Wildwood School
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Wildwood School is an independent K-12 school located in Los Angeles. Wildwood was founded as an elementary school in 1971, by a group of parents led by a young lawyer named Belle Mason. Wildwood School is dedicated to focusing on teaching independent learning to students and crafting them into lifelong learners. The elementary campus is located in Culver City with approximately 300 students in grades K-5, and the secondary campus is located in West Los Angeles with approximately 400 students in grades 6-12. The typical student teacher ratio at Wildwood is 5-1 for the secondary. There are approximately 350 students in the elementary and 420 in the secondary. Besides its alternative learning style, Wildwood is best known for the high number of celebrity families involved at the school.
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[edit] Brief history
For the first 15 years of its operation, Wildwood tried mainly controversial learning styles, such as dropping phonics from its curriculum. The reputation of Wildwood at that time was one of a hippie school with low educational standards. In the early 1990s Hope Boyd, formerly the headmistress of Westlake School for Girls, became the head of Wildwood. She began to stabilize Wildwood's academic course and solidified its reputation. In 1999, the Board of Directors decided to create a secondary school. The school was to be based on the principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools. The secondary school opened in 2000 with only 100 students. George Wood, a respected national educator and principal of Federal Hocking High School in Ohio, was the founding director of the secondary school.
[edit] Philosophy
At the elementary school, Wildwood incorporates multi-age primary classes. They are known as the "Pods". There are six pods, and each pod contains children from grades K-2 mixed together in small class size. The reasoning behind this is that the older children can influence and lead the younger children, starting at a very young age. The elementary school also encourages parent participation and every week during "all school meetings", parents are invited to be updated on school news and events.
At the secondary school no traditional grades are given and instead teachers grade the students through The Seven Habits of Heart and Mind. The Seven Habits of Heart and Mind come from a national organization known as the Coalition of Essential Schools and focuses more on the student as a person. Instead of report cards the students receive narrative assessments. Narrative assessments are comprehensive reports written by the teacher specific to each of The Seven Habits of Heart and Mind. Rather than daily assignments, lectures, and "busy work", the students at Wildwood School receive long term projects with flexible guidelines. This creates an environment of self directed learning with teacher guidance available when necessary. The secondary school encourages a system known as "Advisory" in which specific age groups are mixed and kept in the same advisory group and teacher for two years. Advisory is group of 12-14 students with one Advisory teacher. In Advisory, the students learn to bond with each other, participate in seminars and discussions, and have a therapeutic place to vent or discuss. The advisor is responsible for the students in his or her advisory and frequently checks in with them on their progress academically and socially. The different age groups mixed in advisories are 7th and 8th, 9th and 10th, and 11th and 12th. Class sizes remain small and students are encouraged to learn independently, to collaborate with other human beings, and to always seek evidence when presenting arguments.
Wildwood discourages a competitive learning environment and does not give out midterms or finals. Rather, Wildwood students demonstrate their learning through 50 minute presentations known as gateways at the end of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade. In all grades, parent teacher conferences are held three times a year with the student's advisor.
[edit] Community involvement and internship
Wildwood strongly encourages its students and faculty to reach out to the community around them. As a result, part of the curriculum of Wildwood includes going out and helping the less fortunate in the community. This ranges from participating in senior citizen centers, homeless service centers, elementary schools, and various other community service sites. Students are required to participate in these activities during school hours for 3 hours a week.
In addition, juniors and seniors must participate in the internship program for five hours a week. Students are matched with a mentor of a specific job field the student is interested in. As a result, students receive real world job training during school hours.
For the first time in 2005, Wildwood students accompanied administration to Vietnam to participate in community involvement.
[edit] Outreach Center
In 2001, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted Wildwood the funds to create an Outreach Center. The mission of the Outreach Center is to support the creation, development, and enhancement of small, personalized, learner-centered schools in Southern California and throughout the nation. The Center was given a huge boost in 2004, when the Los Angeles Unified School District gave its public schools two years to break down into smaller schools. As a result, Wildwood's Outreach Center has held numerous professional development workshops educating public school teachers and administrators on the elements of successful small schools including, Advisory Programs, Project-Based Learning, Habits of Mind and Heart and Portfolios and Exhibitions. In addition, Wildwood School was named a Coalition of Essential Schools mentor school in 2004 - a recognition of Wildwood's work with other schools. In 2005, Wildwood received a National Association of Independent Schools Leading Edge award for the outreach work it has done with public and charter schools nationwide.
[edit] Wildwood Athletics
The Wildwood Wolves have middle school and high school varsity teams including: Coed Cross Country, Girls Volleyball, Boys/Girls Basketball, Boys/Girls Soccer, Baseball, and Track and Field. The school offers other sports such as Boys/Girls Tennis and an Equistrian and Surf Teams. A number of Wildwood teams have gone on to league playoffs and championships including Boys and Girls Middle School Soccer Team, Varsity Basketball and Varsity Baseball Teams.
[edit] Other facts
The current head of Wildwood School is Hope Boyd, who is retiring in June 2007 and will be replaced by Landis Green. The director of the elementary school is Katie Rios and the director of the secondary school is Melinda Tsapatsaris. The tuition is over $15,000 a year for the elementary and $24,000 a year for the secondary and financial aid is available. The school mascot is the Wolf. The first senior graduating class of Wildwood School, with 21 students, were accepted into 46 colleges and received merit scholarships totaling over $640,000. The first full class of 60 will graduate in 2007. Former playboy centerfold Shannon Tweed is the president of the Wildwood Parent Teacher Association.
