Action Research 2017-2019

An Approach to Empowerment for African-American Boys Via Community Building Utilizing Racial Affinity Groups NORMAN ALLEN BAYARD, JR.

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Serving All Students: Exploring the Role of Racial Identity in Student Success CHRIS BENBOW Curriculum Documentation: How Do We “Represent the Magic?”

LISA WILSON CARBONI Beyond Teacher Passions: Increasing Buy-in for Programmatic and Social Studies Continuity JOYCE COLZANI The Tortoise and the Hare are Friends; When to Listen and when to Act MEGAN CULP

3 5 7 9

How Does it Work at Your School? Peer Network for Performing Arts Educators in Friends Schools HEATHER FORTUNE

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Faith and Play in Friends Schools: Deepening Our Worship Experience and Teaching Friends Beliefs and History GALEN MCNEMAR HAMANN Acting, Interim and Internal: Keep the Boat Afloat? Do the Work?

ERIN PURCELL HUGHES Women of Color in Positions of Leadership TANISHA JONES Dream Out Big:” The Genesis of New Friends Schools PETER KALAJIAN

15 17 19 21

Insights, Reflection and Progress: Using Sabbatical Experience to Create Meaningful Change MAKAI KELLOGG Recruiting, Hiring, Retaining, and Supporting Teachers of Color in a Friends School RYAN KIMMET Discerning the Mission of the Department KATHLEEN KOEHLER

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Supporting Faculty Renewal and Self Care: How Would a Mindfulness Program at Dvfs Foster Space for More Spirit-Led Teaching and Learning?

ELIZABETH KRIYNOVICH

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The Friends Approach to Discipline: Nurturing the Inner Light of High School Students, Even When They Make Bad Choices BETH LANTZ

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JEANNETTE LUTTER-GARDELLA

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Creating a Friends-School-Like Culture In a Public Charter School

Art for Good: Exploring Environmental Advocacy through Art and Action AMY MCGLINN

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Changing Financial Aid Models in Quaker Schools to be More Competitive ANTHONY MCCUDDEN

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Beyond the 3R’s - The School’s Role in Educating and Supporting Parents SARAI NIEVES

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Building a Culture of Philanthropy: Why Faculty & Staff Participation is Critical to Broader Fundraising Efforts of a Quaker School CHARLES O’KANE Meeting Their Needs: A Survey of Models of Learning Support in Quaker Lower Schools KARYN ROBINSON PAYTON

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Implementing Restorative Approaches (RA): Nesting Quaker Values with an Emerging Social Science FREDERICK CLEMENS PRATT Being and Becoming: The Development of Identity during Middle School ANDREW SALVERDA

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Supporting Assistant Teachers, Interns, Associate Teachers - Oh My! MARCELINE SOSA The Potential of Summer Camp JOHN ZIMMERMAN

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NORMAN ALLEN BAYARD, JR.

Lower School Dean of Students and Community Life Germantown Friends School, Philadelphia PA

Norman Allen Bayard, Jr.

AN APPROACH TO EMPOWERMENT FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN BOYS VIA COMMUNITY BUILDING UTILIZING RACIAL AFFINITY GROUPS Background

I grew up in one of Philadelphia’s toughest neighborhoods, the Strawberry Mansion section of North Philadelphia.

During my childhood, my community for the most part was a place where the people took care of each other. That changed drastically when the drug “crack” cocaine was introduced. The incarceration of African-American men increased exponentially; families were torn apart due to mass incarceration, drug addiction and violence; and teenage boys with access to firearms and large sums of money were in charge of entire communities. My neighborhood was an ever-increasing hostile environment, and at times I felt marginalized, as if I did not belong. Were it not for my parents in general, and my father in particular, my extended family, including fictive kin and some teachers, my life could have been completely different.

In retrospect, I realized that I was loved, nurtured, and protected by a community that genuinely saw that of God within me.

They held me accountable for my failures and demanded that I do my best because mediocrity was not an option even 1

Prior to coming to work at the Germantown Friends School as the Lower School Dean of Students and Community Life, I have served the bulk of my career in numerous Philadelphia public and charter schools as an intern, teacher, and administrator. During my time in charter schools, I was fortunate enough to lead affinity spaces for African-American boys in the lower, middle, and upper grades. These were safe and sacred spaces where the boys could build trust and friendship bonds and be vulnerable with each other. Since I began my career as an educator in September of 1996, I have come to believe that education is the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and wisdom from one generation to the next. It is a three-way dance and an exchange of the mysteries between youth, adults, and the elderly. I am both honored and humbled to learn from and teach the students that I serve.

while living and going to school in, at times, an unfriendly and unsympathetic environment. For some African-American children, being a student at a predominantly white institution can sometimes feel like an unfriendly and unsympathetic environment. This could be the result of microaggressions, racism (both overt and covert), a lack of representation of their identity within the curriculum, and seeing few people on campus who share their racial ethnicity. The experience and impact of racism, in conjunction with an absence of a sense of community, has the potential to lead to internalized feelings of low self-worth, fear, depression, anxiety, anger, and ultimately a sense of disempowerment. Members of my community did their best to adore, support, and shield me from those latter emotions while being immersed in a sometimes unwelcoming and alien-feeling territory; the adults of my community gave me a sense of empowerment. As an administrator in a Friends school, I feel that it is my duty to do the same for all of the students that I serve, and to contribute to the empowerment of African-American boys who sometimes feel marginalized by building community utilizing a racial affinity group.

Education/Learning

During my first year (2017-2018) of participation within the

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

Institute for Engaging Leadership in Friends Schools, with the support of my Head of School, division director, teachers and

Next Steps

Because power is the ability to define one’s reality, it is

colleagues throughout all three divisions, and the families of

soul-stirring and inspiring to see African-American boys begin

some students, I organized and created the first lower school

to become powerful by having themselves at the center of a

affinity group for fourth and fifth grade African-American boys

dialogue that reflects positive racial identity exploration and

at Germantown Friends School. The purposes of the affinity

development. My next steps are to design a training program

group are:

and curriculum for educators that replicate the curriculum I have

•

implemented with the fourth and fifth grade African-American To provide a safe and sacred space for the social and

boys at Germantown Friends School.

emotional support of the boys that would allow them to build a strong sense of community with each other and other members of the school community that

•

share their racial identity.

Engage in dialogue around positive identity exploration and development with the ultimate goal of feeling empowered to return to the larger school community as their authentic selves.

My method for creating this affinity group was simple. I contacted the respective families of the boys (via a phone call), and scheduled meetings with their teachers and informed them of my vision for this potential affinity group.

Specifically, I conveyed to the teachers that I was going to make a decision to create a group for the African American boys, and I wanted to have their input. The next step in the process was informing every adult man on campus (including teachers, administrators, and school staff) that shared the racial identity of the boys and invite them to our inaugural meeting to celebrate the members of the group. I also invited them to cofacilitate our future weekly meetings because “it takes a village to raise a child.” Every week there was at least one other facilitator along with me.

Our on-going query has been “Who am I?” We attempted to answer this query through engaging dialogue in our understanding of the Creator; our connection to the earth; examining our relationship and responsibilities to our departed loved ones (personal ancestors), parents and family; and identifying our individual vision of ourselves for the future via the creation of vision boards. From the boys, I learned that “code switching” is draining, and the boys are deeply spiritual. One student shared that he recently lost his grandmother, and upon hearing that all of the boys “laid hands” upon him at once.

Norman Allen Bayard, Jr. 2

CHRIS BENBOW

Upper School Principal Westtown School, West Chester PA

I began my teaching career at Cathedral Christian Academy (PA) and in the School

District of Philadelphia. I later spent ten years at Westtown School (PA) serving in a variety

of roles including English teacher, dorm parent, baseball and basketball coach, English

Department Chair, and Dean of Students. After

six years as Assistant Head of School/Head

of Upper School at The Williams School (CT),

Chris Benbow

I was led to return to Friends education and

was grateful to rejoin the Westtown School community as Upper School Principal in 2014.

SERVING ALL STUDENTS: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF RACIAL IDENTITY IN STUDENT SUCCESS Exploration

observer over the past two years. Data collected has included

daily work that both preceded it and will continue for as

academic placement and performance information, and

In many ways, this action research is inseparable from the long as I seek to serve all students well. Still, the structure of this project added a helpful focus to these ongoing organic explorations. My interest in the role of race in student experience is neither new nor a secret within my community, and my role as Upper School Principal has allowed me to influence our collective work on this and related topics throughout the past five years. Such work has informed hiring goals and practices, academic curriculum, residential curriculum, faculty professional development, and admission priorities.

Recently, I have gathered information through formal and informal discussions and interviews, collection and analysis of existing data, and student surveys.* These discussions and interviews have featured the Dean of Academics, Dean of Students, Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Academic Department Chairs, parents, and alumni, including a young alumnus doctoral candidate who has been immersed in our community as a participant/ 3

admission figures about accepted and enrolled students, major disciplinary consequences. Finally, this year, we have added students’ self-reported sense of voice and connection in the community through surveys of current students. In each of these areas, the information collected has been cross referenced with student racial identity. As we have increased our understanding of the dynamics at play in our community, this information has been shared with the faculty and administration in the Upper School.

Limitations and Lessons Learned Transparency: I still grapple with how to navigate the public stages of this project in ways that are both productive and discreet. Much of the information I’m working with is sensitive (in some cases confidential) and current, and I am committed to moving this work forward without causing harm to individuals-especially students--or my institution. Ironically, the fullest disclosure and the most thoughtful reading of the information could be most supportive and productive for all concerned.

Still, such disclosure would be inappropriate, as it would be far too easy for a snippet taken out of context to lead to

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

misunderstanding or misrepresentation and consequent harm

of this is easily accomplished. For instance, a heightened

to both the young people we serve and our larger community.

collective consciousness made it simple to institute measures

Inconclusive isn’t useless: Given inherently small sample sizes

to mitigate the impact of implicit bias and stereotype threat in

and other challenges, much of this research is inconclusive.

student course selection at our school. Other work, though,

While I find this unsatisfying, I have also learned that “the data

will clearly take more time. As all adults in our community

suggests that…” or “there is nothing in the data to suggest

intentionally increase our cultural competence through

that…” are useful phrases. These statistical leanings, in and

targeted professional and personal development, we must

of themselves, have proved powerful tools with which to

also further develop and deliver intentional curriculum to

challenge harmful narratives within our community. These

bring all students, year after year, along on their journeys, as

challenges, in turn, have prompted further examination,

well. To inform this work, we are committed to performing

reflection, and action at the individual, departmental, and

broad division-wide statistical analysis every three to four

divisional level.

years, surveying students about their experience twice a year, and seeking countless other opportunities for learning on an

Big data meets individual experience: On topics closely related

ongoing basis. As we continue to grow, we will also continue

to race, it is too easy for many in predominantly and historically

to share findings within our community and demand that this

white institutions to retreat into the safe space of intellectual

essential exploration of racial identity and academic success

abstraction, leaving others to experience their day-to-day

remain at the center of our attention.

reality in relative isolation. Even specific anecdotes attached to people we know well may be too easily dismissed by some as

*While I am grateful for the support and work of many in the

unfortunate but outside the norm. The combination, though,

Westtown School community, I am especially indebted to a

of data and anecdote has promise. If the numbers insist it is

member of the science department--Dr. Mariska Batavia--for

widespread, and the anecdote makes the personal connection,

her tremendous work in the area of data analysis in support of

acknowledgement and action should follow closely behind.

our students, our community, and this project.

Exceptionalism may persist: Some of what has emerged as true about our community’s experience is in keeping with larger national trends about race and academic achievement.

While this is unsurprising to many, others are challenged to hear that good intentions don’t exempt us from broader cultural realities. The sincere intent to seek out that of God in all persons, for instance, does not insulate people from the daily microaggressions that may inhibit their sense of unconditional membership and full participation in community. Similarly, blind biases are often deeply held by individuals and communities who are themselves filled with good intention.

Next Steps This

project

has

only

strengthened

my

belief

that

understanding the intersection of racial identity and academic success is critical to ensuring the best possible experience for all of our constituents. What to do with this growing understanding presents both individual and collective choices informing everything from hiring process and admission priorities to pedagogical practice and alumni relations. Some

Chris Benbow 4

LISA WILSON CARBONI

Head of Lower School Carolina Friends School, Durham NC

After years as a public school teacher,

professional developer, and college professor, I found my home in Quaker education at

Carolina Friends School. For the past twelve years, I have served as the Head of Lower

School at CFS while continuing to teach classes in math and science education at Duke University. My work with teachers and students

is continually stimulating, captivating, and inspiring; being a member of this community

has been and continues to be transformative.

Lisa Wilson Carboni

I am also grateful for the opportunity to learn

and grow in the wider Quaker community through this Institute.

CURRICULUM DOCUMENTATION: HOW DO WE “REPRESENT THE MAGIC?” Background Carolina

Friends

their students and to clearly see and enhance the throughlines School

has

a

vibrant,

responsive,

student-centered curriculum. We have found it difficult, however, to document that curriculum in a way that is accessible to staff, families, and other interested community members. In undertaking a process to document what we teach, I found that I first wanted to understand more about why, in the School’s over 50 year existence, we had not ever

also were concerned about being able to capture the richness of our curriculum on paper and that it might become stale and static, stifling creativity and responsiveness to students.

There was also some apprehension about feeling vulnerable to criticism of our work that might follow documentation and the blind spots we might

done this in a way that “stuck.”

uncover.

Exploration/Learning

Through a force field analysis of the driving forces and

Middle, and Upper School and Center staff), I posed these

our hopes and fears coalesced around two different goals.

In staff meetings of each unit of the school (Early, Lower, queries:

•

What is attractive/potentially helpful/advantageous

•

What is worrisome/daunting/uncomfortable about

about documenting what we teach? documenting what we teach?

In reflecting and sharing conversations about these queries across the campus, several themes emerged. Staff wanted to know more about what came before and after their teaching for 5

of our curriculum from Early School through Upper School. Staff

restraining forces staff were experiencing, it became clear that One goal is to write down curriculum for each other -- for new staff, for teachers who have students before and after each other, to see the throughlines from Early School through Upper School. The other goal, and the more daunting one, is to write down curriculum for parents, prospective parents, and others outside our community. Choosing to focus first on writing for an internal audience relieved some of the stressors some teachers felt about being critiqued and creating the “perfect” document. It also, we hoped, would give us a solid

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

foundation for determining what and how we wanted to share

continue to develop. We will likely never truly capture the

with the greater community.

magic on paper, but writing down the foundational KUDs of our curriculum may free us to better express what is magical

It was important to name and acknowledge both the hopes

about a CFS education.

and fears of staff as well as obstacles that have gotten in the way of completing this type of work in the past. It allowed us to begin a process in which “the perfect doesn’t get in the way of the good.” We were able to create a process that invited us all to take action, get words down on the page, and create relationships among staff members across units that allow for continued curriculum development and growth.

To begin, we decided to work in groups with similar curricular structure: Early School and Lower School, generalists who teach many different subject areas, and Middle School and Upper School, specialists who teach in one particular curricular area. We realized that what we longed for was connection with all the other teachers who are teaching in our subject areas. To that end, we set up Google Team Drives to store curriculum, resources, and questions to explore together for each subject area. All staff were trained in the writing of “KUDs,” a curriculum framework by Carol Tomlinson focused on what students know, understand, and do.

We established a timeline of both individual and group times to work on writing KUDs and got busy! Teachers are working both individually and in groups to document the key knowledge, skills, and understandings of the courses and subject areas they teach. These documents are in process and will be helpful to share with one another, but they are not the only outcome of our work. The increased cross-unit time to talk together about our teaching and the electronic space for teachers to post useful information, ask questions, and share ideas with others who teach the subject(s) they teach have been important results of this process.

Next Steps

By addressing the undercurrents of unease about committing our dynamic, evolving curriculum to paper, we were able to make great strides in documenting the foundations of the “magic” that happens in the classrooms of Carolina Friends School. This documentation process serves as a pilot for future curriculum review. Our cross-unit, electronic team drives provide a growing, changing space for our ideas to

Lisa Wilson Carboni 6

JOYCE COLZANI

Director of Admission Plymouth Meeting Friends School, Plymouth Meeting, PA

It is an amazing privilege to work at the school

that I fell in love with for my children’s education. I first saw Plymouth Meeting Friends School (PMFS) through that magical lens of possibility and hope, of

how an institution can be transformative in a child’s

life. After almost 20 years in higher education and curriculum design, my respect for the school led me

to change direction and take a job at PMFS, where I

have remained in various roles for the past 10 years.

Moving recently from working with teachers on their

curriculum to the Admission Office, I remain in awe

of the dedication and creativity that teachers at our

Joyce Colzani

small school put into all their work. I can only hope that this action research can benefit the school and our systems and program.

