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PathfinderStudio by Fielding Intl
Elementary Integrated Pathfinder

Eden Park Elementary

From Traditional Classrooms to a Thriving Learning Community · Cranston, Rhode Island

Eden Park Elementary transformed a traditional K-5 school into a flexible learning community by rethinking both their program model and physical spaces—demonstrating that big change is possible at any scale.

The Challenge

Rigid, teacher-centered classrooms were limiting student agency and engagement. The existing physical environment reinforced isolation between grades and subject areas, making collaboration difficult.

Programmatic Shift

Shifted from whole-class direct instruction to differentiated, project-based learning with flexible groupings. Teachers became facilitators rather than directors, and students gained greater ownership over their learning.

Environmental Shift

Redesigned three classrooms and a shared corridor into a connected learning neighborhood—movable furniture, transparent walls, and dedicated maker and reading spaces replaced fixed rows and isolated rooms.

Key Outcomes

  • 40% increase in student-reported engagement in end-of-year survey
  • Teachers report spending less time on classroom management, more on learning design
  • Three additional grade-level teams adopted the model in year two
  • The school became a local demonstration site, hosting 12 school visits in the first year

The Challenge

Eden Park Elementary was a good school with great teachers—but something wasn’t working. Students were disengaged, and teachers felt caught between the curriculum they were supposed to deliver and the learning they knew was possible.

The physical environment wasn’t helping. Classrooms were isolated boxes, each with rows of desks facing a whiteboard. The hallway between them was dead space. There was nowhere for students to work in small groups, nowhere for collaborative projects to live and grow.

Principal Maria Santos had a vision: a school where students drive their own learning, where teachers design experiences rather than deliver content, and where the building itself supports both. But she didn’t know where to start.

Entering the Pathfinder Project

Fielding International worked with Eden Park through a Pathfinder Project engagement. Over one semester, we:

  1. Facilitated a program visioning process with the full staff, surfacing shared values and a common picture of what great learning looked like
  2. Conducted a space audit of the three classrooms and corridor earmarked for the pilot
  3. Co-designed a concept for a connected learning neighborhood with the teachers who would use it
  4. Supported a phased pilot of the new program model, beginning before any construction started

The insight that changed everything: the program shift and the space shift had to happen together. New furniture in old practice just creates expensive confusion.

What Changed

Program

Teachers piloted a three-week project-based learning unit before the space renovation was complete. They pushed desks to the walls, used the corridor, and discovered what they actually needed: flexible surfaces, writable walls, and visibility between spaces.

The pilot convinced the last skeptics. By the time the renovation was done, the whole team had already practiced the new pedagogy in the old space.

Space

The renovation was modest by design: movable tables, a rolling whiteboard wall between two classrooms, a loft reading area in the corner of one room, and a makerspace cart in the corridor. Total cost: under $40,000.

But the effect was transformative. Walking into the learning neighborhood now, you see students in motion—working in pairs, in small groups, sometimes alone in the reading loft. Teachers circulate, observe, and confer.

What Came Next

Eden Park’s Pathfinder Project created something the school hadn’t expected: momentum. Word spread quickly among families and neighboring schools. The principal began getting calls asking if people could come see.

In year two, Fielding International returned to support three additional grade-level teams in adopting the model. The Pathfinder Project had become a Pathfinder School.

Eden Park Elementary is a participant in Fielding International’s growing library of Pathfinder case studies. Learn about the Pathfinder Project to find out how your school could be next.

Back to all case studies About the Pathfinder Project →