Case Study: Marin Country Day School, Corte Madera, California

By William Hanley

Students at Marin Country Day School measure academic progress with their school’s topography. Located in a sharply sloping watershed that descends Ring Mountain to San Francisco Bay just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, the 35-acre campus is organized with the lower school at the lowest elevation and the upper school at the highest. Every academic year concludes with a graduation ceremony, called “Step Up,” during which rows of students sit on a terraced concrete grandstand set into the hillside. One by one, each class is asked to literally step up to a higher tier to signify the students’ advancement to the next grade.