BEYOND TEACHER PASSIONS: INCREASING BUY-IN FOR PROGRAMMATIC AND SOCIAL STUDIES CONTINUITY Background

collaboration between classroom themes and specials classes.

strengthened its program by adopting a common Math

during which ideas are challenged and developed as we

Almost five years ago, Plymouth Meeting Friends School curriculum. While some teachers mourned the loss of individuality and creativity in their lesson planning, teachers overwhelmingly have agreed that the common language and expectations, the sequential and scaffolded instruction, and the shared underlying rationale and purpose of the program, greatly benefit our students and their learning. Additionally, targeted professional development for teachers helped our faculty grow in ability and confidence with the program.

In other areas of the curriculum, on the other hand, program is much less coordinated. Not surprisingly for a small independent school, Plymouth Meeting Friends School is “people strong,” and the school’s program strengths are often hard to distinguish from the passionate teachers who create and implement it. Each grade has a strong curriculum, rich in project-based and experiential learning. Throughout the school there is an emphasis on integrated learning, in which students deepen their understanding and skills through 7

It is common to find students engaged in deep discussions, cultivate critical thinking skills.

Teachers regularly conference with their colleagues a grade above or below them, and there is growing awareness that this is not sufficient to create a full and integrated program.

Our last full program review came before many new teachers began at the school and before additions to content taught.

But where to begin?

Explorations/Learning

When I began my action research, I started with a form of appreciative inquiry: What sections of the PMFS program have a lot of strengths to draw from? What areas are teachers proud of? What areas could benefit from more coordination and collaboration? Having completed a year of self-study on diversity within our teaching, PMFS seemed ready to settle on Social Studies, and I felt it would be easier to discuss once I could decide on a framework for the discussion. That was the plan.

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

I spent time working with teachers to understand their emotions

working group and then created a timetable for the Social

around any discussions on continuity. As Mark Frankel,

studies review, with suggestions to reach out to Friends

consultant from Triangle Associates, said when he spoke with

Council on Education for workshops in strengthening our

our group, “Humans like change… they just don’t like being

Quaker identity.

changed.” So, it is really vitally important to connect with the tension teachers feel in being responsive to individual student

One thing that dramatically affected my action research was

needs, a particular group’s needs, emergent curriculum, and

time, or lack thereof. What was programmatically planned

fitting into a school-wide approach and continuum. Teachers

as a 2-year action research exploration, essentially became a

have such deep devotion to their own students, I considered

9-month project, since at the end of the last school year, my role

how to harness that commitment and to expand it to speaking

in administration changed completely; I am now the Director

about all students and their experiences. I realized the need

of Admission, and I no longer work directly with teachers

to frame our work around what is best for our students and to

on curriculum development. The school has appointed

move the conversation away from what each teacher does. I

an interim head this year, so, I’ve decided to catalog all my

realized that a review of any element of our curriculum would

explorations and learnings and hand them to our new head for

best be served by a working group, who can make proposals

consideration for next year.

to bring to the whole faculty.

Further, I spent a lot of time exploring the issue of continuity within program. My biggest learning was that conversations needed to begin several steps before what I had expected.

Instead of asking “What should we agree will be the common standard for x?” our faculty discussions really needed to begin with “What are the advantages/benefits to aligning program/

Next Steps

I have developed a detailed proposal for a PMFS approach to social studies review for our new head to consider. It catalogues everything that I’ve done in this action research, with hopes that we can pick it up anew soon. The sections of the proposal include:

•

curriculum/ expectations? What are disadvantages/challenges to aligning?” And, I learned that we need to help teachers re-develop their discussion skills around smaller topics, as we did throughout the school year.

I tried to learn as much as I could about Social Studies, how other schools approach its teaching and review, and what are the important elements for any school, and especially a Quaker school. I spoke to some wise gurus on social studies at other

• • • • •

First steps: Brainstorming questions for faculty to engage in discussion around curriculum review and our best Social Studies program.

Questionnaire: How do other schools approach Social Studies curriculum and review?

Guiding questions: Formation of a working group Proposal: Using end-of-year meetings for comparison of each grade’s major units and essential questions Summer work and reading Year-long study: stated goals by working group

Friends schools. I did readings on social studies as vehicles for student action, Quaker pedagogy, International Baccalaureate integrated social studies approach, and the National Council on Social Studies standards and themes as well.

As a result, I created a questionnaire to use in interviewing other schools on their program. I identified starting steps for a discussion at PMFS: What is important/essential in a Social Studies program? What makes a strong Social Studies Program? What do we hope our students come to class with / leave PMFS with? How do we want our program to show we are a Quaker school? I assembled discussion pointers for a

Joyce Colzani 8

MEGAN CULP

Art Department Chair Germantown Friends School, Philadelphia PA

I began my journey in Quaker education as a student.

Through my experience in Quaker schools from kindergarten through college, both my love for principled, values-based education and my spirit for endless questioning were deeply developed. The Quaker rebels and disruptors who have helped to move ideas about the world have always been an inspiration. As an educator, I have been fortunate to teach at Plymouth Meeting Friends School, Frankford Friends School, and now Germantown Friends School, where I have been teaching art for nine years and Art Department Chair for three years. I hold a deep belief in the potential of any person and admiration for the many ways Quaker education has helped people to realize this potential. I am so fortunate to have been a part of the Leadership Institute where I have been given the opportunity to look into the new ways that Friends schools are working to accomplish this goal each year.

Megan Culp

THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE ARE FRIENDS; WHEN TO LISTEN AND WHEN TO ACT Background

The call to look into the intersection of educational innovation and Quaker decision making comes from my belief that both are necessary for our schools today and the recognition of the frequent stress I see arise from their union.

There is a widely recognized need for educational practices to frequently take a new form and, at the same time, for leaders, some Quaker, some not, to grapple with how to use Quaker decision making in a quickly evolving educational and workplace landscape. The future of evolving work skills is a common topic in educational research and innovation, but surprisingly seems to find a hard time making its way into the tried and true practices of many schools. As an educator, I endeavor to cultivate the tenets of Quakerism in education and to be a catalyst in the much-needed updating of the form and function of modern education. While I often see these two goals find friction, I also see that they can be symbiotic, if those of us in schools rethink process and goals in order to continue the evolution of Quaker practices in service of contemporary needs.

Explorations/Learnings

My learnings began by talking to Friends educators who have been involved in innovative programs in their 9

schools to learn how Quaker decision making played into the development, implementation, and success of these projects.

The questions guiding these discussions were:

• •

How was Quaker process used to create the program?

•

What is the relationship between Quaker education

How does this project reinforce Quaker values/ testimonies? and innovation at your school?

I conducted interviews with the following five Quaker school educators: Chris Benbow at Westtown School, Rachel Moulton at Moses Brown, Jon Lepofsky at Carolina Friends, Jake Stein Greenberg at Morristown Friends School, and Page Farig-Pense at Germantown Friends School.

These interviews illuminated a few common elements in the relationship between Quaker decision making and educational innovation in schools. They are: the culture present in the school when the initiative is born; the ability of leaders to dedicate time to the work of community building; communication of process; and, justification of outcomes.

Many Friends schools are beginning to explore beyond the traditional structure of K-12 education; some have been

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

creatively expanding the look of their educational initiatives for years. There are many reasons for the emergence of these innovative programs including recent research into the future of needed work skills and the realization of educators that some traditional educational structures are in conflict with Quaker principles. Most notably, many traditional methods fail to recognize the Light in each child and at times enforce structures of inequity.

The projects/initiatives that were explored during my research were: Westtown School, Deep Dive Certificate Moses Brown, Entrepreneurship and Social Impact Project Carolina Friends, Narrative course assessments in Upper

School without letter grades.

Morristown Friends School, Middle School humanities restructuring Germantown Friends School, Maguire Innovation Fund

I also turned to Natalie Nixon, an expert in design thinking and a graduate of Germantown Friends School, who works with educators and other industries in order to help people use Design Thinking to advance innovative initiatives and expand creativity. My discussion with Natalie highlighted the need for academic leaders to listen and respond to both the needs of the macro (wider world) and micro (particular school) environments. We concluded that the pauses in Quaker process and culture are beneficial to the long term success of fast-moving changes and the importance for leaders to think carefully about when to listen and when to act while leading a school through a period of innovation.

The themes and learnings from all these conversations helped me to identify the following conditions that work with and

•

input and decisiveness Process where steps and tempo of progress are communicated

Conditions that impede success or timely development of innovative programs

•

Leaders who don’t take the time to do the work of community-building, asking a community to work together and stretch without creating a foundation of

• •

trust and understanding Inconsistent communication around roles in developing and implementing new programs Lack of understanding from the school community about why programs are being developed - education about future work skills needed in the macro

•

environment Lack of renewal and professional development in faculty about new ways of thinking and teaching.

Combining the wisdom of the school professionals with whom I spoke, and my conversation with Natalie Nixon, a fruitful relationship came into focus. The field of Design Thinking can act as a helpful framework for Friends educators in applying Quaker decision making to the fast pace of educational innovation. The first point of connection is in the two foundational ideas of the design thinking process, which is described as “human-centered” and relies on the fullness of “radical diversity”. There are many models of the Design Thinking process, but the most common comes out of Stanford School of Design and follows these five phases: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. These phases

against innovative initiatives in Friends schools.

can be approached sequentially at first, but often necessitate

Conditions that are helpful to innovative programs gaining

often when people are innovating, they can move too fast and

traction and efficacy

•

Leaders who show interest and curiosity in teachers,

•

Leaders who create and model new ideas and ways of

• • •

parents, and students thinking Initiatives that are in line with the community’s understanding of the school’s institutional values.

A school community that is clear about institutional values vs personal values

moving in an iterative fashion. Natalie Nixon pointed out that the pauses of Quaker process can be beneficial to designing innovative programs when used in strategic moments such as when the group is doing a deep dive into ideas and gathering data. The connections are rich, and many are worthy of further thought and development.

Next Steps

My next steps include mapping out a proposal for a new transdisciplinary program for the Art and Digital Media

Leaders who can toggle between gathering data/ 10

MEGAN CULP continued Departments at Germantown Friends School. I will use my

Below is a graphic I have created to illustrate some of the

research to create a plan for proposing and implementing

connections I have found between Quaker process and the

this program which would thread together skills and

process of design thinking.

learning goals from two (and in the future possibly more) academic departments to create courses and programs that would coalesce into a holistic curriculum path in learning creative technologies. Additionally, I hope to find opportunities to share my learnings more widely among other independent schools.

QDM = Elements of Quaker Decision Making * = ripe time for work by committee of diverse constituents

Megan Culp

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HEATHER FORTUNE

Performing Arts Department Chair Friends Select School, Philadelphia PA

I came to Friend Select School after many years as a freelance flutist and teaching artist. For me, the most compelling aspect of Quaker education is the attention given to educating the whole child, where the arts are a vital piece

of holistic learning. I value the opportunity

to work with students over many years as they develop as musicians and people. Many aspects of life are interwoven with our daily

Heather Fortune

work, and the long process of rehearsing music together over time reveals much about who students are as learners and leaders.

HOW DOES IT WORK AT YOUR SCHOOL? PEER NETWORK FOR PERFORMING ARTS EDUCATORS IN FRIENDS SCHOOLS Background

several times. Exploring topics wide and small, I found myself

students and observe them in ways which may not present in

about ways to broaden my own learning network.

We, as teachers in the Performing Arts, gain insight into other classrooms. Our work is valued in most of our schools.

Creativity, risk-taking, problem solving, and grit are all skills honed in the Performing Arts, alongside the direct skills at hand. Experiential learning is at the foundation of what we do. Every opportunity that I’ve had to visit other schools, talk to other teachers in my discipline, and hear what works for other programs, has helped me as a Performing Arts Educator. The idea for this Action Research stems from the potency of each of those interactions. As school cultures differ, varieties of program structures, expectations, requirements, and lived realities prove to be significant.

I want to establish a professional network of Performing Arts Educators to be able to communicate, share program ideas, and act as resources for each other as a professional

My visit to Plymouth Meeting Friends School to shadow my mentor, Sarah Sweeney Denham, was a wonderful experience.

The different classroom teachers and administrators were welcoming and open about what they do, and I got a very warm sense of the professional and student communities. When I had some time to speak with the music teacher, however, we immediately drilled down to the practical. He is a wonderful musician who is new to teaching and, having made that same transition myself some years ago, we had much to discuss!

The energy generated in that conversation was palpable and reminded me that my passion as a teaching musician is undimmed over time and is singularly compelling. This short but focused exchange of ideas for the music classroom flowed

learning community.

both ways and was a highlight of the day.

Explorations/Learnings

I began to focus on the idea of establishing a professional

As I began this process of action research my topic changed 13

returning to the specific discipline in which I teach and thinking

learning community for Performing Arts Educators. The Friends

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

Council on Education has a Peer Network structure and gives

and I plan to work towards a vibrant professional learning

support to this effort.

community of Performing Arts Quaker Educators.

Next Steps

My goal is to hold a one-day conference (supported by the Friends Council as a peer network?) in January 2020 at the Friends Center in Philadelphia, PA. The objectives of this day are:

•

Renew and Refresh teaching practices for Performing

•

Highlight specific programs and educators via panel

• •

Arts Educators in Friends Schools discussions Advocate for the role and value of Arts in Friends Education Explore topics specific to the Performing Arts in Friends Schools

A next step is to form a steering committee to help organize the peer network and conference. As Performing Arts educators we can at times be excluded from traditional leadership opportunities in our schools, and part of the goal of this peer network is to cultivate leadership from within our ranks. Voices from Lower, Middle, Upper School across all Performing Arts disciplines will be essential in guiding the event and generating a list of topics up for discussion. Some possible topics are:

• • • • •

Competition in Quaker Performing Arts: How do we balance caring for the whole child alongside qualitative comparisons between Performing Arts students?

Programming with Cultural Competency: Best practices, success stories, persistent challenges Program Structures That Lead To Great Performances: What have we learned in our schools to support student success?

Collaboration with School Community: What are ways in which successful performances happen in other classrooms?

I would love for this peer network to have a lively online presence and to come together for conferences annually at the Friends Center. The value of regular contact across our network of schools is yet untapped. I feel that sharing ideas and building relationships among Performing Arts Educators can only strengthen the vitality of Arts in Friends Schools,

Heather Fortune 14

GALEN MCNEMAR HAMANN

Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs Virginia Beach Friends School, Virginia Beach VA

My journey in Friends Education took root at Earlham College

where Quaker educators modeled for me the living of Friends Faith in an educational community. I went on to teach middle

school Spanish at Friends Central, where I learned the power

and gift of community and worship, from my colleagues and students. With the support of financial assistance from

Friends, I worked towards a Master’s Degree in Education at Saint Joseph’s University. In 2004, I became the Director

of Friends Education and Service Learning at Moses Brown School. From 2007-2010, I became a full- time student at

Harvard Divinity School, joining a long history of Quakers at HDS, and finding a new passion in spiritual care and

Galen McNemar Hamann

counseling. I became a Board Certified Chaplain and returned to MB full time as Director of Friends Education, serving also as a counselor and a member of the administrative team. The New England Yearly Meeting and MB communities taught me

FAITH AND PLAY IN FRIENDS SCHOOLS: DEEPENING OUR WORSHIP EXPERIENCE AND TEACHING FRIENDS BELIEFS AND HISTORY

the importance of relationship-building between individuals

and communities and the gift that mentors can be in the lives of students and teachers. This year, I have joined the Virginia Beach Friends School community as the Assistant Head of

School for Academic Affairs. I bring with me my learning in

Friends Schools over many years, a desire to be of service to my new community, and an openness to what learning will emerge from my time with VBFS.

Background

In most Friends Schools, the majority of students and teachers are not Quakers. However, we expect our students and teachers to embrace and live Quaker values and practices. But how do we teach these? In particular, how do we provide an on-ramp to our youngest children when it comes to Meeting for Worship?

These were the questions that drove my decision to more fully utilize Faith & Play™ as a teaching tool in my school community.

“Faith & Play™ is a story-based curriculum focused on building spiritual community with children and offering them images and language to express their wonder and experience of the Divine. Faith & Play ™ grew out of Friends work with the Godly Play story curriculum which embodies the Montessori belief that play is children’s work and has dignity” (iv Faith and Play Group). I had been trained with New England Yearly Meeting many years ago and had told a few stories here and there at Moses Brown School, but I wanted to push myself to explore how it could be integrated into curriculum. In 2017/2018, I began a collaboration with our first grade class in order to share Faith & Play ™ stories in coordination with the Social and Emotional Curriculum. In 2018/2019, I moved to Virginia 15

Beach Friends School (VBFS) and brought Faith & Play™ with me, using it as a method to reintegrate the Lower School into the school-wide weekly Meeting for Worship and to teach students and faculty about Quakerism. Each Wednesday, I gather our early childhood and lower school community in the basement of the Meetinghouse while the Middle and Upper School communities are worshipping upstairs, to share a Faith & Play™ story and then wonder together. Our time ends with us quietly walking upstairs to join silent worship.

