Category: Highbury

Ted Gioia recently shared a sobering list about the state of childhood today. Among the facts he cites: the average child now plays outside for only 4 to 7 minutes a day time spent with friends has fallen in half half of children surveyed say their parents should be concerned about their screen time. Childhood…

Monticello Academy Highbury is proud to share strong early learning results in 2025, with students posting the highest nearby performance in Acadience Reading (K-3), Acadience Math (K-3), and 3rd Grade Reading on Grade Level. For families in West Valley City, Magna, Kearns, and Taylorsville, these results show that Highbury students are building strong foundations early…

Monticello Academy Highbury is proud to share strong 2025 math results across multiple grade levels, with students posting the highest math performance among nearby comparison schools in early math, elementary math, and junior high math. For families in West Valley City, Magna, Kearns, and Taylorsville, these results show what academic success can look like at…

We’re excited to share that Monticello Academy has been awarded a Utah Children’s Outdoor Recreation and Education (UCORE) grant to support a new 4th–8th grade outdoor and environmental education program called Monticello Outside. Monticello Outside is a vertically aligned outdoor curriculum that spans grades 4–8 at Monticello Academy. The idea is simple: more time outside,…

Over Fall Break, Mr. Roberts scoped out a destination for the capstone trip of our outdoor education program, Monticello Outside. This trip will be for 8th graders, which means Highbury students will be able to attend this year, and we hope to extend the program to future years so that West Point students will join…

Over the past two years, Monticello Academy has been engaged in a schoolwide effort to better understand how students learn—and how teachers can more effectively support that learning. This journey began with the Practical Applications of Learning Science (PALS) Handbook, a research-based guide originally developed for Naval instructors. The handbook distills decades of cognitive-science research…

Ideas matter. And wrong ideas have led most American schools down the wrong path in recent decades. As a parent, you should learn about these ideas and how we can overcome them to make schools places where all students can thrive. For the curious parent ready for a deeper dive, watch this 7 minute explainer:…

The Problem Did you know that most schools don’t have a knowledge curriculum? They have a skills curriculum. What does that mean? It means that they don’t have a plan for teaching students many of the things we expect students to learn in school, like history, literature, and the arts. Instead they focus on the…

Utah recently released its school report cards for the 2022-23 school year. While we will never put test scores above character education and a well-rounded, history-rich curriculum, it is great to see our kids ranked #1 among West Valley City schools on the state’s measure or students reading on grade level. Why do our kids…

At Monticello Academy Highbury in West Valley City, despite our great academic results, we don’t tell kids that they’re smart. You might wonder, why not? Won’t that give them confidence?  Actually, it’s almost the opposite.  Stanford scholar Carol Dweck has studied how children’s beliefs about intelligence affect their behavior. Some children believe that we can…