Lick-Wilmerding High School
making the future strategic directions 2013–2018
in this booklet... 3 Letter from Head of School Eric Temple 4 Goals of the Strategic Plan 5 Goal 1: Advance Teaching & Learning with Habits of Mind 7 Goal 2: Plan for a Connected Campus 9 Goal 3: Sustain a Vibrant Learning Community 10 Goal 4: Foster Success 11 Planning Process
LWHS Mission A private school with public purpose, Lick-Wilmerding High School develops the head, heart, and hands of highly motivated students from all walks of life, inspiring them to become lifelong learners who contribute to the world with confidence and compassion. Revised and Adopted December 14, 2010
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On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the entire community, I am pleased to present to you Making the Future: Strategic Directions 2013–2018, the culmination of sixteen months of data gathering, listening, and thought. Entering its 118th year, LickWilmerding High School looks to the future from a position of considerable strength. LWHS is proud of its: • Nationally recognized “Head, Heart, Hands” curriculum that integrates the liberal arts and sciences, technical arts, visual arts, and performing arts, delivered by talented faculty
This strategic plan builds upon what founding Head of School George Merrill (1895–1939) called ‘Industrial Intelligence;’ that is, the need to educate students so they fully understand the world and are active participants in making the world, not just letting the world impose itself upon them.
making the future strategic directions 2013–2018
• Vibrant community of learners that mirrors the Bay Area and broadens the perspectives of each community member • Caring and inclusive school community that welcomes and values highly motivated students from all walks of life • Endowment support that increases financial access to a LWHS education • Urban campus, with its accessibility via public transportation and nationally recognized for its innovative design
These qualities attract a deep and diverse pool of students from all over the Bay Area, offering LWHS the opportunity to craft a community of learners that embodies and fulfills its mission. Strategic planning enables LWHS to both identify new opportunities and nurture its current strengths. LWHS endeavors to raise up those characteristics that add power and resonance to the school while advancing the school’s mission to inspire students to become life-long learners. This strategic plan builds upon what founding Head of School George Merrill called “Industrial Intelligence;” that is, the need to educate students so they fully understand the world and are active participants in making the world, not just letting the world impose itself upon them. I look forward to partnering with each of you to see to fruition the bold goals outlined in the pages to follow. I am confident that together we can succeed in Making the Future of LWHS one marked by a concrete embodiment of our mission.
Eric Temple Head of School
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goals of the strategic plan Lick-Wilmerding High School’s focus for the next five years is to build upon its strengths and refine its curriculum, pedagogy, and practices to continue offering students opportunities to develop the skills and habits needed to navigate an increasingly complex and dynamic world. LWHS must also ensure that the facilities will support the school’s aspirations, and that the financial investment needed to build its learning community is sustainable and beneficial. This strategic plan is the result of the Board of Trustees’ and the Administration’s work together over the past 16 months as well as conversations within the broader school community over the past several years. LWHS’ major goals for the next five years are to:
Advance teaching and learning with habits of mind. LWHS will implement school-wide habits of mind to cultivate in students the skills and habits to build lives of consequence and fulfillment. Using the common language of habits of mind, LWHS will also work to advance the school’s leadership in promoting integrated thinking and to envision the future of civic engagement.
Sustain a vibrant learning community. Plan for a connected campus. LWHS will develop a longrange campus master plan to identify improvements that strengthen the connection of the campus to our educational goals.
LWHS will examine its admission, Flexible Tuition, financial, and fundraising policies and practices to be sure the school continues to build a unique learning community while also ensuring that its investment in access is sustainable.
Foster success. LWHS will leverage the strengths of its diversity to enhance the success of each student and the school community.
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advance teaching & learning with habits of mind
Habits of mind are a set of skills that help students meet the educational and societal requirements of the 21st Century. Through deliberate scaffolding from freshman to senior year, students are expected to display an increased ability to apply habits of mind to solving intellectual and personal challenges. Learn more about the Institute for Habits of Mind.
The rigorous Head, Heart, Hands curriculum seeks to provide students with the skills and habits to build lives of consequence and fulfillment, producing graduates with the capacity, confidence, compassion, and commitment to positively change the world. To ensure each student graduates with the skills, habits, and values that will prepare them for their lives beyond high school, LWHS will adopt school-wide habits of mind.
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In 2012 the faculty and staff began a process to agree upon schoolwide habits of mind. LWHS believes mastery of these learned skills is vital for a student’s success and fulfillment in his or her life. Faculty and staff reached consensus on two skills— reflect
and persist —and
they will continue their discussions to identify additional schoolwide habits of mind. For each skill, LWHS must develop pedagogy and curriculum that concretely teach these skills as well as ways to assess mastery and growth in students.
