STRATEGIC PLAN 2017 - 2022
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Table of Contents
Our Process & Progress | 3 Our Community: Core Purpose, Core Values, Philosophy, Honor Code, Chapel Tradition, and Statement on Diversity & Inclusion | 12 Our Future: Strategic Plan 2017 - 2022 | 14 Our Research | 18
OUR PROCESS & PROGRESS Dear Friends, It is with great excitement that we write today to share our new Strategic Plan with the St. Anne’s-Belfield School community. We present this vision for our future on behalf of those who stewarded the planning process, the Board of Trustees, and the administration, faculty, and staff. We are excited to offer our enthusiastic endorsement of this plan and what it promises for our students, present, and future. Over the past year, we have had the pleasure to engage in discussions about our hopes for St. Anne’s-Belfield School and have listened to and learned from teachers, parents, administrators, trustees, alumni, and students. We engaged with people who are “all in” at St. Anne’s-Belfield and those who, for whatever reason, are not. Our goal was to ensure that every voice was heard. To that end, we engaged a consultant from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia to facilitate discussions, reviewed survey results, fielded emails and phone calls, and had conversations on sidelines, in stands, at School events, in pick-up and drop-off lines, and occasionally in the grocery store. We then compiled dozens and dozens of pages of notes with the feedback we heard, questions about what we do, and aspirations for your children and for St. Anne’s-Belfield School. This process has been, in our estimation, one of the most comprehensive and inclusive community dialogues in our School’s history, providing us deep and revealing insights into the present and hopes for the future. And while we would never claim to know what every individual thinks about the School, nor ever attempt to speak for all, we are confident that we have not just listened, but heard, the consensus of our community. Before sharing the conclusions from this process and the plan itself, we wish to remind our community about the purpose of this process and the context in which we developed this plan.
The Core Purpose, Core Values, and Philosophy that we articulate on the following pages are rooted in the best of our community’s past and present and of what we aspire to be as a community in the future.
Primarily, our charge was to create a new strategic plan for St. Anne’s-Belfield School, which, broadly defined, is a document aimed at articulating a desired future. Essential to this process is the need to establish clear, mission-driven priorities. Given that we cannot and should not do everything, we must prioritize based on what we value most as a community, and it is through this planning process that core values emerge. Thus the plan itself articulates a reasonably focused set of goals to guide the next five years at the School, informing how we will allocate resources and track our progress. Where appropriate, the goals will evolve over time in the sense that this is a living document; it is not doctrine or dogma. Nevertheless, the Core Purpose, Core Values, and Philosophy that we articulate on the following pages are rooted in the best of our community’s past and present and of what we aspire to be as a community in the future.
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4 | Our Process & Progress
It is patently clear to us based on data collected, our observational research, and copious feedback that the School is in a very strong place. We have an exceptional faculty and administration and an engaged, supportive extended School community. While there are certainly areas that we are eager to improve, we have the relative luxury of a rock-solid platform from which to launch this School into a very bright future. Yet this luxury also created a challenge: to wit, how—and why—do we push for further innovation and change when most everything seems to be going so well? Demand for the School remains at record levels, as we opened the 2017 - 2018 school year with more than 940 students, the largest student body in our history. Our annual student retention rate of 94 percent compares with the finest schools around the nation. Our faculty continue to set the standard for teaching excellence, with 74 percent holding advanced degrees, dozens of our teachers participating in professional development every year, and an average annual teacher retention rate of 90 percent. New and continually improving facilities and philanthropic support, including a recordsetting Annual Fund in 2016 - 2017, provide exceptional resources for our programs. Most importantly, our students are achieving excellence during their time here, through their college years, and into adulthood as alumni. Third-party organizations have taken notice, and we now appear on state and national rankings of the top private K - 12 schools, high schools, and boarding schools. This past summer, St. Anne’s-Belfield joined a select cohort of the finest independent day schools in the country for a new teacher development program at the University of Pennsylvania. An outside market research firm conducted surveys of our community members—faculty, parents and students in select grade levels, and alumni—throughout last year, and their findings confirm the above, including the following key data points: From students: • 98% of seventh graders and 90% of ninth graders “feel accepted and respected at St. Anne’s-Belfield” • 96% of seventh graders and 97% of ninth graders strongly agree or agree that “my teachers care about me” • 94% of seventh graders and 97% of ninth graders strongly agree or agree that “my teachers will make the time to work with me if I need extra help” • 90% of seventh graders and 95% of ninth graders strongly agree or agree that “teachers and administrators treat all students fairly and with respect”
