Learn Act Change
The Advent School’s community takes pride in its diversity, believing that a diverse environment creates well-rounded students.
Children learn from their peers’ perspectives, enriching their educational experience and fostering growth.
Advent families hail from 40+ Boston area neighborhoods
Class of 2024 attended 9 different public and private middle schools
20% of Advent families are multilingual
25% of students benefit from Tuition Financial Assistance
42% of students and 31% of staff self-identify as people of color
The Advent School Mission
Since 1961, The Advent School has stayed true to its founding vision: an urban school whose community reflects the diversity of Boston; a forward-thinking curriculum that inspires and engages a child’s passion for learning; a commitment to social justice; and a culture of collaboration where every child has the confidence to take action in a connected world.
The Advent School was founded for a different purpose.
Advent’s founders envisioned a school where all Boston’s children could learn and thrive together, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, neighborhood, or socioeconomic status.
The Advent School opened in 1961 as a fully integrated school, thirteen years before the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ordered Boston’s public schools to integrate fully.
Advent’s past informs its future. The Advent School continues to be a place for all children and families, regardless of socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, religious, or family makeup. We firmly believe that all children deserve a strong educational foundation grounded by a vision of a more just and equitable future.
‘‘ Our children live together. They should learn together in reflection of the city they come from.
Dr. Mona C. Hull, Head of School (1961-64)
What is “the Reggio Emilia philosophy”?
The citizens of Reggio Emilia, Italy, developed a unique approach to education in response to their experience with fascism during World War II.
The Reggio Emilia approach is “...an educational philosophy based on the image of a child with strong potentialities for development and a subject with rights, who learns through the hundred languages belonging to all human beings, and grows in relations with others.” (Reggio Children)
The Reggio Emilia Approach inspires all faculty at The Advent School. Our Pre-K Early Childhood Center (ECC) and Kindergarten embrace an emergent curriculum driven by the students’ curiosity. As students progress from First through Sixth Grade, their learning is guided by themes tied to social justice. Students’ questions and interests shape exciting projects and investigations within these themes, making learning meaningful and dynamic.
The Advent School is different in its approach to teaching and learning. Our students are seen as capable individuals who learn through active, hands-on investigations that connect theory to practice, strengthening their knowledge.
Teaching at The Advent School is purposeful, flexible, and engaging.
Our research-backed, pedagogical approach is rooted in social justice and inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, which sees children as citizens with rights.
We align our academic project, pedagogy, and socialemotional curriculum with eight core values to empower our students to be skilled, confident changemakers and 21st-century citizens.
The Advent School’s core values are rooted in the democratic principles of participation, dialogue, and deep listening. We believe children are citizens who can advocate, collaborate, and take action for the common good.
1 Integrated, Challenging Curriculum
We value a dynamic, rigorous, and immersive curriculum that engages every learner, makes connections across disciplines, and inspires students to have a voice in their learning process.
Our curriculum is rooted in research and best practices, preparing students for the rigors of middle school and beyond.
The mathematics and literacy curriculum is based on the U.S. Department of Education National Standards and is enhanced by additional formal and informal instructional curricula.
First through Sixth Graders use Everyday Mathematics from the University of Chicago. Students in ECC and Kindergarten used Big Ideas of Early Mathematics and Mathematics Their Way. Students across all grade levels use the Really Great Reading and Words Their Way curriculum and comprehension-based instruction.
Advent students go on to thrive at their middle schools, high schools, and colleges. We place students at Boston’s top private and public schools, including The Winsor School, The Roxbury Latin School, Boston Latin School, and BB&N.
We are proud of our graduate’s ability to find academic success at similarly rigorous institutions thanks to the foundation laid at The Advent School.
‘‘I cannot stop gushing about Advent to everyone who asks me about it! Your school values relationships and students as capable citizens with great ideas. It is an excellent example of a structure with agency. I can’t tell you how valuable this visit was and how excited I am that a school like Advent exists. What a dream of a place!
Marlaina, PhD Student Northeastern University
We celebrated the class of 2024 with a graduation at the historic Parkman Bandstand in the Boston Common. They are attending the following middle schools:
Boston College High School
Beaver Country Day School
Boston Latin School
Brimmer & Mary
Buckingham Browne & Nichols
Cambridge Street Upper School
Catholic Memorial
Dana Hall
Woodward School
The following colleges and universities welcomed Advent’s class of 2018 to their campuses in fall 2024:
Bucknell University
CalPoly
Case Western
Clark University
Georgetown University
Harvard University
New York University
Northeastern University
Syracuse University
Trinity College
United States Naval Academy
University of Wisconsin
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University
2 Meaningful Assessment
We value multimodal assessment practices that further student learning and foster teacher and family understanding of the whole child.
