Envisioning the Fourth Century of Friends Education - Strategic Plan for Abington Friends School

Abington Friends School

Envisioning the Fourth Century of Friends Education Strategic Plan 2022–2027

STRATEGIC PLAN 2022–2027

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Abington Friends School: Envisioning the Fourth Century of Friends Education For 325 years, Abington Friends School has adapted and innovated to meet the ascendant needs and opportunities of each successive generation. Today, we see a world that has changed profoundly over the past several decades, and we believe that both the imperatives and potential of education have shifted in turn. After an intensive two-year planning process, we as a school community have reached a new moment of clarity about what education can and must be at Abington Friends School as we move together into a fourth century of Friends education. We have bold convictions about how schools should be evolving to reflect the nature of childhood today, the world our students are entering as young adults and the potential of our Friends school to be a force for positive social change. This is a critically important juncture and one full of bright possibilities.

www.abingtonfriends.net/oak-leaves-strategic-plan-2022

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL We see several broad shifts that should drive innovation in an AFS education: Childhood has changed. Previous generations were shaped by a great deal of freedom and independence outside of school— building social skills, imagination, resilience, and resourcefulness apart from the continual supervision of adults. How can the school day provide the robust opportunities needed for building these critical strengths?

Technology and digitally mediated experience are ubiquitous today, bringing new levels of connection to people and resources, but replacing too much of the physical play and varied natural and tactile experiences that nourish the development of healthy bodies, minds and spirits. How can school provide this rich tapestry of daily experience while promoting healthy engagement with technology?

Our children are going to school in a profoundly diverse community, a powerful foundation for an education that previous generations did not experience. It shifts our worldview, our understanding of the past, present and future of our nation and pushes us to a new understanding of equity, justice and engagement imperatives. How can a fully developed, widely shared vision of equity, inclusion and dignity at AFS lead us to our full potential as a diverse community?

The larger world has never been more accessible and available to teachers and students, providing unprecedented opportunities to ground an outstanding academic education in experiential learning.

Connections to practitioners in all fields, to authors, native speakers of languages, to culture and arts all over the world are ever-present. Schools of the twentieth century were built around comparatively very limited resources and most experience was mediated through books alone. How can an AFS education be transformed by the power of wide, direct experience?

Our understanding of learning has advanced dramatically from the previous generation. Research in cognitive development, connections between social-emotional and intellectual growth and research-based practices for fostering independent, resourceful learners is expanding our ideas about what education at its best looks like. The learning lives and focused growth of teachers has become the engine for innovation and program development. How can we create the R&D space for teachers to learn, grow and innovate?

Charting a New Course Forward The openness and uncertainty of the world today demands that our students will need to actively create and construct lives of purpose, meaning and contribution rather than following rote steps and simply fulfilling the expectations of others. Forging connections between what they care about, their strengths and the needs of the world around them will provide a deeper sense of meaning, motivation and direction to their education and the roles they will be growing into.

The shifts and societal changes we observe do not lessen the centrality of the powerful academic experience of an AFS education.

The skills of research, analysis, critical thinking, writing, problem-solving and multiple literacies remain ever vital and essential. However, they do invite the development of richer experiential contexts for that academic education, of ethical and moral frameworks for engaging issues that matter, and a strong sense of personal responsibility and purpose as an anchor for intellectual accomplishment. They invite a rebalancing of the portfolio of a school day and creative new thinking about the relationship between time in the school day to time outside of it. These fundamental shifts argue for a school day that is richly social, varied in range of experiences both indoor and out of doors, protected from an excess of technology and mediated experience, and full of opportunities for agency, leadership and the making of things together.

An outstanding education today must be designed for the world our children are growing up in and into. It must meet their needs for full and wholesome development

as human beings as the best and only preparation for an unknown future and for the thrilling challenges of making change in the world. An outstanding education must seize the unprecedented opportunities for transformational learning through experience and be shaped by teachers deeply engaged in ongoing learning and creative program development. And it must be responsive to the timeless Quaker imperative of helping students nurture a sturdy sense of self, grounded in their own rich inner lives and in knowing “that of God” in themselves and others. This is what the fourth century of Friends education at Abington Friends School can and must be.

These are the aims that have shaped our new Strategic Plan, which will guide Abington Friends’ progress over the next three to five years. It is a plan written with the confidence of a strong school growing stronger—and one presented with a note of healthy impatience.

We have much good work to do and are eager to join together in doing it!

