Our Goal: Ensuring Learners Leave School with a Lasting Love for Learning
Go out to the world to find yourself;
go back to yourself to know the world.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Another year has passed, and now it is time to update this article to let people know more about the MoonShot Academy. Last year, I shared a story about a 17-year old boy who killed himself by jumping off Lupu Bridge right in front of his mother. Here is what I wrote then.
When I was preparing this article, the shocking news broke too many hearts. “On Lupu Bridge in Shanghai, a young boy rushed out from a car and jumped off the bridge. Following him closely was his mother, devastated and crying on the ground for failing to grab him. The most heartbreaking thing was, 17 years old as the young boy was, he did not show even the slightest hesitation when jumping off. The tragedy happened and ended, within less than 5 seconds.”
It was a tragedy that nobody wanted to see.
Every educational system has to answer the question: how do we grow up with teenagers and help them make it through the 1,095 days of senior high? In this article, Moonshot Academy shares thoughts and practices on how every learner receives support in course contexts deliberately created by MSA, and how learners obtain competencies for lifelong development.)
This time, I would like to share something that touched my heart this year. The Big Band is a singing competition among bands, and my favorite is the band named Hedgehog and their vocalist and guitarist, Zijian, a plain-looking young man with a somewhat awkward personality. He writes lyrics so beautifully with perfect rhymes in a poetic way — the last lyricist to do so well traced back to Fang Wenshan, as I remember.
所有的爱
穿透这城市的压抑与阴霾
浓缩于发屋小巷尽头
树枝摇晃窗外
何以未来
只一片赤诚之心与色彩
已化作永恒
在我们彼此心底深埋
空气本应透彻
可我心却充满尘埃
美好的青松岁月
怎能未老先衰
— — 《生之响往》
All of the love
Shines through the smog of the city
To light up the end of that alley by the old hair salon
Branches are dancing outside the window
What to take to the future
Only my sincere passion and true colors
They are the eternity
Etched on our minds
The air should be transparent
But blurred by the ashes in my heart
Oh, time, you should be like young sprouts
How can you get old even before you grow up
— The Sound of Life
To take part in the show “Big Band,” Zijian, as a software engineer for Sina at the time, would have to put off the launch of the new product he had been working on. When asked by his manager, “what is more important to you? Your career or your singing?” Zijian quit his job. Hedgehog started as a band back in 2003. Their lasting passion for all the sixteen years reminds me of what Lang Ping (郎平), coach of China’s women’s volleyball team, said in an interview. “The Spirit of the National Women’s Volleyball Team is not just about winning the championship, but about always doing their best even though they know they might not win. It’s when they fall over and over, they still get up, dust off the shirts, and their eyes are full of determination. Life is not about winning, but about trying hard to win.”
I believe this is the blooming of life. What is the purpose of education? It is to discover in everyone their lasting passion and enable that last blooming. That is also what we are trying at MSA to cultivate fulfilled, compassionate, and active citizens. Here I hope to let you know what our vision is and how we are going to turn it into reality with this reasonably, if not excessively, long article.
01
Why do we need an innovative education now?
How does MSA realize its innovation?
When Jason, founder of MSA, talks about why they started the MSA project, he repeatedly relates to the future — a future meant to embrace revolutions.
What will the future be?
Will technology take charge of human life? How could we address the enormous uncertainty?
These are questions raised by Professor Yuval Noah Harari in his global bestseller Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. The 21st century waits to see humankind encounter a lot of unprecedented challenges, among which is the disruptive force of technology. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) can be found everywhere — maps and navigation, unscrewed vehicles, machine translation, et cetera. Have you tried to book a table at Haidilao Hot Pot by phone recently? You would have your appointment processed automatically, without the least human interference, and would feel no difference at all. Even the conservative McKinsey predicts that machines will be able to automate about 80% of the current human jobs by 2040. Also, with layoff costs, social acceptance, and other possible factors in account, about 50% of human posts will be automated.
