Morgan Academy K-8 Schoolhouse

Our main K-8 Schoolhouse is the beating heart of Morgan Academy. Core academic classes are kept to a 12 student limit, affording each child maximized teacher time, individual communication and advisement, and attentive small group instruction.

In addition to core science, social studies, math, language arts, and physical education instruction, students have weekly enrichment classes that include organic gardening, art, Spanish and cultural studies, and music appreciation. Regular guest speakers—from state legislature representatives to social justice advocates to community leaders—engage students in on-campus programs and regularly scheduled field trips offer students hands-on co-curricular experiences in our diverse, mid-Atlantic region.

Our Honor Code stresses a high standard of personal responsibility and ethical behavior, with students practicing empathy, patience, and self-discipline day-in and day-out. Morgan Academy encourages self-expression governed by a consideration of others, healthy structure, and academic rigor. Supporting different styles of learning and helping to build genuine self-esteem in each child—with both affirmation and accountability—are a focus of all Morgan Academy faculty.

K-8 is a crucial time for children to learn to collaborate and to begin developing independence. No two students are alike. It’s the responsibility of our school and every school to recognize this and celebrate each child.

All parts of our program share a common philosophy around—

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

• 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.

• 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.