School. Small class sizes, discussion-based teaching, inquiry-based learning, and other strategies help students learn to think deeply about content rather than just focusing on rote recall and memorization. As part of our continued efforts on school improvement, VIP offers the AP Capstone program. Rather than teaching subject-specific content, the course in AP Capstone develop students’ skills in research, analysis, evidence-based arguments, collaboration, writing, and presenting. Students who complete the two-year program can earn one of two different AP Capstone awards (The AP Capstone Diploma or AP Seminar and Research Certificate), which are valued by colleges across the United States and around the world.
Despite our smaller school environment, we have a wide variety of academic, arts, and AP electives in all subject areas, and a course list that adjusts every year based on student need and interest. Our teachers take on the role of “teacher-as-designer” of curriculum, using the state standards to design innovative experiences that gives students a strong base of knowledge across the disciplines. At VIP, we believe a well-rounded student is a better-prepared student.
At VIP, a four-year advisory program and curriculum introduces and reinforces non-academic skills that are generally neglected in most public schools. Advisory is a twice-weekly class that addresses these skills in whole-group instruction on Wednesdays, followed by individual conferencing with students on Fridays. Our advisory program ensures that every student has an adult advocate in the building who is looking out for them.
”You want the inside of your head to be an interesting place to spend the rest of your life.” - Judith Shapiro, former provost of Bryn Mawr college
This quote informs our approaches across the school, but especially our approach to college counseling. While college is still an essential part of preparation for 21st century careers, we also see the college experience for students of one that allows them to become more fully-rounded citizens and adults.
While college is addressed in ninth and tenth grade in indirect ways, the college awareness and exploration process begins in earnest in junior year. In the fall semester, students read “Colleges That Changes Lives” to increase their awareness of what college can be. In the spring, students begin individual college counseling appointments, with an attention to exploring a wide variety of options to clarify what matters most to them. In senior year, advisory teachers and the college counseling department focus on the individual mechanics of applying, all while monitoring students through the Naviance platform. With results that include a wide variety of colleges and universities around the United States and internationally, our students have continued on to every college experience imaginable.
“The best reason to care about college – who goes and what happens to them when they get there – is not what it does for society in economic terms but what it can do for individuals, in both calculable and incalculable ways.”
— Andrew Delbanco, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be.”
“Your work and career are a part of your life. Education should prepare you for all of your life. It should make you a more thoughtful, reflective, self-possessed and authentic citizen, lover, partner, parent and member of the global economy.”
- St. John’s College President Mark Roosevelt