Leading Edge Program 2005 Honorees

The NAIS Leading Edge recognition program honors NAIS member schools and school subscribers (new independent school and international school subscribers only) at varying enrollment levels for their outstanding programs. Here is a list and profile of each program honored by the Leading Edge program in 2005.

Community Relations

• La Salle College High School (PA)
• Wildwood School (CA)
• Sonoma Academy (CA)

Curriculum Innovation

• Kentucky Country Day School (KY)
• Cincinnati Country Day School (OH)
• Darrow School (NY)

• Sidwell Friends School (DC)
• The Doane Stuart School (NY)
• Lesley Ellis School (MA)

• Pace Academy (GA)
• Kent Place School (NJ)
• Saint Mark's School (CA)
• The Gillispie School (CA)

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

La Salle College High School
Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania
Principal: Frederick Assaf
Program Contacts: Michael O'Toole, otoole@lschs.org
and Geri Light

Bridging the Digital Divide

Technological transfer is one way to build a more just society. La Salle College School initiated Community TECHServe in 2001 to help more than 15,000 people in Philadelphia overcome the "digital divide."

An emerging model for school-university-community partnerships, TECHServe addresses this gap in technology use in three distinct phases. First, students and school faculty train at La Salle and at Penn. Then, they work with urban community service organizations to identify technology needs and collaborate on appropriate solutions. Finally, TECHServe provides hardware, software, training, and leadership to the local organizations to improve accessibility to technology.

La Salle's mission is to educate students of diverse talents and abilities in the qualities of leadership that will help them bring about a more just society. Community TECHServe views the digital divide as a problem of social justice that can be examined economically, socially, and educationally. The goal is collaborative success. Students work with community organizers and clients to shape solutions that allow the client organizations to assume leadership and accountability.

TECHServe began in 2001 as an extension of La Salle's strong technological infrastructure. La Salle students studied the "digital divide," installed hardware and software, and provided technical training to 10 community organizations, including Project Home (homeless services) and Hospitality House (transition program for prisoners). Affiliation with the Fox Leadership Program at Penn expanded and formalized the program. More than a dozen community organizations and three inner city schools in Philadelphia now have local networks, internet access, and on-site technical leaders thanks to TECHServe and the students and faculty of La Salle College School.

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Wildwood School
Los Angeles, California
Head of School: Hope E. Boyd
Program Contact: Jean Fauci, jfauci@wildwood.org

Reaching Out to Public Schools

An independent school with a public mission, Wildwood School established the Wildwood Outreach Center in 2001 to share the benefits of a small school environment and personalized educational program with schools, teachers, and students in the public sector. The Outreach Center emphasizes lifelong learning; an interdisciplinary, project-based curriculum; assessment of students through portfolios and demonstrations; service to the community; and close relationships between schools and families.

The Center provides workshops and technical assistance to new and restructuring public and charter schools on topics including Advisory Programs, Project-Based Learning, Habits of Mind and Heart, and Gateway/Graduation Portfolios and Presentations. The Outreach Center also hosts visits to Wildwood and produced The Advisory Toolkit, a 45-minute video and accompanying workbook to help schools create an advisory program.

The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) recently named Wildwood a CES Mentor School. Wildwood will act as a mentor to a public school in the Los Angeles area, and will help the Los Angeles Unified School District establish Small Learning Communities in every LAUSD high school within the next five years by offering Outreach workshops and technical assistance. Since its inception, the Wildwood Outreach Center has conducted 12 workshops for administrators and faculty from over 70 public and charter schools, school districts, and educational associations. Four public schools went on to implement advisory programs in their schools. The Outreach Center mentored development of the CityLife Downtown Charter School, which series 80 students in Los Angeles and will grow to a 560-student secondary school. The Center also mentors schools in Arizona and Washington state, and has hosted over 100 visitors.

Wildwood's Outreach efforts are helping hundreds of children in public and charter schools to benefit from the advantages of a small, intellectually challenging, personalized education. Reaching out to public schools helps to prepare more young people to be successful, contributing members of a global society.

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Sonoma Academy
Santa Rosa, California
Head of School: Janet Durgin
Program Contact: John Durgin, john.durgin@sonomaacademy.org

Expanding the Concept of Community

Sonoma Academy promoted an expansive meaning of "community," teaching students to actively participate in service and social change on both local and global fronts. The school's community service and study abroad program, CONNECTIONS, requires all students to participate in weekly volunteer or community service projects, addressing local, state, national, and global issues.

