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NAIS e-Bulletin
Vol. 8, Issue 10 - November 2009
OPINION NAIS NEWS NAIS RESEARCH NAIS OFFERINGS NAIS RESOURCES ADVOCACY GOVERNMENT WATCH OPINION Bassett Blog: The Essential Ted
Theodore Ryland Sizer (1932–2009)
NAIS President Patrick F. Bassett |
The first time I met Ted Sizer in person was when he returned as an alum (Class of 1949) to speak at Pomfret School, where I was head at the time, and I thought, “Here is a man with gravitas, sorely in short supply in the world.”
I’ve never met Ron Thorpe, who was a teaching fellow at Phillips Academy (Massachusetts) in 1974, but here’s how he remembers Ted Sizer: “Tonight I am thinking about Ted and Nancy, with their dog Heidi, on a brisk evening walk down School Street…. His rumpled khaki rain coat is open and flapping, his hand moving frequently toward his forehead to brush back that lock of dark hair. I still marvel at the love they exuded for the place, the profession, their children and each other.”
What’s extraordinary is not that Ron Thorpe — who had no intention of pursuing a career in education — met Ted Sizer and was inspired to stay in education for the next 35 years. What’s extraordinary is that his intimate memory is echoed a thousand fold throughout the Internet by other acolytes happy to credit their mentor with changing their lives.
Like Meredith Price, also from Andover: “Put simply, Ted and Nancy saved our school. Imagine the U room full of angry Phillips Academy kids — drugs, war, a recently dead headmaster, long dirty hair, dope aroma on plaid shirts. In bounds a guy in shirt, plaid tie, pocket watch in blue blazer. He sat down, introduced himself, and asked: What would YOU change about Andover?”
It’s hard to be a change agent in today’s crowded and competitive world. Yet perhaps Ted Sizer’s impact was due to his being a switch hitter — he was both a dreamer and a doer. Who else would eschew a “think tank” and instead found an “action tank”?
Ted Sizer at Brown University (photo by John Forasté) |
We are familiar with his legendary career ladder, where, at each rung, he would shake and rattle the status quo, remarkably, from within. He served as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, headmaster of Phillips Academy, and chair of the education department of Brown University, among many other roles.
Yet he soared highest when he innovated from outside the gates — in one important case with early help from NAIS. In 1981, Sizer undertook a study, sponsored by NAIS and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, of American high schools. The research convinced him that schools should not be test-driven factories, but should be grounded in democratic pluralism. This led to his founding, in 1984, the Essential Schools movement, under the umbrella of the Coalition of Essential Schools.
The Essential Schools movement was also based on Sizer’s book, Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School. For Peter Gow, director of college counseling and special programs at Beaver Country Day School (Massachusetts), there’s a whole generation of educators for whom Sizer’s Horace books came along just as they were entering their mid-career doldrums. “Grumpy about the compromises we had been making, even at our idyllic independent schools, we empathized with Horace over his. And then along came hope and even the promise of a new way of doing school.” My experience reading Horace’s Compromise was slightly different: thankfulness for teaching in an independent school where at least I didn’t need to make Horace’s public school compromise (“If you behave, I won’t ask too much of you”), tinged by some guilt that my school was too much about individual success and too little about the collective good.
Sizer’s new way of doing school included the ten Common Principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools. For one school head, Jonathan Martin of St. Gregory College Preparatory School (Arizona), the beauty of the “Sizerian principles” is in the way they bridge two disparate sectors of quality education. “They look backward to borrow from the best traditions of independent schools… but also look forward to the best elements of what we now call twenty-first century education.”
That twenty-first century is rife with change, and Sizer, for one, espoused and embraced it. It occurs to me that our community will miss Sizer now more than ever, given the economic shakedown that we’ve all been trying to wrestle with. When Sizer took over the headship of Phillips Academy, he faced fierce resistance to the idea of a merger with Abbot Academy. The reorganization, he wrote in the Fall 2008 issue of Independent School, caused no small amount of turmoil within the faculties and alumni of both schools. “Curiously, perhaps, turmoil helped. Tension from outside as well as inside loosened up matters. Perhaps there is a lesson here: If a school is rolling along happily for some time, maybe some aggravating issue should be inserted, like a pebble in one’s shoe.”
Whether your school has pebbles in its shoes — or in the case of many schools around the world, no shoes at all — we can all take inspiration from Ted Sizer, whose life exemplified the power of one. A Utopian with a pragmatic streak.
When Sizer challenged his students, “What would YOU change about Andover?” what happened? Ask Meredith Price. The slouching students sat up, hands shot up, and the Sizer era had begun. “Change, invigorating for many, resented by a few… was the order of the day,” she writes. “And the school shook itself and flourished.”Gravitas (specifically dignity, seriousness, and duty) is one of the several virtues that ancient Roman society expected men to possess (Wikipedia). In other words, Ted Sizer. R.I.P.