The biggest challenge lies not in the prediction, but in our failure to predict what jobs would be replaced.
Here I want to share a story about my niece’s career choice. After starting college this year, she was not happy about her major, and she decided to apply for a transfer to sociology after the discussion with me. When I called her to see how everything was going, she told me what had surprised her, “Guess what, aunt! There were only two applications for sociology because everyone else was fighting for a spot in finance.” I was disappointed by the news. I was not sure how many of these college kids were interested in finance, or if they were just allured by the fad that the financial industry created at the moment. Unfortunately, they might have little idea of how AI is disrupting traditional finance and of how the once sought-after job of an actuary is losing its luster to AI.
Other than changes in productivity and technology, people are also facing many severe social challenges, such as psychological and mental diseases and disorders, which have caused tragedies for families and communities. The tragedy at the beginning of this article is just an example. According to a WHO report, the number of people suffering from depression grew by ten times from 1960 to 2010.
The teaching methodology of most schools today was constructed after the industrial revolution to turn the appropriately skilled graduates for productivity supported by standardized workflows. As can be seen in the picture below, the layout of the classroom lasts until today, so do the essentials of education.

Seeing all this, we feel obliged to think about how education can guide us through a changing future. It also helps us find our true selves as well as the meaning of life to become real, fulfilled individuals.
The project to create MSA started in early 2017, with the four founders hoping to “materialize the ideal educational model most radically.” When we were planning MSA, we did not start by asking what the school should be like, but what the graduates should appear. Based on this thinking, MSA quoted Creative Schools by Ken Robinson to make its motto and educational goal: to cultivate fulfilled, compassionate, and active citizens.
Jason explained the definition of “the fulfilled, compassionate, and active citizen” in an interview. The interviewer asked, “how can learners make better choices and analysis in a digital age with excessive information?” Jason replied, “the faster the external world changes, the more critical internal exploration and keeping the faith become. Not only learners, but everybody needs to make it routine to seek the meaning of life and build life missions. Only when we clearly understand the constant change, can our selection and analysis be meaningful, practical, and efficient.” His words reflected the partial interpretation of MSA’s goal: we help the learners to know who they are, what they want, and then work for it. When kids have earned a clear sense of what a fulfilled being is, they are more likely to make a positive influence by relating to the world they live in.
So, how on earth does MSA practice innovation?
First, few schools would set their goal at cultivating fulfilled, compassionate, and active citizens. Living in an age of speed and anxiety, most people tend to drown themselves in the everyday hustle and bustle without seeking within themselves for purpose and motivation. Let alone teenagers, even for adults, few of us care about building the connection between the inner selves and the external world and work for seemingly “irrelevant” causes. Today, activity and citizenship are in extreme scarcity. MSA’s goal, in my view, is the source of all our innovation.
Second, we don’t just talk the talk. Derived from our goal are capability models, which then serve as the basis for us to design and turn out the corresponding curriculum. MSA also developed its assessment system with the continuous assessment as a priority and the conclusive assessment as a supplement, making the educational goal traceable. With high consistency and integrity, MSA’s teaching and the assessing system is quite visionary and deliberate among all available innovative education practices.
Finally, in designing and practicing our system, MSA always makes sure that every step we take is learner-centered and competency-based.
02
Are fulfilled, compassionate, and active citizens possible?
Is your goal just a catchphrase, or an educational utopia too good to be true?
No.
Moreover, I’m one percent sure about that.

MSA has an exclusive Research Institute, a functioning unit that can hardly be found in any other high school. The Research Institute is always exploring theoretically and fundamentally to improve the innovative educational system. RI is also learning from global best practices to bring in the most pioneering ideas and resources.
Then, how do we realize the goal?
To begin with, the research team derived from the goal of the MSA Capabilities and Competencies Model, stipulating nine core competencies and eighteen sub-core competences. We believe that citizens of future society need to equip with practical thinking tools.
Those fulfilled individuals highlight the progress in the dimension of personal development, and those compassionate and active citizens prioritize capabilities related to social collaboration.