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1: advance teaching and learning, cont.
initiatives LWHS will:
Why Habits of Mind? Habits of mind provide a construct for students to learn and demonstrate skills that give life to the mission’s emphasis on educating the whole student. Moreover, school-wide habits of mind create a shared purpose and common vocabulary for curricular and pedagogical initiatives.
• Work to ensure that curriculum and pedagogy are focused on articulating and implementing schoolwide habits of mind. • Use habits of mind to advance efforts toward course alignment. • Identify and offer professional development to support faculty efforts to teach habits of mind, and to align and integrate curriculum. • Leverage curricular strength and breadth to prepare students for a complex future by designing new learning experiences that engage students and promote integrated thinking. • Define what public purpose and civic engagement will mean in LWHS’ future and offer experiential and service learning opportunities that contribute to developing student confidence and compassion.
Integrated Thinking at LWHS
Through project based curricula, students experience learning as a holistic endeavor. The ability to draw upon knowledge and skills from different disciplines and apply them to real world challenges is central to preparing students for the future. Some examples of current integrated experiences include: • Honors Chemistry students create films for the Clear the Air Film Festival to educate our community about the effects of air pollution on our health.
• The US History and Genetics & Evolution classes hold a symposium on the history of the eugenics movement resulting in a petition to the California Assembly asking that education about the state’s history of eugenics be required in history textbooks. • The ways Technical Arts and the History departments use design thinking to develop project ideas. Integrated Thinking is closely related to other concepts—“Design Thinking” and “Systems Thinking.”
Learn more in Tim Brown’s • Alternative Energy students apply chemistry TED talk. and physics knowledge to create sustainable energy models making the future | LWHS Strategic Directions 2013-2018 | 6
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plan for a connected campus Lick-Wilmerding High School has a campus nationally recognized for its innovative design, where each student can find a place to call his or her own. The LWHS campus is a tangible expression of its mission and is integral to teaching and learning. As current facilities age and as new facility needs and opportunities arise, it is important to contemplate improvements that strengthen the connection of the campus to the school’s educational goals.
A connected campus has:
Spaces that build connections among and between students
Purposeful connections between the school and the neighborhood
Classrooms and offices that connect adults with one another, as well as students with adults, to promote collaboration, integration, and innovation
Ways to interact, build connections with, and understand our planet and the natural world. Seamless connections to the world and information through the use of technology throughout the school
An arrangement that facilitates integration of the liberal arts and sciences with technical, visual, and performing arts
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2: plan for a connected campus, cont.
What is a Master Plan?
initiatives LWHS will: • Assess existing and anticipated programmatic needs for each department. • Evaluate the physical condition of existing facilities and their ability to satisfy programmatic criteria.
A master plan is a flexible framework for guiding future decision-making and enhancement of the campus and its facilities; it is not a plan or design for specific buildings or improvements. The master plan responds to a careful assessment and prioritization of current and future programmatic and facility needs, a thorough evaluation of existing building conditions, and direct input from faculty, staff, and students. Most importantly, the master plan strives to reflect a clear vision for the campus, guided by the school’s mission and strategic plan.
• Establish priorities for programmatic and facility needs. • Prepare master plan alternatives and phasing to address priorities and available resources over time. • Operate facilities and design new construction in ways that reflect LWHS’ commitment to environmental sustainability.
LWHS will develop a long range campus master plan to articulate the evolving programmatic and facility needs, including how we build connections among people, our community, and the planet. The master plan will also establish priorities that balance facility needs with available resources. The school’s commitment to renewable energy, resource management, and reuse and recycling informs its institutional behavior and partnerships with others.
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sustain a vibrant learning community Lick-Wilmerding High School welcomes, embraces, and supports highly motivated students, and their families, from all economic and cultural backgrounds of the San Francisco Bay Area. The school’s inclusive and cohesive community is defined and animated by the uniqueness of its students, families, faculty, and staff. By purposefully creating a community that represents the myriad of people in the Bay Area, LWHS is able to create an environment marked by innovation, creativity, global citizenship, and commitment to being socially responsible citizens. A diverse community ensures a diverse set of talents. Different talents complement each other, breed innovation and encourage innovators, and prepare societies for change. LWHS’ diversity is a key component of preparing students for a more complex world: “The growing global interdependence that characterizes our time calls for a generation of individuals who can engage in effective global problem solving and participate simultaneously in local, national, and global civic life. Put simply, preparing our students to participate fully in today’s and tomorrow’s world demands that we nurture their global competence.” —Veronica Boix Mansilla & Anthony Jackson, Educating for Global Competence: Preparing our Youth to Engage the World
initiatives LWHS will: • Examine its outreach, admission, and Flex Tuition practices to ensure that the school continues to build and benefit the learning community it intends, and will refine its admissions objectives and practices as needed. • Undertake initiatives to increase recognition of the school’s innovative programming and community values among prospective students and families to ensure that LWHS continues to attract a deep pool of highly motivated and qualified applicants. • Create a sustainable financial model that supports the values of the school and advances its mission. • Implement financial and fundraising strategies that provide long-term stability and new opportunities for the school.
