25 Factors Great Schools Have in Common Patrick F. Bassett Seeking Greatness Seeking Greatness & Your School’s Survey ResultsResults

Bassett’s 25 Indicators of Great Schools Great schools… 1.Create and perpetuate an intentional culture shaped by the adults, rooted in universal values of honesty (integrity) and caring (empathy), and relentlessly oriented toward achievement (focus & perseverance – grit). “To inspire each girl to fulfill her promise and to better the world” “Honor above all” Culture provides motivation, structure, and guidance. Motivators for adults vs. kids: Dan Pink’s “Drive” three motivators vs. Christensen & Horn’s research on drivers for adolescents: Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose Be with friends. Learn from adults and peers they respect how to be successful. Strategic & programmatic focus on character, “the hidden curriculum” revealed.the hidden curriculum

Great schools… 2. Eclectically capitalize on the best ideas about what works in schools, those gleaned from the past as well as those deemed best for the future. Are you a 21 st C. school “in the news” for innovation? Are you attuned to “disruptive innovations” – those that by definition increase access and decrease cost?in the news

3. Manifest a coherent philosophy of learning for students, be it constructivist, Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, Montessori, strengths- based, progressive, traditional, 1:1, IB, or whatever — so long as it remains open to ongoing discussion, assumption testing, and constant refinement. What’s your “differentiator”? Do faculty talk pedagogy?

4. Make a substantial commitment to professional development for faculty, expecting teachers to grow as learners themselves and to develop mastery in the art and science of teaching. Seriously invested in professional development? Need not be expensive: could be time. Too much freedom to choose?

5. Develop collegial means to professionalize the profession, such as rounds, lesson study, digital faculty portfolios, and the like, adopting professional development strategies that are prevalent in high-performing schools and countries around the world. Faculty portfolios Faculty portfolios of their flipped class videos & their students’ exhibitionsstudents’ exhibitions

6. Adopt a big vision, one that continually refreshes itself in order to sustain the enterprise along the five most strategic continua: demographic, environmental, global, financial, and programmatic. What’s your vision statement? The “postcard of your destination?”

7. Define the school’s “playground” in expansive ways, beyond the school’s borders into the local community, the region, and the world. Your experiential-ed track? Your signature events at each grade level?experiential-ed

8. Demonstrate the public purpose of private education locally, nationally, and globally through a variety of means, including modeling experimentation to improve schooling and partnering with the public sector at the school and university levels. Do you participate in Horizons/Prep for Prep programming? Joining the NNSP?

9. Embrace stewardship of the school and its resources, renewing and growing the school’s physical, financial, and human resources to achieve financial equilibrium. Does your physical, intellectual, social, & financial capital all grow every year? By what lens does the board view the success of the school? The Head view the success of the team? Balanced scorecard? Financial / Customer Satisfaction / Process Efficiency / Staff Growth & Innovation?

10. Enable constituents to donate their time and treasure consistently by providing the metrics on school volunteerism, financing, and eleemosynary benchmarks, and by telling the school’s story in powerfully moving ways.metrics

11. Pay it forward by building endowment and thereby sustaining intergenerational equity so that the next generation of families will be at least as well served by this generation as the current generation of families has been by its predecessors. Adopt a “giving” financial discipline and culture? Allocate portion of all giving to endowment?endowment

12. Commit to diversity of all kinds and at all levels to create the conditions and school culture so that students learn how to appreciate & map differences, then navigate & ride the waves of change. Diverse teams at the faculty, management, and board levels: Scott Page’s Diversity & Complexity; Cosmopolitanism & Culture GPS; Research on value of introverts & neurotics on one’s teamDiversityintroverts & neurotics

13. Redefine the ideal classroom setting as one of intimate environment, not small classes, since the former can occur in schools or classes of any size and even online, and the latter can miss the point of intimacy. Does the students:staff ratio have room to grow?)students:staff ratio

14. Create a financially sustainable future by means other than persistently large annual tuition increases, recognizing that being the best value, rather than the highest price in town, offers the strongest value proposition. Learn from the for-profits? Refine the value proposition of your school?)value proposition

15. Achieve extraordinary parent and alumni participation in annual giving, reflecting superb volunteer organization and execution and a grateful constituent base. Organize to seek 100% trustee & parent participation100%

16. Adopt and fund “3 Rs” talent strategies that position the school to recruit, retain, and reward the best and brightest teachers, school leaders, and board members. Seek Teach for America candidates? What’s more important: small classes or great teachers?great teachers

17. Compensate staff members fairly and competitively related to performance and contributions to the well-being of the school and in acknowledgment of the staff’s tremendous responsibility for and impact on students. Offer competitive salaries. Re-shape the compensation pool. Reward attitude and performance?salaries

18. Provide leadership paths for teachers wishing to stay in teaching, rather than jump to administration, by creating a host of academic and task- force leadership roles. Offer career & leadership track for teachers?