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From parents: • 97% of parents of students new to the School strongly agree or agree that “I would recommend the School to other parents” and “faculty and staff have made my family feel welcome” • 98% of fourth grade parents, 94% of seventh grade parents, 92% of ninth grade parents, and 93% of twelfth grade parents strongly agree or agree that “my child feels accepted and respected at St. Anne’s-Belfield” • 98% of fourth grade parents, 98% of seventh grade parents, 95% of ninth grade parents, and 93% of twelfth grade parents strongly agree or agree that “overall, my child’s experience at St. Anne’s-Belfield has been positive” • 97% of twelfth grade parents strongly agree or agree that “the School has prepared my child academically for college” and 92% “believe the School has fostered the positive development of my child’s character”
Overall, 94 percent of the parents we surveyed strongly agree or agree that “I would recommend St. Anne’s-Belfield to parents seeking a school for their child.” Benchmarks like these make it easy to simply stay the course, yet we know that this kind of complacency can doom even the most successful organizations. This is especially true when we are responsible for preparing our students to thrive in this time of change, when their future success will rely on an entrepreneurial spirit and the willingness to embrace and adapt to the new and unknown. Thus we pushed ourselves and everyone who participated in this process to imagine our children’s lives in 25 years and assess both where the School is succeeding in preparing them for this future and where it is falling short. The compendium of responses revealed that One such opportunity is our independence. It there are vast opportunities for us to leverage provides us the ability, if not the obligation, our success to achieve even bolder goals and to adapt rapidly to the changing needs of address specific challenges. our students and to envision, design, and
adopt innovations according to our own
One such opportunity is our independence. strategic goals and our own timeline. It provides us the ability, if not the obligation, to adapt rapidly to the changing needs of our students and to envision, design, and adopt innovations according to our own strategic goals and our own timeline. Furthermore, our independence allows us to leverage the most influential resource for ongoing improvement: the talent and autonomy of our teachers. We have the opportunity to chart our own course and the chance to leverage our independence to shape our own future rather than have it shaped for us.
6 | Our Process & Progress
In regards to the feedback gathered, the following represent the comments that we heard most frequently and consistently: Other schools respect and admire St. Anne’s-Belfield and often seek to emulate the work we are doing. The School is expanding its regional and national profile, and our students and alumni are benefiting from this broader name recognition. Our community expressed overwhelming confidence in the expertise and dedication of our faculty and administration. Our students’ experiences and outcomes are on par with or exceed those of the finest schools in the nation. Our parents value above all the School’s dedication to character, integrity, and ethical behavior and want this to remain a priority. The School’s commitment to know every child well is critical to the success of our mission and of utmost importance, while at the same time the most time-intensive promise that we make. Our students, being so-called digital natives, are fundamentally different learners than previous generations and require a different schooling experience than their parents. Our faculty recognize the need to adapt their practices to this new generation of learners and want professional development to support changes to their teaching. The acquisition and honing of essential lifelong skills, both hard and soft, are becoming just as critical to our students’ future success as the acquisition of knowledge, and both colleges and future employers are increasingly demanding demonstration of these skills over more traditional measures. Managing the diverse expectations of our parents consumes a significant, if not disproportionate, amount of our faculty and administration’s time and energies, often at the expense of spending time with and for students and planning their courses. Our current resources, both financial and human, are at risk of stretching beyond our ability to maintain excellence across so many programs and the increasingly diverse expectations of our constituents. There exist varying perceptions of and expectations for our interscholastic athletic program. These must be honed and clarified in order to create a positive experience for all of our players and coaches and sustain a program that augments the community spirit of the School. To be sure, none of the above conclusions were reached as a result of unanimous feedback, and most likely each member of our community will agree with some and take exception with others. Yet the above represents broad consensus.
