The Nueva School

Private, coeducational school in Hillsborough and San Mateo, California, United States

Nueva School

Upper School campus

Location

Hillsborough and San Mateo

California

United States

Coordinates| 37°33′44″N 122°22′52″W﻿ / ﻿37.5621280°N 122.3811965°W﻿ / 37.5621280; -122.3811965[1]
Information
Type| Private, coeducational
Motto| "Learn by doing, learn by caring"
Established| 1967; 56 years ago (1967)
CEEB code| 051213
NCES School ID| 00089169
Head of School| Lee Fertig
Faculty| 140 full-time
Enrollment| 930 (PreK–12)
Classes| 15–18
Student to teacher ratio| 6.5:1
Campuses| Hillsborough, Bay Meadows
Campus size| Combined area: 36 acres (150,000 m2)
Color(s)| Blue and white
Athletics| Basketball, Cross-Country, Flag Football, Soccer, Squash, Tennis, Track and Field, Volleyball, Golf
Mascot| Mavericks
Team name| Mavericks (athletics)
Website| https://www.nuevaschool.org/

The Nueva School is a private school, with two campuses—the lower and middle school in Hillsborough, and the high school in San Mateo, California—serving gifted students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Nueva was founded in 1967 by Karen Stone McCown.[2] Originally, the Nueva School only served younger students, but in 2013 it expanded to include a high school, and a new campus for it was built as part of the Bay Meadows development in San Mateo, opening in August 2014.[3][4][5]

Unique aspects of Nueva's curriculum include its focus on design thinking and social emotional learning. In his book That Used To Be Us, commentator Thomas Friedman lauded Nueva for its creativity-inspiring curriculum and overall philosophy.[6]

Nueva is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges[7] and the California Association of Independent Schools.[8] It has received the Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education in 1988, 1997, and 2010.[2] Nueva was rated the #3 private K-12 school and the #9 private high school in the United States by Niche in 2021.[9]

## History[edit]

In 1965, Karen Stone McCown started planning a school for gifted and talented students, funded by her father-in-law W. Clement Stone. She convened a group of 17 Nobel Prize winners to discuss what kind of school would have suited them in their childhoods. Based on the meeting, she planned a school that would emphasize creativity, independence, active learning, and social and emotional learning. A board with members including Ernest "Jack" Hilgard and Meredith Wilson helped to found the school. In 1967, the school was founded on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, starting with students in kindergarten, first, and second grade, with the intention of adding one grade each year until the sixth grade.[10] In 1971, it moved to Crocker Mansion in Hillsborough, California.[11] In 2013, the school further expanded to the high school level.[4]

## Academics[edit]

The Nueva School is known for having a progressive curriculum utilizing project-based learning.[3]

Computer science classes are required, and there are also several elective computer science courses, including a two-semester sequence on machine learning.[12] In mathematics, there is an integrated core curriculum, along with advanced elective classes in the upper school including multivariable calculus and complex analysis.[13][14] Advanced science courses include applied molecular biology and experimental bioorganic chemistry. Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese are offered as language classes in the middle and upper school.[13] While Nueva does not have honors or Advanced Placement classes, the school claims that most of the core classes "meet or exceed the rigor of Advanced Placement."[15]

Among the upper school faculty, nearly 80% hold advanced degrees. Average standardized test scores at the upper school are 34 out of 36 for the ACT, 743 out of 800 on the reading and writing section of the SAT, and 760 out of 800 on the mathematics section of the SAT.[15]

Starting in 2007, Nueva had one of the first design thinking programs for PreK-8, now PreK-12 students, providing every student with training in design thinking methodology, engineering classes, projects, and practices that are now central to Nueva's learning approach. The Innovation Lab (I-Lab) is a space on campus dedicated to design thinking projects, where engineers help students with projects.[16]