Exploration/Learning

Faith & Play™ does indeed provide an on-ramp to Meeting for Worship. In two very different environments, one small and one larger, I found that the structure and elements of Faith & Play™, enabled students to become more comfortable with responding to queries and sharing their own voices out of the silence. This helped them to develop a newfound comfort in speaking out of the silence. As one teacher put it, the stories and the reflection or wondering after the stories helps the

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

students to see that Meeting is more than just “sit still and be

quiet.” I witnessed classroom teachers having their own faith

in the Inner Light in each child renewed as they listened to

their students wonder and offer their own musings. “I never

knew he could be self-reflective like that,” one teacher shared.

I often found the wonderings that followed Faith & Play™

deeply touching and profound, in a way that our regular

messages in Meeting for Worship don’t always feel. While Faith & Play™ can be seen as an obvious curricular component of

Friends Education, I found it also dovetails wells with Social

and Emotional Curriculum. The stories enabled us to provide

extensions to the Social Emotional Curriculum work that had already begun.

The visual components and storytelling really draw the group in and captivate their attention. The method enables the storyteller to engage our youngest two or three year olds to our

most veteran teacher. It does this because we are all focused

on the story in a prayerful way. Each week I invite them to listen with their eyes, their ears, and their hearts. During my research

we had parents and other teachers participate, which widened

the circle and deepened the foundation for the group. While it is possible to have larger groups participate (50+), I think it is

most effective with smaller groups of 10-20. From my research, I learned that the stories can be most effective if the storyteller

knows her students, their stories, and their current learning.

Next Steps

My next steps with Faith & Play™ will be to train teachers at my school so that they can tell stories in their classrooms and we can have smaller group experiences. I personally hope to find ways to share the stories with other populations in our school and the wider Friends community. At VBFS, I hope we can find time to build opportunities for extension activities after I tell the story. Extension activities would be the Montessori method of choosing one’s work; students may write, build, act, or read as a response to the story they just heard.

This winter I was inspired to tell my own story based on the

life of Bayard Rustin. I built the story by asking myself again and again “what is the story that needs to be told?” That

experience inspired me to think about what other stories are

missing and I have concluded that more Friends School stories need telling. It would be wonderful to have a universal Friends

School story that tells the history of how Friends Schools began and have evolved. Then each of our schools that uses Faith &

Play™ could write their own story to ensure our school history

gets taught. Recently I have also realized that stories of Friends School students and young Friends could be very importantlike the story of John and Mary Beth Tinker. I would like to tell one of these Friends School stories at the Quaker Life in

Lower & Middle Schools peer network of Friends Council on

If the classroom teacher is not the storyteller, this means she

Education to test my leading and introduce Faith and Play™

teacher in advance to help make connections for the students

practice of telling our faith to the next generation and deepen

needs to collaborate and share the story with the classroom

to more Friends School educators. These stories can be our

and be aware of possible reactions to certain themes.

our worship experience. I hope more Friends Schools will join this growing Faith and Play™ movement.

Creating the story mats is part of the learning for the teachers and whoever joins them. At Moses Brown School, we made story mats as a service project; high school students created each story mat. Here in Virginia Beach, I have reached out to community members to help me find materials when I could not. Both experiences have been inspirational and positively impacted the storytelling. It is worth noting the materials are not always readily accessible. Creating the story materials has allowed me to connect more deeply with the story and to consider how each element might impact the students who would be hearing it. In telling a story, I often try to find ways to incorporate the students into the physical story by inviting them to place a figure representing themselves onto the story mat.

Galen McNemar Hamann 16

ERIN PURCELL HUGHES

Upper School Director William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia PA

I have worked at Penn Charter for nearly 30 years, and in that time, I have held many

different roles: English teacher, Assistant Director of College Counseling, English

Chair, Dean, Acting Upper School Director and now Upper School Director. I believe that no child’s spark is brighter or dimmer than another’s and no child is more or less

deserving of a superior education than is another. To me, being a Quaker educator

Erin P. Hughes

means I am not necessarily educating students, but rather humans.

ACTING, INTERIM AND INTERNAL: KEEP THE BOAT AFLOAT? DO THE WORK? Background

the 2018-2019 school year. My first question to my Head was:

administrator, I have deliberately challenged myself to do

replied, “Survive.” He clarified that the School would conduct

For the past 10 years, with an eye on serving as an new and different work, inside and outside of Penn Charter, and to grow as an educator. I have had five different roles at Penn Charter. I have served on a charter school board and a public school district’s steering committee. I have been an adjunct professor at the undergraduate and graduate levels. With the support of my Head of School, I have also interviewed for several leadership positions outside of Penn Charter, and when I did not get them, I conducted post-mortems on myself and solicited feedback on my interviews and application materials. I have networked with colleagues at different schools, and I have met with search consultants.

When I began the Institute for Engaging Leadership in Friends Schools, I was in my second year as the 11/12 Dean at Penn Charter, applying for jobs at other schools, and considering diversity, equity and inclusion work at Penn Charter as my action research project. In April 2018, my Head asked me to serve as the Acting Upper School Director for 17

“What is my job as interim?” In an uncharacteristic moment, he a national search for a permanent Upper School Director, and I was welcome to apply.

At that point, I switched my action research project to “how to be an interim.” In time, that morphed into “how to be an internal candidate for the permanent role.”

I formally

interviewed eight different people about their experiences as interims, and I informally spoke to several others. Here is what I learned.

Exploration/learning

1. I discovered that there is not agreement about what the terms “interim” and “acting” mean. Some people use “interim” and “acting” synonymously. Some think “interim” implies the incumbent is not invited or eligible to apply for the permanent position. Some think “interim” means someone is stepping in to fill a vacant position and is eligible to apply for the permanent role.

For this report, I will use the words interchangeably for anyone serving in a temporary position.

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

they don’t trust you). They definitely don’t see you 2. As interims, the people I interviewed served in positions

as official, so it’s useful to run things by the senior

of greater authority than they had been occupying in

leadership so that you can reassure faculty that you

the school (teachers asked to serve as administrators).

have institutional support.

As a result, the interims were flattered to have been chosen and felt they had proven themselves at their “regular” jobs. In one case, a senior administrator had gone back to the classroom but was asked to serve as a divisional interim and was chosen because of a proven track record necessary to rectify a problem. In another case, a mid-level administrator was chosen to be an interim division director because they were cheerful, capable, seasoned, non-threatening, and uninterested in the permanent job. Usually institutions have interim positions because someone left suddenly or late in the year, and there has not been sufficient time to run a search, so they fill those positions with insiders who are effective and might bloom as administrators, given the opportunity.

How to Be an Interim or Acting 3. “Keep the boat afloat.” “Keep the trains running.”

Those cliches epitomize much of the advice I received.

I was cautious about making changes for fear of being perceived as imposing my will without the true authority of my office. One administrator told me, “If there is low hanging fruit,” make the change. A Head of School, who, like me, was an interim and applying for the permanent position, said, “If there is work to be done that requires change, do it.” That became my useful “measuring stick.”

4. For whom do you fill in and why? In my most recent situation, the two previous US Directors have been promoted and still work at Penn Charter. This is a positive and mixed blessing. There is tremendous benefit in having strong predecessors and sympathetic expertise in-house. On the other hand, some people question the interim’s authority and circumvent the interim altogether.

How to Be an Internal Candidate 6. Know that you are auditioning for the job, every minute, every day, in every communication and interaction.

7. Be ruthlessly honest with yourself--about yourself and why you want the job--because being an internal candidate presents the opportunity for all of your colleagues to tell you (or your bosses) all of the things they’ve never never taken the opportunity to tell you before.

8. Mark Frankel, Triangle Associates, offered me wise advice. When interviewing, he said, “expect incompetence” from the interviewer. Having run many a search and having interviewed scores of people, I assumed that interviewers prepared as meticulously as I do and were as warm and friendly as I am. Mark challenged this assumption. Some interviewers don’t arrive with good questions that enable you to share what you want to. So, be nimble; be prepared to put the interviewers at ease; find avenues for sharing what you want.

Next steps

After a national search, I was offered the permanent role of Upper School Director, and I am thrilled! My next step is determining how to move away from “keep the boat afloat” to “doing the work” of leading the Upper School. A new health and wellness center will give us the opportunity to evaluate our PE/Health curriculum and our sports requirement. Given our diversity, we have ample Diversity-Equity-Inclusion work to do. I want to explore reading and writing pedagogy for students raised on screens. Finally, I want to give this formerly all-boys school a serious injection of feminism.

5. Seek counsel, often, if only to reassure people. Faculty may love you as the interim (because you are filling in and they are grateful), and they may fear you (because

Erin Purcell Hughes 18

TANISHA JONES

Middle School Dean New Garden Friends School, Greensboro, NC

After spending seven and one-half years in public education, I found myself longing to be part of a community that would challenge me in every area of

my life. My educational journey had been the typical educator’s experience, until I reached New Garden Friends School. “A Quaker Book of Wisdom” talks about life lessons

in simplicity, service and common sense. In describing the book, Marian Wright Edelman said “Here is a road map to reach the places in the soul which can give life meaning.”

In some ways, New Garden Friends School has given me

an additional road map that I was not groomed to travel,

Tanisha Jones

by enhancing the very fundamental values and principles I acquired from being raised in an African American

middle-class family. These same values and principles are

protected at our school and promoted in our community.

My joy as an educator has been aiding the school in the

WOMEN OF COLOR IN POSITIONS OF LEADERSHIP Background

Early on, I found there were not many women of color in positions of leadership within Friends schools, especially as Heads of School. Over the past two years in which have

holistic development of students in a creative environment

that includes multi-age and socio-economically diverse classrooms and the active participation and advocacy of

parents, both of which have inspired my confidence. I have been committed to Friends education for 11 years, and

during the last two years growing professionally into the role of Middle School Dean. I look forward to continuing

to grow in my leadership experiences within Friends Education.

been a member of the Institute for Engaging Leadership in Friends Schools Cohort, the number has grown slightly.

As a woman of color in a position of leadership within Friends education, I knew the road I traveled to get to this destination would not be easy. Knowing there had not been a woman of color within our school to hold a leadership position before me, raised questions such as: 1. Is retention difficult because of the lack of understanding surrounding Quakerism/Quaker education?

2. How often have women of color been hired but experience the feeling of isolation due to being in the minority?

3. Does the school see a need to diversify their staff to reflect the diversity of the student body?

4. What collaboration, connection, and minority support are provided to retain faculty of color?

5. Will I have to act differently or change my personality to be accommodating?

19

I have a keen interest in the professional advancement of women, in particular, women of color, while bringing awareness and change to Friends education. Our presence is needed to support our young girls and women of color who seek to walk in a leadership role. Exposing them to possibilities in leadership has the potential to influence positive outcomes.

From my action research, it is my goal to develop a cohort model for engaging women of color in reaching their desired leadership potential.

Exploration/Learning

The topic Women of Color in Positions of Leadership impacts me professionally, as well as personally. While in the exploring/ learning phase of this topic, I was introduced to the book Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship. Reading about Quakers, African Americans, and the myth of racial justice kept me at a standstill with my research for a period of time due to being so intrigued with what I was reading and learning. I was completely

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

immersed in the significant role women played as described

supported in ways that are specific to being women of color.

in chapter three, “Quakers and Immediate Emancipation,” and

Even though one may be alone on their team, they are not all

how they impacted the movement. Due to gender exclusion,

alone with knowing they are supported.

women formed their own groups. African American women were welcomed to the Society of Friends as visitors, but could

I will continue to collect data, speak with colleagues of color

not obtain membership. Adding women of color to the society

from my professional learning opportunities, and provide my

caused them say, “Hearts have been cheered and animated

current place of employment with best practices for retaining

and strengthened by your presence.” In pondering this

women of color and assisting with tools for professional

statement, I do not wonder whether my presence as a woman

advancement. Although I was unable to retrieve the statistics

of color is needed, but is it welcomed?

for women of color as heads from NAIS, I did get the percent of female heads as follows:

Looking back into the work of Celeste Payne, a graduate from

2010-2011 - 32%

the 2015-2017 Leadership Cohort, on the topic of Retention of

2015-2016 - 34%

Faculty of color in Friends Schools, her survey results concluded

2017-2018 - 36%

“that the mission, testimonies, and values of Friends school were an important part of the experience of faculty of color.”

Building on Celeste’s work, I took the next step of examining the diversity and inclusion statements of Friends schools. The following commonalities emerged: 1. Commitment to diversity 2. Commitment to recruitment and retention of faculty, student, and families of color 3. Diversity as a core value 4. Dedicated Professional Development funds for faculty of color Moving forward, this helped me to understand that there is a commitment and need to diversify our faculty, but what intentional actions are being taken? The next step is to be aware that women of color have the ability and competence

Next Steps

1. Over the next year, I will continue with the development of a Women of Color Leadership Cohort that will improve their mindset, toolset, and skillset.

2. Leadership development starts at a young age. For next school year, I have been collaborating with the founder of Butterflies Mentorship, Lauren Blackwell, to work with our girls of color. The mission is to make an impact on young women’s lives and encourage them to be the women they aspire to be. The program inspires them to be successful in school, mentally, physically, spiritually, and in their personal lives.

3. I plan to work with area HBCU’s (Bennett College, North Carolina A&T SU, Winston Salem SU, North Carolina Central University) by attending career

to take on leadership opportunities.

fairs while working closely with their education

To preserve the privacy of two women of color in leadership

for women of color to have the opportunity to thrive in

roles in Friend Schools, I will refrain from using the names of the women I interviewed. Both women expressed that in moments they had to “dim their lights” to make others feel comfortable.

One woman stated, “In some aspects, the institution was not ready for a woman of color.” Furthermore, the women also

departments to build a partnership that would allow an independent or private school setting.

4. Over the next year, I would like to work with Friends Council to discuss the issue and let others know what I have learned so far in hopes of the development for a Women of Color Leadership Cohort.

felt they could not be their authentic selves due to risk of not having opportunities for advancement. It was clear that they could not bring their full selves to their work for fear of coming across as aggressive, bossy, and selfish when making the same statements as their white colleagues. With this information, it rings true that women of color in our institutions need to feel

Tanisha Jones 20

PETER KALAJIAN

Upper School History Teacher, New Garden Friends School, Greensboro, NC

Peter Kalajian

“DREAM OUT BIG:” THE GENESIS OF NEW FRIENDS SCHOOLS

After almost a decade teaching and growing as a Friends educator, my strongest feeling is deep gratitude for my fellow cohort members, for the Light in each of them, and for Quaker education. As an Upper School teacher of history, geography, civics, and various Seminar courses since 2011, I was drawn initially to the Quaker commitment to innovation, inquiry, and social justice through education. As I learned, and as I became more familiar and comfortable with Quaker process and ethics, both in school decision making and as a source for classroom culture and pedagogy, I found Friends education to be a deep and inexhaustible wellspring of inspiration. Classroom teaching and clerking in a Friends school has grown my desire to spread the network of Quaker educational institutions beyond its current scope. There are a great many places in the United States—and globally—that could benefit from this unique approach to student learning and growth as compassionate human beings. It is my hope to take whatever role I can in the work of proselytizing the wonderful gift that is Friends education to as broad an audience as possible. The work goes on, and a way will open.

Background

While my journey to Friends education was a circuitous one, it quickly became evident to me that Friends education is a gift that should be made available to as many students as possible. This is the question that drove my research: How do Friends schools come into existence? The impetus, the seed of an idea, the mission, the funding, the staffing, and the building; I was interested in these stories. How do you create community from scratch? How do Friends schools progress from an idea to living, breathing schools, based in Quaker values, and dedicated to innovative education?

Who better to help me find some shared methodologies and successful patterns than the educators, administrators, board members, and parents of (once) embryonic Quaker

to get started, and followed up with telephone interviews whenever possible. My goal was to glean from my research some insight into the intentionality of designing a school’s mission, and the early steps to make that mission real. I wanted to know where the impetus for moving forward with an idea came from. What threads and best practice connected all of these incredible and unique voyages from idea to inception to fruition, how founders overcome early obstacles surrounding

schools?

fundraising, board competency and chemistry, and day to day

Exploration

would they have in hindsight. Such an undertaking is fraught

As this project took shape, a piece of advice from Irene McHenry rang in my ears: “Let people talk. They’re passionate and want to share their passion with you.” She was right. I set out to contact a broad cross section of school founders, founding heads, board members, and those involved with the early years of Friends schools (and in a few cases, non-Quaker independent schools) to see what I could learn.

I focused on schools founded since 1965. After reigning 21

in the scope of my exploration, I created a few short queries

management. What mistakes were made, and what advice with the dangers of subjectivity and interpretation. This data is qualitative, not quantitative, so I provide my interpretation of the thoughts and memories I have gathered from interviews.