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We did, however, discover two near-unanimous, if not universal, sentiments about the School. There is a widespread determination to tell the St. Anne’s-Belfield story more accurately, proactively, and unapologetically. Our key stakeholders informed us of a gulf between people’s perceptions and the realities, be they about specific programs, decisions, demographics, community culture, and more. Our community appears determined that this information gap be addressed proactively and, when appropriate, misstatements corrected immediately and unequivocally. We heard the desire for an even clearer statement of purpose for St. Anne’s-Belfield. At the same time, you also told us that the School should not aim to be all things to all people, and in fact we heard just the opposite. We all want what is best for our own children and for each individual child, while at the same time we accept that the School cannot and should not promise an experience catered to every family’s unique educational vision. Given these two points in particular, it is our goal that people will take away from their reading of this Strategic Plan an understanding of exactly who we are today and who we aim to be. We recognize that some may read this plan and decide that this is not the right school, while others who had a different impression may decide to come visit us. Regardless of varying levels of agreement, we want everyone to know where we stand philosophically and, with this plan, where we are headed strategically. Furthermore, we owe this clarity to our teachers so that their time, energy, and expertise are focused on a bold, yet manageable set of missiondriven goals. A hallmark of our faculty members is that they continually strive for excellence in their work with our children, yet there is only so far they can reach in light of the limits on both time and resources. Thus we must direct their passion and expertise in sustainable, student-centered, and mission-driven ways.
8 | Our Process & Progress
It also became clear to us during the process that we needed to revisit and update our Core Values and Statement of Philosophy, based on where the School is today and copious research into the future our children will inherit. Furthermore, we developed for the first time a Core Purpose statement, one that reflects the feedback we heard, harkens back to our previous Strategic Plan, and articulates what is at “Twenty years from now you will be more the heart of the St. Anne’s-Belfield experience. disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than
by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines.
Nurturing these Core Values in every Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade student is at once the great promise winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” of education as well as its challenge. - Mark Twain Values only take root over many years, requiring patience, support, and encouragement from teachers and parents alike. The journey from child to adult is a slow, unpredictable one, characterized by ups and downs, unexpected twists and turns, successes and failures, all the while filled with the doubts and fears of both child and parent. And it is often these doubts and setbacks that can cause us to lose sight of this long-term horizon. As Mark Twain warns, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Throwing off the bowlines is a noble goal, yet also one that is often seen as incompatible with a top-of-mind issue: college admissions. To be sure, college placement is an important part of what we do and a significant leg on the educational journey. That is why we provide college counseling that is second-to-none, through which every student receives individual guidance on finding the college of his or her choice. We are proud of our graduates’ success in discovering the best match for themselves, as nearly 90 percent of our seniors in the past three years have earned admission to their first, second, or third choice college. While college placement is important, it is also incumbent upon us to provide much-needed perspective when it comes to what the college placement list purports to reveal about the School and our students. Even during this period of hyper-selectivity in college admissions, when decisions often rest on unpredictable and subjective factors out of any student’s or high school’s control, where a child gets into college nevertheless persists as the proxy for his or her success during high school and as the primary measure of the value of a school. We feel strongly that there are far better measures for both.