The school's social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, originally called Self-Science, has been part of a Nueva education since its founding.[17] This curriculum teaches the skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. All teachers receive SEL training, and there are also dedicated SEL classes taught by specialists. Upper school SEL classes, called "Science of Mind," also cover psychology and neuroscience.[18] The SEL curriculum was highlighted by Daniel Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence.[19]

Nueva's Menuhin program, which teaches musical theory and practice to selected students in the first through eighth grades, was established by Sir Yehudi Menuhin and Helen Dowling.[20]

### Grading[edit]

In the upper school and middle school, Nueva grades with written evaluations and rubrics instead of just letter grades. The grading is not just based on academic achievement, but also on soft skills like curiosity and self-improvement, which can be up to 30% of the grade in some classes.[17] Rubrics have three sections: opportunities, meeting expectations, and celebrations. While students do receive letter grades in grades 10–12, in ninth grade classes are on a credit/no credit basis. Class rank is not computed, and there is no valedictorian.[15] Nueva is part of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, a group of schools designing a form of transcript emphasizing mastery of specific skills instead of traditional grades.[21]

### Annual school trips[edit]

Another element of a Nueva education is the annual trips program. Each year for grades one through twelve, students have a school trip. For first grade it is a one-night sleepover in the ballroom community space. For second, third, and fourth, students go on grade level camping trips. The second-grade trip is two days long, the third-grade trip is three days, and the fourth-grade trip is four. Fifth-grade students visit Monterey. Sixth grade students travel to Washington, DC.[22] Seventh-grade students go to Los Angeles and visit Japanese, Chinese and Spanish communities, as well as researching the film industry. Eighth grade students travel to Spain, Singapore/China/Taiwan, or Japan depending upon their language study, and participate in a homestay. Ninth grade students go to Peru to visit Machu Picchu.[23] Tenth grade students travel to Costa Rica to work with the Upwell Turtles and the Monteverde Institute in conjunction with their biology curriculum. Eleventh-grade students break up into several groups and travel to various locations in the United States as part of their American Studies curriculum. Twelfth-graders visit Argentina, Taiwan, France, and various other countries.[24]

November ninth is known amongst the students as "Wikipedia day" as it was the day of the year that students were unblocked from editing wikipedia.

## Extracurricular activities[edit]

There are more than 50 clubs at Nueva, including a FIRST robotics team, an a cappella group, a book club, and a Dungeons and Dragons club.[25] Nueva students have received national recognition for extracurricular achievement. Nueva students have won the public forum debate championship at the Tournament of Champions,[26] won the U.S. Mathematical Olympiad and competed at the International Mathematics Olympiad,[27] been finalists at the MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge,[28] won second place at the Broadcom MASTERS science competition,[29] been named a Davidson Fellow for research on Alzheimer's disease,[30] won third place at the National Geographic Bee,[31] won the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship,[32] and competed at the international Prix de Lausanne dance competition.[33] Nearly 10% of Nueva's senior class won National Merit Scholarships in 2019.[34]

## Campus[edit]

The lower school was originally located in Menlo Park but now is located on the site of the former W. H. Crocker Skyfarm mansion, which was purchased and donated to the school by the late W. Clement Stone. The school moved to the mansion in 1971.[11]

The remodeled mansion houses the lower school, grades pre-kindergarten to fourth. The middle school and classes for grades five to eight are also located on the Hillsborough campus and include the Hillside Learning Complex, the Cafe, library, and administrative offices that serve the whole school. Other campus facilities include a gymnasium/performance space, science labs, several playgrounds, art studios, and the "forts," a special outdoor play area. There is also the Innovation Lab (I-Lab), a maker-studio space with equipment including 3D printers, laser cutters, and construction tools that students use as part of the design thinking curriculum.[35] The Hillsborough school campus has a gym/multipurpose room known as the GCC where students play sports ranging from basketball to volleyball. Nueva's 42 acre Hillsborough campus is tiered, having the middle school going down into Crocker Mansion, going down into the hiking/forts trail. Nueva's upper field includes a track and two soccer goals, as well as a scoreboard that was installed in 2013.[36]

