Academics

The Heads of the Middle and Upper Schools lead the faculty to define pedagogy, direct and review course content, create assessments, and integrate technology to best meet the academic challenges. We caution everyone that this is an iterative process and that we must balance our plans with a rapidly changing environment with various unpredictable scenarios. Our pedagogical challenge is allowing flexibility while still creating structure. During the fourth quarter, we received feedback from teachers, students and parents about the contours of RTL. During faculty meetings, class meetings, and coffee and conversations, we listened carefully to the voices of our community. The overwhelming theme we learned was that Austin Prep successfully pivoted to this educational model. We appreciate the positive feedback and used it to inform our plans for the upcoming school year. We also listened to concerns about the cognitive workload being extended for a full year of Zoom classes. Knowing that we have people with very different learning styles and comfort levels with online learning platforms, we have taken an approach that allows students and teachers the flexibility to get acclimated to new techniques, apps and experiences. We realize we must blend synchronous and asynchronous learning and teaching to meet the demands of the current educational climate.