Some of the successes that our program has achieved over the last four years as a result of support from The Harvest Foundation grant include:

• Improved instructional practice due to professional development of faculty members
• Instruction is more data-driven
• Improved administrative practice with regard to classroom observations and walk-throughs
• We have greatly expanded our professional development opportunities for faculty members by sending them to training events and bringing seasoned consultants to our school site
• We have re-aligned our curriculum both horizontally and vertically
• As a result of our curriculum alignment project, we are able to deliver a curriculum based on standards and benchmarks that have been objectively defined and are research based
• We have mapped most of our curriculum in our subject areas and it is available electronically to be shared by faculty members
• We are the first independent school in the state of Virginia to be fully authorized to offer the IB Middle Years Program (MYP)
• We have begun the process of application for the IB Primary Years Program (PYP)

We have improved student learning by:

• Increased student engagement
• More collaborative opportunities
• More “hands on “ activities
• Opportunities for student reflection
• Students introduced to Holistic Learning
• Improvement in standardized test scores
• Increased interdisciplinary planning
• Revised course outlines
• Increased global/intercultural awareness
• Improved “higher order” thinking skills and problem solving activities
• Improved faculty communication, collaboration and leadership

Some of the comments from teachers on how instructional practice has changed or improved over the course of The Harvest Foundation Grant years include:

• “I would say I am proudest of how my Language Arts subcommittee has worked so well together and how productive our meetings were.”
• “…teacher observations, teacher self-reflection, improved performance”
• “… by the sense of community and alignment of departments within Carlisle School”
• “I think we should be proudest of the fact that we are undertaking a huge project with a good deal of agreement among the faculty that we will enhance and improve our educational product as a result. Our headmaster has asked us to do a great many things differently and in addition to our regular duties, and in general, there is a feeling among teachers that this project is very worthwhile.”
• “…by the learning health of the students. The students love to learn and desire to reach for more information through teacher collaboration and awareness of teaching through departments.”
• “Preschool…last year we were exposed to letter recognition, phonics, and number recognition. This year we have added sight words and take-home books, and we’ve changed from a weekly theme to 20 lesson units based on social science themes.”