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“Increased creativity is another byproduct of capitalizing on differences. Historically, some of the most creative periods in civilization have emerged when people of different backgrounds have contact and work together. The Renaissance grew in part from the meeting of peoples from the East and the West. America’s energy and inventiveness have been attributed to the diversity of thought born from this nation of immigrants. Many scientific discoveries and inventions have been developed by and for people with disabilities. More recently, research has shown that effective diversity management coupled with inclusive work environments improves organizational performance and innovation. Employees from varied backgrounds bring different perspectives, ideas and solutions to the workplace that result in new products and services, challenge to the status quo, and new collaboration.”
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foster success Lick-Wilmerding High School’s unique Head, Heart, Hands curriculum, early interest in public purpose, and diverse and inclusive community have long distinguished it from other great schools. LWHS’ diversity is a powerful and pervasive strength. Embedding the learning process within such rich diversity prepares students to unravel, understand, navigate, and appreciate the complexities of the modern world. This diversity also challenges LWHS to think carefully about student needs, progress, and outcomes. Each year LWHS seeks out and welcomes students from more than 70 different middle schools, all of whom come with different preparation, learning styles, and talents. LWHS must work hard to honor each student’s journey and must ensure that each student’s academic and personal experience leads to growth and success.
—US Office of Personnel Management
initiatives LWHS will: • Further realize and apply the strengths of its diversity to the learning process, thus contributing to individual and group success. • Define success for and desired outcomes of a LWHS education for each student and develop assessment methods to promote academic and personal growth. • Ensure that we offer and connect students with the opportunities and resources they need to be successful. • Strengthen community among parents and the parents’ connection to the school as an additional resource for students. making the future | LWHS Strategic Directions 2013-2018 | 10
Monitoring LWHS Progress
planning process One of the most important responsibilities of the Board of Trustees in an independent school is to periodically undertake formal strategic planning. Over the past year a Strategic Planning Steering Committee of Trustees and Administrators has worked together to engage the school community and identify strategic issues and initiatives to address over the next five years. While this committee has been in place for the past year, the reflection and ambition this plan represents has been longer in the making. The committee considered perspectives of the broader LWHS school community gathered for a variety of purposes over the past several years: • Head of School search process focus groups and position description (2010) • Mission Statement revision process (2010)
• Self Study and Report for the CAIS/WASC Accreditation process (2011) • Eric Temple’s Head of School entry process interviews and data gathering (2011–2012)
Collecting and analyzing data to guide change and improvement are key elements in developing long-term institutional vitality and sustainability. The new position of Institutional Researcher will provide accurate data, both current and longitudinal, to inform decision-making and self-reflection. Additionally, through regular marketing and satisfaction surveys of key constituents, LWHS is able to track its improvements and assess the impact of a LWHS education.
• Board Visiting Day discussions with faculty and staff • Satisfaction and Marketing Surveys of Parents, Students, and Alumni, as well as Prospective Parents and Students (2013)
As Lick-Wilmerding High School enters its 118th year, its longstanding values and commitments remain evident. When the school opened its doors in the fall of 1895, across the bottom of the first Course Catalog is written, “These courses are subject to change, and criticism and suggestions are invited.” This spirit of partnering with the community to continually improve is part of LWHS’ founding principles and is reflected in the collaborative process used to determine its institutional focus for the next five years.
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The Board of Trustees adopted this plan at its annual retreat on October 26, 2013. As Eric Temple enters his third year as Head of School, the Board of Trustees looks forward to its continued partnership with the Head to achieve the goals of this strategic plan and advance the mission of Lick-Wilmerding High School. strategic planning steering committee Irvenia Waters, Chair
Ritu Khanna
Randy Barnett, Dean of Academics and Instruction
Karan Merry
Tom Chavez
Tricia Stone
John Clawson
Bill Mellin, Board President
Mary Finn, Dean of Studies
Eric Temple, Head of School
Tori Peterson
Michael Goldstein
board of trustees Bill Mellin, President
Wanda M. Holland Greene
Eric Temple, Head of School
Pam Hommeyer
Tom Chavez
Ritu Khanna
John Clawson
John Kirkwood ’65
Adam Elsesser
Wally MacDermid ’87
Peter E. Engel
Fred McCrea ’85
Sam Fleischmann ’83
Karan Merry
Philip Galante ’87
Tori Peterson
Adam Gasner ’88
Ed Richkind
Michael R. Goldstein
Nicole Sheehan
Steve Guttmann
Tricia Stone
Deirdre Hockett
Irvenia Waters
lick - wilmerding high school
755 Ocean Avenue
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San Francisco, California 94112 • www.lwhs.org
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