For the high school, established in 2013, a new campus of 133,000 square feet was built as part of the Bay Meadows development in San Mateo, opening in August 2014.[3][4][5] It was designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects.[37] The construction of the campus cost $70 million, which was funded by a capital campaign and by debt.[38] The inaugural ninth grade class was housed at the College of San Mateo while the construction of the high school campus was underway. The campus does not have individual offices for teachers; instead, they have clustered desks in common areas.[3] The high school campus is located near the Hillsdale Caltrain station, which more than half the students use to commute to school.[3]

Nueva's campuses have been recognized for their environmentally conscious design. The upper school campus gets 30% of its electricity from solar panels, using 65% less energy and 50% less water than a typical high school.[3][37] The middle school campus's library has a living roof with native plants.[39] The upper school campus was the first K-12 building in the United States to receive LEED Gold certification and has received the American Institute of Architects Award for School Design and Sustainability. Nueva was also one of 27 schools in the United States to be named a Green Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2021 for its sustainable practices.[40]

## Finances[edit]

Tuition for the Nueva School ranges from $30,555 for pre-kindergarten to $51,285 for high school, and the school gives around $5.5 million of financial aid per year.[41] This tuition pays for 80% of Nueva's operating costs. Nueva has an endowment of $9 million.[42] Controversially, it also received $2 million of federal loans from the Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic in 2020.[43]

## Admissions[edit]

Admission to the school in the eighth grade and below usually involves taking an IQ test: the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) for children under six years old, and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V) for children six years old and older. The target range for admissions is a score of 130 and above.[44] The admissions process also requires meeting with family, an activity session in a classroom setting, teacher evaluations, transcripts, and standardized test scores.[45]

## Notable alumni[edit]

* Lisa Brennan-Jobs, writer and daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs[46]
* Jon Fisher, entrepreneur and investor[47]
* Adam Klein, contestant on the TV show Survivor[48]
* Shemar Moore, actor[49]
* Michaela Shiloh, songwriter and recording artist[50]
* Jesse Thorn, broadcaster (NPR), podcaster and founder of the Maximum Fun podcasting network[51]
* Erik Goeddel, former Major League Baseball player and son of American molecular biologist David Goeddel
* Tyler Goeddel, former Major League Baseball player and son of American molecular biologist David Goeddel

