Faculty evaluation--arguably no other topic in independent education evokes as much passionate discourse--mostly negative, or at least freighted with anxiety. But, in the authors' experience, it does not have to be this way. At their school, Berkeley Preparatory School (Florida), they have recently developed a teacher evaluation model that is…

Psychologist Robert J. Sternberg's conviction that American standardized testing does not accurately reflect a child's intelligence or potential is far from theoretical. As an elementary school student in the 1950s, he scored poorly on the ubiquitous IQ test of the time, freezing up when the school psychologist entered the room. Thankfully for…

As the authors joined the growing number of prominent adolescent psychologists and educators in arguing that "organizing four years of high school around grades and college admissions is a virtual guarantee that a teenager's natural commitment and enthusiasm are likely to be undermined," they wondered if the enduring habits they value most for…

Independent and other accredited schools and colleges are mandated every 10 years to devote considerable time, thought, and treasure to accreditation process. Formerly often regarded as hollow drudgery and something of a "pro forma" exercise, the accreditation process--the preparation of an exhaustive self-study, the sometimes welcome and…

Jim Collins's "Good to Great" has attained near-scriptural status in organizations, including nonprofits, which Collins says constitute a third of his readers. The pivot point in "Good to Great" is the Hedgehog Concept. The "Hedgehog Concept" (HC), this author claims, is dangerous for schools because it distorts the nature of education. As Collins…

In the early elementary years, teachers generally pay attention to the act of reading--to the appropriate skill level and pace. But as students move on in the educational system and get to an age when teachers expect them to read on their own, the author suspects teachers pay less and less attention to this problem of pace. When they push students…

Many adults and students today think of themselves as excellent multitaskers--switching from task to task or from task to play in a nanosecond. Yet the pings and tweets their devices emit interrupt them in ways that are more problematic than they think. One of the powerful myths in the culture today is that multitasking is efficient for work or…

Supporting a diverse school community is ongoing and ever evolving, but many schools need to find a way to start the process, especially as they make the transition from a predominantly white school to a diverse one. Having a diverse student body requires a conscious effort to support all students and to educate teachers to do their part in…

This author contends that, during the past decade, people have witnessed escalating crises in the most vital areas of their public life, including: (1) a relentless acceleration in the awesome failure to effectively educate vast numbers of the young; (2) a no-less-relentless increase in the spectacular inequities in the distribution of wealth; (3)…

"Character," "creativity," "real-world problem solving," "communication skills," "teaming," and "leadership" are some of the skills and values that will be expected of graduates. In the conversation about what constitutes a high-quality 21st century school, however, the more complex question is about the varied paths schools might take to achieve…

Having observed independent schools for years--first as dean of admission at Princeton University from 1978-1983, and then as president of an educational consulting firm since 1986--the author has noticed that the challenges of leading a school have changed dramatically. In consulting with more than 700 independent schools, often in a search for a…

A hundred years ago, if people had asked a group of competent and talented educators whether any child--regardless of race, class, or gender--could one day learn to read Shakespeare, write scientific papers, or do algebraic math, all but the most visionary would have answered, "No." Only a small segment of the population was deemed capable of…

In society, courage gets associated with soldiers, police, firefighters--those men and women who risk their lives in ways that are public and visible and immediate. For school heads also, as a different dictionary definition puts it, courage is demonstrated through "strength in the face of pain or grief" and the ability to do something that…

Whether it is in their professional development programs, admissions materials, or curricula, independent schools have a lot to say about environmental stewardship, equity, community service, and justice. When they send their students to rebuild post-Katrina New Orleans or construct LEED-certified structures, the schools and their constituents…

One of the most coveted benefits of teaching in an independent school is that, in many schools, the educator's child can attend tuition-free or at a significant discount. But as any educator who has taken advantage of this benefit knows, having dual roles in a school--that of school administrator or teacher and parent of a student attending the…