Avery Coonley School
| The Avery Coonley School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
1400 Maple Avenue United States | |
| Coordinates | 41°47′17″N 88°01′12″W / 41.788°N 88.020°W |
| Information | |
| School type | |
| Motto | "Onward and Upward" |
| Established | 1906 |
| NCES School ID | 02024267 |
| Head of school | Kirsty Montgomery |
| Grades | Preschool–8 |
| Gender | Coed |
| Age range | 3–14 |
| Enrollment | 338 (2023) |
| Campus size | 11 acres (4.5 ha) |
| Campus type | Suburban |
| Color(s) | Orange and blue |
| Mascot | Fightin' Seahorse |
| Accreditation | North Central Association |
| Affiliation | National Association of Independent Schools |
| Website | www |
Coonley, Avery, School | |
| Location | 1400 Maple Ave., Downers Grove, Illinois |
| Area | 10.5 acres (4.2 ha) |
| Built | 1929 |
| Architect | Waldron Faulkner; Hamilton, Fellows & Nedved, et al. |
| Architectural style | Prairie School |
| NRHP reference No. | 07000477 |
| Added to NRHP | August 8, 2007 |
The Avery Coonley School (ACS), commonly called Avery Coonley, is an independent, coeducational day school serving academically gifted students in preschool through eighth grade (approximately ages 3 to 14), and is located in Downers Grove, DuPage County, Illinois. The school was founded in 1906 to promote the progressive educational theories developed by John Dewey and other turn-of-the-20th-century philosophers, and was a nationally recognized model for progressive education well into the 1940s. From 1943 to 1965, Avery Coonley was part of the National College of Education (now National Louis University), serving as a living laboratory for teacher training.
The school moved to Downers Grove in 1916 and became the Avery Coonley School in 1929, with a new 10.45-acre (4.23 ha) campus designed in the Prairie and Arts and Crafts styles, landscaped by Jens Jensen. Avery Coonley was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.