For MSA, to realize our goal means breaking it down into specific capabilities and competencies and supporting their development with well-designed teaching.

03
The development of eighteen sub-capabilities and sub-competencies seems a massive and complicated task.
So, how are they cultivated in the MSA system?
Good question. It brings us to the MSA curriculum. We have integrated the development of capabilities and competencies into our courses (we categorized the skills and competencies, which then cultivated through various learning experiences). At MSA, we offer three learning modules, that is, the Subject Learning, the Inter-Discipline Learning, and the MSA Honor Courses.
As the name suggests, Subject Learning is the teaching and learning of a specific subject. It helps the learner develop systematic knowledge of an academic discipline with the teaching process focusing on the subject targets. Based on the New Standards for Senior High School Course issued by China’s Ministry of Education, we have also drawn the best practices in other countries on designing successful academic courses. These courses are aiming to cultivate educational capabilities that prepare our learners for college, promote deeper thinking and relating to the real world, and build the capacity of self-learning. We hope to offer diversified options to our learners, so the subjects are categorized into eight departments, namely, Mathematics, Science, Technologies and Engineering, Social Sciences, Western Humanities, Eastern Humanities, Arts and Aesthetics, and PE and Health.
For these subjects, we have adopted blended learning and the flipped classroom for teaching. Every week, there are 4.5 hours for reading, where learners get knowledge input via Khan Academy, Coursera, Dedao (igetget), and other possible sources. Another 3 hours are classes of 45 minutes each, where we enable consolidation and application of knowledge via discussions, debates, and other tasks. Unlike traditional schools, we bring the output of learning into the classroom and leave the input outside. By doing so, we try to achieve one of the deeper learning goals, “know how to learn,” and make sure that graduates will and can practice life-long learning independently.
Besides, we assigned classes according to the learner’s ability and purpose. Take Mathematics as an example. We now offer Basic Math and Advanced Math. Basic Math is for all learners to train foundational math skills and does not bother to spend much time on challenging problems, while Advanced Math prepares learners for higher demanding areas like science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, etc.
The connection is a keyword we keep talking about in our curriculum. At MSA, we prioritize building a relationship between knowledge and the learner. One day when I was standing on the second floor, I noticed some learners pushing chairs below. One kid sat in the chair while another pushed hard from the back. It looked like they were enjoying themselves, and I asked my colleague what they were doing. “Oh, they are studying inertia.” As for the Science and Technology module, every related subject has its unique features. Take Biology as an example. We have arranged research on inheritance, evolution, information, and ecology in response to the four topics aforementioned.
Inter-Discipline Learning is project-based learning centered on social issues and aimed at developing the ability to find solutions in a coordinated way. Learners need to use what they have learned in subject courses to address real-world problems, create value for the society, and help push it towards a positive future.
We integrate the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the design and implementation of our inter-disciplinary projects, to turn the learners into active social innovators and revolutionaries. Every project can last one to two semesters, with regular project sessions three times a week and academic trips when needed, making it one of the most distinct MSA learning experiences.
Last semester, our teachers Jerry, Zhang Yang, and George integrated scientific philosophy, information science, and political science to create a course named the Wandering Earth. In this course, they discussed the implications of AI on human life, society, and politics. Students learn how to live with AI and work together to create a set of institutions and laws for the co-existence of human beings and AI! What a realistic course this is. Just think about the extreme shock we felt about the shooting in New Zealand this March, where the killer live-streamed his killing on Facebook. In an age where everyone owns an atomic bomb in the shape of a computer, such a course cannot be more sensible and visionary.
The MSA Honor Courses are created to help learners develop self-cognition and systematic thinking, stimulating them to continually think about the most substantial questions, like Who am I? What is the world? How do I relate to the world, and what can I do for it? Where am I from, and where am I going? Only by keeping thinking can they find their due position as well as confidence in this constantly changing world.
