Overview & Facts
We believe that school doesn’t have to be boring; that if we challenge, excite, nurture, and engage the whole child, we can inspire a love of learning that will last a lifetime.
A Y-8 school for bright and for talented students.
Here, what’s best for children drives the curriculum—not tests. It’s where passionate educators are empowered to teach, and intimate classrooms are places of joy, exploration, and respect for one another. It’s where bright students learn to tap into their curiosity and search for answers, rather than memorize them.
Emerson is a special environment where smart is cool, and classrooms are comprised of other gifted, unique peers who help and encourage each other to become their best. It’s where bright students thrive, and we encourage you to learn more about how our school might benefit your child.
- Grades:
– Lower School: Young Fives Kindergarten – 5th grade
– Middle School: 6th grade – 8th grade - Enrollment: 338
- Faculty and staff: 68.5
- Diversity: 41% of students self-identify as a person of color
- Learning support and academic enrichment staff: 5, including a full-time counselor in both lower and middle school
- Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1
- Financial aid recipients: 18% of the student body
- Average class size: 15
- Campus: 20 acres with sports fields, 16,000 ft² Arts and Innovation Center, nature center, playgrounds, and permaculture garden
- Accreditation: Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS)
- Library Media Center: More than 11,000 volumes and an online catalog
- Physical education: 3 times per week for grades Y5-4, 2 times per week for 5th-8th
- World languages: 4
- Varsity sports: 6
The mission of Emerson School is to provide a dynamic and nurturing learning environment that fosters empathy, communication, creativity, leadership, and above all, a lifelong love of learning.
We fulfill our mission with small class sizes, by providing individualized attention across a broad and rich, student-centered curriculum and through a committed, talented team of educators who help children achieve sustained academic success.
At Emerson, students develop the confidence and skills to become their best selves.
Children learn best in a caring environment in which each child’s unique gifts and talents are celebrated. People learn with different styles and at different rates. Teachers work to accommodate individual needs, and to foster positive, realistic self-concepts. They work to promote self-reliance and self-discipline in students. In our school, cognitive and creative risk-taking become safe and valued. Our atmosphere encourages mutual respect. Children learn by doing, by being listened to, by participating, and by working together. Emerson seeks to teach basic skills, encourage higher-level thinking, and to nurture creativity. We address the needs of the whole child, and recognize the need for children to develop intellectually, artistically, physically, socially, and emotionally. The school endeavors to instill important values, including respect, responsibility, compassion, and honesty. In doing so, we promote the importance of contributing to the Emerson School community and the larger communities in which we live.
Our Equity & Social Justice Commitment
As we become effective advocates for positive change, we foster growing minds with compassion and encourage resilience. We cherish individual identities. We actively challenge stereotypes and bias. We encourage discussion and inquiry about our world while we teach to dismantle the systems that perpetuate injustice.
Emerson School honors the dignity of all people through our commitment to diversity, inclusivity, equity, and social justice.
Emerson Fact
