Weekly Message from HOS 2025/10/27-2025/10/31
Dear Keystonians,
Happy Friday!
This week, we launched our Community Book Club, and I warmly invite all of you—students, teachers, and family members—to consider participating. For our first selection, I've chosen one of my favorite books on education: Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids.
The book is based on the research of Dr. Denise Pope, which led to the founding of Challenge Success, a school-improvement organization based at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education. What I love most about this book is that it serves as a powerful toolkit for making meaningful improvements in schools.
I had the privilege of working with the Challenge Success team for many years at my previous school, where we initiated many projects to create a healthier environment for our students. A significant part of that work involved “undoing” legacy practices that educational research showed did not serve students well—a common challenge in a long-established institution, where balancing tradition and innovation is a constant focus.
When I arrived at Keystone, it was remarkable to see how much of the school’s design, from its very beginning, was built on these same best practices and a modern understanding of both teaching and student well-being. In many ways, Keystone is already a model “Challenge Success” school.
The program introduces a framework of best practices called SPACE, which stands for:
Students’ use of time and Space
Project and Problem-Based Learning
Alternative and Authentic Assessment
Climate of Care
Education for parents, students, and faculty
Keystone’s educational program is strongly aligned with this framework. Among these areas, one of our biggest opportunities for growth lies in the final “E”—deepening the Education for our entire community about the “why” behind our practices.
We are committed to designing more learning experiences and events to ensure we all understand our educational context more deeply. At the same time, all of us at Keystone remain devoted to the school’s continual improvement.
I hope you’ll explore this book and consider joining the conversation. The next book club meeting will be with Mr. Loveman next month and will be looking at Xi Jingping’s Educational Philosophy. Interestingly, there is significant alignment between this text and Denise Pope’s book. Comparing and contrasting the two leads us towards a deeper understanding of our New World School.
Warmly,
Emily
