Learning is exceedingly complex. It is both highly personal and highly social. For educators tasked with facilitating and supporting learning, doing it, not just well but with excellence, requires a healthy dose of both art and science. And, while much is understood about the conditions and practices that support learning, facilitating learning that is durable, adaptive, inspiring, and innovative is a daily challenge for educators and schools. Moreover, creating school learning environments where students develop robust knowledge and skills is only the beginning. If students leave school today without the dispositions and skills to support lifelong, self-directed learning, they will not be equipped to tackle the challenges thrust upon them by an ever-changing world. 

So, while learning is complex, let’s take a moment to examine one of the key drivers of school-based learning – the teacher’s ability to create learning cultures of excellence in which students and educators are highly engaged with one another, with rich ideas and robust thinking and creating. Blessed with highly-skilled faculty, examples of high-engagement learning cultures at Mount Paran Christian School abound across all school grade divisions. 

On any given day, Mrs. Cindy Gibbs fields phone calls from independent schools across the country, seeking advice on how to successfully build an annual fund program. As the Assistant Director of Development for Mount Paran Christian School, Mrs. Gibbs and her colleagues in the MPCS development office are joined by a committee of enthusiastic parent volunteers to conduct a five-day “blitz-style” fundraising campaign, dubbed Annual Fund in Five. 

So, just how did MPCS grow its annual fund participation rates from a mere 28-percent in 2004 to 88-percent parent participation in 2022? By listening to families and engaging the school community.