he asks them to choose three examples that help them tell their parents a deeper story: one that shows they have recognized both a personal strength and an area in which they are struggling. Most students, he says, have never thought about their learning in this way. Nor have most of their parents.

kids learn to advocate for themselves

“What do I do well?” and “How can I build on this?”

Daniel Isquith, who has taught math at Calhoun for eight years, said he was initially “worried the kids would burn out” during the long classes. But he reorganized his lessons into 15-minute chunks, with a little breathing room in case things ran over: a 15-minute lecture, 15 minutes of problem solving, then 15 minutes of group work, capped by a final 15 minutes in which the students have to summarize what they did in class — a gem, he said, that the old schedule did not permit. During two-hour classes he changes things up just as often, to keep the students engaged. “Once you live in this and get a sense of pacing,” Mr. Isquith said, “it’s incredible what you can accomplish in terms of real actual understanding versus proficiency.”