Case Study: Enhancing Student Success and Confidence at Stuart Country Day School
Stuart Country Day School
Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart began using MindPrint Learning with its 5th-grade students in 2024 to proactively support their academic and personal growth during the critical transition to middle school, leveraging cognitive data to personalize instruction, build study skills, and boost student confidence and engagement.
Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, an independent, Catholic, all-girls school in Princeton, NJ, prides itself on nurturing the whole child in a highly personalized, academically rigorous environment where girls will thrive. In 2024, the school began implementing MindPrint Learning with its 5th-grade students to support this mission more deeply. While the faculty had long relied on observational data, normed assessment data, and cross-subject collaboration to support students, they sought a more data-informed, proactive approach to understanding and addressing each student’s learning needs in this pivotal grade as they begin middle school.
MindPrint’s cognitive assessments offered insight into the why behind observable academic and behavioral patterns, helping educators provide a targeted and responsive instructional approach.
The 5th-grade year at Stuart Country Day School represents a significant transition as students shift from a more structured, guided learning environment into the independence of middle school. This year is often marked by increased academic expectations, multiple class transitions, and a heavier emphasis on long-term planning and assessments. Even with high-achieving students, teachers saw the need to proactively teach study habits, build math foundations, and stronger self-efficacy to build more confident and successful learners.
- More Proactive Planning: Teachers used MindPrint data to anticipate potential learning barriers for individual students and adjusted lessons accordingly. This allowed for smoother instruction, greater engagement, and fewer reactive, “in-the-moment” interventions. Small but intentional planning modifications meant all students could access content from the outset.
- Embedded Study Strategy Instruction: MindPrint helped the 5th grade teachers identify which study skills students most needed to develop. These strategies were scaffolded into math lessons, ensuring that study habits grew in tandem with content knowledge. Topics like note-taking, time management, and test preparation became a regular part of classroom dialogue, rather than separate and distinct from academic instruction. Explicitly discussing and addressing the skills needed to study and learn became a regular conversation in math class.
- Memory Retention and Content Mastery: By understanding students’ memory strengths and weaknesses, teachers increased the frequency of embedded reviews and knowledge checks. Students were also taught the importance of retrieval practice for long-term memory, leading to stronger conceptual foundations and better preparedness for assessments.
- Instructional time was more focused and efficient.
- Students took greater ownership of their learning and strategies could be adjusted in real time.
- Confidence grew— 100% of students reported their confidence in math either increased or stayed the same, a remarkable achievement during a year of significant transition when confidence typically declines.
Encouraged by the positive impact on student engagement, confidence, and academic performance, Stuart Country Day School is investigating wider usage of MindPrint Learning to support transitions and instruction throughout the school.
Through thoughtful integration of cognitive insights, Stuart is not only helping students succeed academically but is also building resilient, reflective learners and leaders prepared for the challenges of middle school and beyond.
- Grades PreK-12
- 332 Students
- Private, All-girls Independent Catholic School
- 53% Minority Enrollment