To collect preliminary background data and be sure that all of my participants had the chance to answer roughly the same set of questions, I began with three simple queries: 1. What are the three most important things to pay

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

attention to when starting a new school?

Finances: You need some money to begin, but not as much as you may imagine. Attracting board members with resources,

2. Please share an anecdote that illuminates one of those important aspects, your choice.

or who know people with resources, or can find resources, is fundamental. Hire a business manager early, and make sure that person has the experience and capacity to manage the

3. What are three pieces of advice you would give to

resources of a start-up educational endeavor. Most educators

anyone undertaking the founding of a new Friends

are not business people, and the importance of hiring the

school?

right people early in the life of a school cannot be overstated.

I had the privilege to explore the founding of 13 Friends and

Relations with Quaker Meeting: Make sure that relations with

two non-Quaker independent schools. These are a few brief

local Meeting members are clearly defined. Conflict with a

takeaways from that data:

Meeting can be a very difficult obstacle. Always remember that a Friends School is not (and, realistically speaking) cannot

Vision: The educational vision needs to be explicit and

be operated as a Friends Meeting, despite the desirability

developed for the learning population you can serve given the

of bringing Friends values and practices into the process

resources you have. Know your audience. Have a compelling

wherever and whenever possible.

reason for starting a school. Not just compelling to you, but also to potential parents, teachers, administrators, and contributors (individuals and institutions). This compelling reason should be positive, not negative.

Focus and Direction: Everyone involved in the new school must be on the same page and moving together. There are many paths to the same goal: a sustainable and viable independent school based on Quaker practice and the principles of progressive education. While founding a new school is by definition a collaborative exercise, the importance of having one passionate and devoted leader steering the ship cannot be overstated. Beware mission drift. Disciplined early messaging is paramount. And always remember that “administration” and “leadership” do not always come together.

Next Steps

The future of this work remains open. It’s clear to me that the depth of the information I already have collected, and the

potential depth of information yet to be accessed, calls for

a much larger scope. This experience has provided me with a great deal in terms of learning and personal growth, both

as an educator, and as a potential school founder. This much is clear: Friends education is, above all, a calling. While the

process of founding a school can be fraught with obstacles, it is, and has been, demonstrably achievable. A significant network of people willing to share their experiences and

wisdom about the process of school inception exists. The act

of contributing to an educational institution that is greater than

its collected parts is a life aspiration for me. It is my hope that a way will open, and this information and knowledge can propel me closer to my ultimate goal of spreading this revolutionary

Quaker Board Oversight: A strong Quaker board is not negotiable, but avoid orthodoxy. Push boundaries. Basic

approach to education in the form of a new Friends school, somewhere that Quaker education does not serve, yet.

principles of Quaker education must be followed, but also realize they are flexible. The school does not need to follow any given school models, but has to fit the new entity and mission. Early on, Boards should be flexible and allow Heads to operate largely unrestrained. As schools transition beyond the planning phases, the Board should establish a more active role in strategic planning and oversight. A positive Board culture is an integral and irreplaceable component of any successful Friends school endeavor.

Peter Kalajian 22

MAKAI KELLOGG

Equity & Diversity Coordinator School for Friends, Washington, DC

Makai is an anti-bias early childhood educator and

Equity and Diversity Coordinator at School for Friends in Washington, DC.

Makai creates age-appropriate

curriculum on social justice for her students to explore equity issues such as race, homelessness and gender

stereotypes. She leads the Parents of the Multiracial Children group, an Equity and Diversity Parent Book

Club, as well as other programming throughout the year that allow parents to address their biases in order to be

proactive as their children learn about the world around them. Makai facilitates trainings and opportunities for her

Makai Kellogg

colleagues to engage in identity work and discussions

on equity and anti-bias education in the classroom.

Through her work with young children and their families, she is creating an inclusive community of critical thinkers

and change makers. Makai works closely with Teaching

“INSIGHTS, REFLECTION AND PROGRESS: USING SABBATICAL EXPERIENCE TO CREATE MEANINGFUL CHANGE�

Social Justice, as an advisory board member. She is

also part of the leadership team for the Anti-Bias Early Childhood Educator Working Group.

Background

strategic plan for School for Friends with measurable progress

granted a sabbatical. I spent five weeks in the Spring of 2018

program at School for Friends, so I was starting from scratch.

After seven years in a full time position as lead teacher, I was engaged in field work and self-reflection. The purpose of my sabbatical was to meet with and learn from experts in the field of anti-racism and equity work to enhance my roles as Equity and Diversity Coordinator and anti-bias early childhood educator. My goal was to develop more skills in the fields of equity, anti-racism work, social justice education, facilitation, and leadership. I observed anti-bias preschool programs, read books, received valuable advice from equity practitioners, participated in a variety of trainings and programs, and documented it all on my blog. Taking all that I have learned, I wondered how to apply my sabbatical experience back at School for Friends.

Exploration/Learning

After reflecting on the entirety of my experience, I created a list of queries to guide my thinking and actions related to myself, teachers, administration and families. I learned so much and, with so many ideas, I needed to organize and develop a 23

for Change and its initiative, the DC Area Educators for

and outcomes. There has never been an equity and diversity I came back ready to make change and jump into action and was promptly met with many stumbling blocks. I realized very quickly that being a full-time teacher working nine hours a day in the classroom with little people does not provide much space for creating an inspiring equity and diversity program.

I spend many weekends and early mornings getting the bare minimum done, such as sending families resources, replying to emails, and planning staff training and school wide events on top of my regular classroom-related duties. If there was funding available specifically for equity and diversity work, I could potentially have a substitute to provide time to work on organizing equity and diversity efforts, find experts to lead staff training, purchase materials, and observe classrooms.

Another restraining force for implementing a strategic plan was the varying levels of experience and interest of my colleagues in engaging in anti-bias work. It has been a balancing act to pull people into the discussion who feel that

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

there isn’t a need, have a colorblind mentality, or are afraid

supportive group of anti-bias educators in the D.C area and

to have difficult conversations. One of the goals from my

beyond who provide constructive feedback and partnership

sabbatical was to lead one staff meeting a month focused on

in this work, as well as have access to the mentors who guided

helping staff understand anti-bias education, do identity work,

me before, during, and after my sabbatical as resources.

build community, become comfortable and active discussing difficult topics, and to develop appropriate anti-bias curriculum and environments. I provided a survey during the staff work week asking teachers to rank their comfort and understanding

Next Steps

Moving forward, 1. I want to lead School for Friends in setting equity

when talking about race, gender, culture and language,

norms that facilitate institutional growth and change.

economic class, family structure and different abilities to help

2. I will ensure that equity and diversity events are listed

plan these staff meetings. Due to constraints in scheduling

on the school calendar for the year and continue

in the beginning of the school year, I have just started these

monthly staff meetings dedicated to anti-bias work as

regular staff meetings in the new year.

well as other training opportunities during staff work days.

I started in January with preparations for the Black Lives Matter

3. I will propose creating a budget line item specifically

at School Week of Action by hosting an information session

for equity and diversity work which will have a

with a friend on the national planning committee. I also

tremendous impact on how School for Friends can

pulled materials for each age group, provided guidance for

plan and incorporate initiatives as well as provide time

curriculum planning and wrote a letter to families about our

for a substitute so that I can focus on programming,

efforts. Last year I received pushback from colleagues who did

teacher training, curriculum development and meet

not want to participate. This year, though, with the support of

with families.

my Head of School, we moved forward and worked to address

4. As a school, I hope to collaboratively develop a social

teacher concerns early. So far, I have worked on showing

justice curriculum based on age group.

my colleagues ways they already use anti-bias strategies,

5. A goal for my professional development is to

how to intentionally plan anti-bias curriculum, engage in

obtain SEED training that will carry over to yearlong

self-reflection, and interact during equity conversations that

programming for the school community.

arise organically. With the accomplishment of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, I am working to lead more

6. Finally, I will continue to build my network of social justice, anti-racist and anti-bias educators.

social justice related initiatives. I’ve been very successful working with parents through the Parents of Multiracial Children group, Equity and Diversity Parent Book Club, sharing helpful resources, and facilitating a parent-led workshop on how misinformation and Native imagery perpetuate harm.

I’m becoming a little more patient with the process and am staying as positive and focused as possible. I am also hopeful for growth of the teachers and understand it is a process for all involved. Identity work, developing a common vocabulary and learning from other early childhood programs will be crucial to generating buy in and in return lead to action on behalf of the teachers in their classrooms. There still isn’t a concrete plan or formal system in place, but over time I hope to create structures, systems and an equity framework accessible to the School for Friends community. I am fortunate to be a part of a

Makai Kellogg 24

RYAN KIMMET

Associate Head of School Greene Street Friends School, Philadelphia PA

I have spent my whole life in independent schools. As

the child of an educator, I went to school with my mother, a teacher and administrator, at the Harley School in Rochester, NY from Pre-Kindergarten through Twelfth

Grade. Not long after graduating college, I landed my

first teaching job at New Canaan Country School. In my fourteen years there, I taught fifth grade, worked with

8th graders at the flagship Horizons Student Enrichment Program, assisted in the admission office, and directed the Apprentice Teacher Training Program. I next landed in

Philadelphia, PA, at Greene Street Friends School where

Ryan Kimmet

I am now the Associate Head of School. As an educator

new to Quakerism and Friends Schools, I quickly fell in

love with Greene Street’s embodiment of Quaker Values,

commitment to diversity, and overall spirit and mission.

RECRUITING, HIRING, RETAINING, AND SUPPORTING TEACHERS OF COLOR IN A FRIENDS SCHOOL

Finding a school that is a fit with my own values has

helped me truly develop as a leader over the last five years. This connection also has served as the inspiration

for my Action Research, which I hope will strengthen the diversity of our faculty for years to come.

Background

At Greene Street Friends School, our commitment to diversity runs deep. We are proud of the many forms diversity takes in our student and family population. We have approximately

Despite all of this terrific work in building a racially diverse

different religions, family structures, ethnicities, and financial

meaningful and inclusive programs, I have been dissatisfied

demographic has been a long road. However, we are thrilled

national findings that suggest that white teachers make up

people and families with whom they can identify.

to do better than that at our school in recruiting and retaining

In recent years, we have focused much of our effort on

color. My goal is to have the percentage of Teachers of Color

inclusive and reflective of our families’ cultures. We’ve

(50%).

lessons on difference and inclusion, and sharpened our

The reasons for the urgency behind this goal are simple. As

recently, teachers and administrators who attended the

black children had a black teacher between third and fifth

racial affinity groups for students in our middle school. This

of high school, and both boys and girls were more likely to

positive racial identity for all students. We have been excited

of the same racial identity creates a school climate where all

50% students of color in our community, as well as many

student community and supporting that community with

backgrounds well represented. Achieving this diverse

with the racial diversity of our faculty. Despite recent

that everyone in our community can see a number of other

approximately 82% of the overall teaching work force, we need

building and refining a curriculum and program that are

added more diverse books to our libraries, developed

faculty of color. Currently, our faculty is around 28% teachers of

at GSFS match the demography of our student population

professional development opportunities for teachers. Most

researchers at American University recently found, when

Race Institute for Educators became interested in starting

grade, boys were significantly less likely to later drop out

program, now in its third year, has the goal of developing

attend college. The effect of having positive adult role models

by the learning that takes place in these critical spaces.

students have models of success and authority, as well as clear advocates for their well-being. White students also benefit

from having teachers of color who can offer new perspectives 25

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

and come from different backgrounds.

included: faculty affinity groups, diversity directors,

From my position as a white school administrator, I am aware of

Others simply answered, “none.” What other ways

diversity committees, and professional development.

the many blind spots and implicit biases I hold. Undoubtedly, these things influence my approach to hiring and supporting teachers. If I truly want to do a better job creating the kind

of teaching community that best serves our students, I would

might schools institutionalize supports for teachers of

•

need to hear directly from teachers of color – rather than

leadership and wonderful students. What are the ways

Friends Council website and NAIS was not giving me the pool

in which school leaders can check in with faculty of

of candidates that I wanted.

Quaker Schools and Independent Schools can better attract, recruit, hire, and most importantly, retain and support teachers of color. After meeting with, talking to, and emailing many

teachers and administrators of color at various Friends schools, I crafted a survey that I hoped would provide information for me and others with an interest in truly growing the diversity

of our faculties. The survey had nine questions and contained

a mix of questions about recruiting and hiring experiences, decision- making processes for choosing where to work, and

reasons for staying at or leaving their current schools. There were 55 respondents to the survey, all of whom self-identified

as teachers of color, representing a wide range of Quaker schools. For each data point, I offer a summary statement and a query.

•

Just over 50% of respondents found out about their

color on a regular basis to see what is working for them

•

and what can be improved?

Finally, when asked what they might change about their school, respondents again had a range of

answers. The largest themes included needing more people of color on the faculty and in administration, and having more white colleagues involved in the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion. How can

school leaders define and proclaim their commitment to building a diverse faculty and then act on it in meaningful and productive ways?

Next steps

In the end, I found this action research process to be meaningful and incredibly useful. It has helped me gain further clarity on the urgent need for teachers of color in our schools and has given me new ways of thinking about hiring processes and ways of supporting our teachers of color once they are

job from word of mouth, meaning that investing

here. In this hiring season, I will be broadening my “word of

within teaching communities carries potentially greater

color to share our open positions in their communities. Our

(28%) or recruiting firms (11%). What are the best ways

have started faculty affinity groups with the goal of supporting

energy and time into building networks and coalitions

mouth” networks, utilizing current teachers and parents of

impact on the hiring process than internet job boards

job postings have been updated with new language and we

to build these networks and to rely on them during

•

their respective schools, the answers covered a wide

culture, and school mission. Others noted supportive

independent school methods for hiring. Posting jobs on the

I decided to focus my action research on the ways in which

When asked what respondents liked about working at range of topics. Many revolved around community,

just following my own instincts and using the traditional

Exploration/Learning

color?

hiring season?

Nearly 52% of respondents chose their current

school primarily because of the school culture, while

our teachers of color and our white teachers. I look forward to refining these tools and approaches with colleagues form other schools in the future.

professional development (17%) and salary (11%) were distant second and third choices. To me, as a leader in a school with strong culture, this suggests that I need to do more to promote the dynamic and thoughtful culture of the school in recruiting efforts. How can I

best communicate school culture in a job posting or

•

brief “elevator pitch?”

Respondents were asked what supports were in

place at their schools for teachers of color. Answers

Ryan Kimmet 26

KATHLEEN KOEHLER

Language Arts Department Chair and Director of Summer Programs Delaware Valley Friends School, Paoli, PA

I have been a student, a teacher and a leader in several Friends Schools. After nearly ten years of

teaching, I find myself most energized by the work I

do in my various leadership roles. It is a privilege to serve on behalf of the extraordinary students and

teachers at Delaware Valley Friends School, and

I am grateful for the opportunity the Leadership Institute has given me to further explore my

leadership strengths and growing edges. I

Kathleen Koehler

have long found the deepest satisfaction in my

commitment to Quaker principles in education, and I look forward to continuing my professional journey guided by those lights.

DISCERNING THE MISSION OF THE DEPARTMENT Background

I became Chair of the Language Arts Department after several years of teaching in the Upper School. During my years at the school, the integrity and ingenuity of my peers had never failed to impress; each year, as new school initiatives based on groundbreaking research in adolescent literacy, ADHD, executive functioning disorder, and dyslexia were rolled out, the teachers in the language arts department responded by adopting, adapting and revitalizing their teaching. The pace of transformation was evidence of the vitality of our program, yet it left teachers trying to manage many objectives without clear priorities.

Changes in the population of our student body, and changes in administrative structures and personnel meant that, while the quality of instruction remained high, and the expertise of teachers remained essential, we were doing so many things that it became increasingly difficult to define our mission.

As a leader, I felt a sense of urgency to clarify the role of the department in the school. My initial thought for this project was to draft a Mission Statement for the department, so that we could effectively articulate our goals for student learning, our instructional methods and the progress students made.

Our audience would include all of the stakeholders in our school, from administrators to teachers to parents and students.

27

Exploration and Learning

My first steps involved examining some institutional materials in order to see what we were claiming as our aims and methods. These materials included the outline of the DVFS Adolescent Literacy Program, (an Orton-Gillingham-based training module that informs all language arts instruction at DVFS), a scope and sequence outline from 2012, and the school’s website. I sifted through the statements of goals and objectives and strategies and competencies, but found no clear explanation that could encapsulate our department’s mission. I then turned my attention to the department as it is in our day-to-day work. I created a survey for the language arts teachers, and I received feedback that was genuine, honest, thoughtful and not at all surprising. The passion, dedication, insight and expertise were evident. We had numerous ways to describe our teaching, yet we were no closer to clarity.

My next step involved looking at other schools. I looked at a few websites, where I encountered language that described philosophies, but did not illuminate actual practice. I discussed these findings with my colleagues, and one prompted me to read Jeanetta Jones Miller’s article “A Better Grading System; Standards-Based,

Student-Centered

Assessment”.