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10 | Our Process & Progress
If we rely primarily on the college list, the pressure for our children to get into certain schools will result in the attempt to engineer a particular outcome. This has the deleterious effect of stifling what the Pre-School through Grade 12 experience should be: to nurture every child’s natural inclination and the developmental need to try new things, build close relationships, take risks, try and fail, be in nature, engage in unstructured play, get enough sleep, and sometimes just have fun. One’s college is a choice of consequence, but it is not the destination and not the determinant of one’s future. It is simply one more step along the long, winding, unpredictable journey towards adulthood. With this Strategic Plan, we give a clear charge to the administration and faculty to take the long view when it comes to preparing our students: first, in the college counseling process, they are to focus on finding the best fit for each student based on his or her current interests and future ambitions; and second, in the work of developing and improving our own programs, focus on what will best prepare our students for their long-term fulfillment and success, well beyond four years in college, after their first job, and even as they enter a second or third career. It is during this later stage in life—contributing to the workforce, serving one’s community, engaging as a citizen, perhaps raising a family—that we will be able to determine the real value of the schools one attended and find the true measure of one’s success.
It is during this later stage in life—contributing to the workforce, serving one’s community, engaging as a citizen, perhaps raising a family—that we will be able to determine the real value of the schools one attended and find the true measure of one’s success.
So with this plan we embrace the obstacles, failures, and unexpected turns that punctuate the long-term emotional and financial investment that is the education of a child. This is why we are intentionally a Pre-School through Grade 12 school, one that provides a thoughtfully designed and delivered cumulative academic and social-emotional experience. No one year or division is more valuable than another; each stage relies on the one before and prepares our students for what follows. If we are to prepare our children for what awaits in college and beyond, be it academic, social, or emotional, the experience cannot always be enjoyable and success not a customer service guarantee. We will not promise A’s for all, trophies for everyone, or a friend at the lunch table every day. No school should ever do so.
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What we do promise is that St. Anne’s-Belfield School will provide the love, support, and guidance to help our students weather the inevitable challenges of school and growing up, so that they will emerge strong, resilient, self-reliant, and confident in themselves. St. Anne’s-Belfield is a place where teachers and parents in partnership provide license and encouragement for our children to throw off the bowlines and eventually sail away from the safe harbor of school and home. The sea will get choppy at times, their boats will take on water, and they will come back to port every now and then, but learning to navigate through rough seas is an essential part of the journey. For it is out in the vast, open ocean What we do promise is that St. Anne’s-Belfield where they will ultimately discover their School will provide the love, support, and dreams.
guidance to help our students weather the
In closing, we want to thank everyone— inevitable challenges of school and growing hundreds and hundreds of you—who up, so that they will emerge strong, resilient, participated in this comprehensive and self-reliant, and confident in themselves. invigorating process. We emerged impressed with where we are, inspired by the engagement of our community, and energized by the ambition shared by all to continue to get even better. We look forward to continuing to partner with you in this effort and apprising you of our progress as we move from strategy to implementation. Sincerely, Anne Jones, Co-Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee Adrian Keevil, Trustee & Co-Chair, Strategic Plan Steering Committee The Board of Trustees Rich Booth, Chair
Frank Edmonds, Vice Chair
Mike Milligan, Treasurer
Karen Moran, Secretary
Lu Alvarez
Chas Cocke
Kari Couling
Shaman Douglass ‘05
Michael Geismar
Changdong He ‘12
Tony Ignaczak
Thad Jones
Angie Oakey
Karen O’Neil
Mike Pausic
Michael Woodfolk ‘84
David Lourie, Head of School
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OUR COMMUNITY “We wish our students to become strong in body, broad of mind, tender of heart, responsive in soul.” - Mary Hyde DuVal, Founding Headmistress
Our Core Purpose
To inspire and prepare the next generation of exemplary citizens and visionary leaders.
