A Constellation of Skills: The Capabilities Approach Program

A Constellation of Skills:

The Capabilities Approach Program

Why do female students tend to become less vocal as they progress through school despite success? Why do girls often steer clear of certain areas and disciplines? Though myriad factors are at work, the key question is this: What can schools

do to address this disparity and support girls to fulfill their great promise and potential?

The answer: reimagine girls’ education.

A recent New York Times op-ed led with a provocative title: “Why Girls Beat Boys at School and Lose to Them at the Office.” In this article, Lisa Damour explores a crucial question about girls’ learning: “What if school is a confidence factory for our sons but only a competence factory for our daughters?” Social scientists have long described various behavioral differences between women and men that highlight what has been termed “a confidence gap”; if we want to disrupt this pattern of traditional socialization of girls, we must eschew cheery platitudes of encouragement in favor of a strategy that will help girls shed the internalized blinders that preclude them from realizing their full potential as doers, thinkers, and creators.

Walker’s has emerged as a leader among girls schools in its quest to disrupt this gendered mindset. With the support of a prestigious Edward E. Ford Foundation Education Leadership Grant, the Capabilities Approach Program, as it has been implemented over the course of three years, equips girls with 10 capabilities, broken into four thematic areas: fluencies, discoveries, agencies, and a selfselected capability. The program allows for both challenge and failure by encouraging girls to be confident and resilient while embracing a growth mindset.

“We are reimagining girls’ education in a way that seeks to disrupt gendered mindsets,” says Head of School Meera Viswanathan. “I was drawn to the thinking of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and his work on justice and the capabilities approach. He suggests that justice is measured by the ability of a person to engage in an array of actions that help her realize her full potential according her own system of values. Walker’s Capabilities Approach Program is inspired by Sen’s research and focuses more specifically on the iterative process of success and failure as necessary stages of girls’ learning.”

Ned Edwards joined the Walker’s faculty in the summer of 2020 as the first director of Walker’s Capabilities Approach Program. He brings considerable experience in various capacities in secondary independent education, specifically at girls schools, including substantive engagement with the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, where he has presented at conferences and been both a participant and a facilitator in its Headways programs.

“There’s this idea that something happens after high school or in the midst of high school where girls aren’t getting the skills they need that allow them to achieve at the highest level,” observes Ned, who also teaches ethics and social justice at Walker’s. “We know there are certain skills that girls need in order to be as forthright in the boardroom as they are in the classroom. “We identified a very specific set of skills that we wanted to focus on,” he continues. “They are skills that we think will ensure success into the future after they

graduate from Walker’s. The Capabilities Approach Program covers everything. At its very core, it is about learning something new and acquiring the ability to pivot when needed in order to gain skills. It’s about the resilience that is acquired by trying something and taking chances. When it works, it’s great, and when it doesn’t, we try something else. That’s the kind of resilience we want our students to learn.”

Social justice is at the heart of the Capabilities Approach Program, Ned explains, citing the emphasis as integral to every component of the program. “We want to make sure that our students, faculty, and staff all have an understanding of the vocabulary and the concepts and why this is important for us to do.

“Capabilities came out of the philosophical understanding of wanting to realize human potential for all,” he states.

Ned frequently likens the capabilities approach to an iceberg: “Voice, confidence, agency, STEM, the ability to collaborate — you get all these just by attending a girls school. That’s the top of the iceberg.

“The capabilities are what’s underneath that’s giving the girl the ballast,” he continues. “It’s the part of the iceberg that you don’t see, and it’s unique to Walker’s. All those things that are underwater — the agencies, the fluencies, the discoveries, the self-selected — are the Capabilities Approach Program that Walker’s is offering. They ground a girl. They give her an even keel. “These are the things that keep our girls true, that keep them stable and allow them to move forward up to the boardroom,” Ned states. “Our girls will carry these skills with them throughout their time at Walker’s and throughout their lives.” Most of the Capabilities Approach Program is part of Walker’s seminar program that features several mini-courses the girls take outside of their academic programs. Ninth graders take Positive Psychology, Digital Literacy, and Social Justice. Tenth graders take Coding, Women’s Health, which includes CPR, sustenance, and sustainability, giving girls a focus on the intersection of nutrition, wellness, and the environment where girls We know there are certain learn how to nourish their bodies, their spirits, as well as the Earth. Eleventh grade skills that girls need in teaches financial literacy, including the order to be as forthright understanding of income tax, and also starts them on their college trajectory. in the boardroom as they Seniors also take College Counseling, give a Senior Speech, learn a self-selected are in the classroom. capability that they teach to others, and end the year with College Prep, an introduction to life on a college campus. Ned Edwards, Walker’s has made tremendous Director of Walker’s Capabilities strides with its financial fluency offerings, Approach Program explains Ned, citing Girls With Impact as

The Capabilities Approach Program offers a different way of thinking about learning beyond the traditional

curriculum. Walker’s views these capabilities as a constellation of skills, interwoven and building on each other, with the end goal being more than the functional mastery of the skill itself. Instead, we view these capabilities within a larger lens that encompasses the development of resiliency, an understanding of social justice, and the importance of girls working together toward a greater aim.