Students volunteer with local organizations, including the Redwood Empire Food Bank and Sonoma County Animal Shelter, where they initiate internationally-focused projects, including fund raising for micro-loan recipients in Kenya and survivors of the Iranian earthquake. CONNECTIONS also organizes study/travel trips to China, Costa Rica, Mexico, France, and Thailand. A scholarship program ensures that any student can participate in these global experiences.

CONNECTIONS aims to instill in students a sense of responsibility and value for involvement in their communities. These goals align with the mission of the school, which also emphasizes a commitment to learning, ethics, cross-cultural communication, and leadership. Board leadership and commitment to the program have been central to its success. Supported by a full-time director and with time built into the curriculum for community service and travel, the program literally "connects" every member of the student body with members of local and global communities. Students benefit from opportunities to learn and practice cross-cultural communication and leadership. Student volunteers have assisted many organizations in meeting their goals for providing client services and fund raising, and 62 students nearly half of the student body; have traveled abroad through CONNECTIONS over the past three years. Sonoma Academy expects that as a result of this program and the school's curriculum, its graduates will become responsive and thoughtful citizens of the world.

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CURRICULUM INNOVATION

Kentucky Country Day School
Louisville, Kentucky
Head of School: Bradley E. Lyman
Program Contact: Chris Brice, chris.brice@kcd.org

Learning to Give

While the desire to give may be strong, the actual practice of philanthropy can be a challenge. You have to raise sufficient funds, establish rules and procedures for giving, and make tough choices about which worthy causes to support. Students at Kentucky Country Day School are mastering the skills of giving in a new course that focuses on the art of philanthropy. A $10,000 grant provided the seed money to establish The Artemis Fund, an advised fund within the Community Foundation of Louisville governed by by-laws written by the students.

As trustees of the fund, the students learn the importance of philanthropy and develop the skills necessary to make charitable efforts more effective. They started by developing a mission statement to guide their efforts. The Artemis Fund seeks to strengthen the Greater Louisville Community by supporting local organizations that encourage the development of youth and promote the fundamental values of love, family, and respect. Students at Kentucky Country Day School clarify their own values by studying the philanthropic currents in other civilizations as well as their own. The course also builds sound money management skills. Students seek to ensure the Fund's financial stability through good governance and relationship building with grantors and grantees. In reviewing the Fund's financials, classes quickly realize that adding to principal must be a priority. Fund raising through direct solicitation and special events is a major part of the course.

Students then must decide how to distribute the funds. Using a student created grant application, they review each request and evaluate each applicant through the "lens" of their own values and priorities. Students organize site visits, interview key personnel, and consult experts from local non-profit foundations before making their final, gut-wrenching decisions. Starting with $10,000 just three years ago, the philanthropy class at Kentucky Country Day School has built a charitable trust of more than $53,000 and dispersed $11,600 in grants to local community organizations. Students learn to view philanthropy with seriousness, spirit, and creativity. The education students receive as trustees of The Artemis Fund encourages a lifetime of service and philanthropy.

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Cincinnati Country Day School
Cincinnati, Ohio
Head of School: Robert Macrae
Program Contacts: Carole Lichty-Smith, lichtysmc@countryday.net,
Anna Binkley, Kelly Hammond, and Alexis Martino

Focusing on Expression

"FOCUS: An American Teenage Vision" is an annual project that challenges student photographers from seven public and private schools around the country to document teenage identity in the 21st century. Bridging gaps created by geography, culture, identity and class, FOCUS enables student photographers to express their shared experience. Guided by documentary photographers and project mentors Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Davidson, Wendy Walsh, and Josh Withers, the FOCUS students investigate themes of intimacy, self identity, alienation, and emergence, and document the reality of life as they perceive it.

The FOCUS project reflects the culture of Cincinnati Country Day School, which is dedicated to the arts, technology, diversity, student-centeredness, and the sense of local and global community membership. The school's technology-rich environment serves as the foundation for this multi-school collaboration. Cincinnati Country Day School hosts a project website with galleries, press media, and discussion critique. Video conferencing provides a personal interface between partner schools. This year, the zenith of the project was a student-curated exhibition at Cincinnati's Contemporary Art Center.

Two years of FOCUS workshops, online critiques, publications, and an exhibition are just the beginning of an infectious teenage movement. More than 200 students have participated in the project from coast to coast. Lifelong friendships have been formed between students who otherwise would never have met. Educators and students are collaborating on a book project showcasing FOCUS work, outlining lesson plans, and offering commentary from the project mentors. In addition, a traveling exhibition of student works is planned.

One FOCUS student calls the project "a movement to liberate students and their work." By involving public and private schools that are socially, ethnically, and culturally diverse, FOCUS helps students break down societal barriers and create a single voice through images.