Our Core Values • • • • • •
Integrity: Cultivating responsible, honorable, ethical behavior Curiosity: Fulfilling our desire to question, to know, and to learn for a lifetime Diversity: Seeking to know, learn from, and value one another Creativity: Expecting imaginative, critical, and divergent thinking Agency: Empowering students to own their learning Impact: Accomplishing meaningful, significant work for the greater good
Our Philosophy
We at St. Anne’s-Belfield School believe that our students will become exemplary citizens and visionary leaders because of the inspiration of exceptional teachers and the nourishment of every child’s innate curiosity. Our mission is to feed this curiosity through exceptional, innovative teaching and learning in an intentional Pre-School through Grade 12 community in which close relationships provide the foundation for achievement and where every child is known well. Curiosity—that desire to grow, know, ask, create, and solve—is both the fuel of learning and an essential ingredient to success in an ever-changing world; it must be encouraged from the earliest years and throughout life. Our goal is to nourish our students’ curiosity about themselves, their world, and the diverse people around them, in an educational experience that inspires, challenges, and stimulates innovative, empathetic, and creative thought. We pose compelling questions and seek answers through inquiry, application of core skills, development of essential habits, thoughtful reflection, collaboration with others, and the appropriate use of technology. The questions we ask and the answers we seek reflect our commitment to the cultivation of responsible, honorable behavior and to a mindfulness of the needs of others. We strive to equip our students with the knowledge, skills, habits, and attitudes that will allow them to pursue their dreams in a rapidly changing and increasingly technological world, and to be exemplary citizens in life and work. Ours is a challenging yet charitable community distinguished by superior instruction that is cutting edge and student driven; by exceptionally knowledgeable and highly-trained teachers who are the most supportive and dedicated educators in their field; and by an environment that exalts growth over grades by providing a culture of intellectual candor and rich feedback. Our community strives for excellence in all aspects of School life and encourages students to discover and develop empathy, diversity of perspective, adaptability, flexibility, resilience, agency, self-efficacy, and inventiveness. We embrace uncompromisingly high expectations for ethical, selfless behavior and hold firmly our commitment to inclusion, civility, and kindness.
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Our Honor Code
A student is not to lie, cheat, or steal.
Our Chapel Tradition
Dating back to our founding in 1910, our weekly Chapel services are a treasured time in the life of the School during which students and faculty gather around a common experience; that is, a personal story from a community member that offers a moral lesson, inspires self-reflection, sparks thoughtful dialogue, and opens a window into the diverse perspectives and experiences of others. Our Chapel tradition embodies the heartbeat of our community, providing a shared time and place where we celebrate student and faculty voices and attend to the spiritual dimension of our lives. The School has not been affiliated with a specific church or religion in over 30 years, and ours is a community of students, teachers, and families of all faiths, backgrounds, and beliefs.
Our Statement on Diversity & Inclusion
The St. Anne’s-Belfield School community is united in its commitment to diversity and inclusion, both as a moral imperative and an essential part of our educational promise, for we know that the most enduring teaching and learning happens in an environment where everyone—student, teacher, staff member, parent, alumnus/a, and friend of the School—feels safe, valued and known. We believe our students will live their most fulfilling, rewarding, and purposeful lives when they include everyone equitably in any endeavor and embrace difference as an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve the human condition for all. We expect our students will leave us eager to learn about and from the uniqueness of others, to recognize our commonalities, and to have the courage and skills to speak out against actions that compromise anyone’s human dignity.
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OUR FUTURE
Strategic Plan 2017 - 2022
A note about the format: This Strategic Plan presents the broadly conceived vision for the future of the School. The plan is structured around three areas of focus that were identified through the planning process: Inspired Teaching and Enduring Learning; Close Community; and Sustainable Resources. The plan is presented through interrelated elements: strategic goals and aspirations. Strategic goals, which are printed in bold, are the broad, visionary statements of our desired future. These are the priorities for the School over the next five years and beyond and will inform the Board’s evaluation of itself and the administration. The aspirations are ideas that were generated during the planning process which we include as suggestions for how to realize strategic goals and as examples of initiatives that would help realize them.
Inspired Teaching & Enduring Learning Encourage and reward risk-taking and creativity and emphasize the value of embracing failure as a necessary ingredient for learning, wellness, and success. Prepare our students for the opportunities and uncertainties of the future by: • • • •
Posing questions that do not already have an answer Providing an authentic outside audience for student work Teaching them to find reliable, valid, applicable information Incorporating creativity and creation into every major assignment
Ensure that all that we require outside of the school day prioritizes each child’s health and wellness. ASPIRATION: Partner with our parents to ensure that our students’ schedules, both in and out of school, provide ample time for family, reading, play, rest, and sleep. ASPIRATION: Define clearly the purpose of homework and ensure that it fulfills this stated purpose and does so within a manageable, age-appropriate timeframe.
