In 1931, Falk Laboratory School was established at the University of Pittsburgh to be a progressive demonstration school supporting childhood learning, innovative educational research, and teacher development and training. Since then, progressivism has remained at the core of Falk’s identity for nearly 100 years, frequently guiding conversations about curriculum and practice and consistently influencing teaching philosophies within the building. 

Despite being undeniably present at Falk, however, one question about progressive education continues to surface year after year: What exactly does it mean to be progressive? While some core principles—such as collaboration and child-centered teaching—are universally agreed upon, specific implementations are often more debatable. To unite the school behind a common definition and establish shared practices for new and experienced educators alike, Falk recently embarked upon a years-long journey to define progressive education at Falk. 

A Closer Look at the Process 

Beginning in June 2023, Director Jill Sarada began surveying faculty to see where teachers agreed on progressive practices and where further refinement was needed. Drawing from John Dewey and Alfie Kohn, two educational scholars and progressive education advocates, Sarada and the leadership team compiled a list of tenets covering everything from parent/caregiver involvement in a progressive model to the role of homework and teacher autonomy in the classroom. She then asked teachers to rate their agreement with each statement using four choices: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. 

Rather than striving for consensus right away, Sarada says, the first iteration was built to highlight existing points of tension and establish a clear starting point for the project. “I decided to really push things with a series of statements that were intended to be controversial, to push people's thinking, so we could do a heat map.” 

As expected, the results were divided, with many teachers providing detailed and passionate feedback about their selected answers. Statement #8, for instance, proposed that “Facts, repetition, and skills should never be taught in isolation,” and while most respondents agreed that repetitive drills are not an ideal choice for learning, nearly every teacher argued that a more nuanced approach was necessary. Many pointed out that each student benefits from a unique combination of skill practice and exploration, and several teachers proposed that facts and skills, while necessary, should be interwoven with hands-on activities whenever possible. 

Another major point of contention was assessing the value of grades. Over 90% of faculty disagreed with Statement #13 that “The focus is on process, so assessment and evaluation are counterproductive,” and Statement #14, “Grading encourages students to focus on how well they're doing instead of what they are doing,” resulted in an exact 50-50 split. 

Reaching Consensus 

Taking note of these disagreements and carefully considering the wealth of faculty comments, Sarada began working with team leaders and administrators to revise the tenets and put forth a new set for feedback. At the same time, faculty members with strong progressive affinities and curiosity about the survey process began approaching her to see how they could get involved. 

“That started the Progressive Ed Committee,” she says, “which then led into us working on refining [the] tenets—using just a slight language change or a complete rewording—and running them past people again to see if we had more alignment.” As it turns out, the second survey, which was shared with teachers in November 2023, did come significantly closer to consensus. Nearly every statement received full agreement from faculty, with some debate still arising over the extent to which students facilitate their own learning and the importance of moral and democratic dispositions in education. 

Once again, progressive committee members and administrators used this feedback to refine the statements, sharing one last iteration with faculty in June 2024. The result was a list of 17 core tenets illustrating Falk’s understanding of and approach to progressive education, all with an agreement rate of 93.5% to 100%. 

Progressive Education Tenets in Action 

In addition to clarifying Falk’s progressive principles on paper, faculty have spent the last few years observing them in action at Falk and progressive schools throughout Pennsylvania. After each round of surveys, teachers gathered to discuss and analyze the data together, and several afternoons were spent identifying the ways tenets present themselves within the school. 

Statement #9, for example, states that “projects, problems, and questions are essential to rich and meaningful learning,” a belief evidenced by the myriad art installations, wood carvings, research posters, and group projects that line the hallways on each floor. Statement #16, which posits that everyone is a learner, comes to life each time a faculty member dives into a research question or learns something new from a student interaction. 

In May 2025, several faculty members visited The Miquon School, Friends’ Central School, and The School in Rose Valley to observe progressive principles outside of Falk. Katrina Bartow Jacobs, Falk’s research coordinator and an associate professor of practice at Pitt, says what struck her the most about their site visits was that “even when the physical environment was quite different, like [at] Miquon, which is on a more rural 11-acre property, the values of how we respect childhood and learning in community were clear.” 

Kate Petrack, an Intermediate (3–5) teacher and Progressive Education Committee member, noticed the same thing, saying that even when a school’s principles were “expressed and acted upon in different ways,” the core values and curricula remained constant. “It was really cool to see progressive ed in different contexts, being laid out in different ways.” 

Honoring Progressive Education 

After years of hard work, disagreement, refinement, and collaboration, Falk’s Progressive Education Tenets have done what they set out to: unite a diverse faculty behind shared values and honor the school’s identity as a progressive learning environment. “At the kid level, at the classroom level, at the grade brand level, and at the school level, we kind of all [needed] community alignment,” Petrack says, “and I think the tenets are pushing us in that direction.” 

“Often, progressive education is defined by what it is ‘not’—or how it differs from what is perceived as traditional or standard education,” Bartow Jacobs adds. “Over this past year, I have appreciated the chance to reflect on what we really [do] mean by progressive education, what the core components [are], and how we put those into practice within the Falk community.” 

Carolyn Mericle, a Primary (K–2) teacher at Falk, says progressivism has been part of her personal teaching philosophy since she launched her career at the Lowell School in Washington, D.C. decades ago. “Since that time, I have been careful to choose to work only at schools where I can be free to practice education in the progressive traditions. Falk has been a wonderful home for me in that way.” 

Mericle goes on to share that the school's Progressive Education Tenets have the power to improve not only Falk but communities and educational systems across the nation. “When the opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance to help put into words the tenets that are practiced here. We need to clarify [progressive education] and get [it] into the public sphere again. Falk can be an important part of that effort!” 

Falk’s Progressive Education Tenets 

Falk’s understanding of and approach to progressive education is that... 

1. Social, emotional, and academic components of education are equally important in a K-8 education environment.  
2. An important component of education is helping children become engaged global citizens. 
3. Children learn best in a supportive community. 
4. Children construct their own learning. It can be deepened by a teacher's design and facilitation that supports the students most effectively. 
5. Schools should work with caregivers and students as collaborators or partners in the education process. 
6. The process for decision-making should be transparent and include all relevant stakeholders. Decisions should be clearly communicated. 
7. Learning should promote a focus on helping students understand their roles and responsibilities in widening circles of community. 
8. Facts, repetition, and skills may be taught in isolation, but with the aim of applying them in context.  
9. Projects, problems, and questions are essential to rich and meaningful learning. 
10.  Students should be actively, not passively, engaged in learning.  
11.  Schools and classrooms should have clear policies and expectations that are also responsive to the varied needs of the community. 
12.  The process of learning incorporates quantitative and qualitative assessment and evaluation for meaningful feedback. 
13. It looks different based on the age and grade level of the student, but the core tenets should stay the same. 
14. Learning opportunities and school culture should incorporate student choice and agency whenever possible. 
15. Some important components include a focus on moral reasoning, social skills, and democratic dispositions. 
16. Everyone is a learner. Curiosity, reflection, and questions are welcomed and valued.  
17. Faculty and staff should recognize that the autonomy that they have comes with a responsibility for the impact their decisions have on others.