Indian Creek Cited on NAIS New View EDU Podcast for Showcasing “New Excellence"

This week, Indian Creek School was honored to be cited on the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)’s New View EDU podcast, as a school showcasing “new excellence.”

Episode 60 of the NAIS New View EDU podcast featured a conversation between former NAIS Chief Innovation Officer Tim Fish and NAIS President Debra Wilson about what Mr. Fish has learned from his long career working in education, and what he thinks may be next for independent schools.  Mr. Fish, who visited ICS last spring to spend day with the faculty talking about designing a better student experience, shared his thoughts on what a premier education looks like today.

At 8:45 in the episode, Ms. Wilson asks “If you were going to start a school today, what would it look like?”  Mr. Fish speaks about Middle School in particular, describing it as “a magical place.” He reflects on “Where are the places where the magic is happening?” and compares old excellence versus new excellence.

Through out the podcast, the educators describe new excellence as purpose-driven, high-agency, format, where teachers take on the role of “architect,” creating a context through essential questions and then getting out of the way while students explore and learn. Indian Creek’s Project Based Learning structure is a prime example of this type of education.

Ms. Wilson and Mr. Fish discuss the need for schools to do a better job of helping families experience new excellence and understand what it looks and feels like. To do this effectively, Mr. Fish says that a school “must be really clear about what excellence looks like today and be obsessed with the pursuit of it.” 

Around 31:20 in the podcast, he cites the ICS Middle School Project Based Learning Showcase model as an example of showing families excellence by inviting them into the learning:

“This is excellence, and this is how we learn.  I love what Booth Kyle is doing at Indian Creek School in Crownsville, Maryland…I think what Booth is doing [at Indian Creek] is going to expand that – give parents the experience what it feels like. If we do that more and more, more parents will naturally move from old excellence to new excellence, and they’ll start telling their friends. I love this school because this is how my kid learns. I love this school because my kid is fired up. I love this school because my kid is challenged…I love challenge, I love rigor, I love excellence. I need it to be in an appropriate, relevant way.”

Thank you to NAIS, Debra Wilson, and Tim Fish for the New View EDU shout-out. More information about Indian Creek’s gold-standard Middle School Project Based Learning Curriculum can be found here.