19. Track student outcomes over time, beyond the years in one’s own school, seeking data on how well the school prepared its students for the next legs of their life journeys — be it the next levels of education or life beyond. Employ the NAIS Young Alumni Survey?

20. Seek data to make data-rich (not opinion-rich) decisions, embracing former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’s observation, “In God we trust; all others, bring data.” Employ the NAIS DASL Trustee Dashboards? Survey constituents?

21. To avoid unnecessary distractions, educate the board and parents thoroughly about “how schools work,” and about what student and parent needs a school can and cannot meet.board Parent and board education? Role Play Difficult conversations?Difficult conversations

22. Market their schools with “sticky messages” that tell a compelling story. Know your market segmentation? Your school’s best stories? “Sticky messages+ that tell a story with data that backs it? Marketing features or outcomes? Reinforcing the value proposition with stories + data)segmentation

23. Know their priorities when making difficult decisions, ranking first “what’s best for the school,” then “what’s best for the student,” then “what’s best for all other interests.” Use the Institute for Global Ethics 4-way test: gut, legal, front page, role-model?

Great Schools… 24. Know that mission-match with a prospective student (on the intake) and matriculating students (on the outtake) is the controlling factor in admissions and secondary school or college placement. Define the sweet spot of the ability range you serve? Create “schools with in a school” and “centers of excellence” to expand reach?

Great Schools… 25. Find the right balance for the drivers of financial aid to achieve school goals of diversifying the school, managing enrollment, and attracting a talented class of students. Know your financial aid “Sophie’s Choice” profile?

Great Schools… All schools have the capacity to become great schools. All they need is the focus and leadership to create the proper conditions for the board, school leadership team, staff, and constituents to do so. The End!

Choose to be Great by Choice Roald Amundsen (Norwegian +) vs. Robert Falcon Scott (Englishman -), in their efforts to lead their teams to be the first to the South Pole in October 1911 Adopt the discipline of “the 20 – mile march” Empirical creativity vs. intuition First “shoot bullets, not missiles” Return

Factors Exercise – Great Schools Instructions: Pat Bassett's Independent School magazine column (Spring 2013) "25 Factors Great Schools Have in Common" identifies many attributes of exceptional schools. For the workshop breakout sessions he will conduct with our community, he has asked that participants read this article and then submit their top five to eight factors in each column:25 Factors Great Schools Have in Common Top Factors that are Important and that our School Does Wellthat our School Does Less Well Factors Survey Return

Creativity, Robotics, Teaming and STEM …and wearable, functional art

Grant Wood’s Victorian Survival SmithsonianSmithsonian Podcast interpretation by Katy Waldman, Holton Arms SchoolKaty Waldman Demonstration of Learning Return

Trend #5: Market Segmentation as the New Marketing Imperative Return

Cf. Audubon Society; National Geographic; Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Foundation; New Knowledge Organization, etc.

The Value Proposition Equation Perceived Outcomes Perceived Price = Value A six year old’s perspective? Compete on brand, price, or uniqueness? Return

1. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen How’s the project coming? Fine, thanks. You’re holding me up. You’re a jerk. I hate you. Levels: Stated vs. Implied. Business at hand vs. Threats to my image.

Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen. Can it wait? I’m busy Irate Parent Version: Mishandled conversations create the very outcomes we dread. She doesn’t get what my work demands.. Fine. You think you’re only busy one? You don’t love me. The Spouse/Partner Version Return

NOLS-based Leadership Basics: Taking Care of… 1.Yourself… 2.Your Stuff… 3.Your Responsibilities to the Team In the context of real-world project-based learning and problem-solving Measured by CWRA critical- thinking assessment. The Future of Teaching: Hybrid Learning, High Tech + High Touch See Christensen & Horn article on “hybrid disruptive innovation” Return Expeditionary Learning

The HONOR CODE  Woodberry Forest School alums have highest alumni participation in the country - 64%. Higher than highest colleges.  Charlotte Latin Honor Code testimonials from graduates: – “I see cheating at every turn in college – in the weight room, on the volleyball court, and in the classroom…. I want to thank you and the school for making being honest a habit for me.” -Aristotelian insight. –“Mr. Wall: I wrote my first English paper in college on my experience when I was caught cheating in 9 th grade on a physics quiz and how helpful you were to me as a mentor from that point forward – and how that turned me into the young man I now am.” - Mark Twain on good judgment. –“Honor above All.” Return

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The Good News: Data To Use Diversity & Complexity - Scott Page In any and all systems (nature, corporate, educational, disease), the more diverse the system, the stronger and more likely to persist and succeed. Mathematically demonstrable: a formula to predict the higher likelihood of success of diverse systems If you assemble the 100 “smartest” people you can find in one group and a random and diverse set of people in a second group, the second group outperforms in decision making every time.

