John Dewey Academy of Learning

JDAL utilizes Project Based Learning, ALEKS (for mathematics), Achieve3000 (for Language Arts), and a series of seminars taught by community members, parents, students, and staff. JDAL differs in operation from what is commonly found in high schools within the United States, and instead employing a classroom approach similar to an elementary or primary school, in which students remain in a single room for the majority of the school day. As of October 2019, there are five of such classrooms, colloquially referred to as 'advisories'. Within each advisory, a staff member familiar with a subject, or a series of subjects is found. Students are assigned to the advisories with some degree of randomness and generally remain within the same advisory throughout their schooling.

As a conjunctive to projects, students often sign up for Seminars, a limited-term engagement varying from a few weeks to an entire semester. These courses are taught by existing staff, students, parents, and community members, under the supervision of one or more advisers. Seminars were briefly removed but brought back for the 2018-2019 school year, and have continued since then.

By senior year, students often have few credits left to earn before meeting the Board of Education's requirements for graduation. As such, seniors spend most of their time conducting a Capstone project which exists as a culmination of their learning and typically involves over 500 hours of work. Capstone projects often have major effects on the school as a whole, and often impact the community in general.