About Q2L

A Reason and a Purpose
Designed to support the digital lives of young people and their capacity for learning, Quest to Learn is a school committed to graduating strong, engaged, literate citizens of a globally networked world. Through an innovative pedagogy that immerses students in differentiated, challenge-based contexts, the school acknowledges game design and systems thinking as key literacies of the 21st century. Within an integrated, Regents-based curriculum students work with teachers to gain the skills necessary to meet these requirements, and even surpass them. On-going evaluation and feedback create opportunities for students to plan, revise, and reflect on their own learning. The overall curriculum is rooted in mathematical practices and the use of smart tools, with an explicit intent to innovate at the level of how students are assessed in context. Most importantly, teachers work with students to build individual and academic competencies and enrich youth identity development within contexts that are relevant and meaningful.

Quest to Learn has purposely responded not only to the growing evidence that digital media and games offer powerful models for reconsidering how and where young people learn, but also to the belief that access for all students to these opportunities is critical. We believe that supporting students, their parents and communities in a quest to become motivated, resourceful, life-long learners is a true aim of education.

Background
In 2006 the MacArthur Foundation turned their attention to the design of 21st century learning environments that would respond both to the needs of kids growing up in a digital, information-rich, globally complex era prizing creativity, innovation, and resourcefulness. As part of this work, in spring 2007 New Visions for Public Schools joined forces with Katie Salen (Center for Transformative Media, Parsons The New School for Design and The Institute of Play, a games and learning group), with an idea for a school that would use “game-like learning” as a way to empower and engage students from all walks of life. Quest to Learn (Q2L) is the result of this collaboration, and is specific in its focus on connecting student learning to the demands of the 21st century, supporting young people in their learning across digital networks, peer communities, content, careers, and media.

Critically, the school design 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. Through its role as a demonstration site Quest offers teachers and students unprecedented access to new kinds of learning tools to support student achievement, performance-based assessment, youth identity development, and preparation for college and/or career, including support for ELL, special education, and students who come into the school not academically prepared.