After

reading the article, I tried looking at report cards from schools

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

that serve students with learning differences, and here I struck

standards rating system is used?

something. The report card is an avenue of communication

What is the role of the assignment-based grade going

to parents, students, administrators and other teachers. My

forward?

project then centered on ways to redesign our reporting system so that it could achieve our ends of articulating goals,

The final steps will integrate these new tools into the DVFS

methods and progress.

academic program.

As a department, we decided that we would generate a

1. I will coordinate with the members of the department,

list of standards that reflected the reality of our teaching,

and then with the administration, about an appropriate

and implement them as part of our grade reporting. In this

timeline for formalizing our new systems and rolling

way, we would elucidate all of the skills we were teaching,

them out as part of report cards.

use a recognizable form to communicate them to the most

2. I will produce a document and make a presentation

relevant stakeholders, and enhance our own accountability.

to the DVFS faculty regarding this process so that

We paired this initiative with selecting a new diagnostic and

other departments may adopt similar measures, in

progress monitoring assessment. We decided to use data to

alignment with the school’s commitment to providing

communicate our values, our priorities, and our progress. In August 2018, we launched the new assessment, called the Test

differentiated instruction across the curriculum.

3. We will orient Advisors to our new system so that

of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills. In the same month,

they can effectively communicate with students and

three members of the department met to comb through the

parents.

Pennsylvania Common Core Curriculum Standards.

We

selected about 35 skills in 5 areas as relevant to our teaching and reflective of our goals for students. In October 2018, the standards were incorporated into the online grading system used at Delaware Valley Friends School, although at this time they remain visible to teachers only. Teachers are working to identify whether the list of standards is sufficient and accurate, how appropriate the language of the standards is, and how this additional component impacts teaching, lesson planning and progress monitoring.

After the roll-out of standards to the department teachers, my colleagues said that using standards will enable us to show others what we do, and help us better serve our students. That tells me that we are on the right track.

Next Steps

The teachers in the Language Arts Department are currently working to field-test the new assessment and the standards alongside traditional, assignment-based grading.

Some questions that remain to be addressed include: How do these new tools inform our instruction?

Have we selected language that is precise and that will enhance the clarity of our work?

Do we share a common understanding of how our

Kathleen Koehler 28

ELIZABETH KRIYNOVICH

English teacher and Service Learning Coordinator Delaware Valley Friends School, Paoli, PA

Elizabeth is grateful for developing her professional identity in Quaker education. She has been at Delaware

Valley Friends School in various capacities since 2005, with most of that time spent as an English/Language Arts teacher and as Service Learning Coordinator. Elizabeth

is passionate about using mindfulness to foster effective

speaking, listening, and learning, and particularly supporting the needs of

students with learning

disabilities using mindfulness. She is the current Board President of the Mindfulness in Education Network and

Elizabeth Kriynovich

a member of Wake Up Schools, a worldwide community of mindful educators led by Thich Nhat Hanh. Elizabeth is

also a certified yoga teacher. She has led workshops and presentations on using mindfulness in the classroom to

SUPPORTING FACULTY RENEWAL AND SELF CARE: HOW WOULD A MINDFULNESS PROGRAM AT DVFS FOSTER SPACE FOR MORE SPIRIT-LED TEACHING AND LEARNING? Background

My project took shape over the first several months of action research exploration and evolved from an examination of

the factors that go into the formation of a new school to

stewarding the resource of the people within that school.

It was largely motivated by a sense of stress and burn-out that I was personally experiencing (as well as observing in

my colleagues) and a need to prioritize time and space for wellness and renewal.

Owing both to my research as well as my personal

experience with a mindfulness practice and its benefits, I felt that the best way forward in this work was to introduce a formal mindfulness program at Delaware Valley Friends School (DVFS) as a starting point for faculty care. Though

there are currently many popular cultural associations with mindfulness, and it is becoming a major industry in our

culture at this moment, at is core, mindfulness is a simple practice of cultivating awareness of the present moment experience. It is not about merely cultivating a sense of calm or eliminating stressful emotions, but rather being able to

be aware of a range of emotions and experience, and in so 29

help train Quaker activists and teachers nationwide.

doing, not act blindly out of impulsive response to emotion.

By doing so we can begin to cultivate a thoughtful way of

engaging with others and a deeper awareness of peace and equanimity in interpersonal relationships.

Research indicates that when teachers have a mindfulness

practice, they not only feel a benefit themselves, but students also benefit. Documented benefits of mindfulness practice

include: reduced rumination (tied to reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms), stress reduction, enhanced working memory, increased ability to focus attention and suppress distracting information, less emotional reactivity, greater cognitive flexibility, and increased relationship satisfaction.

By introducing mindfulness to fellow faculty members at

DVFS, I would not only be offering my colleagues a way to manage stress and feel more refreshed and balanced in their

teaching practices, but also indirectly benefit more students at the school with these practices.

In April 2018, I presented my administration with a proposal to develop this program, based on research I had gathered. The proposal was accepted, and I began to design the program.

Exploration/learning

The following guiding questions shaped my development of

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

the project:

1. How do we as teachers cultivate peace and maintain

energy/ sustain ourselves throughout ever-increasingly demanding roles/days/lives?

2. What would a school-wide program of mindfulness look like at DVFS?

3. How would providing a place for teachers to focus

on their own self-care benefit our students and our community as a whole?

Timeline

Winter/Spring 2018:

1. Gathered research on benefits of mindfulness and formal mindfulness programs.

2. Visited The Lab School (Washington, DC) to observe

a school with an established school-wide mindfulness program and identify elements that could be incorporated at DVFS.

3. Wrote proposal for professional development time

during Summer 2018, to plan mindfulness curriculum for teachers.

Summer 2018:

1. Designed a day-long session of introductory

mindfulness practices (called Day of Mindfulness), to

be led during fall faculty in-service. The in-service day also included a discussion of best practices for use with DVFS students in the classroom.

2. Outlined formal mindfulness program for DVFS faculty and staff use. I considered previous work with Friends Council on Education around mindfulness, existing

independent school mindfulness programs such as the Middlesex School, and research-based programs such

as Learning to Breathe, A Still Quiet Place, and MindUp curricula, to adapt a program best-suited to the needs of DVFS students and faculty.

course.

2. Designed a survey to get feedback from course

participants on their experience with the mindfulness

sessions, their use of practices in daily life, and ratings on stress levels pre/ and post program.

Winter/Spring 2019

Offered second session of Level I course, with new participants as well as some returning participants from fall session who wanted to continue to deepen their mindfulness practice.

Next steps

1. Continuing to offer/deepen Mindfulness for DVFS

Teachers, and then support teachers who are offering it to students.

2. Refining and clarifying other threads that are pulled up in this idea of renewal and support beyond the practice of mindfulness.

3. Sharing more broadly about the experience of

developing this course and its benefits outside of

the school community at conferences, professional development events, and public trainings.

4. Utilizing existing school marketing avenues to share

that this program exists at DVFS: we have a cohort of faculty using mindfulness practices to support their

own self care as well as their students’ self care. This element of well-being is essential to our identity as a Quaker, LD school and the way that we effective

support the social-emotional needs of students as well as their academic needs.

I have enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to pursue action research, and believe that my project has had a direct relationship to an increased sense of well-being among faculty members at DVFS. I look forward to continuing to cultivate ways to steward the resource of the DVFS faculty in the future.

Fall 2018:

1. Created and launched a six-week foundational

mindfulness course for six self-selecting faculty

members, so they could establish a personal daily

practice and feel a community of fellow practitioners for support. (Course title: Mindfulness for DVFS

Teachers Level I: Personal Mindfulness Practices.) The initial group expressed a desire to continue meeting weekly, so sessions continued beyond the formal

six-week session. The additional sessions during fall

term revisited practices introduced during the six-week

Elizabeth Kriynovich 30

BETH LANTZ

Director of Student Life, Upper School History Teacher Moses Brown School, Providence, RI

One of the reasons I was drawn to Moses Brown School in 2011 to teach Upper School History was its identity as a Friends school. With its focus on social justice, deep inquiry

and reflective practices, Quaker Education mirrored my own educational philosophy and motivation for teaching teenagers. I have always sought to nurture and develop

young people’s minds and hearts to engage in our broader

world and make it better. Managing classroom behavior and creating a positive learning environment is an integral

part of successful teaching. As an educator, I developed my

Beth Lantz

own approach to discipline in my classroom that reflected

my personality and my methods of building meaningful relationships with students. After assuming the position of

Director of Student Life in 2016, though, I began to look

at discipline from an institutional perspective--not just a

THE FRIENDS APPROACH TO DISCIPLINE: NURTURING THE INNER LIGHT OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, EVEN WHEN THEY MAKE BAD CHOICES Background

Like most schools, Moses Brown uses a handbook to outline its behavioral expectations for students, as well as the disciplinary consequences for violating those expectations. A well-respected pillar of the disciplinary process at MB is the Disciplinary Committee (DC). Comprised of 12 students and 10 faculty, the committee is called upon to hold a Disciplinary Committee hearing when major school infractions take place.

Three faculty and three students from the DC are chosen to participate in the hearing and determine consequences for the student involved. Usually, but not always, DC hearing recommendations include punitive responses like suspension or dismissal. Sometimes they contain restorative consequences, too, but not as often. When crafting the recommendation, the faculty and students consult the Moses Brown Upper School handbook that stipulates infractions that will “likely lead to suspension” and those that will “likely lead to dismissal.” For my Action Research Project (ARP), I decided to utilize the monthly meetings of the Disciplinary Committee to embark on a process of reviewing our handbook to ascertain which parts of it best reflect our identity as a Friends school and 31

classroom teacher’s perspective--and began to wonder how and in what ways the principles of Friends Education

influenced disciplinary practices at Moses Brown and other Quaker schools.

which areas could potentially be revised to better represent our Quaker values.

Exploration/Learning

My first steps with the Disciplinary Committee were to have the members read the sections of the handbook that pertain to discipline. I provided them with the following prompts to consider:

•

Complete the following sentence: Our handbook

•

What parts of our handbook best convey our

• • •

should... expectations for students?

What parts of our handbook need clarification?

What parts of our handbook are clearly steeped in our identity as a Friends school?

What parts of our handbook acknowledge the developmental journey of adolescence and take into account current neuroscience research?

We spent three monthly meetings discussing these prompts in small groups. In terms of which parts of the handbook that

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

are steeped in our identity as a Friends school, all groups

reads in part: “As a Friends school, our approach to

pointed to our section on integrity and wondered if this

discipline mirrors our approach to education—we

section could be applied to all infractions. Additionally, one

seek to nurture the inner Light of each student and to

group wondered about the organization of the discipline

help them grow into the best versions of themselves.

section and if we needed a rationale introduction that explains

The school acknowledges that the teenage brain is

our understanding of the teenage brain, our intention to allow

still developing during the high school years and

students room to make mistakes and the Friends testimonies

that teenagers are susceptible to making mistakes

that we expect students to uphold.

and poor decisions. When possible, the school uses Restorative Practices to handle disciplinary matters.

The next step was to explore the handbooks of some other

The foundation of Restorative Practices supports our

Friends schools. I selected four Friends schools, then I divided

Quaker mission as it seeks to address misbehavior by

the committee into four groups and provided the members

holding the student accountable to themselves and to

of each group with selected sections from their assigned

the community.”

handbook. The sections I copied dealt with community guidelines/expectations of behavior and the disciplinary process followed for infractions. The Disciplinary Committee members enjoyed seeing how other Friends schools organize their handbooks and articulate their expectations. We then brainstormed ideas for aspects of our MB handbook that could be revised and/or reorganized in the future.

•

A three-tiered disciplinary response that makes clear

•

The addition of a Restorative Circle as a disciplinary

•

what a first, second and third level offense yields. response for resolving conflict.

The addition of a Restorative Disciplinary Committee hearing (RDC) for a second level offense. Unlike a Disciplinary Committee hearing, a RDC hearing uses only Restorative Practices to determine consequences

In addition to reviewing handbooks, I also devoted a monthly

for the student involved. Suspension and dismissal

meeting to talking with the DC members about Restorative

are not available to the committee when crafting its

Practices. I earned a Certificate in Basic Restorative Practice

recommendation.

Tools Training from the Youth Restorative Project of Rhode Island and shared my learning with the committee. All agreed

I used the December and January Disciplinary Committee

that the restorative approach to discipline aligns strongly with

meetings to discuss and revise the current draft. The goal is

how we educate students at Friends schools. Members noted

for the committee to reach consensus on the draft during our

that MB uses many of the Restorative Practices in our low-level

February and March meetings and to present a final version to

disciplinary responses already, but these are not necessarily

the Upper School faculty in April for its feedback. The Interim

noted in the handbook and should be.

Head of Upper School, along with input from the Assistant

Next Steps

At our December 2018 Disciplinary Committee monthly

Head of School for Academic Affairs and Head of School, and I will use the feedback as we see fit and finalize the handbook revisions for the 2019-2020 academic year.

meeting, I presented a draft of a revised discipline section of MB’s Upper School Handbook for discussion. The draft reflected the work of the committee over the past year.

Highlights of the draft included:

•

A section labeled “Community Expectations” that

•

An alphabetized listing of infractions--no longer

•

stated in the affirmative our expectations of students organized by “likely to lead to suspension” or “likely to lead to expulsion” A section labeled “Disciplinary Guidelines” that

Beth Lantz 32

JEANNETTE LUTTER-GARDELLA Start-Up Coordinator St Paul School of Northern Lights, St. Paul MN

I found my vocational home 13 years

ago at the Friends School of Minnesota, while seeking a school for my children.

I felt an immediate connection to

Quaker values and a deep and abiding resonance with Quaker progressive

pedagogy and practice. Serving as the

Assistant Head of School has been by far, the most rewarding and enriching

Jeannette Lutter-Gardella

experience of my career thus far.

CREATING A FRIENDS-SCHOOL-LIKE CULTURE IN A PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL Background

parent participation as essential in their child’s school

as a finalist, for the head of school position at Friends

children in the school. School of Northern Lights will

experience, helping to ensure the well-being of all the

During this leadership cohort, I applied and was selected

create time and space for children, teachers, parents

School of MN. Going through the process of applying

and community members to listen and learn from one

was transformative for me. It was the inner work and the wrestling with my shadow self that finally led me to apply. I had come to understand I wanted to grow as a leader and saw myself moving beyond my assistant head position. The self knowledge and clarity that I gained during that time, has become a touchstone in my life. So, it was with a clear head, yet heavy heart, after not being chosen for the headship, that I left the Friends School of MN. Now, I have been asked to be the founding, soon to be named Executive Director of a new charter school, St Paul School of Northern Lights, a free public charter school founded on three educational pillars:

•

Teachers as curriculum designers, leaders and

•

The image of the child as infinitely capable, creative

researchers. and intelligent. All children come to school in bodies with histories, memories and realities based on previous experiences of being in the world. The School of Northern Lights sees school readiness as accepting a child as they are and

33

•

another.

Place-based education to immerse students in the local histories, cultures, urban and natural world, as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum, with an emphasis on service projects for the school and/or community.

Explorations and Learnings

Since journeying into the world of charter schools, my head has been filled with a plethora of mind-bending technical requirements, federal formulas for funding and state statutes with subsections 2-4 pages long. Yet I have been filled with a deep respect for the many incredible public and charter school educators who care deeply about teaching and learning. They work diligently to provide children and families with access to high-quality education. However, what gets defined by the MN Department of Education as “high-quality” can become

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

an imposition to what and how a teacher practices and leaves

How do I bring the rich teaching, learning and leading

little room for authentic relationships with students and

experiences from Friends education to a free, public

families. This is where my values diverge, and where St Paul

charter school? How do I work with the founding board and

School of Northern Lights stands to demonstrate the power

soon-to-be-hired teachers and staff to craft the common

and potential of being in relationships with students and

language that describes the work of the spirit in all that we will

families as an example of high-quality education.

do together without naming it? What processes and practices can we develop in order to attend to the spirit among us, while

The board of St. Paul School of Northern Lights and I held

wading through the labyrinth of competing priorities and

several events for both interested families and educators,

agendas that have the potential to pull us from the mission

listening to what their hopes and dreams are for the school.

and vision of the school?

The school’s founding vision of creating a community that supports teaching and learning centered on the whole child has been affirmed time and again. Teachers and families

Next Steps

1. Continue to work on how to communicate our mission,

alike want to keep the love of learning alive by tapping into

vision and school culture using secular language.

children’s inherit curiosity and motivation to learn. Families

2. Continue to work with the board on what community

report that they support teachers being able to have time

engagement looks like now and into the future if we are

during the day to collaborate and design curriculum based on

to be accessible to all children. MN state statute does not

the interests and questions of children.

allow for a weighted lottery.

