Click here to listen to this week’s JAM – Introduction.
Welcome to The Education All Students Deserve, a JAM which tells the story of the founding of Hillbrook High School. My name is Mark Silver and I am the Head of School at Hillbrook School, an 87 year old JK-8 independent school in Los Gatos, CA that is in the process of becoming a JK-12 with a new high school campus in Downtown San Jose opening Fall 2023. In this JAM, I will tell the story about the process we are going through to expand from a JK-8 into a JK-12. In some episodes I will look back, reflecting on the research and work we have done over the past four years to get to the point where we decided to commit to adding a high school. In other episodes I will focus on what we are doing in real-time to prepare for the launch, including designing for the adaptive reuse of our two historical campus buildings in downtown SJ, developing our exceptional academic and co-curricular program, hiring the faculty and staff who will be the heart and soul of this new division, and enrolling the founding class, who will help us co-create this extraordinary new program.
An obvious question from the start – Why are we doing this? We believe that all students deserve to have an extraordinary educational experience in high school that builds upon the type of exceptional foundation we provide for our JK-8 students. The core differentiators for our current JK-8 program – the placement of student agency at the center of the learning experience, integrated, real world education that challenges students to reach beyond and make a difference in the world, and a deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion – translate seamlessly into a 9-12 environment, allowing us to extend our innovative approach to education into a market in need of a new model of high school education.
In our current market, while there are a variety of high school options, there are no models – a small, academically rigorous independent high school connected to a JK-8 – that look like the model we envision for Hillbrook. The benefits of top independent schools around the Bay Area and the country are well known – environments in which students are known and valued, educational programs that combine academic challenge with meaningful engagement, co-curricular programs such as sports and theater that are both excellent and inclusive, and results, including traditional results like college placement and standardized test scores, that are stronger than any other type of school.
We are living in a time of dramatic change. As parents, educators, and school communities, we are faced with the challenge of preparing students for a world we cannot yet imagine. The factory model of schooling that rewards compliance and applies a one-size fits all approach to learners no longer meets the needs of today’s students. Too many high schools are teaching the same way and using the same metrics – traditional syllabi, standardized test scores, Advanced Placement exams – that they have been using since the 20th century, failing to recognize that the same old teaching practices will not provide today’s students with the skills they need to thrive in tomorrow’s world.
I hope you will follow me and this JAM every Wednesday over the next year as we share more about our vision for what high school can and should be for all students.