The Good News: Data To Use

Culturally Competent Leaders  Accepting of a lack of full closure, of ambiguity and ambivalence  Recognizes there is much denial about diversity challenges  Articulates well why diversity is mission-critical: –classroom experience richer; –faculty problem-solving is more innovative; –demographic imperative is addressed –benefits all: in some ways benefits white students most (IHE) in terms of growth of critical thinking Don’t Miss the Boat on the Benefits of Diversity!

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Problem Solving via Strategic Governance (cf. Dick Chait’s Governance as Leadership) Needed: Three Levels of Trusteeship  Level One: Fiduciary (oversight and assessment of mission & finance)  Level Two: Strategic (“less management/more governance” via scanning and planning)  Level Three: Generative (shared visioning, R&D orientation for imagining and experimenting). PFB’s 3 lenses: oversight, foresight, and insight Use the power of setting the agenda to build a strong process

Developing the Board & Admin Team (Board Member, May 2004, Chait et al.) The SAT Analogy: Our board is to our organization as is to.

Three Levels of Board Governance Source: Bill Ryan, AISNE Governance Workshop, Oct  Loose steering wheel is to auto  Fingernail is to blackboard  Hamster is to wheel Analogies revealing some level of dysfunction: “Our board is to our organization as…”

Three Levels of Board Governance (Adapted from Board Member, May 2004, Chait et al.) Board as Control Mechanism Board as Direction Setter Board as Meaning Maker Dam : River Curbstone: Road Border Collie : Herd Traffic Tower: Pilot Governor: Engine Landlord: Tenant Anchor: Ship Compass : Navigation Headlights : Auto Guidance System : Satellite Periscope : Submarine Flight Planner : Pilot Rudder : Ship Inspiration : Poet Values : Choices Designer : Work of Art Spirit : Higher Purpose Lighthouse: Ship Fiduciary Oversight: “Doing things right” Strategic Foresight: “Doing the right things” Generative, Visionary Insight: “Leave a legacy” Move from micromanagement to macroengagement. Employ the 3 lens rubric to problem-solving: Rising benefit costs? Adding Chinese or Hindi? Immersion?

“Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.” ~Warren G. Bennis Examples of a board doing “things right”?

What Leaders Really Do ~ John Kotter Management: Manages Complexity by… Planning & Budgeting Organizing & Staffing Controlling & Problem- solving Producing predictability, order, and consistency Leadership: Leads Change by… Setting a direction Aligning people Motivating and inspiring Producing useful and dramatic change Examples of a board doing “the right thing”? (i.e., “doing things right”) (i.e., “doing the right things”)

The Perfect Head of School (Walter Ebmyer, ISM, 1980) The Perfect Head of School always has the right thing to say…wears good clothes…buys good books…is 29 years old with 40 years of experience…smiles all the time…visits 15 classes per day and is always in the office to be available for instant parent conferences…etc. The Perfect Head of School is always in the next nearest school (not yours). If your head does not measure up…  Send this notice to six other schools that are tired of their heads, too.  Bundle up your head and send him or her to the school on the top of the list.  In one week you will receive 1643 heads--and one will be perfect: Have faith in this letter.  One country day school broke the chain and got its old head back in less than four months.

Evaluating Leadership

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PFB Note: 1550 of 2400 Benchmark Score for 3-part SAT (math, reading, writing) = floor where academic success in college is likely Return

What Counts Most? Also See: Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath on same subject Return and the Rand Corp Study of LA Unified

Your School’s Score Sheet: Important + vs. Important - 1. Create and perpetuate an intentional culture shaped by the adults, rooted in universal values of honesty and caring, and relentlessly oriented toward achievement. 2. Eclectically capitalize on the best ideas about what works in schools, those gleaned from the past as well as those deemed best for the future. 3. Manifest a coherent philosophy of learning for students, be it constructivist, Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, Montessori, strengths-based, progressive, traditional, 1:1, or whatever — so long as it remains open to ongoing discussion, testing, and constant refinement. 4. Make a substantial commitment to professional development for faculty, expecting teachers to grow as learners themselves and to develop mastery in the art and science of teaching. 5. Develop collegial means to professionalize the profession, such as rounds, lesson study, digital faculty portfolios, and the like, adopting professional development strategies that are prevalent in high-performing schools and countries around the world.

