The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place. Rachel Carson
Project-Based Assessment
Traditional admissions testing is expensive, stressful, and a poor predictor of academic success. Avenues is conducting cross-cultural research on fun, student-centered, non-timebound alternatives that prioritize character and problem-solving skills over curricular proficiency.
Visualization and Specification Tracking (VAST)
Creating a world school means creating and scaling world-class design and architecture. VAST is a system that enables Avenues to document, iterate, communicate, and scale detailed architectural and design standards to partners around the globe.
Avenues Online (AON)
Reaching beyond the great cities of Avenues’ bricks-and-mortar schools, AON is a cloud-based campus for students across the globe. Unlike traditional online education, AON combines interdisciplinary project-based learning and live sessions with Avenues educators. The result is an unmatched high-tech/high-touch learning experience.
Small World Program
The brain doubles in size in the first year of life, and by age three it has reached 80 percent of its adult volume. The kinds of experiences that children have during this period strongly influence their future development and learning, which is why Avenues has introduced the Small World program: an early childhood experience designed to create happy, well-adjusted children with healthy, learning-optimized brains.
Avenues World Elements (AWE)
AWE was developed to showcase Avenues’ unique global perspective and define the intended curriculum for graduating students across the globe. The elements capture the essential and enduring outcomes for our graduates. Curricular elements combine to form a wide variety of programmatic molecules within the curriculum, providing building blocks of thought and behavior for Avenues students. More at Avenues Open…
Avenues World Language Scale (AWLS)
At Avenues, bilingual proficiency is a priority for all of our students. In order to achieve our unique global L2 curricular goals and observe the latest research on blingualism and language acquisition, Avenues collaborated with thought leaders in language immersion, linguistics, and cognitive science to develop the Avenues World Language Scale.
Envision Data Analytics
Many schools collect extensive data, but struggle for insights to fuel student success. Avenues is codifying its goals by defining graduates’ essential skills, then uses analytics to gauge progress. Our dashboard reports student and organizational key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time, enabling us to analyze student performance longitudinally, evaluate organizational performance, identify key research questions, and communicate with diverse audiences.
Optimizing Mandarin Immersion for Young Learners
The pinyin system uses the Roman alphabet and tonal markers to scaffold pronunciation prior to learning Chinese characters. However, unlike common practice with Mandarin-native students in China, immersion programs in the U.S. avoid pinyin until second grade over concerns of hurting younger students’ English literacy. Our research continues, but early results suggest no benefit in the delay and no adverse effects for English-native students.
The Elements of Education Series
The Elements of Education series is the first comprehensive LX compendium of evidence-based learning principles. Clear explanations are paired with plain-language “dos” and “don’ts” to facilitate application. From class size to chunking, grit to growth mindset, spacing to storytelling, every major LX concept is critically examined to broaden knowledge and inform practice.
Funding Service Learning and Innovation
Our students are increasingly investigating innovative ways to positively impact their local and global communities. This can often be addressed with in-class or mastery projects, but a deeper, longer-term commitment is sometimes required. We are exploring the creation of a new social venture fund to enable students to receive funding for their social innovation projects as part of 9-12 studies or for a post-graduate gap year. Read about the Avenues Seed Bank.
Avenues Mastery Academies
Inspired by 15th-century Renaissance studios, Avenues Mastery Academies employ an apprentice-learning model where the world’s top students live and work alongside master teachers and practitioners. Bringing together like-passioned peers, this immersive learning community forges enduring friendships and social networks. More about the Avenues Mastery Academy…
Avenues The World School Press
Books published by Avenues The World School Press seek to advance Avenues’ mission by promoting understanding of the role of education in addressing global-scale problems. It is the first academic press operated by a private, independent PK-12 educational institution. Visit Avenues The World School Press…
Cognitive Skills and Biases Research
Can executive functions be enhanced through the long-term, deliberate practice of specific thinking skills? We are researching instructional methods to develop executive functions and fluid intelligence, including empathy, creativity, and mental agility, while improving fluency in key curricular areas such as math and writing. Isil Celimli and Todd Shy presented our work at EERA 2017. View the presentation…
Elements: the International Journal of Applied Educational Research
Most educational research is conducted by external researchers and is rarely read by the people who are actually teaching the world’s children. By publishing research that emerges from authentic school settings, Elements enables teachers to generate relevant research questions and direct empirical investigations, which increases the impact of this research at the classroom level. Visit the Elements journal…
Flight Path
Student progress can’t be characterized by any single, simple measure. The truest picture comes from a collage of assessments, classroom work, special activities, extracurricular projects, and many other indicators. The Flight Path project seeks to fuse this constellation of data to glean actionable insights that can maximize student success.
Avenues Institute for Advanced Mathematics
The institute opens a new path of advanced study in mathematics for secondary-aged students at Avenues campuses around the world. More than just an advanced math class, the Institute is a highly selective global program designed for students who see mathematics as a source of beauty and inspiration in the world, and who feel driven to produce groundbreaking work in mathematics. Read more…