Wooster School provides a superior educational experience because

• Wooster fosters academic and intellectual excellence in each and every student.
• Wooster builds character by inspiring responsibility, respect, and confidence.
• Wooster is a diverse, welcoming, caring community of students and parents.
• Wooster has faculty members who coach students on athletic teams, in art studios, in drama productions, and in musical groups.

Wooster fosters academic and intellectual excellence in each and every student.

Wooster teachers challenge their students to reach high academic standards, and they stimulate intellectual curiosity in each student. Students learn to think critically and analytically, to question, and to stretch their thinking. Wooster builds lifetime learners by emphasizing love of learning over learning motivated by outside pressure.

• College Preparatory Environment provides a rigorous academic curriculum to all students. Wooster students are well prepared for the challenges at the next grade level and, ultimately, to succeed in college and beyond. Wooster graduates return to report that they were notably better able to manage their time and the difficulty of their courses than their peers. Advanced Placement and Honors sections are offered to all qualified students.

• College Acceptance - Since its founding, Wooster has intentionally accepted a broad range of students and its college acceptances reflect this diversity. 100% of Wooster graduates are accepted at a four-year college. Recent graduates have chosen to attend American, Amherst, Bates, Duke, Earlham, Elon, Haverford, Holy Cross, Michigan, NYU, Rhode Island School of Design, Swarthmore College, Tufts University, University of Connecticut, and a variety of other institutions that are best suited for them ( please review the College Guidance section for a complete list). Over the last five years, 18% of Wooster graduates have attended schools ranked “most competitive” in Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges, and over 50% attended schools ranked “most competitive” or “highly competitive.” More than 1/3 of our students scored over 1300 on the SAT. Individual meetings with the Director of College Guidance begin in 11th grade.

• Small Classes require student participation, promoting active learning, questioning, and debate rather than rote memorization. It is as if every student has a front row seat. The average class size in the Lower School is 11 students, in the Middle School it is 13 students, and, in the Upper School, the average is 12 students.

• Gifted and Dedicated Faculty - 50% of the faculty hold master or doctorate degrees. The Wooster faculty includes three Fulbright Award winners, a Klingenstein Fellow, and a PhD from Cambridge, England.

• Educational Resource Program - This program is designed to enable students to maximize their educational skills and better prepare them for the next level of academic challenge. Wooster has two Learning Specialists on staff who work with students Pre-K-12 to develop better organization, improve note-taking, learn test-taking strategies, and enhance the other academic skills necessary for each child to successfully meet the rigorous academic expectations of each grade level.

• Integrated Technology - Our Director of Educational Technology works with our faculty to make the best use of Wooster’s information technology resources to augment student learning. The use of course management web sites, computer-based labs, electronic communication, internet research, and our fully-automated library are woven into the curriculum and into classroom instruction. Computer usage and instruction begins in kindergarten, and electives in web design, computer graphics, and AP Computer Science are offered in the Upper School.

• Foreign Language - Language training begins in pre-kindergarten and continues until a student is competent in both speaking and writing and has a deep understanding of a culture other than his or her own.

• Athletics - Our program includes 27 interscholastic teams and has been recognized as one of the most successful small school programs in New England. In addition to having numerous top-ranked teams (including 39 league titles and 46 bids to the prestigious New England tournament), we have been honored with an astounding 41 sportsmanship awards in recent years. We have created a program that carries out the mission of the school and benefits everyone involved.

• Art, Music, and Drama are offered through the Wooster School Art Center, the Department of Music, the Drama Department, and afternoon programs. Many classes are taught by professional artists and musicians, and art and music are required subjects through graduation. Among dozens of options, the Madrigal Singers, who have performed at Carnegie Hall, and the Contemporary Improvisation Ensemble, Art History, and Photography are noteworthy. Starting in Middle School, both musical and dramatic theater performances in Wooster’s Black Box Theater perform to sold-out audiences each season.

• Independent Work - At all levels, students are encouraged in age-appropriate ways to learn to work independently. Most seniors engage in a Senior Independent Study in the spring of their last year at Wooster. Students are encouraged to explore areas of academic interest, participate in community service, or pursue a personal challenge. The experience culminates in a formal presentation to peers, faculty, and parents about the value of that work to their personal growth.

• Opportunities to shine - Wooster students have a multitude of opportunities to demonstrate academic and intellectual achievement. Competition in academics and non-academic areas is introduced at age-appropriate levels so that students learn to seek their personal best. Students feel safe to push themselves to a higher standard. Showing intelligence is socially accepted at Wooster, and students earn respect from their peers for academic success.