WPS Blog

by Laura Tavares Think of a moment when you’ve told your own story, such as writing a college essay, preparing for an interview, or reflecting on a project you cared about. In the act of putting experience into words, something shifts: you start to see patterns, name values, and recognize changes. That same shift shows up in schools. When students and teachers pause to talk about what’s new, what they’re learning about one another or themselves, they’re doing more than reflec

WPS is delighted to be launching a community innovation partnership with Boston Public Schools.

We were honored to have our innovation partnership with Salem Public Schools featured in this year’s Action Guide

In 2022, we worked with visionary leaders in Salem to launch their “Reimagining Middle School” initiative. This forward-thinking effort, whi

WPS is excited to unveil a new partnership with Peabody Public Schools, designed to enrich the educational journey of over 400 sixth graders

Read today's edition of the Boston Globe to learn more about what students are saying about the power of learner-centered schooling .

In this letter to the editor, We outline the conditions that are helping our partner districts to slash chronic absenteeism in middle school

We are excited to share this op-ed from today’s Boston Globe, "Learning to Love School: A Blueprint for Student Engagement.” Authored by Salem Superintendent of Schools Dr. Steve Zrike and philanthropist Dr. Gerald Chan, the piece spotlights our successful experiment to transform learning in Salem, MA. Launched in 2022 in partnership with the WPS Institute, Salem’s pilot middle school program addresses chronic absenteeism, declining student engagement, and lackluster academi

WPS’s Middle School Pilot in Salem, MA is designed to reshape how local students experience school, and also to inform and inspire innovat

Competencies are not a solution all on their own, but as part of a structure that promotes both belonging and authentic community engagement

The design of the Salem Middle School pilot is an iterative process, rooted in a robust practice of reflection and evaluation. The pilot employs the highly-validated Transcend Leaps Survey to assess the program's impact on student perception in several areas, such as: connection & community active self-direction affirmation of self and others relevance anytime anywhere learning Learn more about the pilot and read the full summary of year 1 Leaps Survey results here.

Year one of the Salem Middle School Pilot was a year of "unlearning". Read all about our insights from the year in this Voyager magazine article.

Image Source: Vogue The city of Salem is an extraordinarily rich environment for learning, with significant natural, cultural and civic resources. The opportunity to better integrate these resources into the formal learning experiences of city youth is one factor driving this change. At the same time, city schools and students also face significant challenges, particularly exaggerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both observations of the middle school and relevant data suggest t