Curriculum at Carroll
Educational decisions are guided by the needs of the individual child.
Carroll School is fiercely dedicated to giving each child what they most need. What does this mean? Your child's learning profile drives what your child is taught each day, not what is written in a curriculum map or textbook by someone who never met your child. This is different from typical schools where a prescribed curriculum informs teachers about what and when to teach.
Our educators assess and track student performance daily and build lessons based on your child’s mastery of essential grade-appropriate skills in reading, writing, and math. In content-rich subjects - science, history and the arts - we align with the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework but use a project-based, cross-curricular approach to ensure your child receives an intellectually challenging and enriched set of experiences.
Our Curriculum Guiding Principles
Examine Carroll’s academic program through the lens of five enormously important guiding principles.
Diagnostic & Prescriptive Education
In other school settings, students with language-based learning differences are often taught in the same way. Not at Carroll. We dig in and identify each student's strengths and weaknesses. We study each child’s neuropsychological testing which is provided by parents, often through their public school system or through an independent psychologist. From that base, we begin to design each child’s educational program in order to provide what each student most needs. The loop continues throughout a child’s time at Carroll as we collect more data and design new educational opportunities based on the information.
Grouping and Scheduling
Once we identify each student's cognitive and academic profile, we create small class groupings and a custom schedule that delivers effective instruction. Unconstrained by large classrooms with few teachers, Carroll School is set-up to place students in classrooms and focus areas with peers and educators that can address weaknesses, accentuate strengths, and challenge students academically. This happens not only in English Language Arts classes, but all core classes.
Custom Pacing
At Carroll, a child's education moves forward as quickly as possible and as slowly as necessary. In other words, we expect children to make meaningful progress and our teachers push forward optimistically at all times. Yet, we also make sure that each child can utilize the skills, strategies, and content that they're taught. Simple exposure is often not enough. We check constantly to ensure that students truly understand, can harness, and “own” what they experience in their classrooms and tutorials.
Interesting and Intellectually Challenging
We don't just value children's curiosity, passions, and talents - we build an education around them. Carroll’s program is designed to ensure that each child has daily experiences in areas where they shine. While remediation of language-based weaknesses is also essential, opportunities in the arts, science, social studies, makers, athletics, outdoor education, social interaction, leadership, community service, and technology are integral components of the Carroll School curriculum. Our project-based and cross-curricular approach helps students make their thinking visible and keeps them interested and challenged.
Skilled Educators
Without skilled teachers and tutors, positive educational outcomes are simply not possible. Carroll educators, every one of them, are trained to be experts in educating children with language-based learning differences. All educators are required to complete Orton-Gillingham training. As well, the Hall Copacino Institute of Professional Study courses were created to help identify and train educators for the different aspects that make a successful educator at Carroll: (1) Orton-Gillingham, (2) The Whole Child, (3) Data-Informed Instruction (4) Pedagogy - The Science of Teaching, and (5) New Educator training.
This ensures that educators possess the skills that enable children to succeed in ways that typical schools cannot accomplish. Skilled educators drive the curriculum for each student according to a deep understanding of what each student most needs.
Carroll School helped my child be more intellectually curious, emboldened, and fully embracing his leadership skills. Nick is thriving at Carroll and becoming the successful and self-assured young man that we always knew he could be. The St. Louis Family Upper School
Dive Deeper Into Our Curriculum
Explore Carroll School’s innovative curriculum approach, designed to empower students with dyslexia to thrive academically and beyond.
Dyslexia Isn't Only about Reading - Other Subjects Matter, Too
Dr. Renée Greenfield, Head of School Blog
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about Dyslexia Isn't Only about Reading - Other Subjects Matter, Too
Math at Carroll: A Unique Approach to Empowering Diverse Learners
Dr. Renée Greenfield, Head of School Blog
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about Math at Carroll: A Unique Approach to Empowering Diverse Learners
Igniting Learning: The Impact of Teacher Disposition on Learning Outcomes
Dr. Renée Greenfield, Head of School Blog
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Data Deep Dive: How data guides teaching, learning and individual success
Allison West, Middle School Division Head
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A Little Magic, and a Lot of Metaphors: Inside a Carroll Language Classroom
Anna Siegel, 5th Grade Language Teacher
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Raising the Next Generation of Scientists
Megan Saunders, Middle School Science Department Head
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Ingenuity, Duct Tape, and Embracing Mistakes
Carroll Connection 2024-2025
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Familiar Story, New Spin: Helping 8th graders find themselves in a classic narrative
Nicole Jones, Middle School Language Arts Teacher
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Building Trust Through the Art of Play and Carroll Multis
Julie Siftar, Will Close, and Shea Schatell
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The Power of Neuroplasticity
Carroll Connection 2024-2025
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Holding and Pushing: Why Social Emotional Learning Is So Important, and What It Looks Like at Carroll
Dr. Renée Greenfield, Head of School Blog
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Building a Middle School Makers' Haven
Josh Mulready, Middle School Makers Teacher
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Unlocking the Social Skills Behind Telling a Good Joke
Carroll Connection 2024-2025
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