There are four Honor Courses this semester, the most fundamental and pivotal four in this module. They are Eastern Philosophy, Western Philosophy, Self-Cognition, and Systematic Thinking.
Eastern Philosophy and Western Philosophy are mandatory for every learner. Hopefully, they can learn to take a critical perspective in understanding the world and selves, as well as past and future. For instance, in Eastern Philosophy, there is a chapter titled History of Chinese Cultural Thought, which examines the written records of what happened in the past. Together with Mr. Xing SHI (MSA Eastern Philosophy instructor), the learners get exposure to the written stories about philosophers across the whole Chinese cultural history, thus getting to understand the ideal world in Eastern minds.
Self-Cognition is a psychological training where learners learn about human evolution and cognitive science. They are supposed to get the ability to use self-assessment, to set academic and working targets, and to use the skills and tools for execution and review of plans. Systematic Thinking helps learners get beyond simple linear goals and to play their roles in a complicated, interactive, and ever-changing world. Through this course, learners learn to see things from a holistic perspective, to place self-cognition in a meaningful system, to play a decisive role and, by making use of the whole system, to create an even stronger thrust.
These three modules create a perfect synergy for education. Subject Learning expands learners’ knowledge spectrum, exposes them to diversified ways to see the world, and allows them to choose the subjects where their passion resides. Inter-Discipline Learning enables them to address the complexity and diversity of the real world by making coordinated use of what they learn from subject courses. Finally, the Honor Courses guide them in their inward explorations. After all, how far one reaches into themselves determines how far one reaches out to the world.
MSA mentors commit to look into the world and to protect the curiosity of each learner.
04
How does MSA keep track of the capability and competence development of learners?
How to confirm that the MSA curriculum has contributed to academic progress?
The commitment of competence-based integrates into every session and every student activity. For evaluation, we take the progress assessment as the priority and the final assessment as the supplement. We use two parallel reports, the MTC New Model transcript, which offers a comprehensive assessment of knowledge, capabilities, and competences, and the GPA transcript, which presents a final grade on the mastery of knowledge.
As a common practice, the assessment on mastery of knowledge can be given by tests and presentations, and be presented with the GPA. Then how about competences? It brings us to the MTC New Model report, the layout of which is shown below.

The Graphic Competence Report presents a learner’s performance in all the experiences of a semester. In line with the categorization of competences, the results are presented in eight dimensions. The teachers use a standardized scale and relevant criteria to assess how well each learner is doing in every course, and then consolidate data from different courses to give a comprehensive evaluation based on evidence for each competency.
The upper half of the circle presents how well the learner is doing in the development of this competence, and the lower half shows the distribution of how well the whole school is doing. Each ring, in the lower half, represents one level; the darker the color, the more students (as a percentage) are on that level.
• The Statement on Experiences and Personal Review. All courses are experiences. Taking ownership of their learning, the learners review their experiences in each course and make a statement, together with their teachers, comprising the introduction, process, achievements, and summary of the course or related projects.
- OKR (Objective & Key Results). It shows the correlation between the self-made objectives (O) and the key results (KR), and to what extent the goals met.

• MAP result. The result demonstrates a learner’s performance in Math, Reading, and Use of Language, his/her percentile among global peers, and how well the relevant competencies are developing.
• ESL result. The mastery of English is tracked and assessed with the CEFR. The CEFR levels are convertible to grades of other standardized tests (such as TOEFL and IELTS).
05
What is the mentor program (now the coaching system) mentioned by many MSA parents?
What can it do for senior high school education?
Is it a timely help through hard times or just icing on the cake?
The story about the coaching program starts with MSA’s commitment to putting the learner at the center.
There are two systems in the human brain: one for instincts like fear, desire, hunger and pleasure, and the other for functions like self-control, planning, and self-awareness. The development of these two systems tends to be imbalanced in the early years, the former matured while the latter lagging. That is why there is a certain period named “puberty.” Nicole, an adolescent psychologist, and MSA consultant, explains in her article, Is Addiction to Learning a High Probability Event? how teenagers develop a love for learning, “For individuals, effective learning is not a mere accumulation of knowledge, but more about comprehensively relating to emotions, personality, and the context.” Therefore, to initiate the process of learning is to understand the changes to occur in each developmental stage and treat learners as unique individuals instead of learning machines.