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Darrow School
New Lebanon, New York
Head of School: Nancy Wolf
Program Contacts: Craig Westcott and
Stacy Giordano, giordanoa@darrowschool.org

Teaching Sustainability

Darrow School provides an education in sustainable living, learning, and being. This is a logical extension of the original inhabitants of the campus, the Shakers, who left a legacy of simplicity of purpose, relation, and design. Sustainability is integrated throughout the academic and residential curricula, and serves as a foundation for unique extracurricular offerings. Darrow's mission statement includes the words "environmental consciousness," and emphasizes the development of interests and abilities through applied learning experiences. All academic departments teach sustainability, and students progress from an appreciation of environmental issues to a comprehension of sustainable solutions. Students and teachers work together to determine and implement environmental solutions on campus, extending their commitment to the school's buildings, maintenance, and grounds.

The Samson Environmental Center, an award-winning green building on campus, provides a community sustainability resource center. The SEC maintains a Living Machine wastewater treatment plant and a photovoltaic array that shares performance data with 49 schools across the state, including the local public district. Students lead tours of the SEC for more than 400 visitors each year. Student/faculty teams also visit exemplar sites and make conference presentations on sustainable living and education. Goals for the program include a continued emphasis on sustainability as a lifestyle as well as a context for learning. Darrow plans to conduct an energy and resource use inventory; to deepen the integration of sustainability into non-science classes, including an increased emphasis on international contexts; and to convene an Environmental Policy Action Committee.

Students are encouraged to view complexity in environmental problems as an opportunity to design elegant solutions that do not place the environment in opposition to the economy and human health. Conducting joint research projects with colleges like Williams College, hosting the annual Clean Water Congress for regional high schools, and participating in campus-wide service learning programs like Hands-to-Work help prepare students for the complexities of life in the 21st Century.

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EQUITY AND JUSTICE INITIATIVES

Prizing Diversity

Sidwell Friends School believes that historical injustices can be righted only in an environment where all members of the school community take ownership of their institution. SFS created the Diversity Advisory Group (DAG) to provide advice and education on matters related to economic, racial, national, ethnic, and religious diversity, as well as gender, sexual orientation, and physical disability. The individual members of the DAG represent a cross-section of the community, and the group meets regularly with senior administration, principals, supervisors, and the Office of Human Resources. The prizing of diversity is one of the institution's core values, and making the DAG part of the school's senior management team works to ensure diversity at all levels.

The DAG designs and implements assemblies, lecture series, discussion and affinity groups, service programs, educational trips, and exchange activities for all members of the Sidwell Friends School community. Also, the DAG has core responsibility for maintaining a leading-edge multicultural curriculum in all divisions of the school. Supported by strong administrative leadership and an annual budget of nearly $25,000, the DAG oversees a comprehensive plan of educational programs for employees, trustees, students, and parents. Further, the policies and practices of  Sidwell Friends School are regularly examined by the DAG to ensure alignment with the school's diversity objectives.

In its three years of existence, the DAG has prompted the senior administration to become a more inclusive governing body. More persons of color have been hired, and new tools for managing diversity-related conflicts have been put in place. Employees routinely engage in diversity education workshops, and the DAG has revised school forms, drafted new disciplinary procedures, created a peer coaching program for students, added middle school affinity groups, improved faculty mentoring, and established two S.E.E.D. programs. At Sidwell Friends School, true excellence in education is believed to be achievable only by appreciating, embracing, and prizing diversity.

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The Doane Stuart School
Albany, New York
Head of School: Richard Enemark
Project Contact: Tonia Drewniak, tdrewniak@doanestuart.org

Interfaith, Integrated Education

Putting into action the school's mission to provide interfaith, "integrated" education, the Doane Stuart School introduced an Irish/American Exchange Program in partnership with Lagan College in Northern Ireland. The Irish-American Exchange Program is a natural extension of Doane Stuart's unique status as America's only successfully merged Catholic/Protestant school. Each year, the program welcomes an equal number of Protestant and Catholic students from Belfast to spend the school year at Doane Stuart in Albany.

Exchange students participate in and contribute to the school's interfaith community, honing leadership and conflict-resolution skills that can be employed when they return to Northern Ireland. They also bring home an appreciation of the true meaning and benefits of an interfaith community. The idea for an exchange program was inspired by Seamus Hodgkinson, a faculty member who was born and raised in Belfast.

