Academics
Strategic Academic Plan (PK-12)

Academic Alignment

Academic alignment work is ongoing and involves thoughtful intention and care. Strategic academic alignment ensures that the curriculum remains in balance across and within the School's divisions and departments. As One School, we embrace the responsibility of academic alignment work which ensures students have a rightly ordered, thoughtfully sequenced academic experience during their time at Casady.

Academic Alignment at Casady School

Paramount to the success of executing Casady School's Strategic Academic Plan is finding the time and space for our teachers to collaborate. Establishing protected time and provisions for hosting a variety of strategic departmental team meetings will allow our faculty to continue crafting our academic program to be as effective and nimble as it can be in meeting our high standards of excellence. Beginning in the 2022-23 school year, Wednesday mornings, before the school day begins, will be the designated time for our faculty to come together for these strategic meetings around academic alignment. Much time and care has been given to creating a schedule for these Wednesday morning academic planning meetings so as not to significantly disrupt learning or instructional  time for our students. We will adopt a new Wednesday Schedule school wide.
This kind of work involves monitoring the alignment of our curriculum in all the ways that curriculum takes shape within a school. It’s about ensuring alignment of our students' skills and knowledge, as well as alignment of our philosophy and priorities, policies and practices, and communication and cultures. 
Academic alignment means that regardless of discipline or division, each piece of the puzzle fits alongside its neighbors to embody the same shared image which is Casady School’s mission and our Portrait of a Graduate. The importance of academic alignment was reaffirmed from the recently completed ISAS re-accreditation study that encouraged us to continue identifying ways to break down silos and support alignment, both programmatic and in communication across and within divisions.

Wednesday Schedule

Reserving time that is consistent, frequent, and common will allow us to promote ongoing curriculum work with our academic teams. This professional learning time allows teams of teachers to be able to meet horizontally and vertically during shared time where they can set goals and monitor progress, make curricular connections, align their procedures, and thoughtfully respond to new opportunities and challenges.

This important work is essential to the health of our curriculum as well as the students’ experience at Casady as a whole. This professional time will occur weekly on Wednesdays from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. beginning August 24, 2022.
 

Frequently Asked Questions

List of 6 items.

  • What is a Wednesday Schedule? Does this mean a later start and/or end to Wednesday's school day?

    The school day will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesdays for All Day PreK through 8th grade. It will begin at 8:55 a.m. in the Upper Division. Depending on the division, various adjustments have been made in the day's academic schedules to accommodate this change so the school day will end at the same time.

  • What if parents need to drop off their students at the regular time?

    Families can drop off students at the regular time if needed. We will provide division-specific spaces where students will be monitored. Depending on the division level, students might be studying or working on homework, engaging in an activity, or connecting with their friends.  This supervised drop-off at the regular time is no cost to families. 

    Casady's Early Care will still be available on Wednesdays for families who need early morning drop-offs before 7:30 a.m.

    Families may also choose to bring their students for the slightly later start time for the school day that begins at 9:00 a.m (8:55 a.m. for UD). This allows students an extra hour of sleep or for families to have breakfast together or do other meaningful activities.

  • Will students miss out on certain classes each time?

    Students will not lose any classes in their day, and there is no significant instructional time loss, which is only 5 minutes from some Middle and Upper Division instructional blocks.

  • Will students miss out on Chapel, P.E., or other electives?

    There will be no loss of classes, P.E. or athletics, specials, electives, or Chapel.

  • Is this a typical thing for schools to do?

    The academic review team did extensive research with peer schools across the nation. This is a common model that can help elevate and sustain important academic initiative work.

    Some of the INDEX schools we surveyed who have a Wednesday Schedule included Holland Hall, Pembroke Hill, Greenwich Academy, Holton Arms, Lovett, The Pingry School, Gulliver Prep, Cape Henry, University School of Nashville, and more.

  • What is vertical and horizontal curriculum alignment?

    Academic Teams will follow a weekly Wednesday schedule that includes this horizontal (within a division) and vertical (cross-divisional) alignment.

The Casady Table

Initiatives by Division

2022-23 Schedules

9500 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73120     |     Phone: (405) 749-3100
Casady School is an independent, co-educational, college preparatory, Episcopal day school serving students in pre-k-12. Educating Mind, Body, and Spirit.
Casady School is a PreK-12, independent, college preparatory Episcopal day school committed to deeper-level learning. Casady School welcomes a student body that reflects the diversity of the world around us and therefore does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, nationality, or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletics, and other school-administered programs generally accorded or made available to students at the School.