Your School’s Score Sheet: Important + vs. Important - 6. Adopt a big vision, one that continually refreshes itself in order to sustain the enterprise along the five most strategic continua: demographic, environmental, global, financial, and programmatic. 7. Define the school’s “playground” in expansive ways, beyond the school’s borders into the local community, the region, and the world. 8. Demonstrate the public purpose of private education locally, nation- ally, and globally through a variety of means, including modeling experimentation to improve schooling and partnering with the public sector at the school and university levels. 9. Embrace stewardship of the school and its resources, renewing and growing the school’s physical, financial, and human resources to achieve financial equilibrium. 10. Enable constituents to donate their time and treasure consistently by providing the metrics on school volunteerism, financing, and eleemosynary benchmarks, and by telling the school’s story in powerfully moving ways.

Your School’s Score Sheet: Important + vs. Important Pay it forward by building endowment and thereby sustaining inter- generational equity so that the next generation of families will be at least as well served by this generation as the current generation of families has been by its predecessors. 12. Commit to diversity of all kinds and at all levels to create the conditions and school culture so that students learn how to appreciate and map differences, then navigate and ride the waves of demographic change. 13. Redefine the ideal classroom set- ting as one of intimate environment, not small classes, since the former can occur in schools or classes of any size and even online, and the latter can miss the point of intimacy. 14. Create a financially sustainable future by means other than persistently large annual tuition increases, recognizing that being the best value, rather than the highest price in town, offers the strongest value proposition. 15. Achieve extraordinary parent and alumni participation in annual giving, reflecting superb volunteer organization and execution and a grateful constituent base.

Your School’s Score Sheet: Important + vs. Important Adopt and fund “3 Rs” talent strategies that position the school to recruit, retain, and reward the best and brightest teachers, school leaders, and board members. 17. Compensate staff members fairly and competitively related to performance and contributions to the well-being of the school and in acknowledgment of the staff’s tremendous responsibility for and impact on students. 18. Provide leadership paths for teachers wishing to stay in teaching, rather than jump to administration, by creating a host of academic and task-force leadership roles. 19. Track student outcomes over time, beyond the years in one’s own school, seeking data on how well the school prepared its students for the next legs of their life journeys — be it the next levels of education or life beyond. 20. Seek data to make data-rich (not opinion-rich) decisions, embracing former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’s observation, “In God we trust; all others, bring data.”

Your School’s Score Sheet: Important + vs. Important To avoid unnecessary distractions, educate the board and parents thoroughly about how schools work, and about what student and parent needs a school can and cannot meet. 22. Market their schools with “sticky messages” that tell a compelling story. 23. Know their priorities when making difficult decisions, ranking first “what’s best for the school,” then “what’s best for the student,” then “what’s best for all other interests.” 24. Know that one’s mission-match with a prospective student (on the intake) and matriculating students (on the outtake) is the controlling factor in admissions and secondary school or college placement. 25. Find the right balance for the drivers of financial aid to achieve school goals of diversifying the school, managing enrollment, and attracting a talented class of students. Return

NAIS 10-Year “DASL Benchmarks” Markers of Success Patrick F. Bassett

Markers of Success #1: Robust Income Streams = Data Proxy for Sustainability Income : Day Net Tuition 76.1% 78.6% 78.0%xx.x% Income : Day School Other Programs 3.7% 4.2% x.x% Income : Day School Investments 5.1%3.8%4.1%x.x% Income : Day School Giving 7.8%6.7%8.2%x.x% Expenses: Day Salaries & Benefits (#901 ) 69.5%65.1%69.1%xx.x% Expenses: Day Technology* 1.2% 1.4%x.x% Expenses: Prof Development 0.8%x.x% NAIS 10-Year Comparisons (See Boarding) Our School:Boarding Years 2003 – – Day School: Expenses: Day All Other 30.3%34.9%29.5%xx.x%

Markers of Success #2: Diversity = Proxy for Inclusivity: Race + Ethnicity NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – – Day School Students of Color (#400) 19.6%22.3%28.1% xx.x% Boarding Students of Color (#400) 16.2%16.9%22.2%xx.x% Day School International (#201) 3.1%3.2%3.0% xx.x% Boarding International Enrollment (#201) 11.9%17.3%21.7%xx.x%

