The Association for Academic Leaders was designed to create the community, learning, and resources you need to be successful in your role, so that you can make an impact at your school. As part of our commitment to helping you to think through the issues that matter most, we are excited to introduce our flagship publication, the 2024 Insight Report. Association Members, please visit the Portal to download the report. For the last two years, we've created a report every May called Marking the Moment. This report was designed to give Academic Leaders resources, research, and insights on a number of top of mind topics. Academic Leaders found Marking the Moment helpful as a starting place for leadership team discussions or division/department deep dives. Feedback from our members inspired us to evaluate both the number of topics we included and the depth of our supporting research. All year, we’ve heard from our members that there were four topics that were consistently on the top of their mind: Workforce Development, Generative AI, Student Mental Health, and, more recently, Community Polarization.
To address these needs, we have decided to revamp Marking the Moment, and birth it anew as the 2024 Insights Report. Our goal with the 2024 Insights Report is to provide timely and relevant information for Academic Leaders, so that you can navigate the ever-changing landscape of independent education. This new report provides a much deeper dive into the forces at play and the resources Academic Leaders need along with supporting research, and insights. Like Marking the Moment, the Insights Report can be used as a jumping off point for leadership discussions; we’ve provided discussion questions and scenarios for each topic. And, you’ll see even more resources based on this work throughout the 2024-2025 academic year. We do everything at the Association for Academic Leaders and One Schoolhouse, as a whole, with an iterative approach and growth mindset. So, we want to hear from you. Like this report better? Great, let us know. Did we fall short? Let us know that too. Have an idea for how we can expand it? Tell us. Thank you for your continued partnership and support, Sarah Hanawald, Senior Director, Association for Academic Leaders Brad Rathgeber, President & CEO, One Schoolhouse
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One of our Academic Program’s school-wide competencies is building academic maturity. When Academic Leaders enroll students in our online courses, students don’t just get the course content–they learn a suite of skills and strategies that they’ll use in high school, college, and beyond. It's not just about equipping students with the ability to navigate complex environments, manage their time effectively, and become self-directed learners–it's about giving them the preparation they need for the autonomy that college demands.
College preparedness is one of the essential promises that independent schools make to students and families. We see that in the vast majority of our students, who are high achievers who often “do school” very well. However, the strategies they’ve learned to use are often inefficient. Dr. Lisa Damour describes students who “relentlessly grind, determined to leave no room for error. [They] don’t stop until they’ve polished each assignment to a high shine and rewritten their notes with color-coded precision.” When students see filling their time as the only way to boost achievement, they’ll fill their time relentlessly, often at the expense of balance and wellness. The Academic Program teaches students a different way to work. We want our students to manage their time efficiently and nimbly, so we encourage them to schedule work in advance and prioritize tasks, tackling the most important or challenging tasks first. We ask them to build in slack time each week. At first, this seems counterintuitive to students, but it’s a source of relief when that extra hour on Thursday afternoon becomes a lifesaver for completing assignments or consulting with their online teacher. Teaching students to anticipate challenges, whether they are skills-induced or schedule-induced, and building in time that allows them to seek help before it’s too late is essential. We give students their work plan at the start of each week to help students build in that slack time. When students encounter a challenging concept, we teach them help-seeking behaviors and communication skills. We often have the same advice that teachers on campus do: a well-crafted question and a ten-minute conversation can be an extremely efficient use of time. The teacher can pinpoint the problem and guide the student to a solution, resolving the issue at hand and teaching students to use their resources effectively to solve problems. Year after year, Academic Program students tell us that the autonomy they build in their online course has a positive impact on their academic performance in on-campus courses. How do we know? We survey our students four times a year so we can measure what we value. Because building academic maturity is at the core of our pedagogy, we ask questions about goal-setting, organization, resilience, and help-seeking. What we learn by comparing robust data across time is that 90% of our students tell us they’ve built academic maturity skills in our courses over the course of the academic year. That’s why independent schools across the country and around the world partner with the Academic Program at One Schoolhouse: we challenge students to build their academic maturity, and we support them in reaching that goal. Students come to their Academic Program courses at all levels of academic maturity. We’ve designed our systems to support students no matter where they are in their process. Our Student Success Team checks in with our teachers every week to gather information about students who need additional support. We proactively communicate with the student and their face-to-face school to ensure that students are engaged in their coursework and progressing appropriately, have the appropriate on-campus resources, and know the steps they need to take if they need to improve their performance. As an Academic Leader, you witness what Dr. Damour and other researchers have described as the "stress Olympics" of today's adolescents. Building academic maturity within an online course equips high-achieving students to better navigate these pressures and offers a valuable perspective: stress doesn't have to be an all-consuming competition.The Academic Program at One Schoolhouse is your essential partner in giving students the perspective and the skills they need to succeed: in high school, in college, and beyond. Academic Leaders know that when students are pushed beyond their comfort zone, they develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and a deep understanding of the subject matter. This isn't about grades; it's about the way students grow. That's why independent schools strive to create a challenging and enriching academic environment that fosters intellectual curiosity and empowers students to excel.
