Crefeld is guided by the principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools and research on multiple intelligences and learning styles. The Coalition is a school reform movement with over 1000 affiliated schools around the country, and many of its principles are being adopted wholesale by state departments of education as part of a project called Re:Learning. The Coalition's philosophy is outlined in Theodore Sizer's books Horace's Compromise, Horace's School, and Horace's Hope.
A few of the significant Coalition ideas we have adopted are: Graduation by Exhibition, student-as-worker/teacher-as-coach pedagogy, personalization of curriculum, and a conscious school tone which reflects trust, decency, and unanxious expectation. Crefeld also participates in the National School Reform Project funded by The Annenberg Institute for School Reform.