Teaching and Learning

Morgan Academy offers a vibrant academic program that begins with play- and imagination-based learning in Preschool, then builds creativity, confidence, and responsibility in the comprehensive K-8 program. Our students learn to evaluate empirical evidence and to solve problems through interdisciplinary thinking.

Continuing into our university-based, dual enrollment high school, students develop critical reasoning skills through an academically rigorous and experientially diverse curriculum. Young people graduate with the tools and ethical bearing they need to be independent citizens who contribute good to their community and the world.

All parts of our program share a common philosophy around—

Class size: Morgan Academy’s core academic classes are kept to a minimum of 12 students, which affords them maximum teacher time, and allows for an abundance of one-on-one attention, as well as small-group instruction.

High standards: We aim high academically and hold students to high standards of responsibility. Humans rise to the occasion when we expect the best from each other, while providing a safe, nurturing environment. Too often in the world, high standards and authentic care are presented as opposites. But, in fact, the two are complements and thrive when bound together.

Experiential learning: Acquiring and practicing design thinking, engaging in project-based learning, developing curricula manifested in hands-on lessons that include observation, making, and reflection are key across all of our subjects, classes, and cohorts.

Environmental stewardship: A 4000 sq. ft. teaching garden, a farm practicum with pigs and chickens, a nature trail with a stream-fed wetland amid Appalachian mixed mesophytic forest are all part of our physical campus. Since our founding, Morgan Academy has sought to build comprehensive curricula that integrate an investigation of and respect for nature.

Pods Grade-level Alignment: The Morgan Academy pod system creates a cohort-based, collaborative learning environment that groups students according to assessed cognitive and emotional development, flexibly but logically aligning grade level. Student achievement in reading and language arts, math, science, history and social studies, foreign language, and the fine arts, as well as student skills in emotional expression and self-regulation, executive functioning, decision-making, and problem-solving all factor into pod placement. Each pod aligns with a consecutive range of grade levels and ages, but reflects an authentic group dynamic and learning context for the whole child.