If you memorize the answers,
what happens when the questions change?
Opportunity Education is a U.S.-based foundation that helps students, teachers and schools improve primary and secondary education worldwide.
Our flagship program, Quest Forward Learning, empowers students with skills-forward academic materials, teachers with effective methods and tools for mentoring, and high schools with the most innovative digital learning capabilities available today.
Looking for a better high school education?
Quest Forward Learning is available worldwide and in different forms:
In our Schools
Quest Forward Academies
Private schools designed by Opportunity Education that run entirely on the Quest Forward method, creating the most innovative and high-quality learning experience. Quest Forward Academies prepare students for success in life and work, while helping them master the academic requirements of high school.
In the Classroom
Quest Forward Schools
Private or public schools that use Quest Forward Learning for some of their academic and life-skills work, with thoughtful mentoring from experienced educators, trained and supported by Opportunity Education.
In the World
Quest Forward Programs
Programs for developing life and career skills, or mastery of academic materials, which may be offered in a school context or by non-school organizations with deep subject matter expertise.
Get Quest Forward Learning
Want to see Quest Forward Learning at your local high school?
Quest Forward Learning serves the needs of students, parents, teachers, and school leaders—all with the goal of providing a better learning experience.
Students & Parents
Learn what makes Quest Forward Learning a truly student-focused education, hear from students and parents who have experienced it for themselves, and see where to find our Academies, Schools and Programs.
Teachers
Find out how our mentoring approach will help your students fully engage in learning, and give you the necessary tools and support to succeed as a mentor.
School Leaders
See the key components of Quest Forward Learning, how to introduce it at your school, and learn about our step-by-step implementation process.
Learning requires action.
To succeed in life and work, young people need different skills. Gaining skills requires active engagement, practice, and feedback.
Inspired by rigorous learning design principles, Quest Forward Learning ensures that students work actively every day and learn through discovery and practice. Supported by teachers who work as mentors, students acquire the mindset, essential habits, and skills to see and seize opportunities all around them. In addition to meeting academic standards, they learn to be curious, to collaborate, to solve real-world problems, persist through challenges and setbacks, and to live an integrated life.
Deeply connected learning.
Most students use technology in school and life, yet all too often, it serves the wrong goal.
Instead of trying to make classrooms efficient, the Quest Forward Platform apps enable students to discover knowledge at their own pace and work closely with their peers and mentors. Teachers can mentor each student with rich information on the students’ needs, providing targeted feedback, and effective opportunities for growth.
Relevant and engaging content.
When learning shifts from content consumption to discovery, new curricular materials are needed.
Quest Forward Learning uses “quests”—well-structured projects with curated, relevant resources—to enable students to discover knowledge and practice skills. Each quest is designed for relevance to the student, incorporates collaboration and feedback from peers and mentors, and focuses on development of competences and skills.
Quest!
Sample Quests
What’s Native, What’s Not?
Which species belong where in a globalized world?
Overview
As globalization makes us more connected with people and places around the world, what happens to natural ecosystems, species, and cultures? How have humans reshaped the world? In this quest, you will consider these questions in the context of fire ants, kudzu, raccoons, parrots, and pigs--all on the move in our globalized world.
Artifacts
Course: Social Science
What is the value in seeing nature as the enemy? What happens when humankind loses in the fight against nature? Explore texts, ideas, and historical events, all of which depict humans and nature in a struggle against each other.
Love Not War
What do you do when you believe those with power are using it for something that is wrong?
Overview
We often come across things in our daily lives that do not seem right to us. War is one of those things that many feel this way about. Throughout most of American history, people have actively supported the government and the military in times of war. This was especially true in World War I and World War II, but that has not always been the case. Research how Americans reacted to the war in Vietnam, and connect that to similar movements in the US today.
Artifacts
Course: Social Science
Evaluate arguments made for and against different forms of authority. Are the arguments good? How can they be used as evidence?
Land Art
What is the relationship between art and nature?
Overview
Nature often inspires art, but what happens when artists use nature to make their art? In this quest you will look at some works by the artist Andy Goldsworthy. From fallen trees to piles of rocks, Goldsworthy's pieces make his audience think about the relationship between art and nature, and humans and nature.
Artifacts
Course: Reading, Writing, Thinking
Explore the ways writers and thinkers have championed a positive relationship between humans and nature. What do we gain when we work with nature, and, in some cases, view ourselves as the enemy? And if nature is necessary for our physical and psychological well being, how do engage with it in the right ways?
Be Careful What You Like
How are you participating in a market economy through your use of social media sites?
Overview
Did you know that Facebook made billions of dollars in 2017? Wait. How? Facebook doesn't sell anything. Right? In this quest you'll learn how social media sites like Facebook make money, and explore how you are contributing to their success.
Artifacts
Course: Reading, Writing, Thinking
How do incentives and supply and demand impact our lives today?
This I Believe
What core values drive your daily life?
Overview
Could you summarize your core beliefs in a single essay? What if that essay were so short it could be read out loud in under four minutes? That's the challenge for this quest! You will be engaging with the radio program This I Believe, which, for over fifty years, has been asking people, "What do you believe?"
Artifacts
Course: Reading, Writing, Thinking
How do you convey something you believe? Explore a variety of ways to share your beliefs and opinions with others, including personal essays, persuasive speeches and paragraphs, and even commercials.
One Giant Leap
How do you know that bungee jumping is safe?
Overview
Bungee jumping - it can be thrilling and terrifying at the same time! How do you know that bungee jumping is safe? In order for bungee jumping to be exciting and safe, the bungee has to be just the right length. Experiment by creating a bungee jumping experience for a toy or small object. To figure out the right length of "rope," you will start with some very short jumps, and then use math to predict how much "rope" you will need for a big 4 meter jump. Test the limits and discover what bungee jumping has to do with math.
Artifacts
Course: Math
Analyze data and determine which type or types of model are most appropriate for a given circumstance and use non-technical language to explain the reasoning behind your mathematical thinking.
Global Reach, Local Relevance
Quest Forward Learning is available globally, with locally developed, relevant quests and courses for high school students. Through its Primary Schools Program, Opportunity Education has provided educational materials to over 1,700 schools in eleven countries, reaching over 1 million elementary students.
Quest Forward Academy Santa Rosa
Quest Forward Academy Omaha
Thinking by Design — Bellevue University
Nicaragua
Launch Montgomery — Rockville, Maryland
Upward Bound, UMD — College Park, Maryland
Glasgow Middle School — Fairfax, Virginia
Maya Angelou Charter School — Washington, D.C.
Sierra Leone
Ghana
Cameroon
South Africa
Lesotho
Zambia
Uganda
Tanzania
Sri Lanka
India
Nepal
United States
Australia
Bahamas
Brazil
Canada
France
Indonesia
Mexico
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Northern Ireland
South Korea
Turkey
United Kingdom
Recent News
Walking the Talk: Mentoring the Essential Habits
At Quest Forward Academies, mentors help students foster a growth mindset through the continual monitoring of habits in the classroom, the use of habit language in mentor-student interactions, and in ...Read More