The Next Great Adventure: How TVS Alumni Thrive in High School
Do TVS learners thrive in high school? The short answer: absolutely. Our alumni aren't just surviving the transition to conventional high schools—they're thriving. They're taking honors, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Dual Enrollment courses, leading student government, honor societies, captaining teams, and building genuine relationships with teachers while many peers hesitate to even ask questions. What matters more than excelling in their academic and extracurricular pursuits is that TVS graduates know who they are, understand what real learning looks like, and they're carrying skills that will serve them far beyond any test or transcript.
The Village School is one of few learner-centered schools in the Northern Virginia area, and while we don’t have a high school (yet!), our middle schoolers graduate and attend comprehensive schools that check all the boxes of the typical American high school experience. We field the question about what happens to learners post-TVS all the time and from parents with kids of all ages – and we get it. Our Guide Team has the same questions: “What does actually happen after TVS?” “Will they figure out how to take a test?” “How will they adjust?” and really what all educators and parents want to know is “Will they be alright?” We all want what is best for our kids now and in the future.
The good news is that we keep in touch with our alumni and they keep in touch with us. We last wrote about our alumni and their experience two years ago when we had a total of 3 alumni. Since then, the group has grown to a total of 16. Here are some throughlines we’ve heard from them and their families over the past 5 years:
TVS Graduates are academically prepared.
100% of TVS alumni report feeling academically “ahead” of their peers in nearly all academic areas, and their families agreed. They credit their academic preparedness in large part to their experience with the TVS middle school Civilizations experience that takes place twice a week. Each Civ Challenge requires research, writing, socratic discussion, high level critical thinking, and inquiry-based synthesis of thought.
Alumni also reported their academic preparedness was a result of their experience “taking responsibility for their own education” through goal-setting and time management. While some shared the amount of work they were required to complete at home on their own time was a culture shift, they felt the work was “easy and not at all in my panic zone.”
When alumni were asked more about their academic preparedness they shared:
“I learned how to express myself at TVS. These skills have helped me in speech and writing in High School and on a larger scale. Also, I definitely have strong historical and political knowledge that I use all the time to apply to current events and connect the past to the present.”
“The skills I gained at TVS overall prepared me well and put me drastically ahead of my peers.”
“I learned to have high standards of excellence in my work at TVS. This has helped me tremendously.”
All alumni across the different public and private high schools are enrolled in a majority of Honors level and Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses across core subjects: English, Math, Social Studies, Science, and World Languages. Beyond Honors levels, several learners have excelled in specialized courses such as Business Marketing, Speech and Debate, Forensics, and Fine Arts.
TVS Graduates are leaders.
TVS alumni were leaders of their own learning while attending TVS, and their leadership over their own education continues into their high school experience. Alumni reported high levels of self-direction, goal-setting, and personal accountability for their learning. One learner shared, “Two of the most important things I learned at TVS that have helped me are how to lead and how to manage my time.” Another learner agreed and stated that TVS gave her the “Leadership skills, time management, and organizational skills” that other learners her age do not have. “So much time is wasted at school that could be allocated to better uses,” one learner shared. She and others reported using this time to be leaders of their own lives: completing homework, reaching out to teachers, and using their time wisely. Learners share that it is due to these skills that they can successfully manage a challenging course load and extracurricular schedule in high school.
TVS alumni are also leaders in their new communities. Many alumni have shared that they have taken on leadership roles in their schools including: Student Representative for the PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association), Officer for the National Arts Honors Society, Class Vice President, Theatre Department Supervisor, Sports team co-captain, National Junior Honors Society Officer, and more. One alum was even selected to participate in a national conference to share perspective on the use of AI in schools.
TVS alumni continue to be leaders in the TVS community. One alumnus, a senior in high school and President of her school’s Art Honor Society, is working in collaboration with the Spark Studio and Health & Wellness Teams on an art project with Spark learners. Another alumnus has shown up to school each time his current school has an early release or a holiday to check-in and say hello. This fall we had a panel of alumni speak with our current middle schoolers about what life is like after TVS and how they can all make the most of the time they have in Adventure Studio.
TVS Graduates know themselves
TVS graduates know themselves and have a deep understanding of what real learning is, and what it’s not. As all of them have transitioned to learning environments that emphasize grades and tests, it’s clear that TVS alumni aren’t defined by them. They acknowledge the common narrative about young people in the world, (especially in conventional schooling) and maintain a much more expansive view of who they are and what they’re capable of. Alumni attribute this self- confidence to the counter-narrative and the experiences they were offered at TVS and how we have uniquely prepared them for High School.
TVS Alumni shared that they are comfortable acting as their own self-advocate because of the communication skills they gained at TVS. One described this as giving them an “edge” over their peers. While many high school students showed a reluctance to engage with their teachers, all of our alumni reported positive relationships with their teachers and other adults in their schools. They attributed this to the positive relationships they had with the adults at TVS and the frequency with which they were able to “use their voice” in a school setting.
“TVS helped me learn how to build relationships, how to take initiative, and gave me a desire to learn and ask questions.”
“So many of my peers have built this imaginary wall between themselves and the teachers. They don’t understand that all you have to do is go up to the teacher and ask them questions- ask them for feedback. The minute you do that, the teacher loves you. They care so much when they see that you care.”
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While all of our alumni reported the strong foundation that TVS provided, many alumni shared that the initial transition to high school was a culture shift, moving from a small environment of high trust and autonomy to a large environment of control and compliance. All reported missing a learning environment that emphasizes freedom, trust, and curiosity. “I miss the amount of free time we had, all of the freedom we had, the trust that the guides had in the kids, and an actual desire to learn in all of the students.”
In a world that too often asks children to conform, our graduates prove that knowing yourself, trusting your voice, and understanding what real learning looks like aren't just nice-to-haves—they're superpowers. Yes, they're taking AP courses and leading honor societies. But what truly sets them apart is something deeper: they walk into high school already understanding who they are and what they're capable of, equipped with skills that will serve them far beyond any single test or transcript.
We're looking forward to a time when the question about how TVS prepares learners for high school is less important because the TVS High School experience will speak for itself. Until then, our alumni give us all the confidence we need. What we're doing here—building learners who know themselves, advocate for themselves, and genuinely love learning—is working. And as they take on their next great adventure, they're not just thriving in high schools. They're quietly reshaping what's possible when we trust young people to lead their own lives.
