A high school that offers teens the opportunity to deeply explore who they are and who they want to become.
At Insight Colearning Center, you get to discover and become the person you aspire to be...personally, academically, socially, and creatively.
At Insight, we recognize and celebrate individual strengths, passions, and goals. Our three-phase model, coursework, and advising provide the scaffolding for students to do their best, most rigorous, and most rewarding work. Our supportive community of peers and adults provides the space for students to take risks and grow from their experiences.
A school as interesting as you are
When we founded Insight we asked ourselves, what if high school was more than... A list of courses to be taken and tasks to be done? A competition for GPA and class rank? A daily popularity contest with obscure rules and harsh penalties? A superficial covering of unrelated and irrelevant topics? We set out to design that school, and Insight is the result of our efforts.
At Insight Colearning Center, we live our name:
You gain insight into who you are;
You embark on learning journeys alongside your peers and teachers;
And you are at the center of all we do.
Our Mission
Insight Colearning Center helps students rediscover their love of learning. Our mission is to prepare students to make a difference in a rapidly changing world by providing an exemplary high-school experience that offers:
rigorous, college-style coursework
small class sizes
authentic, problem-based learning
twice monthly one-on-one advising
inclusion in a dynamic and diverse learning community
To achieve this mission, we work with students to build their Competence, Confidence, and Connection in school and Community.
What type of student does Insight serve?
The answer is simple: Insight serves students who want to discover and practice new ways of thinking, learning, and being.
If you ponder big questions or ask why things are the way they are, Insight is the place for you.
If you have a deep interest or passion that you want to spend time on, Insight is the place for you.
If you enjoy authentic and dynamic relationships with peers and teachers, Insight is the place for you.
If you want to do the hard work of learning for understanding, Insight is the place for you.
If you are eager to help build a student-centered school that embraces diversity and works for equity, social justice, and inclusion, Insight is the place for you.
Insight is a thriving learning community that welcomes students with diverse learner profiles, interests, and experiences. In turn, Insight continues to evolve, fueled by the collective energy of our school community.
The result of an Insight education will be students who have the intellectual resources, practice, and confidence to make a meaningful difference in the world through academic or professional work.
—Susan | Insight Cofounder
The Insight Experience
Expert Instructors: Students are taught by instructors who are experts in their field. Scientists teach science. Historians teach history. This promotes learning for understanding, as opposed to learning for remembering and regurgitation. Experts teach students to apply the tools and frameworks of each discipline in deep and authentic ways. Please see our faculty profiles for more information.
Small Classes: At Insight, each class has ten or fewer students. This gives teachers and students the opportunity to truly get to know each other and develop strong working relationships. They cultivate the respect and rapport required to engage in deep dialogue, growth, and genuine engagement with material.
A Place for All: Insight welcomes and supports students from diverse backgrounds, who have diverse profiles and interests. Our students and staff members come to Insight with intersectional identities with respect to race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation. We strive to build a thriving community, modeling the diverse, just, equitable, inclusive, anti-racist society our students and faculty hope to build and inhabit and see in the world.
College-Style Seminars … in High School
Insight is, in many ways, a micro-college experience - offered at developmental and practical levels appropriate for teens. Insight students experience:
an average of 12 hours of seminar-style class time per week,
freedom to leave campus (per caregivers’ permission) and discretionary time that increases with a student’s phase (see our “Three Phase Model of Education”), and
a choice of pathways and academic focus.
Instead of using class time for busy-work, our seminar-style classes emphasize group discussions, deeper thinking, problem-solving, and further learning. Insight graduates are resourceful, insightful, and well-prepared for college. Students who decide not to go to college, or who postpone their post-secondary education, will have already had a rich, college-like experience during high school, which serves as a foundation for becoming life-long learners.
“The main impact of an Insight education comes, say, two years down the line, when I see new information about police brutality or medieval European history or genetics research, and I’m able to understand it within a framework that an Insight class has given me.
— Julia | Insight Alum