Assessments at Advent are more than standardized test scores. They are a complete picture of your child as a learner, including their academic strengths, challenges, and social-emotional well-being.
Thanks to Advent’s team teaching model, we know our students well. Teachers make daily observations and assessment of student learning. Additional norm-referenced and adaptive assessments are used throughout the school year to understand each individual learner and to guide instruction.
Advent thoughtfully incorporates standardized testing into the academic experience. Standardized testing begins in Third Grade. Along with preparing students for various types of testing experiences, these assessments serves as a benchmark for the School’s evaluation of its program and teaching practices. Data from the last three years show that 86% of Advent students perform above grade level on standardized tests in reading and mathematics.
The Department of Teaching & Learning (DTL) partners with teachers to continuously review and refine assessment methods to best serve students’ needs.
3 Diversity & Belonging
We value an inclusive, urban learning environment that reflects Boston’s diversity and celebrates and creates a sense of belonging for all community members.
Advent commits to inspiring its community to explore, appreciate, and embrace the multicultural world we live in.
We prioritize supporting students’ identity development as a school community. To guide students in fostering this development, the School offers affinity spaces where families and students can opt in and gain support for aspects of their identity marginalized by mainstream society. The affinity space facilitates growth in students’ selfidentity through age-appropriate activities, projects, conversations, and explorations.
‘‘In exploring independent school options for our child, we sought a setting that truly values racial and ethnic diversity, reflecting our multi-ethnic family’s essence.
Advent distinguished itself not only by facilitating a connection with another multiracial family but also by demonstrating how its mission is lived daily within its community. This genuine glimpse into their inclusive environment, perfectly aligned with their mission, ‘an urban school whose community reflects the diversity of Boston,’ confirmed our choice.
Advent has consistently been true to its mission, providing a profoundly satisfying experience in a richly diverse community.
Parent, Class of 2029
The Advent School was founded in 1961 as an urban school whose community reflects the diversity of Boston. We continue to embody this mission through ongoing and intentional work to create a diverse, inclusive community and advocate for more equitable, anti-racist mindsets, actions, and outcomes.
In that vein, The Advent School commits to:
• inspire our students, faculty, families, staff, and community to explore, appreciate, and embrace the multicultural world in which we live
• learn from each other and celebrate our differences by engaging in respectful, developmentally appropriate, and challenging conversations about our experiences and those of our neighbors;
• develop our understanding of marginalized and oppressed groups and continue to learn about their histories, realities, and futures; and
• foster an environment that prepares and empowers our students to be agents of change
The Advent School Diversity Statement, written by the Board of Trustees Diversity Committee
4 Social Justice
At Advent, social justice is not just a buzzword but the core of all we do.
The School’s Social Justice Curriculum, developed by an internal task force of teachers and administrators, guides students to understand and respect their identities while fostering curiosity about others. Social justice is a democratic principle where children are listened to and seen as citizens.
The Social Justice Curriculum is a living document that grounds Advent’s teaching practices in equity, justice, inclusion, and belonging in the constantly shifting world. It helps students understand themselves and their communities, central to Advent’s mission of fostering a more socially just and democratic society.
Engaging students as active participants in their learning is an act of social justice. We listen to and build relationships with students, making them aware that their ideas are essential and central to improving our world.
At The Advent School, we define Social Justice as the active participation of all people in a society to equitably value and meet the needs of all individuals and communities.
The ongoing and necessary work toward this goal must be deeply democratic, recognizing and redistributing social inequities and power.
Social Justice Education is rooted in positive identity development and respect for both self and others. It must be empowering, critical, and active anti-bias education. We challenge our students to be empathetic, self-reflective, and courageous learners who take action in a connected world. As current citizens, our students grapple with issues of social injustice and learn about historical and contemporary social movements. In a democratic classroom, we build skills to recognize and redress inequalities and issues within our current society.
Through emergent and thematic curricula, we engage in developmentally appropriate analysis and action for an equitable redistribution of power and resources in our society. With our culture of collaboration, Social Justice Education at The Advent School extends outside of the classroom walls; the whole community — students, faculty, and families — joins together, committed to this critical work for the greater good.