Create and sustain a culture of pleasure reading, Pre-School through Grade 12, that continues for a lifetime. Design an academic experience that celebrates, is responsive to, and leverages the unique characteristics of the digital generation. ASPIRATION: Modernize what is a centuries-old required course of study and create a curriculum that seamlessly integrates the acquisition of essential skills, habits, and knowledge for fulfillment and success in the future.
Identify measures of student success that reflect our School’s Purpose, Values, and Philosophy, are indicative of the skills, habits, and knowledge necessary for our children’s future success and fulfillment, and demonstrate the exceptional long-term outcomes for our alumni.
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Integrate empathy, awareness, and respect for differences into every classroom and course in explicit and measurable ways. Envision, create, and support the faculty of the future and become the school of choice for teachers everywhere. ASPIRATION: Create a competitive, sustainable compensation model for teachers to engage in year-round work, with ample time for planning, collaboration, research, lesson study, and professional development. ASPIRATION: Create an Excellence in Teaching Institute that will leverage the expertise of our teachers and be known nationally for attracting and training the finest teachers.
Grow our profile as a nationally-recognized leader among independent schools and a destination for fellow educators to see the latest and best practices in action. ASPIRATION: Reward teachers who present or publish on what makes their work exceptional. ASPIRATION: Formalize and expand the scope of St. Anne’s-Belfield professional development offerings to other schools as an opportunity for our teachers to share their expertise.
Continue to expand our national and global footprint. ASPIRATION: Leverage our current global School community to establish an overseas presence to facilitate student travel and cultural exchanges, offer educational programming, and build closer connections with our international families and alumni.
Become a model school for developing student-athletes and for creating a healthy, competitive, child-first, mission-appropriate interscholastic athletic program. ASPIRATION: Affirm the enduring value of the teacher-coach-advisor philosophy and support our triple-threat teachers accordingly.
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Close Community Steward time in such a way as to prioritize the following: • • • •
Supporting inspired teaching and learning Nurturing the student-teacher relationship Partnering with parents and the home Nurturing the health and wellness of our students, faculty and staff ASPIRATION: Establish and publish norms and expectations of all members of our community so as to help everyone prioritize and manage their time effectively.
Ensure that the St. Anne’s-Belfield story accurately depicts the experiences of our students, the exceptional quality of our programs, and the true composition, culture, and ethos of our School community. Provide opportunities for every child to contribute uniquely and meaningfully to our community. Seize every teachable moment in regards to kindness, inclusion, and civility, no matter the time and circumstance. Be a vital community resource and valued local partner. ASPIRATION: Build into the weekly schedule and calendar significant and sacrosanct time for students and teachers to partner and build ongoing relationships with local organizations and experts.
Build a faculty and administration that reflects the diversity of our student body and the broader community. Reimagine the School-parent partnership and emphasize its importance to the success of our students and the School. ASPIRATION: Conduct a review of communications between the School and home to ensure that updates on student progress and information about the program are timely, substantive, and efficient; emphasize developmentally appropriate student agency; and create more time for teachers to be with students. ASPIRATION: Develop a new vision and create updated structures for the School’s parent volunteer organizations so as to maximize our parents’ impact on the educational experience and to leverage everyone’s time, expertise, and support most effectively and efficiently.
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Sustainable Resources Create a financial model that allows St. Anne’s-Belfield to be accessible to every qualified, mission-appropriate student and to attract, retain, and support the finest faculty and staff. ASPIRATION: Have the financial resources to offer need-blind admission. ASPIRATION: Ensure that net annual income (net tuition + annual giving + unrestricted endowment income) covers 100 percent of core operating costs and that philanthropy supports program enhancements, strategic initiatives, capital improvements, and increased access. ASPIRATION: Educate our families and alumni on the funding gap between tuition income and operating costs, thereby emphasizing the vital importance of annual giving to our ability to deliver a world-class program.
