Author: Matt Underwood

A couple of months back I devoted a blog post to the way in which we “grade” students at ANCS.  In the post I wrote about why ANCS does not try to boil student performance down to a single number or letter grade because doing so does not capture the nuances of student learning and…

After the holidays, we begin to hold our annual information sessions for prospective students and families to learn more about ANCS.  Invariably, at each session in the past, a parent has asked about what our “gifted and talented program” looks like.  To those parents (and to those of you reading right now who might be…

In place of a weekly blog post, read the December edition of the ANCS Principles in Practice newsletter.  This month it focuses on the idea of “less is more, depth over breadth” in curriculum at ANCS.

The 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address recently passed, and as a history buff, I was interested in the coverage.  I read an article about the filmmaker Ken Burns and a soon-to-be-released documentary titled The Address which explores the tiny Greenwood School in Vermont and its annual project for each student to memorize and recite the…

No lengthy blog post this holiday week…just a reminder to vote in the Atlanta Board of Education run-off elections.  You can find out more about the candidates for the remaining seats on the “Financial Deconstruction” blog and you can information about voting (including early voting) right here.  Have a safe and happy holiday!

With next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, I have recently been reminded of the many reasons I am thankful to be a part of the school community here at ANCS. This past weekend our school’s governing board and leadership team gathered for a day-long strategic planning retreat.  Guided by a facilitator, we analyzed feedback from inside and…

This month’s ANCS Principles in Practice newsletter focuses on how we work to create a “tone of decency and trust” at our school.  You can read it here: http://eepurl.com/IFKBH.

With the end of the first term at our school, there is lots of focus right now on report cards—writing them and sharing them with students and parents.  ANCS does not use traditional A-F or numeric grades; instead we communicate students’ performance in terms of their progress towards academic standards of grade level skills and…

In an article in this past weekend’s Atlanta Journal Constitution, Governor Nathan Deal pledged to try and get the state’s education funding formula re-written…if he is re-elected.  I am glad to hear this commitment (though it would be nice if the effort actually started now rather than as a campaign promise), but there have been…