Definition of social justice by The Advent School Social Justice Task Force
5 Collaboration
We value a collaborative approach to teaching, which includes teachers and students learning with and from each other.This approach is grounded in our progressive, Reggio-inspired, social justice teaching practices.
Advent’s collaborative classroom environment emphasizes the interconnectivity of learning as ideas flow from person to person. Students see collaboration modeled daily in the coteaching and team teaching relationship and learn to appreciate diverse perspectives.
Collaboration is one of the core tenets of the Reggio Emilia philosophy. Daily classroom life is an ongoing exercise in cooperation, which builds socialemotional intelligence, problem-solving skills, and adaptability.
Teachers embrace collaboration through plentiful professional development opportunities. Weekly faculty meetings function as in-house professional development where faculty learn from each other and outside experts. Robust outside professional development opportunities are also available for faculty to enhance their classroom teaching and growth.
Advent created a strategy set to promote healthy social-emotional development. The strategies offer practical, empowering options for emotional and physical self-regulation.
The initial poster, hung in every classroom on campus, featured eleven options. A student suggested adding the Flexibility Strategy: “I can change my mind when I need to.” The strategy set is a living document that emphasizes a people-first language and is adaptable based on the community’s needs.
Kind & Intentional Words Strategy: My words are powerful, and I use them thoughtfully.
Breathing Strategy: I take deep breaths and slow my mind and body.
Listening Strategy: I listen with my whole self.
Personal Space Strategy: I give myself and others space when they need it.
Let it Go Strategy: I say how I feel and move forward.
Patience Strategy: I am strong enough to wait.
Repair Strategy: I apologize and do something to make it better.
Courage Strategy: I try things I know are hard or I’ve never done before.
Stamina Strategy: I can stick with something even when it’s challenging.
Try-it-Again Strategy: If something doesn’t work, I learn from it and try again.
Empathy Strategy: My feelings can be different from yours. I am learning how you feel.
Flexibility Strategy: I can change my thinking when I need to.
6 Curious, Engaged Learners
We
value inquisitive, playful, and active learners and seek to foster a lifelong love of learning.
Researchers from Project Zero (PZ), an organization at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, visited Advent to study our approach to teaching and learning.
Advent became among the few schools involved in their Pedagogy of Play study. Pedagogy of Play is a research collaboration between the LEGO Foundation and Harvard’s Project Zero. Launched in 2015 in Denmark, it now includes sites in South Africa, the U.S., and Colombia, where educators and researchers explore culturally relevant playful learning models. Advent was selected because of our commitment to education and playful learning.
In a publication about the pedagogy of play, PZ shared this observation from a Fourth Grade classroom.
‘‘
Jay views writing as a playful, imaginative process, finding joy in exploring creative possibilities, which enhances his learning experience. In contrast, his classmate Shelia does not see writing as playful, associating play with physical activities.
Their teacher, Dani, acknowledges that playful learning is subjective, emphasizing that it creates conditions where students can explore without fear of failure. She tailors her approach to each students’ interests and needs, providing options and support to help them engage in learning in playful and rewarding ways.
Playful Learning All Day Long
Advent’s after-school program is far more than just an extension of the school day; it’s a vibrant enrichment experience.
The Enrichment program provides unique opportunities for children to explore their interests, dive into new topics, and forge new friendships. Open to students from all grades, the program offers a diverse selection of approximately 50 courses each week. Options include robotics, STEM, sports, arts and crafts, study groups, and private music and language lessons.
Learning continues beyond the school year with Advent’s Design program, our signature summer initiative. This program welcomes individuals from the Greater Boston community to our campus, where they engage with students through their expertise in fields such as architecture, engineering, art, construction management, neighborhood advocacy, city planning, landscape design, and professional hiking. This program exemplifies collaboration, critical thinking, and the power of partnerships—key principles at Advent.
“We had so much fun meeting with the campers, sharing the Tadpole Playground Improvement project happening on Boston Common, and teaching kids about landscape architecture and design.
I was impressed with many thoughtful questions and ideas from even the youngest campers. Everyone was so engaged and excited to contribute to the design process of a nearby and important playground!”