3. Research and share different Friends schools by-laws,

One of great gifts of Friends education that I bring to St Paul

in order to move from voting to a consensus form of

School of Northern Lights, is the prioritizing of the reciprocal

decision making at the board level. Seek training and

relationship between teaching and learning, valuing the

support from the local Quaker community, Friends

relationships we have to one another as the basis for all

School of MN and Friend Council on Education on

teaching, and balancing how we teach with what we teach.

consensus building and clerking.

Whereas in public/charter schools the focus is much more on the teaching of skills and content knowledge and less on relationships, my challenge as the educational leader of the school is to create a balance between being accountable to MN Department of Education State Standards and providing the time needed for positive, supportive relationships between teachers and students. I will lean into my experience from Friends School by paying attention to the spirit in which we teach and learn together and of being standard-informed, not standard-driven.

The foundation of my educational philosophy, formed while at Friends School of MN, is the acceptance of, and attention to, the spirit within each of us, believing that each person has the capacity to be discerning and to participate in the cooperative search for meaning. In the public discourse, there is no mention of the spirit within. It is harder than I thought to practice or lead without spirit being shared, valued and spoken of as a way to engage students in learning.

Jeannette Lutter-Gardella 34

ANTHONY MCCUDDEN

Director of Enrollment Management Sandy Spring Friends School, Sandy Spring MD

After almost 30 years in Catholic Education as both a student and educator, I joined Sandy Spring Friends School seven years

ago as a math teacher and became Director of Enrollment after two years. Growing up

in rural Victoria, Australia, I knew nothing of Quakers, but in Sandy Spring Friends, I

have found a community that promotes an

education both in and out of the classroom,

Tony McCudden

with a desire to understand how other people live and a philosophy that academia is only part of an education.

CHANGING FINANCIAL AID MODELS IN QUAKER SCHOOLS TO BE MORE COMPETITIVE Background

In his 2014 essay “Sustainability of Friends Schools,” Ari Betof reflected, “A fundamental tension exists for Friends schools as organizations that offer a premium service at a premium price while holding core values that embrace simplicity and eschew luxury.” In that same year, I became the Enrollment Manager at Sandy Spring Friends School (SSFS): a school still weighed down by the remnants of the recession and operating in a market of too many independent schools with a very high tuition, affected by the changing demographic of millennial parents and very good public schools.

SSFS has a fantastic product, blessed with 140 acres of playing fields and farmland, where our teachers know our students in class sizes averaging 14. We do not have a local market, but rather rely on the fortunate families willing to make the 25-minute drive north of the Capital Beltway. Rooted in our belief that students will achieve academic success if they feel connected to their community, we emphasize exploration and inquiry rather than lecture and recall. The question always remains, is there a price you can put on that philosophy to be competitive in the DC market?

Sidwell Friends Head of School Bryan Garman wrote in his essay “Toward a Framework for Twenty-First Century Quaker Education” that “Quaker schools . . . are distinguished by having the audacity to believe that education can change the world for the better. . . . Our value proposition must continue to be 35

grounded in Fox’s radical, unabashedly idealistic proposition of value . . . we must continue to be countercultural, refusing to measure ourselves solely in terms of the market.”

Through very smart Board management, by 2018, SSFS has established itself as about 20% more affordable than our competitors along and inside the Beltway. Yet in recent times of access to information through common applications for admission and financial aid and reporting through NAIS, plus the emergence of the Groupon parent who will literally show financial offers from other schools, our competitor schools are often starting their financial discussions with families at the SSFS tuition rate, and moving toward a net tuition revenue model, assigning financial assistance for non-needs-based reasons. This model, of course, is not new, especially in competitive athletic schools. Schools that shift to this model of attracting the most affluent families often defend the model through the argument that revenue will come back to the school through Advancement, saying it’s better to get 75% of $40,000 than nothing at all.

SSFS has always followed a needs-based model, rooted in the history of Quaker education dating back to the late 17th Century and the William Penn Charter School where William Penn ordered the Overseers of the Public Grammar school in Philadelphia to obtain funds to educate the city’s poorer children. Traditionally, financial assistance in most independent schools has been needs-based. In the past two decades this

has begun to change, especially after the recession in 2008, since families are more likely to use public education in many markets. Traditional FA policies have been re-evaluated with schools forced to often negotiate with applicants and existing families to ensure full enrollment. As tuition rates have continued to rise due primarily to pressures of human resource payments (salaries and benefits), many schools have priced themselves out of markets with less demand for independent schools. Quaker schools have felt this more than most in several markets.

At SSFS, our greatest attrition problem is with students rising from 8th to 9th grades. Much of this attrition is due to the significant step-increase in tuition, as well as students seeking a new environment after many years at SSFS. Students can apply to schools where they are desirable admits and have access to financial assistance that they may not have had at SSFS. A number of schools in our area have Merit aid programs. Two schools base Merit solely on achievement on a standardized test. For example, the top 10% of all student scorers receive a $5000 award. Another school has a much more rigorous approach including a separate application, testing, and interviews. These awards are up to $20,000 a year renewable annually.

Exploration and Learning

With a desire to be transparent with our awards and to not simply award the strongest academics, I set about designing a Merit Aid model that could both attract outstanding students to our school and retain our strongest community members from our 8th grade. After reviewing other school models, I decided to contact other Quaker school admissions offices to discover how many are using a needs-based model only.

Using Survey Monkey, I asked the following questions of 76 Quaker school admission offices with 28 responding. The compiled results follow.

1. Did you/will you meet your enrollment and net tuition goals for 2018/2019?

- 8 schools reported they will meet neither enrollment nor tuition goals 2. What percentage of the student population receives some form of financial assistance to attend your school?

- 40% 3. What is your school’s financial aid to net revenue ratio as a percentage?

- 28% 4. Of all the financial aid allocated for 2018/19, what percentage was assigned based solely on the financial need of the applicant?

- 94% 5. How does your school offer tuition assistance for faculty/staff?

- 4 schools offer 100%

- 12 schools offer greater than 50% 6. What percentage tuition discount do siblings (2nd child) receive?

- Average 11% discount This data revealed that of the Quaker schools reporting, 30% are not making enrollment goals and the “discount rate” at 28% is too high compared to NAIS average closer to 21% for Day-Boarding, SSFS’s type.

Importantly, on average only 6% of financial aid was non-needs-based. This gave me a good starting point and after meeting with Head of School, Tom Gibian, we decided we should not exceed 5% of our financial aid budget to Merit aid. Merit aid is not an additional line item, but rather part of the existing budgeted financial aid for the Upper School.

During the summer I formed a committee to support me in the process. We decided that 12 students will be nominated and notified that they had received a Merit award. Half of the students will come from our Middle School (selected by the 8th grade teachers), and the other half will come from new applicants (selected by the 9th grade admissions committee).

These 12 students will then be reviewed by the Merit committee, who will use established criteria to award six David Robert Yarnall $5000 awards, renewable annually, and six Jane Addams $1500 awards, also renewable. If a student declines the award, we will not seek to add another student. If, after 4 years, all 48 awards are active, this will represent $156,000 in Merit awards or about 4.7% of our 2019/20 FA budget. (By 2022/23, estimates have the awards at about 4.45%) It is important that these awards are not given in place of needs-based aid. A student who qualifies for FA under our regular process can be given a Merit award in addition to their needs-based award.

Next Steps

There is a full evaluation of the program underway by the committee. Already, as predicted through the experiences of Friends School Baltimore, the greatest challenge is the reception by current families. Is this a program only for new applicants to our Upper School? If we excluded the awards from current families does that go against our mission? Can we extend that to our Middle School? Was the size of the awards enough to yield a greater quantity of our top rated applicants?

Anthony McCudden 36

AMY MCGLINN

Visual Art Teacher, Middle School Advisor Friends School of Wilmington, Wilmington NC

Quaker education has been an integral part in forming

who I am as a teacher, as well as a citizen of my community.

I joined Friends School of Wilmington, NC, in 2011, teaching preschool through 8th grade Art. With each

passing year, I grew increasingly more involved with our

Middle School program, taking on the role of advisor in 2014. Currently I teach 3rd – 8th grade Art, serve as our

Middle School Advisory coordinator, and coach track. I am

privileged to teach in an environment that has allowed me

to grow within my role, explore leadership opportunities,

Amy McGlinn

and pursue curriculum that I am passionate about. Being a

Quaker educator has allowed me to go deeper in content, while forming meaningful relationships with students. As an active member of the Wilmington community I work to

ART FOR GOOD: EXPLORING ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY THROUGH ART AND ACTION Background

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”- John Muir Friends School of Wilmington (FSW) is uniquely located between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean. These bodies of water serve as the heartbeat of our community; flowing with energy, but also a reminder of the role we play in our ever-changing environment. While environmental education has been a strong thread of our middle school curriculum, I noticed a need to move past educating and on to advocating. Through this action research I hoped to form partnerships with Quaker organizations and connect with local artists and activists to develop opportunities for students to advocate for issues that are relevant and significant to them. The following are the steps I took to gain clarity of the needs of my region, identify injustices to underserved communities, and seek partnerships with community organizations.

It is significant that during this research process, Hurricane Florence made landfall in our area in September 2018. The storm had a profound effect on our town and school and brought to light, even more so, the environmental fragility of our coastal community. While the timeline of some of the action steps tied into this project was affected, this was a real 37

form partnerships between FSW and local organizations.

life lesson for myself and my students on how deeply we are connected to our environment and the depth of the resilience we are capable of.

Exploration/Learning

Inquiry Questions How does environmental advocacy play a role in a middle school curriculum?

What resources are available locally and nationally for curriculum support?

How do we teach students to advocate for injustices that are present in society?

To begin this project, it was important to further my own understanding of local environmental issues. I took the following steps over the course of a year to seek a deeper understanding.

1. Joined and participated in local environmental organizations: Sierra Club, Cape Fear Riverwatch, and Coastal Federation. Throughout this process I joined the Executive Board of my local Sierra Club, and joined the Equity, Inclusion and Justice committee of North Carolina.

2. Attended the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network annual Summit, focusing on environmental injustices to rural North Carolina affected by Hurricane

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

Florence.

3. Participated in the North Carolina Conservation Priorities annual meeting, identifying our state’s focal points for 2019.

4. Volunteered with campaigns for environmental-focused candidates for local and state office.

I connected with two national Quaker organizations - Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) and Friends Council on Education (FCE). In preparation for our annual 7th grade trip to Washington DC, I contacted FCNL to develop a program of lobbying on Capitol Hill. While in DC, we met with FCNL members for lobbying simulation training, met with activist-artist Joey Hartmann-Dow, and engaged in discussions about the current Farm Bill that was being voted on by Congress. The following day, FCNL lobbyists guided students as we met with our Congressional representative offices, opening the doors and building on positive relationships, and then allowing students to step forward and speak their truth and share stories with our North Carolina legislators.

In spring 2018, I received a grant through FCE, for a project - “Our Ocean; Exploring Environmental Advocacy Through Printmaking.” This grant allowed me to create a unique experience for a group of middle school students. A group of 6th through 8th grade students participated in an “Art for Good Artist Retreat,” which was built into our Service Learning framework. The goal was to step away from our normal surroundings and be immersed in nature, which we found on one of North Carolina’s coastal islands, Bald Head Island. Our trip coincided with No Boundaries International Art Colony, an annual collective of working artists who set up studios on the island to create work specific to the natural surroundings. Students met with International artists and toured their studio space to discuss in-progress work and have open conversations with the artists about their process, inspiration, and how to work through artistic challenges. While on the retreat, students began the first steps of their individual printmaking artwork.

I also connected with local artists and organizations. After the Artist Retreat, we partnered with Shannon Bourne, a social justice artist and printmaking professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, to assist with the printmaking process. Shannon invited our group to the UNCW print studio for a work session, and also shared expertise while working with students on our campus. Students researched environmental issues, like climate change, rising sea levels, overuse of plastics, recycling, and care for aquatic creatures.

This project culminated with a student designed art exhibit

in a local gallery. Proceeds from print sales were donated to an environmental organization. Additional local partnerships included Plastic Ocean Project, Cape Fear Sierra Club, Tidal Creek Co-Op. One unique outcome of this action research was the student learning about communication across differences. When working with FCNL and our North Carolina congressional offices, students had entered the process with a predetermined idea of what their experience would be, due to a sense of differing political viewpoints. FCNL focused on an issue-based and relationship building approach when meeting with staff members. After our experience, students were surprised that while meeting with Congressional members who had different viewpoints than they did, we were all able to connect and share stories in a respectful and civil manner. It was all about communicating and finding common ground.

Next Steps

•

I plan to expand on the work started with FCNL to include letter writing and a deepening of research in current legislation. This would allow for closer

•

collaboration in Language Arts and Social Studies.

I will continue the Artist Retreat as an annual event for middle school students, changing focus and art material each year, and allowing for connections with a

•

variety of working artists.

I will participate in the 2019-2020 cohort of the Amplifier Art Education program, “amplifying the voices of social change movements through art and community engagement by creating meaningful ways for educators and their students to join the conversation.” This program provides resources and collaborates with artist Shepard Fairey.

Amy McGlinn 38

SARAI NIEVES

Director of Admission, Summer Camp and After-school Enrichment United Friends School, Quakertown, PA

My work as a teacher has always been grounded within a progressive framework. My values and core

principles have been shaped by a strong belief in

equity and social justice, making Friends schools a great match for me. I am grateful for the opportunity

to deepen my commitment, clarify my direction and continue to immerse myself in the work of supporting

parents and teachers and helping a school grow. My first experience with a Friends school was when I

was hired as a preschool teacher at Brooklyn Friends School. At the time I was a graduate student at

Sarai Nieves

Bank Street College of Education. I found myself

immersed in the theory and practice of progressive early childhood education, equity, social justice and

spirituality. I found the experience to be spiritually grounding and extremely gratifying.

BEYOND THE 3R’S - THE SCHOOL’S ROLE IN EDUCATING AND SUPPORTING PARENTS Background

After 24 years of teaching, I now find myself in a position as an administrator. My work lends itself to building relationships with families and with teachers. I am a participant in various meetings with teachers, parents and administrators. My office is always open and is a place where teachers, students and parents feel welcome. Teachers sit on my couch and discuss their curriculum and their relationships with students and parents. Parents enter my office and discuss parenting, family dynamics and transitions. Students enter my office and discuss relationships and concerns with me. Parents express their fears about their child growing and transitioning from one stage and place to another. They worry about how their young child will fare going into kindergarten and how their teen will fare when they leave United Friends School and go into high school. Looking ahead can often be a distressing process for parents.

United Friends School is small. We have 103 students and like many small schools, the administrators take on many roles. We do not have the luxury of a counselor or a full time school psychologist who can help move the community and strengthen our teachers and our parents, so, we administrators carry the responsibility of embracing 39

and caring for the emotional and psychological needs of our families ourselves.

In my experience parents seem to express the most vulnerability in the early childhood preschool years, and then again, in the middle school years. In early childhood, parents express concern and emotional angst over separation, readiness for school, readiness for kindergarten and scheduling. Parents fret over friendships and conflicts. Parents of young children express woes and worries related to dressing, independence, eating and sleeping. Later on, in the middle school years, parents express angst over readiness for high school and readiness for life. And in both instances, parents are always faced with the issues of behaviors, boundaries and limit setting.

Exploration/Learning

My experience has taught me that most parents want to be good parents. They want to help their children grow into healthy, successful people. Parents yearn for a connection to and an understanding of how to do this well. They seek and need support during these precious and challenging child rearing years.

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

School is one of the places where the community comes together regularly and consistently in the lives of families.

School offers a structure and an expectation that teachers and administrators will partner with families in the childcare and childrearing journey, if only for a short while. As professionals dedicated to children and families, we have a responsibility to support our families through their journey at our school. What is the best way to do this with limited resources?

My impressions were collected after meeting with teachers and parents formally and informally.

I learned there was

a need to create a space that could include parents and teachers and could begin to address some of the issues they were expressing. After brainstorming with the Head of School, I came up with The Parent Education Series – a series of gatherings where discussions and presentations that center

Next Steps

This is an ongoing project. I plan to develop a structure with outlined topics and guests for the entire year. I envision starting with 2-3 events for parents of early childhood students and 2-3 events for parents of adolescent students. I will work with the head of school to develop a plan that will include funding for speakers, child care, food and materials. I will focus on adolescent development and issues such as technology use, healthy relationships and the transition to high school. I’m looking forward to completing the following books: Untangled

by Lisa Damour, Ph.D, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults by Frances E. Jensen and MD with Amy Ellis Nutt, Brainstorm by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. and Building Resilience in Children and Teens by Kenneth R. Ginsburg MD, FAAP.

on relationships and issues relevant to families can occur. I believe that when we focus on these issues and come together as teachers and parents, we can help create connections to each other and gain a greater sense of understanding and support without judgment. I was surprised at how motivated the families were to learn and how much the series served as a community builder. I learned about the importance of connections and community and the role school can play in creating healthy relationships for families.