On behalf of the AFS Strategic Planning Committee, I thank all whose ideas have enriched this process.

Rich Nourie Head of School

STRATEGIC PLAN 2022–2027

The Fourth Century Center: A State of the Art Model of Research, Development and Professional Learning to Power Innovation, Growth and Change The powerful, fourth-century of Friends education that we envision must be grounded in an unprecedented model of deep, ongoing professional learning and research and development spaces for our faculty and school leaders. We envision a new multidisciplinary center of learning and innovation that will richly support the lives of teachers as educators and program designers and fuel our thinking for transformative education.

The Fourth Century Center Our work in the Fourth Century Center will braid together these three themes of program development for the next five years.

STRATEGIC THEME ONE

Inspire Authentic, Transformative Learning through Experiential Learning

STRATEGIC THEME TWO

Cultivate Resilience, Independence and Resourcefulness

STRATEGIC THEME THREE

Fully Envision and Live the Promise of an Equitable, Inclusive Community

The Fourth Century Center ties together the strands of experiential learning; mind, brain, education research (MBE); social emotional learning (SEL); and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practice that together form the core of educational design today.

Abington Friends School is well positioned to lead in adapting Friends education for the world our children are growing up in, and that leadership should be centered in a systemically supported spirit of discovery, creativity, collaboration and ongoing learning of an exceptional faculty.

Essential initiatives include: • E stablish the Fourth Century Center, a center for innovation and professional collaboration and growth to house the team of the Director of Experiential Learning, Director of Student Support and Wellbeing, Director of Equity, Justice and Engagement and a Director of Teaching and Learning.

• A beautiful new space for the Center that will invite collaboration, creativity and a robust learning environment for faculty from Early Childhood through Upper School.

• T he development of new structures to create time and space for research, development and professional growth for teachers, with attention to the well-being and care for faculty and staff.

• A n advisory board for the Center that will draw together education researchers, thought leaders in Friends education, peer schools and university educators to provide inspiration, direction and connections for the Center.

Strategic Theme One

Inspire Authentic, Transformative Learning through Experiential Learning

Direct experience has always been prized in Friends education as the most powerful teacher and richly designed experiential learning aligns beautifully with the empirical nature of Quaker faith and practice. Over the past decade, AFS has created cohort mentoring programs with professional practitioners from disparate fields (the Ex programs), a global travel program, structures in all divisions to pursue independent learning projects outside of school and myriad partnerships with businesses, institutions and nonprofits to create connections for student learning in fields that they care about. The Farm at AFS is inspiring faculty and students throughout the school for experiential, socially engaged, community-based learning on a whole new scale. We are at the beginning of an exciting journey to transform learning through experiential learning.

Essential initiatives include: • A rticulate a trajectory of experiential learning opportunities, requirements and credits for all students from Early Childhood through Upper School.

• E ngage faculty in professional learning about design of experiential curricula at all age levels.

• R eimagine the weekly, monthly and annual school year schedule and calendar to create windows of immersive experience for students.

• C reate a staffing structure to free faculty to develop distinctive programs that extend the reach of a class beyond the classroom.

• Establish funding to ensure equitable access to all experiential learning opportunities at AFS. • Explore the possibility of a Summer Experiential Learning Institute to offer travel programs enhanced with immersive study before and after trips, and unique local course offerings built by visiting teachers and practitioners.

Strategic Theme Two

Cultivate Resilience, Independence and Resourcefulness

For the unknown pathways of their futures, our students will thrive with a sturdy sense of self, robust social and emotional health, and the ability to navigate challenges with resourcefulness and resilience.

And yet, we see a generation of students nationwide who suffer from debilitating anxiety and emotional fragility. The causes are manifold and demand a new focus on the part of schools to create systemic programming focused on building strength and independence in our students. We believe the elements include a healthy sense of adventure and perceived risk across the program to build grounded confidence and skills; parent education to encourage strength-building and healthy navigation of typical childhood anxiety at home; a well-articulated, multidisciplinary student support team to support teachers, students and families in building healthy practices; differentiating our program and supports to best serve the needs of our diverse student body.

Essential initiatives include: • C onduct a foundational faculty research project in the positive psychology movement to provide professional grounding to our multidimensional program development.

• D esign a systemic schoolwide program of social-emotional learning that ties together our programs in health, mindfulness, spiritual grounding, play and wellness.

• U se the resources of the Fourth Century Center to revise classroom practices and academic program design to create optimal learning environments grounded in best practice MBE and DEIJB research and frameworks.

