corporate America and the scientific community, just to name a few instances. “Girls from a single-sex school are more likely to put themselves forward when they are in a co-ed environment,” Baker says. “There’s so much more work to be done.” Arundel noted that students from all-girls schools are more likely to participate in class in co-educational settings and also have careers in STEM fields, which have historically been male-dominated. One key component of teaching leadership skills is mentorship roles. High school students at Hathaway Brown work with middle school students, and middle school students work with elementary students. At
Cleveland Central Catholic High School, students participate in the Link Crew, part of the international Boomerang Project, which is based on the idea that “you get back what you give.” In the program, upperclass students mentor ninth graders, offering guidance academically and in extracurriculars. It’s an important component to keeping students thriving and involved, says Sister Allison Marie Gusdanovic, the school’s principal. “We want to get freshmen connected socially and emotionally as well as academically,” she says. Dave Stec, who is taking over as president of Padua Franciscan in Parma after more
than a quarter-century with the school, said leadership – be it the people directing the school or the students at the school – is a reflection of culture. “Empowering leadership isn’t a new concept,” he says. “The key is creating a continuity plan. It’s important to create a culture within the company that doesn’t have to be restarted every time there’s a new leader. “So we share the culture of the school that puts people in a position where they can take over and strengthen the talent and skill set of the people around you. When you have someone who believes in the vision and mission, you have to strengthen their talents so they continue to have passion.”
The model of academic excellence Private and parochial schools emphasize education with purpose and intention By VINCE GUERRIERI Crain’s Content Studio — Cleveland
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uring the pandemic, educators and administrators from kindergarten through college had to consider how to best reach their students when actual physical proximity wasn’t an option. The value of technology has been proven throughout the past 18 months, but some schools are taking it further. Every school – public and private – is obligated to teach some of the same core subjects, per state guidelines. Curriculum is a major pillar – and selling point – of private schools. Even before the pandemic, some schools were moving toward new models of teaching, in some instances altering the structure of the school day itself. “When people watch a movie about higher education, they have this idea of a tiered auditorium, and a professor at the front,” says Malone University Provost Greg Miller. “We’re moving away from that.” Before the pandemic, Malone had created its Pendle Hill Pledge initiative, which cast aside the traditional model for more experiential, hands-on learning. Realworld experiences are spread throughout a student’s time in college – not just an internship as a junior or senior, by which time, Miller says, a student may find out all
too late that their field of study isn’t what they quite expected and may not be right for them.
Looney believes that the century-old model of traditional education was designed in a bygone era to cultivate industrial workers.
Malone is also small enough that each student can have a mentor. “We want to produce people who can navigate the changing environment,” Miller says. There are jobs today’s students will have that don’t even exist yet. “All of us will need to head in this direction. We’re just ahead of the curve.” Also ahead of the curve is Hawken School, which a decade ago started planning a school that emphasized solving real-world problems in group settings. The school, with campuses in Lyndhurst and Gates Mills, developed a building in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood for its new Master School, which opened in the fall of 2020 – right in the teeth of the pandemic. “We opened in masks,” says Scott Looney, the head of the school. “It was not the ideal time to open a problem-solving and projectbased hands-on school.” The school emphasizes trial and error, both as part of the learning process and for students to find their purpose, Looney says. “No two students will have the same experience at the Master School, and that’s what we think education is like now.”
Engaged learning happens in the classroom and outdoors on Lake Ridge’s 93-acre campus.
“It was built in the time of industrial processes, which encouraged specific repetitive tasks,” he says. “It worked then, but it’s a good way to be unemployable now. “The schedule of most schools is built around the needs of adults, not the learning needs of children.” 2021 CRAIN’S CONTENT STUDIO PRIVATE SCHOOL PLANNER 33
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