Topics and conversations from the gatherings often spilled over into faculty divisional meetings serving to nurture discussions. The first speaker and topic were so well received that the parents requested we revisit and dive deeper into the approach introduced at the first meeting.

The events took place in the early evening. Childcare and dinner were provided. I invited Dr. Tamara Kanter, psychologist, as a guest speaker. Her topic was Connections – You and your Child’s Development – the Joys and Challenges of Parenting.

She introduced The Nurtured Heart Approach. Parents were so interested in this approach; I purchased an audio tape and a book, Transforming the Difficult Child: The Nurtured Heart Approach by Howard Glasser and Jennifer Easley, that circulated among parents and teachers. Parents asked to hear from Dr. Kanter again to learn more about the approach.

Sarai Nieves 40

CHARLES O’KANE

Director of Development Wilmington Friends School, Wilmington DE

Before being appointed Director of Development at Wilmington Friends School, I served as the Director of

Capital and Endowment Giving, working to enrich the

School’s major gifts and planned giving programs. As

someone new to independent schools and to Quaker education, I was grateful for how welcoming everyone

-- faculty and staff, parents and alumni -- was to me and to my family. It didn’t take long for me to realize what a special community WFS is. After seven years, I

Chad O’Kane

remain humbled by the continued, generous support

of our various constituencies. It is a true privilege to advocate for our faculty and our students in an effort to support the incredible teaching and learning that

BUILDING A CULTURE OF PHILANTHROPY: WHY FACULTY & STAFF PARTICIPATION IS CRITICAL TO BROADER FUNDRAISING EFFORTS OF A QUAKER SCHOOL Background

As Wilmington Friends School (WFS), and schools like us, continues to face financial challenges, the importance of philanthropy only increases. A strong annual fund is the bedrock of philanthropy at WFS, and is the foundation upon which all other fundraising initiatives are built. That said, despite moderate growth in the Annual Fund, we know that significant, long term growth is not sustainable, and so we need to explore other models that will lead to long term financial sustainability. To that end, as we work on a sustained fundraising effort focused on endowment growth, we know that financial transparency and philanthropic education are

on our playing fields, and in our broader community.

Exploration/Learning

Fundraising can be an off-putting topic for many people, and so I knew that I needed to consult a variety of folks when developing a plan. I started by reaching out to division and department heads to flesh out this idea. My Annual Fund Director and I met with our Head of Lower School and our Lower School Admissions Associate to discuss ways to deepen the level of engagement around this topic. From these discussions, we determined it would be best to create a presentation, something along the lines of, “Advancement 101/ What’s New in Advancement.” I then took this idea to my fellow

critical to our success.

Senior Advancement colleagues (our Director of Admissions &

My project has focused on the concept of working inside-out;

Marketing) to further flesh out this concept.

meaning, the process of building a culture of financial understanding - and the role philanthropy plays in our financial model - among our faculty and staff could provide a blueprint for expanding these efforts among our other stakeholders, including parents, alumni, parents of alumni, foundations, and other friends of the school.

41

takes place every day in our classrooms, on our stages,

Financial Aid, and our Director of Communications & Strategic

During the fall of 2017 and spring of 2018, I had the opportunity to present to each division and department, and I collected feedback by way of a survey instrument. The qualitative data I collected was very constructive. I continued to fine-tune this presentation, and bounce ideas off of a variety of internal

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

stakeholders to get a sense of what resonated, and what

participation, and we still have over four months left in the

was falling flat. Interestingly, our goal for faculty and staff

current fiscal year to hopefully get to 100%. I get the sense

participation is always 100%; while we’d come very close to

that people are not just supporting the annual fund out of a

that number in recent years, at the conclusion of the 2017/18

sense of obligation, or to quiet the development office; rather,

school year, despite these presentations and a seemingly

I feel there’s a renewed sense of understanding about and

inclusive process, our faculty and staff participation dipped

pride in the importance of our annual giving efforts, and of

to its lowest level -- 89% -- in my seven-year tenure. I knew

philanthropy more generally.

we needed to be more thoughtful and more strategic about this effort. While the aggregate giving from our faculty and staff campaign is not necessarily that significant, high levels

Next Steps

Beyond faculty and staff participation, the purpose of the

of participation represent so much more. I’ve witnessed,

presentation and of my action research project is to create

firsthand, donors and foundations being compelled by the

more of a culture of philanthropy, to develop a deeper

commitment and dedication of our faculty when it comes

understanding of the role philanthropy plays at independent

to fundraising. Making that case to our faculty - how their

schools, and to lay the groundwork for a larger effort at our

participation impacts the larger philanthropic landscape -

School, which is an ambitious endowment campaign that

became more of a focus.

was recently approved by the Board to address long term sustainability.

In keeping with a “Design Thinking” mentality that had begun to permeate life at Wilmington Friends, I spent the

I had the good fortune to present at CASE-NAIS, in

summer testing and refining my prototype, with an eye

collaboration with colleagues at Friends Seminary and Sidwell

toward presenting at our all staff professional development

Friends, in January, which provided more valuable feedback.

day in October. We identified a committee of faculty and

I plan to explore opportunities to present my work at the

staff liaisons - representing each department and division

“Development in Friends Schools” peer network of Friends

- to help with a PD presentation, which would serve as an

Council and to ADVIS. I know this work will never be complete,

educational workshop about advancement, and as an

and that I’ll need to continue to evolve my approach based on

official kick-off to our faculty/staff campaign. The goals

a host of internal and external factors, but hopefully this will

became very clear:

provide a roadmap, not just for me, but for others looking to

•

To provide a basic understanding of the school’s

•

To explain the role that philanthropy plays in our

•

deepen engagement at their School or organization.

finances; budget, and to convey, clearly and concisely, the direct impacts that giving has at WFS; To articulate the importance of 100% faculty/staff participation, and how it compels and inspires others to give.

The presentation was very well received; I’ve had a great deal of positive feedback from those in attendance. More importantly, our faculty and staff participation has increased significantly. During the 2017/18 school year, as referenced above, we had just 89% of our faculty and staff participate -- and it took a tooth-pulling effort, and a lot of time and energy, to get to this number over the course of an entire year. As of February 21st, however, we’ve surpassed 95%

Charles O’Kane 42

KARYN ROBINSON PAYTON Lower School Learning Specialist Westtown School, West Chester, PA

From my early childhood years at Storrs Friends Meeting, to pivotal elementary years in residence at Pendle Hill, to

my membership in Chester Friends Meeting, my spiritual, personal, and professional identities are firmly grounded in Quakerism. As an educator, my beliefs are informed by my own school experiences including a foundation

in progressive education at The School in Rose Valley, adolescent years at Friends Select School, and my first

job as an early interventionist working with young

Karyn Robinson Payton

children with developmental disabilities and delays.

These threads are now woven into a strong commitment to Quaker education, progressive education, and special

MEETING THEIR NEEDS: A SURVEY OF MODELS OF LEARNING SUPPORT IN QUAKER LOWER SCHOOLS Background

I love collaborating with families and colleagues on seeking the best ways we might teach so that individual students might learn. Over 13 years of teaching in independent schools, I have noticed schools recognizing the need to expand their interpretation of what a “good match” student might be for their program. There seems to be less of a sense that each child must fit the particular model of teaching at a school. In order to serve the students attracted to Friends schools, we realize that we must broaden how we provide support in a community of diverse learners.

When exploring the websites of Quaker Lower Schools, what shines through is a sense of welcoming and community, an honoring of childhood, and a desire to make space and time for learning and growing. Not surprisingly, I found common language in mission or philosophy statements, such as recognizing strengths and gifts, educating the whole child, celebrating diversity and difference, and developmentally focused learning. At the same time, sometimes there was language referring to strong academics and intellectual challenge. So what does this mean for the child who is struggling within the classroom or school community? How do non-specialized Friends schools serve students with identified or unidentified academic or social-emotional needs?

43

education, and my interest lay in how their pedagogies

can be integrated and implemented in ways that support

the Light within children as they grow and discover their truths, their power, their purpose.

When I first arrived at Westtown School as a classroom teacher, I found myself working within a different model of student support than at my prior institution. I began to wonder, “How many different ways do non-specialized independent Lower Schools structure their programs to meet the needs of diverse learners?” Then, when I began my new position as Lower School Learning Specialist, my question evolved into a desire to explore possibilities that might inform our emerging framework of learning support.

Exploration / Learning

I interviewed a sampling of faculty or administrators with roles dedicated to supporting diverse learners. All interviews began with the open-ended question: How does learning support currently work in your Lower School?

All eight of the schools surveyed served primarily Lower School students, ranging from 95 to 200 children in preschool/ pre-kindergarten through 4th, 5th, 6th or 8th grades. For most, learning support services formally began in 1st grade. All were located on the east coast - Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New Jersey. A few of the schools specifically described their learning support services on their websites.

The number and role of school personnel dedicated

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

to providing support varied. In the smaller schools, administrators played more of a role in coordinating support.

In one small school, the dedicated support faculty was simply the reading specialist. Schools with larger enrollments had more personnel, although often people had multiple roles of coordinating/managing support services and providing intervention. Positions included learning specialists, reading specialists (sometimes combined with the role of learning specialists), math specialists, student support coaches, and school counselors or psychologists. A few of the positions were part-time, particularly for smaller schools.

Many of the schools had a regular schedule of weekly meetings consisting of the faculty/administrators responsible for coordinating and implementing support. Often teachers attended these meetings to discuss a specific child. Learning specialists, or their counterparts, typically coordinated support-focused family meetings. The schools had a variety of ways to keep track of notes, accommodations, supports, and progress. Some kept running records via Google Docs of which teaching faculty had access. Others had developed structured support plans that were most often created to collate recommendations from psychoeducational evaluations and to keep record of the accommodations and interventions the school could provide and which services the family may need to seek outside of school.

All the interviews revealed, that in some way, classroom teachers consistently individualized and/or differentiated instruction for all students. When a student experienced academic or social-emotional challenges that needed addressing beyond the classroom teacher’s expertise, the first step at most schools was for teachers to confer with the person who coordinated learning support, who would then observe in the classroom to help provide additional suggestions or accommodations. For interventions provided by the school, some had push-in support models (individual or small group support by the specialist during classroom instruction), others had pull-out models (individual or small group sessions for specialized or targeted instruction/remediation). Interventions were most often for reading, social skills, attention or executive functioning challenges, and less frequently for math. Only a few schools provided enrichment and that was in math.

One school had a more unique model of learning support teachers. These were classroom teachers with expertise in differentiated teaching methods and academic supports.

They provided 1:1 sessions for structured work time and there was a fee-structure for this model, paid by parents.

When a student needed an increased level of intervention, all the schools had access to some type of external support.

In New Jersey, some students were eligible for instructional

services through state funding in an after-school model. In Pennsylvania, the schools had access to varying services from the Intermediate Units (IU) with differences by county and based on the number of students enrolled in the school.

Examples included speech or occupational therapy, reading and/or math remediation, and consulting counselors or psychologists. When the school recommended a tutor, options ranged from suggesting a known and trusted outside tutor to one school that managed their own tutoring and academic coaching program. In this model, the school hired the tutors/coaches, tutoring happened during the school day or after school, and the parents coordinated and paid for the services through the school, which in turn paid the tutors. In all tutoring situations, parents were responsible for the additional expense.

Each interview ended with the following questions: What are 2-3 ways this current model is an improvement over past models at your school? What are 2-3 ways you want to grow and improve your learning support program in the future?

Suggested improvements included stronger communication with parents, more efficient use of external supports from the local IU, better collaboration with teachers or between learning support personnel, and earlier identification of student challenges. Areas of growth included 1) wishes for a more comprehensive department of in-school interventionists, 2) struggling with which students the school can serve, and 3) having more resources or a specialist for math support.

Next Steps

I plan on continuing to interview additional schools. There was an overwhelming request, by those already interviewed, to hear what others were doing and to share challenges and successes with one another. Thus, I will share this summary report with them. I will seek ways to network with learning support peers in both non-specialized Quaker Lower Schools and with professionals working in specialized schools for students with learning differences.

Karyn Robinson Payton 44

FREDERICK CLEMENS PRATT

Director of Support Services, Middle & Upper School Clinical Counselor Friends’ Central School, Wynnewood PA

I began my career at Friends’ Central School

in 2015 as a clinical mental health counselor

for the Middle and Upper divisions and was immediately drawn to Quaker values and a

mission statement that aspired to “peacefully

transform the world.” Currently, as the Director of Support Services (Nursery-12) I am keenly

interested in the intersection of Quaker Values

Frederick Clemens Pratt

IMPLEMENTING RESTORATIVE APPROACHES (RA): NESTING QUAKER VALUES WITH AN EMERGING SOCIAL SCIENCE Background

Days after a community-wide Appreciative Inquiry (AI) retreat in 2016 at Friends’ Central School (FCS) where eight themes emerged that expressed an understanding of the FCS community, I was convinced as a novice RA practitioner that FCS is already an institution that believed deeply about the central importance of quality relationships in the teaching and learning process, and that we were well-poised for some first-order change of tweaking policy and practices to align with restorative principles. Making the connection between RA and Quaker education was immediate, knowing well that these practices have their roots in many varied spiritual traditions.

Exploration/Learning

My intention in the pre-implementation stage of RA at FCS was to take a closer look at the middle years division (grades 6, 7, 8) where administration/leadership is supportive of embracing a restorative approach to strengthen an established, scheduled Advisory framework to support Middle School students’ learning in curricular, co-curricular and mission-based learning. I wanted to investigate the current understanding of the Advisory time, which is clearly expressed as a central aspect of the MS student’s experience to our students and families.

This action research attempted to provide me, as a 45

and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) that contribute to school climate and culture.

newly licensed RA trainer, with an awareness of the pre-implementation/ implementation of RA in an independent school, offering an insight into understanding the complexities of initiating the necessary paradigm shift needed to strengthen and sustain a school with a robust sense of community into the future. The intention of this action research project was to set up a rationale for introductory RA training in a school where teachers in Lower, Middle, and Upper Divisions are interested in enhancing skills and adding new techniques that will continue to strengthen their relationships with students.

In Middle and Upper divisions an advisory program can facilitate the kinds of relationships that RA cultivates, and can provide the structure that creates connectedness in a school.

Connectedness is a characteristic of school culture in which students have meaningful relationships with adults within the school, are active in school life, and feel a sense of belonging.

Research indicates that school connectedness is linked to higher grades, higher test scores, and lower dropout rates, regardless of students’ socioeconomic status. It is particularly important for middle years’ educators to strengthen school connectedness, because the experience of alienation often takes hold during early adolescence.

In schools that possesses a strong advisory program, the advisor is the central figure in the student’s school experience.

Advisors may act as a safety-net by anticipating problems before they occur, as they monitor the academic, social, and

personal life of the advisee. An advisory program requires commitment from administration to provide the time for professional development, so all advisors have the skills and know-how to deal with any crisis a student brings to the table.

Analysis of the research data (student/faculty surveys, Critical Friends Groups feedback, Professional Learning Group feedback, and a personal research journal) collected indicates that the majority of advisors and advisees believe advisory is an important aspect of daily school life. Identified strengths of the program include the advisors who serve as caring, adult advocates for advisees, monitor their advisees’ academic progress, and celebrate their achievements. Areas identified as needing improvement included advisor training, more professional development, and figuring out how to solve the tension between the centrality of the advisory block to the mission and philosophy of the school with the utilitarian use of that block for students (and faculty) involved in music-related learning and performance.

It is clear that both advisors and advisees see that the central purpose of the advisory block is to support the academic mission of the school, whether that is articulated as ‘time to do homework’ or ‘time to meet with teachers, receive extra-help.’

However, the deviation of the responses to questions related to purpose suggest that the social-emotional and community-building component of advisory that is clearly articulated in some advisors’ responses and not that evident in student responses suggests a ‘hidden-curriculum’ to some in the advisor-based Critical Friends Group (CFG) that gathered to help me with this research, or a dismissal of such purpose from the advisee-based CFG. A very strong desire to deepen relationships has been expressed consistently throughout the responses to the teacher survey and through the gathered feedback from both surveys as discussed in the advisor based CFG. There was palatable interest in RA, particularly in how restorative circles can be used in advisory, but also how restorative circles can be adapted and used in classroom settings, as well as maintaining the high culture of care at Friends’ Central School.

is a philosophy, a way of being. It changes how all people relate to one another. Most importantly, it applies throughout a system-of-supports framework. At the foundation of whole-school RA are practices and processes designed to build community, create a healthy school climate, and develop social and emotional skills. Specifically, at this level the following steps are underway: • Introduction to Restorative Practices (Middle & Upper School Personnel) - completed by 2019 • Restorative Circles Training (Middle School Personnel) completed in 2018 • Introduction to Restorative Practices (Lower School Personnel) - estimated implementation 2019 • Restorative Circles Training (Lower School Personnel) estimated implementation 2020 The next level of RA applies to instances ‘when things go wrong.’ The restorative approach turns focus here on repairing relationships—rather than the rule that was broken.