• E xamine the school day in each division to ensure rich social interaction, ample time for

play and initiative and a healthful approach to living with technology.

• Design the Fourth Century Center to provide ongoing support and guidance to faculty and families in their ongoing work with students’ learning and social emotional needs.

• Train faculty advisors in a curriculum of social-emotional learning and restorative practices to implement a well-designed advisory curriculum for building resilience, independence and resourcefulness.

• Develop family education programs to foster parenting practices for building resilience, independence and resourcefulness, promoting deeper connection between home and school.

Strategic Theme Three

Fully Envision and Live the Promise of an Equitable, Inclusive Community

Abington Friends School stands apart for being a community of rich diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identification, socio-economic status and neighborhood—a powerful foundation for the education of all of our students. Our lived diversity is an engine for our collective growth and excellence. It powers our commitment to the promise of a Friends education open and accessible to all who are here, and indeed transformed by all who are here. And yet a shared vision for fully lived equity, inclusion and belonging in our diversity lies ahead of us—a vision for the growth of each one of us and our growth as a community. AFS is distinctly positioned to create this deep dimension of the next generation of Friends education.

Essential initiatives include: • C reate a community-wide shared vision of inclusion and belonging for our profoundly diverse community through a process of listening, learning and co-creation for the growth we wish to see in ourselves as individuals and as a community. This process of envisioning will be inclusive of student, faculty and staff, family and alumni voices and will set an agenda for growth in our community practices, our curriculum and our mutual care for each other.

• C ontinue to build a faculty and staff that mirrors the diversity of our students and families through highly developed protocols for recruitment, hiring, retention and care for well-being; ensure that decision-making groups at every level—divisions, departments, department chairs and the administrative council—reflect our community diversity as a whole.

• Cultivate robust student leadership development to grow our students’ capacity for leading and taking initiative in diverse communities and for creating greater care and equity in all settings at AFS and beyond; ensure structures to include student voice and experience in decision making around our equity, inclusion and belonging work.

•D evelop a standard of foundational and ongoing reflection, growth and training for all faculty and staff to ensure a level of professional care, skill and standards needed to educate all students to their fullest potential.

• Secure more long-term funding for the tuition assistance and supplemental assistance that ensures full access of our program to all who belong to the AFS community.

STRATEGIC PLAN 2022–2027

A Fourth Century Campus Master Plan Accompanying our programmatic plans, we must also develop a plan for the ongoing development of the campus to provide the spaces and facilities to support our educational vision.

Priorities include: • D esign and build a well-conceived, central space to house the Fourth Century Center, including offices for the team and flexible meeting facilities for faculty collaboration.

• E xplore and make plans for the outdoor spaces of our campus, including planning for the growing footprint of the Farm at AFS and our spaces for outdoor learning, play and athletics.

• E nsure that our campus master plan is attuned to the ascendant needs of the programs we develop in our strategic initiatives.

• A udit our existing facilities to prioritize renovation and new investment.

Committee Members 2019–2021

Brian Cassady P’33 Upper School Spanish Teacher

Becca Bubb ’02 P’33 P’35 Clerk of Strategic Planning and School Committee Clerk

Roseanne Liberti P’15 P’16 Middle School Science Teacher

Rich Nourie P’10 P’13 Head of School

Jenny Burkholder P’24 P’27 Upper School English Teacher

Margaret Sayers P’16 P’18 School Committee Clerk

Tina Yen Dean of Students and Former Dean of International Students

Cindy Balick P’13 P’19 P’19 School Committee

Kenniah Chestnut P’32 Parent

Ross Shanken P’17 P’20 P’24 School Committee

Subha Airan-Javia P’27 P’30 Parent

Michael Sperger P’15 P’18 P’21 School Committee

Susannah Wolf P’21 P’23 Parent

Devin Schlickmann Director of Admission and Assistant Head of School for Institutional Advancement

Consulting Firm

John Rison Chief Technology Officer

Ryan Burke Leadership and Design

Andrea Emmons P’24 Lower School Director Mikael Yisrael Director of Equity, Justice, and Engagement Dominique Gerard Upper School Director Rosanne Mistretta P’09 P’12 Director of Experiential Learning Keisha Hutchins Hirlinger P’26 P’29 Lower School Music Teacher

Carla Silver Leadership and Design

Preschool–Grade 12 Quaker School

575 Washington Lane Jenkintown, Pennsylvania 19046 www.abingtonfriends.net/oak-leaves-strategic-plan-2022