We Prepare Students For Success on College Campuses, We Prepare Students For Success in Life.
As John Dewey himself put it, education is not preparation for life — education is life itself. At Stone, our faculty act as mentors and facilitators, and we endeavor to cultivate intrinsic motivation, intellectual drive, and innovative thinking, changing students’ relationship to their work. We are a school of naturally curious people who believe in authentic exploration, who practice iteration in all that we do, who believe in joyfulness, who believe that we are all here to make the world “a measurably better place”.
Our Mission
The Stone Independent School is a progressive, interdisciplinary 7-12 school which believes that all students learn best by doing. It is our mission to graduate students who are prepared for college and prepared for a world beyond college, who practice empathy, ethicality, vulnerability, and gratitude, and who are committed to making the world a measurably better place.
We anchor everything we do to our Mission, and ask that our students sign it every year as a reminder of our shared values and purpose.
Overview
At Stone, we believe the practice of higher-order problem solving is the catalyst for richer and more meaningful learning experiences. Philosophically, our practices are grounded in the tradition of progressive education; our curriculum and our pedagogy is problem-based. We design for and measure deep learning, and we are anchored by competency-based assessment practices. Stone students are co-architects of their education: we invite them to work in real-world contexts, using real-world processes, innovation, tools, and standards as a way to connect to their own concerns, interests, and identities.
Stone students are deeply curious people who want to grapple and strive, who want to be challenged and to grow, who believe rigor is found in complexity, who want to have impact on their community and their world. Our students graduate Stone and matriculate to four-year colleges with stand-out experiences in academic research, STEM exploration and laboratory work, entrepreneurship, travel, and global education.
At A Glance:
Student Body: We are comprised of approximately 115 students from Lancaster, Reading, Hershey, and York;
Grade Size: Our average grade-level size is 20 students;
Student-Faculty Ratio: 7:1
Tuition: We are a tuition-based school, and our tuition-rate for the 24-25 school year is $18,500;
Financial Aid: Because we are what’s called a “need-blind” school, approximately 50% of our student body receives some form of financial aid. Since 2017 we have been able to award more than $2m in aid to our community;
Global Education: Last year, 50% of our students participated in at least one of our off-campus experiential education experiences.