So, what would you take from Ted Sizer’s work to improve schools? Cartoon Caption Contest
Is the tech director the secret wit at your school? Recent experince says maybe, as Renee Ramig of The Seven Hills School(California) becomes the second straight director of technology to win the NAIS Cartoon Caption Contest.
Last month's cartoon with Renee's winning caption is to the left below, and our new cartoon is to the right. (Click on images to enlarge.) Send in your entry to be the one to break (or extend!) the seeming stranglehold that tech directors (and Californians!) have over the award.
Send your captions for this month's cartoon to mailto:caption@nais.org?subject=October 2009 Caption Contest. NAIS NEWS 2008–2009 SAT Results for NAIS Schools Are In
Continuing the same pattern as in the past, NAIS students have achieved substantially higher SAT scores than the national average. This year, NAIS students have tested to a 91-point advantage in critical reading (592 versus 501), an 88-point advantage in mathematics (603 versus 515), and a 101-point advantage in writing (594 versus 493).
By gender, NAIS female students outperformed their male counterparts in critical reading (598 versus 586) and writing (609 versus 579), while male students recorded higher scores for mathematics (613 versus 593). Comparing the results by race/ethnicity, NAIS students within each group have higher scores than the comparable national averages across all three SAT tests, especially among African-American and Hispanic students in NAIS schools as compared to the national averages in these groups.
Finally, the SAT scores reveal that the lower a family’s income, the greater the educational benefits of attending an NAIS member school are to the individual student. Even though SAT scores increase in direct relation to income, the size of the improvement across income levels in NAIS schools is not as large as in the national results. The gap between the lowest income level and the highest income level among NAIS test-takers is 71 points in critical reading (versus 95 points nationally), just 53 points in mathematics (versus 90 points nationally), and 75 points in writing (versus 93 points nationally). Aloha to the New CEO of the NAIS Services Division
On November 4th, NAIS will welcome Mike Flanagan as the new Chief Executive Officer of the NAIS Services Division. Flanagan, who hails from Massachusetts, is co-founder of Intrepid Learning Solutions, and founder of Lguide Research and Consulting, both of which serve the corporate learning community. Flanagan also reserves a special place in his heart for independent schools, having begun his career on the English faculty at Iolani School (Hawaii), an NAIS member school.
For NAIS President Pat Bassett, the hire is a good fit: “With Mike Flanagan, we’ve picked just the right person whose high-tech, corporate, and business consulting background will help NAIS’s services become even more effective and user-friendly. Mike’s intelligence and gregariousness will make him a hit with our customers as well.”
As the CEO of the NAIS Services Division, Flanagan will manage NAIS’s School and Student Services (SSS by NAIS) business line with the short-term goal of expanding that product line, and a longer-term goal of developing a portfolio of revenue-generating products and services. NAIS RESEARCH Interested in Future Demographic Trends in Your Area?
Visit the NAIS Demographic Center today to view the most up-to-date demographic data for 2009, as well as projections out to 2014. When running a summary or detailed report, you can view five-year population and income projections for a specified geographic area. Projections are determined by regional census trends as well as insight from reputable economic sources. Realizing current demographic trends and future projections in your area is a valuable aid in planning for your school’s future.
For questions about using the Demographic Center (www.nais.org/go/demographics), contact us at democenterhelp@nais.org. StatsOnline: Part Two Survey Submission Deadline Approaching
Remember to submit your StatsOnline Part Two survey on or before the submission deadline of November 13. In addition, the NAIS StatsOnline 2009-2010 salary, executive compensation, tuition, and enrollment data are now available through StatsOnline benchmarking.
For questions on the survey and how to use all of the types of benchmarking reports, please visit the StatsOnline information page (http://admin.nais.org/applications/cms/www.nais.org/go/statsonline) for training information, key dates, and other details. If you need additional assistance, please contact us at mailto:statsonlinehelp@nais.org Survey Your School’s Constituents Today to Make Better Decisions for Tomorrow
With the NAIS Independent School SurveyBuilder, you can administer online surveys to gather valuable insight from your school’s various constituent groups. Based on results gathered from these surveys, your school can make educated decisions on your school’s future plans. Choose from a series of surveys that include: Visit the Survey Builder page (www.nais.org/go/Surveybuilder) today to learn more about this exciting service for your school. For questions, contact surveybuilderhelp@nais.org. NAIS OFFERINGS Last Chance to Join PoCC/SDLC in Denver
Don’t miss the 2009 NAIS People of Color Conference (PoCC) and Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) this year in Denver Check out the rich offering of speakers and programs through the virtual preview at www.nais.org/go/pocc. There, you can also register online or print out registration forms to mail. Registration closes November 6th. Please note that the registration limit for SDLC has been extended from eight students per school to 12.
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Registration is Now Open for Annual Conference!