THE INITIAL TEN CAPABILITIES:

AGENCIES

1. Self-defense 2. Swimming 3. First aid certification

FLUENCIES

4. Digital: Today, acquiring a wide range of digital skills is necessary across all disciplines. As early as sixth grade and up through advanced courses, students are immersed in projects that require coding. Our dean of academic technology and innovation explores with students a range of digital fluency topics, including creating a personal digital footprint, digital citizenship and differentiated learning styles. One group already well established in these areas is Walker’s Wirecats, the first all-girls robotics team from New England to compete in the FIRST FRC World Championship. 5. Financial: Historically, women lag in the acquisition of financial fluency, resulting in women’s owning and managing few assets. Through Walker’s Capabilities

well as the United Way Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Since 2017, Walker’s girls have been IRS-trained to prepare personal income taxes for low-income filers in the greater Hartford, CT, area. To date, they’ve secured more than $650,000 in tax refunds and earned income tax credits for area low income families. This year the investing capability is being added. All seniors are receiving $1,000 to invest, and then track returns to learn about investing strategies.

Digital fluency has two components: digital citizenship and coding. “In the digital age, it’s very important for the girls to understand and know how to be good citizens with their devices and their digital interactions,” Ned says, noting that every girl takes a digital citizenship class. “Coding allows the girls to have the ability to understand how coding works and acquire coding skills that will help them in college and beyond,” Ned explains. “Both the VITA program and the

approach program, our girls will learn more about finances through our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and our Senior Investing Program. VITA is an IRS training program that allows our girls to prepare personal income tax returns for low-income families. Our Senior Investing program, debuting this fall of 2022 allows all of our seniors to invest $1,000 in the stock market, track returns and learn first-hand about investing strategies. Both of these real-world activities are enhanced with elective classroom work, giving students a firsthand look at the complexities — and understanding — of personal finance and investment.

6. Rhetorical: Having the

confidence and skill to speak eloquently and convincingly in front of an audience and ensuring that their ideas are heard are skills that all Walker’s students develop both inside and outside the classroom. Classroom work, community partnerships, and affinity groups are just a few of the many stages on which to safely test — and hone — a wide range of rhetorical skills. DISCOVERIES

7. Sustenance and sustainability 8. International experience 9. Paid internship

SELF-SELECTED CAPABILITY

10. Capstone project: Each

student completes a project that features a unique fluency, experience, or agency that she chooses.

The Ethel Walker School Capabilities Approach Program

LIFELONG IMPACT OF ALL-GIRLS’ EDUCATION

Research shows that girls school graduates have stronger academic skills, higher self-confidence, greater cultural competency, increased political engagement, and stronger community involvement. Girls schools are leading the way in closing the gender gap in STEM fields: Compared to coed peers, girls’ school grads are six times more likely to consider majoring in science, math, and technology.

coding program give girls skills that would allow them to be marketable in some unique ways.”

Rhetorical fluency is aided in large part by Walker’s public speaking program, which is being expanded to include aspects of debate. “We also want our girls to acquire digital presentation skills, as we have all come to know the importance of presenting in formats such as Zoom,” says Ned.

“Our head of school, Ms. Vis as she is known to the girls, has this wonderful idea to have the girls graduate with the ability to be able to speak for two minutes on any subject they are given without any ‘ums,’ ‘likes’ or ‘you knows,’” he continues.

In 2021 we dedicated a Senior Capstone Project, the self-selected capability. “If nothing else, we want to and need to give our girls both voice and agency, both of which seem to be lost at the boardroom level,” notes Ned. “So we’re giving our girls the ability to choose something that they want to take a deep dive into; something that they really want to study, and that they’re passionate about.

“For example, I have an advisee who wants to be a quantum physicist. She wants The Capabilities Approach to do rocket science,” he says. “She could Program covers everything. choose something like that and work with NASA’s program for high school students. At its very core, it is about Poetry. Epidemiology. Veterinary science. Whatever a girl can think of and whatever learning something new she’s passionate about.” and acquiring the ability to Part of the capabilities philosophy is that every community determines its pivot when needed in order own needs and skills that its constituents to gain skills. It’s about the need, says Ned. It’s a philosophy that’s been ingrained at Walker’s since day one. resilience that is acquired “Ethel Walker herself embodied a sense by trying something and of capabilities,” he observes. “When she wrote about why she started the school, taking chances. she named three things: she wanted to create something new that was her own, she wanted to take a risk, and she wanted Ned Edwards, to learn by doing. Those three things are Director of Walker’s Capabilities a wonderful summary of the capabilities Approach Program approach.” He continues, “It’s in our DNA. The capabilities approach is what makes Walker’s stand out as a girls school. Nobody else is doing something like this — that is this comprehensive — and I think it’s pretty exciting.”

Social Justice and the Capabilities Approach

Walker’s Capabilities Approach Program, which recognizes social justice as a primary goal, seeks to enable all Walker’s students to develop a variety of capabilities. It addresses divergences in backgrounds and preparation, offering a foundation for all Walker’s students to flourish as well as develop their cultural competence as global citizens. Walker’s students learn, live, and grow with people of different ages, interests, nationalities, sexual orientations, religion traditions, political affiliations, and racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Multiple classes and activities enable girls to improve their knowledge and develop their desire to shape a society that is more equitable for all.

The E. E. Ford Foundation

In 2019, Walker’s was awarded a prestigious Educational Leadership grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation, in support of the Capabilities Approach Program. This $250,000 grant required a 1:1 match from the school community over the course of three years. Astonishingly, support for the initiative was immediate, and Walker’s matched the grant in the first year alone. During the 2019-2020 school year, Walker’s introduced the agencies, followed by the 2020-2021 school year by incorporating the fluencies. Last year, during our 2021-2022 school year the Capabilities Approach program was fully functioning with the addition of the final components, including discoveries and a self-selected capability, which each girl will choose for herself. Beginning in the fall of the 2022-2023 school year we are adding to our Financial Capability: in addition to our VITA program, we are adding an investing capability for seniors, where they will invest funds, track returns and learn about investing strategies.