Head of School Message

August 12, 2015

Dear Friends of Cary Academy,

In a relatively short period of time, Cary Academy has established itself as a premier independent school in the Southeast, serving the diverse and future‐forward population of the burgeoning Research Triangle area. The school is excelling on nearly all benchmarks used to assess independent school strength: strong admissions demand and low attrition rates, prudent fiscal management and solid cash reserves, creative and inspiring teaching and high student and parent satisfaction levels, and a remarkable track record of student success at a broad pool of outstanding colleges and universities.

Operating from this position of strength, the time is right for Cary Academy to take the next step and become one of the leading schools in the world.

With the launch of the school’s new strategic plan, we seek to re‐capture that entrepreneurial, can‐do spirit of our founding – unlocking the next wave of big thinking and creative energy within our community. We aspire to create learning opportunities that are flexible, personalized, and relevant – cultivating self‐directed and bold life‐long learners who make meaningful contributions to the world.

To do this, we will reimagine and redesign our curriculum to help students engage with interdisciplinary concepts and new ideas in both innovative and practical ways. Further, we see exciting opportunities to refine our facilities, providing more mixed‐use, flexible spaces that are oriented towards the technology‐rich ways students and teachers interact with content and with each other. Finally, we aspire to be a leader in the development of outstanding teachers, building programs and connections that have a positive impact in our world.

The Challenge
The world of education is in the middle of an epic transformation. Technology is giving rise to new ways of accessing knowledge, creating meaning, and sharing ideas. Brain science is giving us a deeper understanding of how to consider learning in a singular local context but within a wider, more complex and interdependent world.

As visiting Harvard professor Pasi Sahlberg notes, today’s students need to be “innovation ready.” Students must be able to direct their own learning. Creativity has replaced compliance as an essential outcome of our educational system.

Cary Academy is uniquely positioned to support the development of students for this dynamic future.

We believe we can and we must fulfill this vision.

Michael Ehrhardt, Ed.D
Head of School