Continue to build a curious, diverse, talented student body by increasing admission selectivity, emphasizing access, and developing waiting lists at each grade level. Secure support for the completion of the 2016 - 2017 Master Plans for the Greenway Rise and Belfield Campuses, which include essential renovations to Randolph Hall, Lee-DuVal dormitories, Falk House, and the Conway Convocation Center, and the design and construction of a new dormitory and a new indoor athletic complex. Engage with and inspire more philanthropic support from our alumni.
OUR RESEARCH
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Curiosity
• Biddle, P. (2017, July 05). AI is Making it Extremely Easy for Students to Cheat. Wired. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from https://www.wired.com/story/ai-is-making-it-extremely-easy-for-students-tocheat/ • Brown, B. (2014). As Demands on Teachers Mount, More Time in School Helps Strengthen Instruction. National Center on Time and Learning. Retrieved October 26, 2017, from www. timeandlearning.org/sites/default/files/resources/timeforteachers_pressrelease_05_14_14.pdf. • Bruno, P. (2015, October 09). How People Learn: An Evidence-Based Approach. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-people-learn-evidence-based-paul-bruno Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation • Cullinan, B. (2000). Independent Reading and School Achievement. School Library Media Research, 3. Retrieved July 07, 2017, from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/ aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol3/SLMR_IndependentReading_V3.pdf • Kaufman, S. B. (2017, July 24). Schools Are Missing What Matters About Learning. Retrieved August 03, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/07/the-underratedgift-of-curiosity/534573/ • Strauss, V. (2017, July 17). Why This Superintendent is Banning Homework - And Asking Kids to Read Instead. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/ news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/07/17/why-this-superintendent-is-banning-homework-and-askingkids-to-read-instead/ • Yuhas, D. (2014, October 02). Curiosity Prepares the Brain for Better Learning. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/curiosity-prepares-the-brain-for-betterlearning/
Neuroscience/Neuroplasticity
• Cozolino, L. (2013, March 19). Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain. Greater Good Magazine, Science Based Insights for a Meaningful Life. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from https:// greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/nine_things_educators_need_to_know_about_the_brain • Deans for Impact (2015). The Science of Learning. Austin, TX: Deans for Impact. • Jensen, F. E., & Nutt, A. E. (2016). The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults. New York: Harper. • Jukes, I., McCain, T. D., Crockett, L., & Prensky, M. (2010). Understanding the Digital Generation: Teaching and Learning in the New Digital Landscape. Thousand Oaks, CA: Co-published with Corwin, a SAGE Company.
Agency
• Christakis, E. (2017). The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grown Ups. New York: Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. • Duback, A., & Cornish, A. (Writers). (2017, August 03). Vermont Medical School Says Goodbye to Lectures [Radio series episode]. In All Things Considered. Charlottesville, Virginia: National Public Radio. • Levine, M. (2013). Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success. New York: Harper Perennial. • Lythcott-Haims, J. (2016). How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success. New York: Saint Martin’s Griffin. • November Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved August 03, 2017, from http://novemberlearning.com/ • Sizer, T., Meier, D., & Sizer, N. F. (2013). The New American High School. John Wiley & Sons. • The Works of John Dewey • Young, J. R. (2017, July 11). How Childhood Has Changed (and How That Impacts Education) EdSurge News. Retrieved August 03, 2017, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-07-11-howchildhood-has-changed-and-how-that-impacts-education
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Community & Relationships