Markers of Success #3: Financial Aid = Data Proxy for Socio-Economic Inclusivity DAY: NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – – Day School Students Need-Based Aid (#700) 15.1%17.1%21.6%xx.x% Day School Student Tuition Remission (#701) 4.4%4.6%5.0%xx.x% Day School Students on Merit Aid (#702) 4.7% 5.5%xx.x% Day School Student on Full Need (#703) 7.5%6.4%4.9%xx.x% Day School Students Total on Aid 25.2%26.4%32.6%xx.x% (See BOARDING)BOARDING

Markers of Success #4: Tuition = Data Proxy for Pricing Strategy NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – – Day School Median Tuition Grade 9 (#500) $15,988$19,925$24,450 $xx,xxx Boarding Median Tuition Grade 9 (#500) $30, 000$39,000$48,600$xx,xxx Income : Day School Net Tuition (#900 ) 76.1%78.6%78.0%xx.x% Income : Boarding Net Tuition (# %56.8%66.5%xx.x%

Markers of Success #5: Endowment Indicators = Data Proxy for Financial Security NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – – Endowment per student Day Schools $11,411$xx,xxx Endowment per student Boarding Schools $56,092$xx,xxx Endowment: Debt Day Schools 0.96x.xx Endowment: Debt Day Schools 2.63x.xx

Markers of Success #6: Annual Giving & % of Participation = Data Proxy for Constituent Loyalty Woodberry Forest School Alumni % Giving: 64% NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years: Annual Giving per Student & % Participation 2003 – –14 Day 2013–14 Boardin g Median Gift by Alumni/ae & % of participation $ % $565 17% $xxx.x xx.x% Median Gift by Parents & % of participation $ % $ % $xxx.x xx.x% Median Gift by Faculty & % of participation $ % $ % $xxx.x xx.x% Median Gift by Trustees & % of participation (Table $ % $ % $xxx.x x.x% Giving per Student: Day $1,232 $x,xxx Giving per Student: Boarding $3,302$x,xxx Table 1102

Markers of Success #7: Funnel Shape = Proxy for Brand Strength & Selectivity NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – – Boarding Applications per Enrollee (#601) x.x Boarding Accepts per Enrollees (#601) x.x Day School Apps per Enrollees (#601) x.x Day School Accepts per Enrollee (#601) 1.5 x.x

Markers of Success #8: Low Attrition = Data Proxy for Customer Satisfaction Re-marketing to Current Families? NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – – Day School Average Attrition (#602) 9.4% %10.6%9.4%xx.x% Boarding Average Attrition (#602) 11.6%10.2%9.7%xx.x%

Markers of Success #9: Student:Staff Ratios = Data Proxy for “Productivity” NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – – Day School Student : Teacher Ratio (#813) x.x Day School: Students : All FTE Staff Ratio 5.1x.x Boarding Student : Teacher Ratio (#813) x.x Boarding: All Student : All FTE Staff Ratio 3.1x.x

Markers of Success #10: Salaries = Data Proxy for the 3 Rs for Talent With whom do you compete on salaries? Does money motivate and drive teachers – or anyone else for that matter? How might a school re-shape its compensation model? Bands, Tiers, & Pay for Performance. NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – –14 Day 2013–14 Boardin g Faculty Salary: Low $38,231$32,000$xx,xxx Faculty Salary: Median $54,230$49,o88$xx,xxx Faculty Salary: High $ 79,905$76,000$xx,xxx

Markers of Success #3: Data Proxy for Inclusivity – Socio-Economic Real-world test: distribution of families across all five socio-economic quintiles (national or local). What happens when the economy and market take a dive? Price becomes “elastic” BOARDING: NAIS 10-Year Comparisons Our School: Years 2003 – – Boarding Students Need- Based Aid (#700) 31.8%33.2%37.5%xx.x% Boarding Students Tuition Remission (#701) 3.6%3.7%4.2% x.x% Boarding Students on Merit Aid (#702) 6.3%8.4%11.1%xx.x% Boarding Students on Full Need (#703) 17.9%18%17.0%xx.x% Boarding Students Total on Aid 41.7%45.3%52.8%xx.x% (Return to Day)Return

Markers of Success #1: Robust Income Streams = Data Proxy for Sustainability Income Net Tuition (#900 ) 55.6%56.8% 66.5% (China Effect) xx.x% Income : Other Programs5.9%4.8% xx.x% Income Investments18.3%20.7%11.6%xx.x% Income : Giving10.2%11.6%10.3%xx.x% Expenses: Boarding Salaries & Benefits(#901 ) 54.7%53.3%57.9%xx.x% Expenses: Technology1.3%1.4%1.3%x.x% BOARDING: NAIS 10-Year Comparisons (Return to Day) Our School:Return Years2003 – – Expenses: Prof Development 0.5%x.x% Expenses: All Other44.0%46.7%41.7%xx.x%