Promote the Hilltop as a Learning Hub

Increase learning opportunities beyond the boundaries of disciplines, classroom, and campus, and serve as an educational leader and incubator to push the boundaries of existing programs.

Elevate forms of creative expression and the creative arts—visual, performing, and digital—to engage Hackley students and link them with the broader creative community. 

Creativity and creative expression will be elevated by bringing the visual, performing, and digital arts programs together in a new facility that promotes collaboration across disciplinary boundaries. Hackley students and faculty will learn from and work with visiting artists and professional artists and artisans from the surrounding area, leveraging the vibrancy of the greater New York City area art community. 

Selected Action Steps:

1. Reimagine the physical plant and human resource requirements necessary to inspire and elevate teaching and learning of the creative arts and the creative process.

2. Establish opportunities for students to collaborate with artists and artisans within and beyond the greater Hackley community.

3. Develop an artist-in-residence program.

Create a series of culminating “Big Experiences” for Hackley students at important transition points. 

Students and teachers across the K-12 spectrum will collaborate in developmentally appropriate ways to define and develop a series of culminating experiences at key transition points. These “Big Experiences” may range from year-long Service Learning projects in 4th grade to environmental stewardship work in 8th grade to travel and internships in the Upper School. “Big Experiences” will differ in length, depth, and complexity as would be appropriate across the divisions, yet will align with and reinforce the curricular competencies, serving as signature learning experiences at Hackley. 
 

Selected Action Steps:

1. Identify and develop the vision for the “Big Experiences” program and its requirements, aligning them with the competency-based approach.

2. Analyze academic calendar and student schedules to allow for more flexibility to accommodate the “Big Experiences” program.

3. Create a collaborative process for students and teachers to design these experiences.

4. Explore varying methods of assessment and reporting for these experiences.

Create new opportunities for culturally immersive experiences both domestic and abroad.

Each Hackley student will have the opportunity to participate in an immersive travel experience to a unique cultural environment, domestic or abroad, at least once between grades 9 and 12. Students will have the opportunity to share their learning with peers and promote the sense of empathy and wonder cultivated by travel.  

Selected Action Steps:

1. Investigate existing programs abroad and leverage Round Square membership to create student and/or faculty exchanges
   for extended periods.

2. Identify and secure resources to ensure that each Hackley student can participate in an immersive travel experience to a unique cultural environment, domestic or abroad, at least once between grades 9 and 12.

Develop a school-wide Service-Learning program and create a sustainable model for Hudson Scholars. 

Service-Learning—the blending of classroom-based learning and community service—will be expanded in developmentally appropriate ways. Additionally, we will develop the necessary structures to sustain Hudson Scholars, strengthening Hackley’s connection with the local community and reinforcing the centrality of service to others in a life of accomplishment. 

Selected Action Steps:

1. Identify the structures and support required to build Hudson Scholars into a four-year program.

2. Cultivate an authentic and nuanced understanding of the concept of Service Learning as a teaching and learning strategy across all three divisions.

3. Engage current community partners to discuss the Service Learning framework, understand present and future needs of organizations, and identify the possible curricular connections for new opportunities. 

Utilize the Hackley Forest and surrounding natural ecosystems to their fullest educational capacities and foster environmental stewardship.  

The community will steward and better integrate the Hackley Forest and surrounding natural environment into the program, including establishing professional development resources for other educators and developing relationships with partner schools. 

Selected Action Steps:

1. Study the potential for the creation of the Hackley Institute for Forestry, Agriculture & Resource Management (Hackley FARM).

2. Connect and create a “friendship” program with schools that have proximity and developed programs focused on environmental education (e.g. the New York Harbor School).

The Plan in Action