Hi 👋, I’m Sarah Dillard, the founder at The Rock Creek School.

At The Rock Creek School, we believe that education should prepare students to lead lives of meaning and accomplishment. Too often, students—even high achievers—graduate without the tools, confidence, and skills to lead the lives they want. The world is changing rapidly, and today’s students need to be able to navigate ambiguity, tell persuasive stories, make good decisions, and collaborate effectively. These essential skills, which build agency and independence, are rarely taught in schools. We’re here to change that.

In 2018, I founded Kaleidoscope to address the gap between what students learn in school and what they need to thrive in the real world. We started with summer programs for high school students in the DC-area, testing out classes like Practical Psychology, Analytics, and Storytelling & Narrative. Alongside our courses we taught powerful skills like backward planning, survey design, and storylining, which our students applied to projects of their choosing. When the pandemic hit, we moved online which led us from working with students from 30+ DC-area high schools to working with students from 100+ countries. Whether in DC or abroad, the response was consistently overwhelming: upwards of 90% of students found our Kaleidoscope classes more engaging and relevant than their regular high school courses, and many felt they were being treated like adults for the first time.

To build on our success at Kaleidoscope, we are opening Rock Creek, a school where intellectual vitality meets real-world relevance. We’ve updated our core curriculum for today’s world, so that all students learn data science and get to explore the six major social sciences. Weekly fieldwork in middle school brings our whole curriculum to life.  In an effort to empower students throughout their lives, we’ve built time for students to put their learning into practice and pursue what matters most to them. Each year, students undertake passion projects—whether it’s conducting original research, launching a community advocacy initiative, or composing a musical. These projects help students find and hone their interests, and understand how to manage and tackle work that they care about.

Middle school is a pivotal time when students begin to bridge childhood and adulthood. At its best, it’s a period of immense growth, both academically and personally. At The Rock Creek School, we nurture the childhood spark of curiosity and help it grow into a blazing drive for lifelong learning and contribution.

The Rock Creek School will open its doors in downtown Washington, DC, in fall 2026, starting with fifth and sixth-grade classes and expanding to serve grades 5-12. We’re committed to delivering an exceptional education at a more accessible price point than other private schools. I hope you’ll join us.