• Facilitating Restorative Conferences (LS, MS, & US Administrators) - estimated implementation 2021 Lastly and most intensively, when individuals are disengaged and excluded from the community, a restorative approach intentionally seeks to welcome and facilitate belonging and engagement.

• Restorative Responses to Adversity and Trauma (LS, MS, & US Administrators) - estimated implemention 2022 A whole-school restorative approach applies to all levels—not just when things go wrong—and to the entire school, not just a few classrooms or a few students. RA, when dealing with wrongdoing, facilitates restorative conversations, separates the deed from the doer, and seeks to understand before being understood. It involves a shift from punitive to restorative, from blame to connection, and from fear to love. The restorative approach helps us to see in our students what they may not yet see in themselves. It allows us to offer them a doorway into their best selves, a lens from which to discover who they already are, but might not have discovered yet.

Next Steps

Implementation of RA at schools usually begins with a shift in hearts and minds. At FCS this shift is not seen as necessary, since the school culture is already primed with a strong embrace of these values. RA is not a new or magic approach, but it is something that requires mindful awareness of our beliefs about students, ourselves, and our community. It asks us to examine biases, assumptions and habits that inform how we unconsciously operate as educators and our relationship to discipline.

As Friends’ Central School moves toward whole-school RA, it is not just about doing a set of processes or practices. It

Frederick Clemens Pratt 46

ANDREW SALVERDA

Middle School Head San Francisco Friends School, San Francisco CA

I am the founding Middle School Head at San Francisco Friends School, a position I’ve held for the last ten years. I’ve been in independent middle schools for

more than 25 years (teaching, coaching, advising and administrating) and I’ve had experience in many realms of school design. This is my 11th and last year

at SF Friends, and I’m fortunate to have been engaged

in helping build a dynamic and joyous middle school.

I previously worked at the Nueva School (also for 11 years) in many roles as well: teaching, serving as interim

middle school head, coordinating the Innovation Lab (in

Andrew Salverda

partnership with Stanford University’s Design School), designing the advisory program, coaching, co-founding

the Nueva Drama Conservatory, and leading student trips. Having been a part of building two progressive middle schools, I’ve had many opportunities to design and implement programs and policies, and in the

BEING AND BECOMING: THE DEVELOPMENT OF IDENTITY DURING MIDDLE SCHOOL Background

Initially, I was torn between two possible topics for my project.

process I’ve developed an appreciation of middle school students, teachers, parents, and the school culture of which we’re all a part.

Exploration/Learning

My interest in the design process has more to do with its

I first considered exploring “making” opportunities and

human-centeredness than strictly the building of things. I feel

spaces in Quaker and other progressive schools, hoping to

the most important part of design thinking work, especially as

identify programs that effectively leverage design-thinking

it relates to an academic setting with younger people, is the

methodology. The second idea was more squarely related

interpersonal and empathy-building dimensions.

to my professional work, and was to explore better ways to help students achieve agency over their learning and social

Last spring, I worked with our school’s mental health consultant,

affairs during middle school.

Katherine, to create a middle school class we called “Skills,” which aims to explore identity development, the place of the

I soon moved from looking at design spaces and the

individual in a community, and the social dynamics among

application of the design thinking to considering the

community members. I felt the class also would be helpful

application of the empathy and awareness components

in exploring the human dimension of problem-solving, not

of the design thinking. The most important work students

to mention serve as an opportunity to examine identity

do during middle school, often unconsciously and without

development and cultural influences with middle schoolers.

much guidance or feedback, is the establishment and solidification of their personal identity and a connection to

Katherine and I framed out what we hoped the Skills class

their communities (school, family, city).

would be and—as importantly—wouldn’t be. Our aim was for it to be dynamic and interactive, and for the scope to be formed,

47

I settled on a topic that is both professionally and personally

in part, by what students brought to it. We both have abundant

satisfying and also fills an institutional need at my school,

experience with middle school students, and we didn’t want

and I believe has potential for application in other schools.

the experience to feel prescriptive, nor to presume we know

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

everything about their identity development or sense of

itself to a conversation about talking with their parents and the

belonging. Our hope was that some reciprocity would promote

feeling that sometimes eye-contact is hard and not conducive

investment, and ultimately risk-taking, vulnerability, awareness,

to openness.

empathy, and reflection. We chose a number of activities that could both introduce topics and serve as catalysts to

In exploring how adults can be resources, one student spoke

examining relationship, moral dilemmas, perspective-taking,

about his mother’s sense of direction in the city and said he

and the intention/interpretation/impact cycle.

had no idea how she has cultivated such an accurate sense of direction. This resonated with my interest in maps and

To start Skills classes, we made good use of John Burningham’s

some reading I’d done early in the action research process.

book Would You Rather. It offers dilemmas from which younger

We decided to have students do some mapping of their own,

readers can choose a preference; we invented some more

finding that geography and mapping offer a rich metaphorical

significant dilemmas, and then had students write their own,

landscape for the investigation and development of identity

which proved helpful in testing sensitivities and sensibilities.

and culture. We engaged students in a variety of mapping

A game called Roshambo Fanclub offered students an

exercises and were struck by the creative ways they accounted

interactive way to experience winning and losing and then

for the passage of time, interpersonal experiences, and their

explore how they manage disappointment, expectations, and

emotional responses to people and places. Their efforts to

shifting allegiances. With the help of a clip from The Wonder

map places, times, and people with whom they experience joy,

Years, we discussed our inner monologue, self-criticism and

belonging, and trouble offered lots to process. The mapping

positive self-talk, which in turn led to discussion of growth

exercises warrant more examination, as they lend themselves

mindset and our internal resources.

to discussion about a host of themes and topics that also relate to identity development—hazards, symbols, orientation,

The experiences we had with three activities were particularly

resources and guides, shortcuts. It’s one thing to know where

meaningful. In the first, a student told a “soul” story to a

you are, and another to be where you are.

partner; not one where they were the hero, but one in which they were vulnerable, confused, or scared and which may not have had a satisfying end. That partner now possessed the story and told it to a new partner, as if it were theirs, and

Next Steps

The Skills course has been a successful pilot thus far, and I’m

so on. After the stories changed hands four times, we heard

hopeful we can continue to refine and learn from the students.

a few of the stories from the students who possessed them

I plan on continuing to work on the Skills course and connect

last. There were rich reflections on letting go of one’s story

with other educators about it. I’m hopeful that it has a future

and the responsibility and reverence many of them brought to

at San Francisco Friends, perhaps in a rotation with Design

possessing someone else’s story.

Thinking about Improvisation, as the connection between the three is powerful. I’ll also be looking into how the class can

Another activity was to have students pair off and think about

support, and perhaps benefit, our advisory program and in

something for which they might apologize to a classmate;

what ways this work might be appropriate for students and

not something monumental, but not too simple either. First,

parents.

students wrote the apology on a notecard and handed it to their partners to read to themselves. Next, they sat back to back and offered the same apologies verbally. They then sat side-by-side and apologized. Finally, they sat face-to-face and apologized a last time. The debrief was again pretty rich, with students talking reflecting on how method and body language affect authenticity. Not surprisingly, many students felt best when sitting side by side, an observation which lent

Andrew Salverda 48

MARCELINE SOSA

Assistant Director Lower School William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia PA

I have been an educator for the past 18 years. My

journey in teaching began as an assistant teacher in

the New York City public schools where I realized the

importance of building relationships with students and their families. Then, I spent the next four years teaching in North Carolina and Connecticut where I

worked alongside teachers, developed curriculum, and provided students with differentiated instruction

to meet their varying needs. For the past 11 years, I have been in Quaker education as the Language Arts Coordinator and one year as the Assistant Director of

Lower School at the William Penn Charter School. Penn

Marceline Sosa

Charter afforded me the opportunity to engage with

curriculum, teachers, parents, and students through

SUPPORTING ASSISTANT TEACHERS, INTERNS, ASSOCIATE TEACHERS - OH MY!

the lens of Quaker education. This experience has allowed me to truly see what it means to teach the

whole child, to nurture their interests and passions, to guide students along their own journey and provide them with a space to find their voice in the world.

Background

My interest in teacher assistant programs began early in my teaching career. I was an intern at a private Prek-12 school in Connecticut, and I appreciated all of the resources, professional development opportunities, and what education can look like in an independent school. It was these opportunities that allowed me to become the teacher I wanted to become - the researcher and advocate with a desire for more information about and connection to students. Fifteen years later, I have come to observe the various roles of assistant teachers in many schools, and I wonder if we are truly maximizing this opportunity for everyone (students, families, and teachers). It was this thought process that led to my action research taking shape.

During the past two years, I have been in conversations with teaching assistants in various independent and Friends schools. Through these discussions, I was able to gather information about the varying responsibilities of assistant teachers. I also learned about their professional growth plans and how schools could help them attain lead teaching

49

through

Some of their requests for professional growth were for help in writing resumes and cover letters, participating in seminar discussions about various aspects of teaching, like lesson planning, and role-playing interviews for future teaching positions. Assistants also are looking for ways to develop leadership opportunities within their schools by running sessions for lead teachers around topics and learning they had acquired in their own trainings and research. In addition to these opportunities, assistants want to be able to take a lead in teaching certain parts of the curriculum, where they feel they have some autonomy in the design and content of the lessons

Exploration

positions

opportunities.

various

professional

development

while being guided either by a specialty or mentor teacher with whom they are working.

The duties of assistant teachers have been both clerical and instructional. Teaching assistant programs have provided instructional support by reinforcing the teacher’s instruction, working with small groups, and or with individual students.

At times, they may be asked to prepare materials and set up

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

centers that are needed for the day.

with professional development opportunities on topics like

Depending on the school and its needs, some schools have

report card writing, conferences, and data management.

moved either toward the clerical or instructional roles while

Having a designated faculty member committed to this work

other schools have found a way to blend the two. In my

is paramount for the success of assistant teachers and their

experience there is a third approach as well. Professional

students.

growth of the assistant teacher. The question I found myself asking is: How are we supporting the individual assistant teacher and their professional growth so that one day they too can lead a class of their own?

Learnings

Next Steps

My hope is to begin developing this model for Penn Charter Lower School Assistant Teachers. In the coming months, I am looking forward to developing a list of topics that would be relevant to a teaching assistant’s experience and building

A successful assistant teaching program would allow for

a seminar that provides them with the topics and resources

assistant teachers to work alongside mentor teachers. They

they will need to move into their own classroom. I will create a

would be able to develop and teach lessons in the various

framework for developing an individual growth plan for each

disciplines and help in supporting students’ academic and

assistant teacher. An area that I was not able to research further

emotional well-being. In addition to teaching, the program

is the compensation packages for assistant teachers. This

would offer professional development opportunities to

could be the initial stages of another action-research topic.

help the assistant teacher to grow. Like students, each assistant teacher comes with an array of skills and passion for education. It will be important to allow them to see the school’s commitment to support their individual growth plan.

Assistant teachers bring the value of a different perspective and a fresh lens, which is a gift to the school community. In some cases, the assistant teacher is in a graduate program or has just obtained a graduate degree. They often bring new ideas, fresh perspective, and the latest research. These ideas can only further the work of the school, its mission, and the learning experiences of students. Assistants also can lead in-house professional development for faculty colleagues on various topics such as classroom management, assessment tools, and strategies to aid in instruction. Providing assistant teachers with the opportunity to lead other teachers is a great tool for aspiring lead teachers. It can also build their confidence and hone their teaching practices.

Based on my research, it would be valuable for schools to consider how they will support new and seasoned assistant teachers. Having a designated faculty member who shepherds the assistant teachers in understanding the culture of the school and who can create weekly or bi-weekly seminars for the assistants to gather and share experiences and questions is an intentional practice that would benefit everyone. This designated faculty member can also provide assistant teachers

Marceline Sosa 50

JOHN ZIMMERMAN

Director of Admissions and Summer Camp Princeton Friends School, Princeton NJ

John received his bachelor’s degree in Organizational

Leadership from Thomas Edison University. Throughout his 20-year career at Princeton Friends School John has

worked to develop and implement student-centered,

inquiry-based curriculum in storytelling, problem-solving, social-emotional skills, theater arts, and other subjects. In his time at Princeton Friends, John has been the after-school program director, a teacher, an advisor, and the director

of extra-curricular activities, roles which all have helped

John Zimmerman

prepare him to work as Camp Director and Director of

Admissions. John serves as president of Forte Dramatic

Productions and is an award-winning actor and director.

John looks forward to working with other educational leaders to discuss and find solutions to the challenges and opportunities facing smaller independent schools.

THE POTENTIAL OF SUMMER CAMP Background

What makes a summer camp successful? What is possible at a school with limited access to parks, pools, and playgrounds?

How do we work together to raise the brand of “Friends Camps?” It is with these questions in mind that I began this project.

I began by examining what success looks like for a small school of 135 students with no pool. In 2018 the Princeton Friends Summer Camp welcomed over 300 campers, sometimes as many as 200 per week. The camp generated gross revenue of over $600,000 and a net of over $400,000. Additionally, many campers join the school each year as new students and several of our camp counselors have become faculty members. While a naturally beautiful campus contributes to the success of the program, there are factors and decisions at play behind the scenes, which have proven more instrumental and which translate beyond the woods of Princeton Friends. With this data in mind, I set out to examine the summer offerings of other small Friends school through online research, on-site visits, and conversation with other camp directors. Based on my findings and the lessons learned from my years as camp 51

director, it seems that a handful of guiding principles are key to running a successful summer camp.

Exploration/Learning

Understanding the difference between childcare and academic instruction While Friends School certainly offers many enrichment opportunities that are more educational in tone, the majority of our smaller school’s summer camp programs are more akin to child care than academic instruction. The skills and talents required for being an excellent teacher and those needed for providing an excellent child care or camp experience, are not synonymous. It is easy to make an assumption that providing child-care is somehow an easier task than providing an education. It is not. Understanding that these are two related, yet different, roles is a critical step that many overlook in staffing their programs.

Teacher burnout A related problem arises when teachers are asked to take on summer camp in addition to their teaching duties. The

Action Research Summaries 2017-2019 Institute for Engaging Leadership in a Friends School

cadence of the school year is one of peaks and valleys, all

Patience and guidance

leading towards the oasis of summer vacation. While many

Very few camps see immediate success. It takes time to refine

faculty members at our schools seek summer employment

programing, establish traditions, and develop a well-trained

in one form or another, there is something particularly

staff. Most require years of hard work and consistent quality

challenging in having that summer work occur with children,

programming before the word gets out and the investment

at the school where one works. Teachers in these situations

pays off. These early years require dedication to a high level of

often face burnout mid-summer, which has an impact on both

quality and customer service, a leader who understands this

the program and the staff.

and is able to execute, and an administration that has faith and offers support and feedback as the program finds its legs.

A full-time camp director Having a staff member whose primary role is summer programming is critical to launching and maintaining a successful camp. Consider the work of a camp director.

First, a program must be created, budgets established, equipment purchased, contracts with vendors secured, and all other manner of work in advance of the summer. Camps are required to follow certain state and local guidelines for both operations and staff training; it is a camp directors’ job to know these guidelines and ensure that their camp is compliant. Hiring a staff, training them properly, and managing them throughout the summer is a daunting task in and of itself, and the preparation and groundwork for this must be laid during the school year. A camp director also must work directly with parents, and often serves as the chief disciplinary figure. Finally, the camp director must serve as the leader of the summer community and take on that responsibility with staff, campers, and the public. In short, a camp director is a

Next steps

Friends Council Peer Network How do we as a larger community work together to support, share, and grow the brand of Friends Summer Camps?

We must use this moment as a launching point for a larger conversation. We need a comprehensive look at what is currently being offered, what has been tried, what has succeeded and what doesn’t work. We should be exchanging best practices and collaborating on branding so that Friends Camp means something the way Friends School does. In short, I will propose to Friends Council on Education that we create a peer network, similar to those that already exist within Friends Council. This network could provide opportunities for professional conversations and an exchange of ideas as our schools continue to develop this vital source of revenue to help bolster our budgets as navigate the turbulent waters of the current independent school market.

mini head of school. I would ask the heads of school reading this to consider what it would be like to take a quarter to a third of their own workload and add it to that of one of their faculty members. That is the weight of a well-run summer camp on a teacher. While it is possible, perhaps even necessary, to assign a camp director duty beyond summer camp leadership, they should not supersede their first priority: summer camp.

Programing that aligns with the school In order for the success of the camp to have carry-over benefits in admissions and hiring, the values and tone of the camp must be compatible with the school. When a school and a camp’s missions and programing are aligned, the camp can serve as a preview of the school year. A camp need not structure its programing to match that of the school’s curriculum, but should serve as a natural extension of the values and demographics of the school.

John Zimmerman 52