In 2001, Doane Stuart representatives visited Northern Ireland, where they toured integrated Protestant/Catholic schools and met with the Northern Ireland Council on Integrated Education. It was during this trip that Lagan College agreed to participate in the exchange program.  Now in its second year, the program has drawn national and international acclaim, and was featured on a National Public Radio series. Last spring, Doane Stuart hosted a three-day symposium where heads of school, trustees, and dignitaries from Northern Ireland gathered to explore the path to successful "integrated" education. The bonds forged during this pivotal visit were instrumental in securing the legacy of the school's Irish-American exchange program.

Doane Stuart plans to grow the program to include more Irish students, and to add leadership and conflict resolution training, international communications, mutual exchanges, teacher exchanges, and curriculum development. Doane Stuart envisions becoming an international resource for interfaith education and conflict resolution for other secondary independent schools.

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Lesley Ellis School
Arlington, Massachusetts
Head of School: Deanne Benson
Project Contact: Jon Pfeifer, jpfeifer@sfcinc.org

Appreciating Differences

Pursuing the school's mission to provide a multicultural, anti-bias, and nonviolent education, the teachers at Lesley Ellis School sought an overall curriculum that would cover all grade levels and build upon itself from year to year in a cohesive manner. When they couldn't find a suitable document, they wrote their own anti-bias curriculum. The curriculum addresses racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, disabilities, and ageism for preschool through Grade 5. Realizing that everyone is on a different point on the anti-bias continuum, the entire faculty participated in writing the new curriculum. Committee members researched different anti-bias topics, and teachers worked together to create classroom lessons that would challenge their students and build on past learning.

Teachers at Lesley Ellis School met monthly to talk about the anti-bias lessons used in their classrooms, and to mentor each other on effective approaches to anti-bias education. Faculty planned monthly all-school assemblies focused on anti-bias topics, where families were invited to learn more about the program. Developing a hard copy curriculum has given families and staff a better understanding of what the school means by anti-bias education. Because the entire staff worked together to create the program, there is full commitment to the approach.

Teachers still meet regularly to share their classroom experiences, providing a forum to continually improve the anti-bias curriculum. In fact, the regular meetings have become a critical factor in the program's success. They provide a built-in method for accountability and continued feedback from the staff. When difficulties or questions arise, the diversity committee can research the topic while the staff shares ideas, brainstorms concepts, and builds curriculum on the spot. Just as biases change over time, the anti-bias curriculum at Lesley Ellis will evolve to meet new challenges and address the needs of the community.

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TECHNOLOGY

Pace Academy
Atlanta, Georgia
Head of School: Michael A. Murphy
Program Contacts: Elizabeth Miller, emiller@paceacademy.org,
Linda McNay, lmcnay@paceacademy.org

Presenting with Purpose

With a history of national and state debate championships, Pace Academy values communication and presentation skills. In 1999, Pace friends and philanthropists, Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Fuqua, endowed the Public Speaking and Debate Program at Pace Academy. Since the time of that critical contribution, students have been required to  complete a semester-long public speaking course to graduate.

Throughout the semester, students research, compose, and deliver eight different types of speeches. In 2002, Linda McNay initiated Explore, Connect & Excel: The Campaign for Pace Academy Middle School. A six-phase student speech project emphasizing the use of presentation software and other technology tools now served as the final exam for the public speaking course, replacing a traditional pencil and paper exam. Students chose the type of speech, the venue, and audience. The 109 students who participated in the project over four semesters gained "real world" public speaking experience on and off campus while helping to raise $16 million necessary to build the new middle school. Technology is integral to the experience of all students, pre-first through 12th grade at Pace Academy. Integrating technology into public  speaking was a key objective of the project. The students used Microsoft® PowerPoint® to prepare their slide presentations. Some students made digital movie clips that they integrated into their speeches. Others used digital scanners and Adobe® PhotoShop® to manipulate graphics. One student used CAD-CAM to draw the middle school based solely on an architect's initial rendering.

With this project, Pace students conquered their fears of public speaking and tapped their creativity. Astonished trustees have e-mailed to thank students for their eloquent speeches ranging from tributes to the construction crews to fund-raising speeches, all using technology comparable to that used in Fortune500 boardrooms. The student involvement in the campaign, their utilization of technology, and their parents' increased participation has been instrumental in the campaign's success.