To put learners at the center is never a random process but an institutional guarantee at MSA. That is the coach, the unique support offered by MSA. Here, every educator is also a coach who provides four experiences, namely, the goal inauguration workshop (setting the goal), goal management and support (action management), dialogue with coach (breaking a bottleneck / adjusting a goal) and review of achievements (celebrating and reviewing).
The following are the goals set by two learners according to their conditions and passions. These would be achieved with coordinated support by our courses, personal projects, and the coaching system.

About MSA’s learner-centered commitment, here is one more story I would like to share.
January 17 was the first day of the Celebration Week following the end of MSA’s first semester. From the early morning that day, we were supposed to have over 200 visitors to the student exhibition. The night before, one MSA learner stood in front of a white wall, and an idea popped into her mind, “Doesn’t this look too empty? There ought to be some graffiti.” Way out of expectation, graffiti went on the wall. Now everybody had more than enough reasons to blame that learner for, say, breaking the rules, damaging public space, or disturbing the event the next day.
Surprisingly, what happened the next day was an open discussion where dozens of us sat down together to debate over the meaning of democracy, education, rules, responsibility, and freedom. These could be critical issues for everyone. We shared our anger or any other emotions while we also listened to the justification by the graffiti creator. Finally, we agreed on a solution on such, every piece of graffiti should include captions, and the learner who started the graffiti was responsible for completing the project. All graffiti would enter a critiques session, and the voted best graffiti could remain on the wall, and the artists will remove others.
My colleague once told me that learners need some learning experience like that at MSA. At traditional schools, learners memorize information mainly without understanding it. While at MSA, within the same length of time, learners learn with all their senses — they listen, they watch and think, and they feel with their hearts. In the last example, graffiti competition might not be a typical learning activity or is more frequently seen as an act of delinquency. However, at MSA, every action would be valued and turned into a unique learning experience.
That is what we mean when we talk about making everything learner-centered. We care about every action and the story behind it. We help build connections between knowledge, the world, and the learners. Their every impulse for exploration and trial is valued and supported.
06
Where do the graduates go?
Will they be able to take the Chinese College Entrance Examination?
As an innovative school, we care about our students as much as traditional schools and care about where they go after graduation, as they may attend Chinese and foreign colleges, start their own business, or get a gap year to experience a full world.
The Chinese College Entrance Examination, at present, is not suggested, as MSA graduates may not stand any advantage there.
At present, to attend an oversea college after high school is what most MSA families expect. We promise open and prudent minds and actions for all critical issues on our students’ way to foreign colleges. To maintain good relations with our learners’ future destinations, the MSA team visited admission offices of ten top US universities, including Stanford, in April 2019. Our second trip was in September, where we visited admission offices of twenty top universities, including Harvard, MIT, and Princeton. Our team has planned more trips for school visits.
Also, MSA presents both the MTC and the GPA transcripts, putting our graduates at a privileged position for college application. Here I would like to talk about the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MST). So far, over 100 top universities, including the Ivy League, have accepted MTC transcripts for admissions. For MSA learners, the new model adopted by MTC turns out to be the best way to introduce themselves to admission offices.
First, every MSA learner has a personalized learning experience and works for deeper learning goals at their own pace. MTC transcripts can fully demonstrate a learner’s exploration and progress into a specialized area. Second, MSA learners spend more time on building capabilities and competencies, as well as on practical projects and courses that differentiate from other schools. MTC transcripts highlight personalized programs and achievements made herein (like responsibilities taken, knowledge, and abilities obtained). Thus, MTC transcripts allow admission officers to catch the uniqueness of MSA graduates at first sight.