Don’t delay. Register today for the 2010 NAIS Annual Conference, February 24–26, 2010, in San Francisco! We encourage you to visit www.nais.org/go/annualconference to register on November 5. On November 5th, you will also be able to view the conference’s virtual preview, which details all of the speakers and workshops, and find information on our hotels.
The 2010 Annual Conference strives to expand the knowledge base of all staff at independent schools through breakthrough programs and speakers, with particular emphasis in surviving and thriving in these turbulent economic times. So strap on your superhero cape, join your super-colleagues in San Francisco, and prepare to unleash your superpowers! Shazam!
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Calling Those Interested in the China Connection
If you are interested in a Mandarin guest teacher for a new or existing Mandarin program, please contact Ioana Suciu at suciu@nais.org. We will need at least 10 schools participating in order to organize a hiring trip and conduct training sessions for 2010. For details about past China Connection programs, visit the NAIS website: http://nais.org. NAIS RESOURCES Renew Your Subscription to School and Student Services
(SSS by NAIS) and Customize Your School’s Comp*Assist Online A note to our SSS subscribers: Be sure to do a basic customization of Comp*Assist Online before November 1, when parents can begin to apply online. The SSS contact will be able to login from sss.nais.org and grant access to others at the school. And the SSS contact can select the required documents for families to submit. At sss.nais.org, you’ll find mini-lessons that will guide you through these setup steps.
At sss.nais.org you’ll also find: NAIS Online Member Directory — At Your Service
Although many of you miss the old print version of the NAIS Member Directory, others have embraced the green alternative — the online directory. Now we have the best of both worlds, your own downloadable PDF of the NAIS Member Directory for your computer desktop: please download it, play with it a bit, do a search for your school, for a head’s name, etc. We think you’ll love it and view it as a huge improvement. New NAIS Titles That Can Work for You
Don’t forget to catch up on the latest NAIS titles. Also, don’t forget to view the new virtual catalog at www.nais.org/go/bookstore. We Have a Match
Advertise Your School’s Internships and Fellowships on the NAIS Career Center
A new job category called Internships/Fellowships was recently added to the NAIS Career Center. We invite you to post these types of positions under this category. Interested job seekers will then be able to easily search for these opportunities.
For other positions that your school is seeking to fill, there is no shortage of qualified candidates at the NAIS Career Center. Simply log into your NAIS account and conduct a “Professional Profile Search” to find the individual that best fits your school’s needs. You can also set up a “Professional Profile Search Agent” that will send you daily emails of profiles that fit specific criteria set by you.
For more information, visit the NAIS Career Center (www.nais.org/go/careers) today or contact us at careercenterhelp@nais.org. Calendar Sales to Fund NAIS Global Learning and Grab the Torch Philanthropy Education Programs
Sales of a new calendar, illustrated by renowned artist Norman LaLiberte, will support scholarships promoting philanthropy education as well as global learning. The calendar includes 12 images of fruits, vegetables, flowers and whimsical creatures, many in the vibrant, life-affirming reds and oranges for which LaLiberte is known.
The calendar is available for sale online and makes a great holiday gift for staff, friends and family. Proceeds from the calendar will generate scholarships for children to participate in Philanthropy Camp. Philanthropy Camp, a project of Grab the Torch, provides an in-depth look at charitable giving, cause-related marketing, and foundation management for high school students. Grab the Torch nurtures the potential of students to become visionary leaders for the non-profit world. Philanthropy camp will be held at 3 NAIS member schools next summer.
Funds will also support NAIS global education initiatives. “Schools of the future must include civic engagement and philanthropy as key values to teach and model,” said NAIS president Pat Bassett. “NAIS is pleased to partner with Grab the Torch to that end.”
To get the perfect holiday gift for the first 100 people on your list, please visit the Grab the Torch Website. ADVOCACY Philanthropy 101 for Your School's Parents
When running an advancement office, the best administrators anticipate the hard questions from their school’s parents: Why does your school ask for tuition — plus a gift? If you wish to help your school’s families understood the answers to questions like this, speak to them in their own language with the new updated edition Gifts That Give Back.
This lively 16-page booklet: - explains the value of volunteering,
- answers pointed questions about why you solicit gifts, and
- clears away the confusion about common fund-raising terms.
Long an NAIS bestseller, Gifts That Give Back has now been updated with a fresh design plus new parent resources and notable quotes. But one thing hasn’t changed: it does the work of explaining philanthropy for you. Published in a format that’s as inviting as it is convincing, the booklet is perfect to distribute to parents — and even faculty and staff — to give your annual fund a boost. Order at discounted bulk rates for Gifts That Give Back (as well as other helpful booklets in the Independent School Parent Series) at the NAIS Bookstore.
GOVERNMENT WATCH Unions, Independent Schools, and the Employee Free Choice Act
Many schools have expressed concern and confusion over the Employee Free Choice Act, known to some as the “card check” legislation. Schools that have never thought about unions are wondering if they should be more aware of this important area of law. “Unions, Independent Schools, and the Employee Free Choice Act” will help you learn more.
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