Student Engagement Initiative
Student Engagement Initiative: Where Challenge Meets Joy
At Friends' Central School, we believe that true, deep learning happens when students are both intellectually challenged and deeply engaged. Launched in 2023 for grades 6 through 12, our Student Engagement Initiative moves engagement from an abstract ideal into a measurable, research-backed practice.
Using the Wellington Engagement Index, we view engagement through a simple, powerful formula: the intersection of academic challenge and personal enjoyment. When students are pushed to think critically and love what they are learning, they thrive.
How It Works: Data-Driven Student Voice
We don't guess how our students are doing – we ask them. Six times a year, students provide real-time, anonymous feedback in the Wellington Engagement Index (WEI) by plotting each of their classes on a grid that measures challenge and enjoyment.
- Actionable Insights: This data allows us to track year-over-year trends and ensure equitable engagement across all student groups.
- Active Co-Creation: As a Quaker school, honoring every voice is central to who we are. This initiative encourages students to see education not as something delivered to them, but as something they actively co-create alongside their teachers.
Investing in Excellence: Our Teacher-Leader Model
Great data is only as good as the action it inspires. To translate student feedback into classroom success, FCS has three dedicated instructional coaches (Teacher Leaders). Every Middle and Upper School faculty member partners with a Teacher Leader to analyze their specific classroom data and engage in ongoing professional development. Together, faculty and Teacher Leaders identify concrete instructional strategies that directly elevate the student experience and deepen engagement.
Real Results
By normalizing open dialogue about the productive struggle that meaningful learning requires, we help our students build self-awareness and agency. The results speak for themselves: our students report high levels of classroom engagement while excelling.
"Moving from qualitative student engagement information to data that we can measure, analyze, and use to make our great teaching even better is just one way that, at Friends’ Central, we go further!”
-Head of School Beth D. Johnson ’77