## References[edit]

1. ^ "The Nueva School". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. April 6, 1998. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
2. ^ a b "Our History". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
3. ^ a b c d e f Kinney, Aaron (October 10, 2014). "San Mateo: The Nueva School debuts Bay Meadows campus". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 12, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
4. ^ a b c "The Nueva School – High School FAQ". nuevaschool.org. Archived from the original on April 12, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
5. ^ a b "The Nueva School – Bay Meadows Campus Now Open". www.nuevaschool.org. Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
6. ^ Friedman, Thomas L.; Mandelbaum, Michael (August 21, 2012). That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. Macmillan. pp. 162–164. ISBN 978-1-250-01372-9.
7. ^ "Directory of Schools 2019-2020" (PDF). Accrediting Commission for Schools Western Association of Schools and Colleges. July 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 16, 2019.
8. ^ "California Association of Independent Schools – Search for a School". caisca.org. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
9. ^ "2022 The Nueva School Rankings". Niche. Archived from the original on October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
10. ^ Jaffe, Dennis T. (January 1, 2004). "Nueva: Designing a Humanistic School for Gifted Youngsters". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 44 (1): 101–110. doi:10.1177/0022167803257130. ISSN 0022-1678. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
11. ^ a b "The Nueva School – History". nuevaschool.org. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
12. ^ Insights Team; Intel AI (May 22, 2019). "AI Goes To High School". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
13. ^ a b "Curriculum". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on February 28, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
14. ^ "Upper School Math". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
15. ^ a b c "Upper School Profile 2019-20". The Nueva School. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 11, 2021.
16. ^ Larson, Selena (October 30, 2016). "High school on Oracle's campus turns education on its head". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
17. ^ a b Curtis, Jen (May 9, 2017). "We Know SEL Skills Are Important, So How the Heck Do We Measure Them?". EdSurge. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
18. ^ "Social-Emotional Learning". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
19. ^ Goleman, Daniel (2005). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ. New York: Bantam Dell. pp. 261–269.
20. ^ "Menuhin-Dowling Music Program". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
21. ^ Kadvany, Elena (October 27, 2017). "Schools develop new kind of transcript". Palo Alto Online. Archived from the original on November 5, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
22. ^ "The Nueva School – Middle School Trips". www.nuevaschool.org. Archived from the original on November 2, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
23. ^ "The Nueva School – Upper School Trips". www.nuevaschool.org. Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
24. ^ "Global Citizenship". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on February 28, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
25. ^ "Upper and Middle School Clubs & Activities". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
26. ^ "Results History: Past Champions at the TOC" (Text). University of Kentucky. June 13, 2017. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
27. ^ Noguchi, Sharon (June 7, 2017). "Peninsula students win U.S. Mathematical Olympiad". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
28. ^ "Hillsborough Students Advance In International Math Competition". Patch. April 22, 2021. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
29. ^ Deruy, Emily (November 1, 2018). "Bay Area students take top 3 spots in national science competition". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
30. ^ Pizarro, Sal (August 25, 2020). "San Jose's oldest firefighter celebrating his 101st birthday". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 19, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
31. ^ Noguchi, Sharon (May 21, 2014). "San Carlos seventh-grader placed third in National Geographic Bee". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
32. ^ Fusek, Maggie (September 20, 2017). "Gifted Mountain View Student Receives National Honor". Patch. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
33. ^ Huang, Kaitlyn (June 3, 2020). "Dancer reflects on experience at international competition". Los Altos Town Crier. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
34. ^ Horgan, John (June 13, 2019). "Horgan: Local 2019 National Merit Scholarship winners announced". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
35. ^ Pfau, Peter (February 6, 2014). "Why We Should Use Design Thinking to Fundamentally Rethink Education". Metropolis. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
36. ^ "Our Campuses". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on April 26, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
37. ^ a b "Nueva School at Bay Meadows". LMSA. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
38. ^ Leuty, Ron (August 3, 2012). "Nueva to build $70M high school at Bay Meadows". San Francisco Business Times. Archived from the original on June 25, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
39. ^ Matthews, Daniel (March 29, 2013). "Living Roof Goes Back To School". EarthTechling. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
40. ^ He, Eric (April 22, 2021). "Peninsula School Chosen For Nationwide Environmental Award". Patch. Archived from the original on April 22, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
41. ^ "Tuition, Financial Awards, and the Sunshine Fund". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
42. ^ "Capital Campaign". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
43. ^ Sierra, Stephanie; Feingold, Lindsey (July 7, 2020). "I-TEAM: Wealthy Bay Area private schools receive millions in PPP funding". ABC7 San Francisco. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
44. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions About the Wechsler Intelligence Quotient Test". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
45. ^ "Lower School Application Process". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
46. ^ Cain, Áine (January 11, 2018). "A look at the mysterious life of Steve Jobs' formerly estranged daughter, Lisa, who inherited a fortune". Business Insider. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
47. ^ "Jon Fisher". Silicon Valley Business Journal. October 11, 2006. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
48. ^ Ehlers, Antonia (February 27, 2020). "Eighth-grader Interviews Survivor Winner and Nueva Alum Adam Klein '05". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
49. ^ Hartlaub, Peter (December 6, 2009). "Who's the most famous person you went to school with?". SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
50. ^ "Briefs". Nueva Magazine. Vol. Fall 2020/Winter 2021. p. 58. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
51. ^ "Thorn '95 Featured in Fast Company". The Nueva School. Archived from the original on April 22, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2021.

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