About Q2L

FAQs
Where is the school located?
Quest to Learn is located on the M47 campus at 225 East 23rd Street, NYC. In close proximity to our partners the Institute of Play and The New School, Quest to Learn is accessible by public transportation via the 6, R and W trains and the M23 bus line.

What is your school number?
The school number for Quest to Learn is 02M422.

Why did you start a school like Quest to Learn?
The students of today will soon be the scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs, writers, designers, and leaders of tomorrow. The goal of Quest to Learn is to educate children for college and career success in the 21st century. In a world that is increasingly networked, collaborative, global, and systems oriented the ability to resource knowledge, judge the credibility of information, and collaborate across disciplines are necessary literacies. While Quest to Learn leverages educational technologies and digital media, the strength of our model is our focus on 21st century learning creating authentic assessment, increasing student engagement, and equipping students with strategies to become lifelong learners.

What kinds of students are a good fit for the school?
Students who enjoy using or creating digital media, like online websites, games, music, blogs, animations, or images. Quest has been designed to support students with different learning styles, achievement levels, and interests. Priority, will be given to students living in District 2.

What is game-based learning?
At Quest we believe that kids learn best when curricular content is presented in an inquiry‐based format that contextualizes learning, promotes real world problem solving and creativity. We do this by creating immersive game‐like learning environments. At Q2L, students learn by “taking on” the behaviors and practices of the people in real life knowledge domains. Students learn to be biologist and historians and mathematicians instead of learning about biology or history or math. By using the structure of games, Quest to Learn creates powerful educational tools to teach its 6th–12th graders. Games work as rule‐based learning systems, creating worlds in which players actively participate, use strategic thinking to make choices, solve complex problems, seek content knowledge, receive constant feedback and consider the point of view of others. It is important to note that Quest is not a school where children spend their day playing only commercial videogames. Instead is a school that uses what researchers and educators know about how children learn and the principles of game design to create highly immersive, game‐like learning experiences in the classroom.

Will Quest prepare my child for college?
Quest prepares all students for success in both college and career. Beginning in 6th grade our learning community is focused on college and career readiness. Additionally our curriculum is standards-based and aligned with college entry requirements.

What is an integrated curriculum and what are domains?
At Quest students learn standards‐based content within classes that we call domains. These domains organize disciplinary knowledge in 21st certain ways—around big ideas that require expertise in two or more traditional subjects, like math and science, or ELA and social studies. One of our domains—The Way Things Work—is an integrated math and science class organized around ideas from design and engineering: taking systems apart and putting them back together again. Another domain—Codeworlds—is an integrated ELA, math, and computer programming class organized around the big idea of symbolic systems, language, syntax, and grammar. A third domain—Being, Space and Place— an integrated ELA and social studies class—is organized around the big idea of the individual and their relationship to community and networks of knowledge, across time and space. Wellness is the last of our integrated domains, a class that combines the study of health, socio‐emotional issues, nutrition, movement, organizational strategies, and communication skills.

What’s Wellness?
Wellness is both a class and a philosophy at Quest. Throughout the curriculum and during the school day students gain practice in ways of understanding and managing their own health and wellness. Home Base, our daily small group advisory period that bookends the day, is part of our Wellness program, as is Morning Meeting, a time when all members of the school get together and talk about issues affecting the school. In addition, PE, health, and nutrition are part of the Wellness curriculum.

Do you have services for students who might need extra help?
Yes, we have daily time set aside for enhanced literacy and math instruction and our morning enrichment period gives students opportunities to get extra help on things they are struggling with. Our wellness program will address students that may be struggling due to non‐academic issues, and we are building a set of relationships with child‐focused service organizations that will complement our program in this regard.

What is your class size?
We are committed to smaller class size. As a result, classes at Quest have 22‐27 students.

What after school opportunities are there?
The Pearson Foundation is supporting our exciting after school enrichment program, Studio Mobo. Studio Mobo gives students a chance to work with mentors and other students to hone their digital media skills for use in classes. In addition, the school will support a variety of student proposed sports clubs and organizations that will be hosted in the after school space.

What is your expectation around parent involvement?
We have high expectations for our parent community and welcome their involvement in all aspects of the school. We have a number of programs and resources available to make this a reality. For example, parents can become parent volunteers, working with teachers in the classroom or in our after school enrichment space. Parents can join our Quest to Learn Action Team, a committee focused on School‐family‐Community partnerships. Or if there is an issue affecting the community a parent could host a parents’ meeting at their local community center or library. Any and all ideas are welcome when it comes to supporting our students’ education.

Who has been involved in the design of the school?
Quest to Learn was designed by a team of teachers, learning scientists, designers, parents, and research partners, with input all along the way from kids. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation funded the two‐year planning process, in conjunction with New Visions for Public Schools. We have strong support from groups like Commonsense Media, a parent‐focused media watchdog group, and various foundations, including the Pearson Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The New School is our primary university partner, and Intel supports work around our embodied learning lab, SMALLab.

How do you know your learning model is a good one?
We have successfully tested our model in various contexts. Also, the design of the school has drawn on youth development literature about the environmental factors that greatly increase student resiliency and improve the chances for academic and social success of youth living in high‐risk environments. These factors include high expectations of students’ abilities and skills; participation in activities that engage their voluntary commitment; opportunities to make contributions and to have these recognized and assessed; and continuity of support. Significantly, these factors are the very things that make games and other forms of digital media so compelling to young people today.

I like the digital media focus but wonder, will my child be in front of a screen all day?
No. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Our wellness philosophy influences how we think about where and how kids are learning. This means we have given a lot of thought to what students are doing both with their minds and bodies during the school day. At Quest, we believe many kids learn in physical, tactile, and visual ways, through moving their body, touching physical materials, and interacting with different kinds of spaces around the school. Our use of mobile phones is in part intended to “get kids moving;” so too is the use of one of our learning labs (SMALLab) that allow kids to use their bodies to interact with large‐scale digital projections on a floor mat.

Will my kids be safe going to online sites?
Yes. Quest has a rigorous policy for both teachers and students around the etiquette of online activity. All students will sign an Internet contract, which outlines dos and don’ts of working online. We believe in media sanity, not censorship. And since we can’t always cover our kids’ eyes, we have to teach them how to see. Part of our curriculum has been designed to help your kids stay Internet safe and smart.

How will my child’s Internet activity be monitored?
Quest’s media literacy curriculum equips students with an understanding of how to be safe and smart on the Internet. We hold high expectations for all students in this area, as we believe learning how to self‐monitor choices made around media, is critical. In addition, all of our teachers have been trained in working with and monitoring student online activity.

Are there internships for students?
Quest offers internships for students starting in the 8th grade.

Do you give grades?
Yes. But we also give students and parents detailed written feedback at the end of each trimester.

What kind of homework will my child get? How much will they have?
Students are expected to learn and work outside of the traditional school day. While the amount of homework will vary from class to class, we have designed a social network platform that will allow students and parents access to all school assignments and materials including homework from home. Currently are working to build an online mentor network that will give our students access to experts from around the world.

Will my child have textbooks?
Yes, students at Quest learn from multiple types of media sources and tools, including print.

What about foreign language? Will my child have the opportunity to learn one?
Yes. We hope to offer foreign language study starting in the 7th grade.

Do you have an arts program?
The arts are integrated throughout our curriculum, and can be taken as electives in the upper grades.

Do you offer sports?
We will provide opportunities for students interested in sports, although we don’t yet know the extent to which this will be possible in the early years of the school.