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Kent Place School
Summit, New Jersey
Head of School: Sue Bosland
Program Contact: Alexandra Lasevich, lasevicha@kentplace.org

Aiming for the Stars

When we look at the stars, we see ourselves. At Kent Place School, a portable planetarium called STARLAB is helping students explore history and other cultures by studying the night sky. Inside the STARLAB dome, a cylinder projector displays the night sky devoid of light pollution. Students can view the sky as it appears above Summit, New Jersey, or from the Australian outback. STARLAB can project the entire galaxy, focus on the solar system and even look deep beneath the Earth's crust to see how tectonic plate movements cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Using STARLAB, students can view the sky through the eyes of ancient Egyptians and Greeks, learn the legends of China and Africa, and study the tales of Native Americans. Throughout history, different cultures have seen similar shapes in star formations, and even told similar tales about them.  A new STARLAB program will look at how these cultures interpreted the night sky by analyzing the tales they told about the constellations and the cultural values their "star stories" evoke. Grant funds enabled Kent Place School to purchase the STARLAB dome. An astronomy club composed of dedicated upper school students conducts research and sets up study programs, including The Night Sky, Our Solar System, The Myths of Ancient Greece, Egyptian Sky, Stories of Native American Tribes, The Legends of Ancient China, and African Myths.

Two training sessions have instructed teachers in the use of STARLAB, and conversations across divisions are exploring new ways to integrate the technology into the curriculum. Astronomy is a unique and complex science that encompasses history and literature, mathematics and physics, biology and chemistry, languages and art. New STARLAB programs at Kent Place School will enhance the middle school science program, and the 12th grade elective English class on African literature. Eventually, Kent Place School hopes to fully integrate a student-run STARLAB into the curriculum across departments and all three divisions.

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Saint Mark's School
San Rafael, California
Head of School: Damon Kerby
Program Contact: Bonnie Nishihara, bnishihara@saintmarksschool.org

Deconstructing the Media

Saint Mark's Media Literacy program leverages technology to help students in grades five through eight learn to become critical consumers and inventive creators of mass media. Using technology both as a teaching tool to deliver content and as a learning tool to construct knowledge, the program aims to raise students' awareness of how our thoughts and actions are influenced by the media.

The program begins in grades five and six with week-long, integrated units that introduce students to the program's core concepts. It continues in grade seven with a semester-long course that combines discussion and written reflection with hands-on, digital projects. The program culminates in grade eight in an intensive production week, during which students create original media using new technologies. Over the course of the Media Literacy program, students learn to identify and deconstruct the codes and conventions used by media to sell, persuade, entertain, and educate. Through the process of planning and producing their own media and by articulating their media's composition in oral and written analyses, students deepen their understanding of media literacy concepts and use a variety of technical and academic resources in the creative process.

Born out of the faculty and administration's belief that media literacy is vital in our 21st Century world, the Media Literacy program was designed by a committee of teachers and is implemented jointly by classroom teachers across grades and disciplines. Members of the local media community serve as guest speakers for the program and related parent education events. Student-made media productions have covered a broad range of topics in a wide variety of media formats, from digital self-portraits that challenge media stereotypes of teenagers, to public service announcement videos that reveal the media's role in underage alcohol and tobacco use, to websites that examine the link between television and obesity. By assuming the role of media creator, students not only gain a deeper understanding of mass media, but also fundamental critical thinking, communication, research, and technical skills.

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The Gillispie School
La Jolla, California
Head of School: Jacqueline Yarbrough
Program Contact: Joseph Morris, jmorris@gillispie.org

Using Technology to Learn

The Integrated Digital Curriculum Initiative (IDC) at The Gillispie School began in 2002 with a cart full of wireless laptops. In the fall of 2003, the program provided a laptop for every teacher and every student in the third through sixth grades. With a 1:3 laptop/student ratio in Early K-2, as well, laptop computing is now seamlessly integrated into Gillispie's curriculum. Providing teachers and students with the latest computer technologies gives them the tools to create exciting interactive projects, presentations, mindmaps, creative writing, and to enhance scientific investigations with portable digital microscopes.

The program has expanded curricula in social studies, language arts, science, art, and music by enabling the addition of new curricular components such as digital music composition, guided Internet research, digital photography and video, enhanced scientific investigation tools, as well as global partner projects. The Gillispie School is committed to using traditional and innovative educational practices to foster each child's development. The IDC program eliminates barriers such as student access, lack of professional training, and limited technology support.

Teachers have quickly become proficient, and the school's expectation is that all teachers will become expert and will be able to decide when to use technology as the most effective teaching tool. With wireless laptops and ubiquitous access to the Internet and school network, the laptop environment has seamlessly become part of the school's academic culture. Photos highlighting class projects are e-mailed to parents. A gallery on the school's website highlights interactive projects. Students have produced music compositions, published books online, and documented the scientific method using digital video. "Hands-Across-the-Water," a science project with a school in Australia compares and contrasts marine reef life near both schools.

At the end of the year, students take home interactive digital portfolios with all their projects. When they graduate, they will take with them the ability to use technology to learn, create, present, and communicate effectively and efficiently.

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