Cassie Bethoney, RLA, Project Manager | Landscape Architecture At Weston & Sampson
“As I looked at the planned neighborhood before me, I was most impressed with the students’ intent for their creations to be accessible, practical, functional, and fun all at the same time. There were hotels, hospitals and water slides, and even a vertical food court. I was amazed at what the students could make with very simple materials, all recycled and reused.
These are our citizens and urban planners of tomorrow, and they’ll do wonderful, thoughtful things!”
Patricia Tully MBE, Executive Director, Beacon Hill Civic Association
7 Critical Thinking
At Advent, learning turns into action.
We value experiences and teaching practices that enable learners to develop thinking skills for designing, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting complex ideas and information.
We provide an environment for children to explore, question, and critically analyze information through project-based learning and differentiated instruction.
Advent students can develop innovative solutions to challenges, are empowered to approach problems logically and thoughtfully, and build confidence by applying their knowledge to hands-on projects. The class of 2022, following their participation in a May 19, 2022, Boston City Council meeting, visited Boston’s City Hall to meet council members. The students handed the councilors letters outlining their demands for reparations for slavery. Former District 8 councilor Kenzie Bok met with the students, their teachers, and Aziza Robinson-Goodnight P’26 and took them on a building tour. Students met several councilors and shared their plans for reparations with them.
Advent students are keenly aware of the world and know they can actively improve it.
How is Hair Connected to Culture?
An emergent study from the class of 2025
Students embarked on a fascinating, months-long study sparked by a casual discussion about hairstyles during snack time. The conversation evolved into an inquiry about how hair is connected to culture and identity, after students reflected on cultural appropriation and representation. Instead of providing a simple answer, the teacher encouraged the class to explore this complex topic together. The journey began with a series of reflective journal entries and class discussions, where students examined different viewpoints and reconsidered their positions as they learned from one another.
Throughout the study, students deepened their understanding of hair’s cultural significance by analyzing classroom books using the Andre Walker hair typing system. They discovered that kinkier hair was underrepresented, prompting meaningful conversations about inclusivity and representation in media. The broader community supported the investigation through presentations about what their hair meant to them, providing valuable insights and data points. They also explored the impact of the CROWN Act, a law aimed at ending hair discrimination, which students found both shocking and empowering. The CROWN act was passed in Massachusetts on July 26, 2022.
Inspired to make a difference, the class created posters to raise awareness about hair diversity and discrimination. Their work reflects what they learned and their desire to celebrate and support individuality in our school community.
8 Partnerships
We value strong relationships between students and teachers, the school and the home, and the school and the wider community.
Shared engagement in the learning experience is the foundation of our school community.
Advent is rooted in Boston and learning is not confined to the classroom environment. Advent’s students see Boston as an extension of their classroom; nowhere is that more visible than in the Beacon Hill community.
In one academic year, Advent students in all grades engaged with over 45 museums, non-profits, farms, civil rights leaders, government officials, parks, community partners, and more.
‘‘ I think of Advent as a school embedded in the community and city, with a mission to create student leaders who will help to improve their home communities further. Parent, Class of 2026
Boston - and beyond - is Our Classroom
ECC and Kindergarten students lead the whole community in a parade to the Public Garden to celebrate the monarch butterfly. This event has been a tradition for over 15 years and celebrates Advent student’s connection to the natural world, advocacy skills, science, and art.
A bagpiper may lead the way for Advent’s graduation parade, but they are by no means the star of the show. Advent’s graduating Sixth Graders proudly carry the Advent banner through the city as they lead their families, classmates, and friends to a historic Boston location for their commencement.
Advent’s Art Stroll is a celebration of creativity - in all forms! The School opens a gallery on campus to display students’ imaginative creations and invites the Boston community inside. The Art Stroll gets interactive as neighboring Charles Street businesses display student work in their windows, giving Advent students a sense of pride and belonging.
Learning comes to life during several overnight trips in the Upper Grades. In Fifth Grade, students spend a few days in Manhattan as part of their Research & Investigation study of immigration. They visit Ellis Island, Liberty Island, and the Tenement Museum to deepen their understanding of their studies. The Sixth Grade year begins with a threeday trip to Farm School in Athol, Massachusetts, to connect as a classroom community in their final year at Advent. In the spring, the Sixth Graders travel to Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire, for an overnight trip and hiking experience that is their capstone experience as a group.
These trips deepen students’ understanding of their studies, build classroom community, and strengthen their connections to the world around them.