We have put in place a Higher Education and Career Planning Center to help every learner find where to go through workshops on higher education and one-on-one education and career development consultations. All possible resources in and out of school are to be used to help learners apply for their dream schools. They will be enabled to discover and bring out the best of themselves and tell their unique stories in their application.
07
Were there any significant changes in the past year of operation?
How do you evaluate such changes?
There were no substantial changes in our vision or mission. We are still committed to cultivating fulfilled, compassionate, and active citizens. However, a year of educational practice has propelled us to refine our path to that goal. We have restructured the school, further clarified the border of each module, and made our procedures more workable and practical.
In general, what we went through in the past year has been translated into an innovative school model, which enables better planning, organization, and control on what we are doing right now. We hope that the model can help a broader range of educators. Therefore, by the end of this year, we intend to make it an open-source platform whereby MSA experiences can hopefully incubate viable innovative methodologies widely shared.
08
What kind of students are you seeking?
Candidates who are matches to MSA.
Moreover, we are not only looking for students, but also families who match the vision of MSA. As MSA is in its early stage now, we are looking for families of trailblazers who share our educational vision and our journey of challenge and exploration. It is a fundamental condition that we highly value.
Besides, students also need to take an online test and an offline interview.
Here I hope to address some misunderstanding about admissions to MSA.
Does a student have to have excellent grades?
Not necessarily.
We do not care so much about past transcripts. All applicants need to take an online test where they can refer to any available resources. We encourage the use of all possible tools to explore and find the answers.
Does MSA only work for highly self-disciplined students with clear goals?
No.
We believe that internal and external explorations are life-long journeys for everybody, and MSA accompanies the learner for part of those journeys. Therefore, we do not ask for a commitment from students and families, but we do hope for awareness and willingness to join hands with MSA on their journeys of exploration and discovery.
Does MSA cost a lot?
Yes, and no.
The tuition for 2020 is 168,000 yuan.
We would never want financial constraints to keep a potential learner out of MSA. Every year we put aside 10% of our total revenues as a foundation to provide financial support for families in need. The coverage ratio of the scholarship is up to 20%, meaning that every one out of five learners can get substantial financial support.
Applications for admission and scholarship are strictly separated, ensuring that application for scholarship should never influence the admission process. The amount of financial support is decided mainly by family economic conditions and the total amount of award in that particular year.
Finally, I would like to explain more about what I mean by match. Not every kid who passes the interview matches MSA. There was a kid who wanted to develop musical talent, which was not yet ready to be fully supported by MSA. Although this family had passed all our tests and interviews, we finally decided that we didn’t match each other.
There was another family who finally rejected our offer but still impressed me. The parents would not merely decide for their kid but discussed with the kid for five hours to make the final decision. For them, it determines that the kid would go to college in the US, and the family was working hard to save enough money. Although MSA could offer partial financial support, the family finally turned down MSA’s offer due to financial burden after consideration. It was very sensible and respectful that the parents treated the kid as an independent individual to face family challenges. It became less important than whether they joined MSA or not. I believe they would embrace a better future as they already knew what they wanted.
09
As a start-up, is MSA’s capital secured now?
Our capital is healthy and safe. We have a professional funding team, who raise funds based on how we are doing right now and what we will be doing in the time to come. We have already built a pool of funds from people who share our vision to ensure the daily operations of the school.
10
Last words
Maybe you get a little bit tired after reading for so long. Now please close your eyes and try to answer, in your mind, the question often brought up in MSA admission information sessions.
“What is your kid’s name?”
“What is your expectation for her/him in that name?”
Every family had written down their best wishes and expectations for their kids even before they were born. However, just like many other things, we might have forgotten about them on the way. Moreover, it is time to look back at them.
Finally, I would like to pay my gratitude and respects to every family in MSA’s founding class. I appreciate every one of you who chooses to join us in creating a better future in a time of revolution and disruption.
The article is wrote for the family who want to apply for Moonshot Academy, and it is also helpful for the people who want to know what we have done for last two years.