• Jones, D. E., Greenberg, M., & Crowley, M. (2015). Early Social-Emotional Functioning and Public Health: The Relationship Between Kindergarten Social Competence and Future Wellness. American Journal of Public Health,105(11), 2283-2290. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from http://ajph. aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302630 • Kraft, M. A., & Rogers, T. (2015). The Underutilized Potential of Teacher-to-Parent Communication: Evidence from a Field Experiment. Economics of Education Review. Retrieved July O5, 2017, from https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/todd_rogers/files/empirical_in_press.kraft_rogers. pdf. • Kuhl, R. (2017, June 16). The Six Relationships That Characterize Great Schools. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_deeply/2017/06/the_six_relationships_that_ characterize_great_schools.html. Weblog Post
Future of School & Work
• Axios. (n.d.). Retrieved August 04, 2017, from https://www.axios.com/ • Bromley, A. E. (2017, September 12). The College is Changing How Students Engage in Their Learning. Retrieved October 12, 2017, from https://www.news.virginia.edu/content/ college-changing-how-students-engage-their-learning?utm_source=DailyReport&utm_ medium=email&utm_campaign=news • Carey, K. (2016). The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere. New York: Riverhead Books. • Cookson, P. W., Jr. (2017, October 10). 10 Disruptions That Will Revolutionize Education. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/10/11/10-disruptions-that-willrevolutionize-education.html • EAB, (2017, August 23). Retrieved September 09, 2017, from http://www.eab.com/ The First Skill I Look For In My Employees, According to 11 CEO’s • Goodman, M. J., Sands, A. M., & Coley, R. J. (2015, January). America’s Skills Challenge: Millennials and the Future (Rep.). Retrieved September 23, 2017, from The ETS Center for Research on Human Capital and Education website: www.ets.org/millennials • Herold, B. (2017). Facing An Uncertain Future. Education Week, 37(06), 3-6. Retrieved October 12, 2017, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/09/27/the-future-of-work-is-uncertainschools.html • Miller, C. C., & Bidgood, J. (2017, July 31). How To Prepare Preschoolers for an Automated Economy. The New York Times. Retrieved July 31, 2017, from https://www.nytimes. com/2017/07/31/upshot/how-to-prepare-preschoolers-for-an-automated-economy.html?utm_ source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories • Palmer, A. (2017, January 12). Lifelong Learning is Becoming an Economic Imperative. The Economist. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from https://www.economist.com/news/specialreport/21714169-technological-change-demands-stronger-and-more-continuous-connectionsbetween-education • Wagner, T. (2012, August 14). Re: Graduating All Students Innovation Ready [Web log comment]. Retrieved July 05, 2017, from http://www.tonywagner.com/1140
Diversity & Inclusion
• Davidson, M. N. (2012). The End of Diversity as We Know it: Why Diversity Efforts Fail and How Leveraging Difference Can Succeed. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. • Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. (2006) New York: Basic Books • Jonathan Haidt , J. Patrick Seder , and Selin Kesebir , “Hive Psychology, Happiness, and Public Policy,” The Journal of Legal Studies 37, no. S2 (June 2008): S133-S156. • Page, S. E. (2008). The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. • Thinking Deeply About Difference: The Professional Approach to Diversity in Schools. (2014, May 19). National Association of Independent Schools.
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Special thanks to everyone involved and the entire School community for its support, input, and assistance in contributing to this new plan, especially the members of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee: Anne Jones, Co-Chair, P ‘20, ‘22, ‘25 Adrian Keevil, Co-Chair, Trustee, P ‘26, ‘28, ‘30 Emily Battle ‘15 Kerry Chen ‘16 Brad Connors, Faculty Janine Dozier, P ‘23, ‘26 Megan Grant, Faculty
Antxon Iturbe, Faculty, P ‘26, ‘30 Holly Mason, P ‘20, ‘22, ‘23 Deidra Massie, P ‘19, ‘23 Beth Miller, Faculty, P ‘22, ‘25 Marie Reed, Faculty, P ‘27, ‘30 Rosanne Simeone, Faculty, P ‘21, ‘23 Lester Yuen, P ‘19
Ex Officio Rich Booth, Chair of the Board of Trustees, P ‘18 Frank Edmonds, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, P ‘20, ‘24 David Lourie, Head of School, P ‘18, ‘21
© November 2017 St. Anne’s-Belfeld School