The Academic Program at One Schoolhouse is your partner for online learning because we share this same commitment. We understand the unique challenges faced by independent schools in offering a robust and ever-evolving curriculum. Our online courses are designed to complement your existing programs, providing a rich and engaging learning experience that expands your course offerings and keeps your students excited about academics. How do we know we're meeting our goal? The Academic Program surveys students four times a year about the things we value most, like connecting to their teacher, developing academic maturity, or yes – feeling challenged. We're proud to say that 96% of our students report that their Academic Program course is challenging. Our promise to your school is that when a student finishes one of our courses, either during the academic year or the summer session, they’re ready to rise up to the next level on your campus. Our partnerships are effective because schools trust us to challenge their students online in the same way they’re challenged in the classroom. We’re an organization that’s all about growth, and we know that people grow the most when they’re challenged. At the Academic Program, we challenge our teachers, too, so they’re always creating new opportunities for students to connect and engage in their courses. We refresh or rebuild every one of our courses each summer because the field of online learning is constantly evolving. New technologies emerge, best practices shift, and student needs continue to develop. We know how important it is for students to be challenged and grow. By partnering with the Academic Program at One Schoolhouse, you can open doors to new subjects and experiences for your students. They'll develop the critical thinking and problem-solving skills they need to succeed in our ever-changing world, all while feeling supported and engaged. Together, we can help your students reach their full potential. At One Schoolhouse, we recognize observances and holidays that center the voices and experiences of historically excluded peoples in the United States. Our goal is to lift up the words of others who share our commitment to learning, and to build for belonging. Check out our blog post to learn more about the reasons behind our acknowledgments and how we approach them. To learn more about these newsletters, read our blog post on how and why we acknowledge. Recognizing Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Learn about the history of AAPI Heritage Month: May marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which celebrates the histories of Americans hailing from across the Asian continent and from the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Learn why we celebrate AAPI heritage this month in an article from NPR. Recognize AAPI Heritage Month in your school and community: The Very Asian Foundation shines a light on Asian experiences and stories through advocacy and celebration. Inspired by a group of St. Louis students who asked for more AAPI books, The May Book Project brings curated book lists to expand representation and celebration of the AAPI experience in classrooms. Listen to AAPI Voices: As a part of Education Week’s Voices from the Field project, three AAPI Academic Leaders at independent schools reflect on the intersections of their work, and their identity. Hear from a department chair, a middle school director, and a class dean. Recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month
Learn about the history of Jewish American Heritage Month: Established in 2006, by President George W. Bush, Jewish American Heritage Month recognizes the rich history and contributions of Jewish Americans to the nation's social, cultural, and scientific landscape. Recognize Jewish American Heritage Month in your school: The National Endowment for the Humanities shares resources, primary sources, and teaching materials that explore topics including George Washington’s 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport; Jewish artists, musicians, and performers; and the history of Jewish immigration to the United States. Listen to Jewish American voices: Kirsten Fermaglich is a professor in the Department of History in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. She writes, “As we have witnessed an upsurge in American antisemitism for the past several years, from Charlottesville to Pittsburgh to Colleysville, Texas, studying American Jewish history feels more important than ever.” Academic Program at One Schoolhouse: Our Commitment to Excellence and Equity in Every Course4/23/2024 When you register a student for the Academic Program at One Schoolhouse, you expect them to have an experience that challenges them intellectually, develops their academic maturity, and gives them new insights on their world. So do we. That’s why we build learner-driven school year and summer courses that help students build academic maturity and global competency. Our courses deliver on that promise–last year, 97% of our students told us they were challenged by our courses, 90% reported they developed their academic maturity, and 90% said their Academic Program course expanded their worldview.
The Academic Program earns those scores because we’re intentional about our pedagogy, our courses, and our teaching. All our work is grounded in research about how students learn, which forms the basis of The Pedagogy of One Schoolhouse. From there, we set clear standards that each of our courses and teachers need to meet. We work with our teachers through coaching and feedback to ensure that everything we do for your students is up to your–and our–standards. Here’s how we do it: We dig deep into the research on how students learn best online, and how to nurture student-teacher connection in the online space. We’re learners, and we start by doing our homework. Informed by research, we’ve defined what good teaching looks like, and we make that our standard. The Pedagogy of the Academic Program at One Schoolhouse lays out our core tenets of teaching and learning: “At the Academic Program, we believe schooling should be organized around how students – each with their own unique identity – grow. This belief positions learning, rather than teaching, as the design driver of our courses and all their components.” The Pedagogy paper traces the ways this belief manifests in our course design: “Our teachers create scaffolded learning experiences that support and guide the student journey towards mastery and the acquisition of competencies, but it is students who drive learning forward through goal setting, planning, and meaningful reflection.” We do all this because intentionality is core to successful online teaching and learning. We articulate what we value most, and what we believe every student needs to succeed–and we ensure it’s built into every course we offer. Our Course Development Standards and Cycle are explicit about the practices that need to be standardized across all courses. If a practice is important enough to be a part of the Pedagogy paper, it’s important enough to be present in all our courses. Our standards aren’t optional–they are required for every teacher and every course. For example, we believe that reflection is essential to student-driven learning, so our standards explain how and when it should be used:
Our Course Development Standards also ensure that our values are present in and integral to every course we offer. We believe that learning should be inclusive, identity-affirming, and equity-centered. These, too, are part of our baseline expectations. We expect each Academic Program course to present “multiple foundations and perspectives from people of color when explaining historical origins, frameworks for analysis, and contemporary events and includes diverse authorship,” and we expect teachers to be able to provide evidence the standard has been met. We’re explicit about our baseline expectations for teachers, and we make professional growth part of those expectations. The Academic Program developed our own rubric for teacher competencies because we wanted to be clear about our expectations, equitable in our evaluations, and explicit about professional growth. We have high standards for our teachers, so we provide a high level of support, coaching, and feedback to support our teachers in meeting those standards. Our rubric describes two levels of performance: Baseline Effectiveness and Exemplary Implementation, which provides growth opportunities for both new and experienced teachers.For example, our first teacher competency is “Teacher is self-aware and builds an authentic relationship that empowers each student as a cornerstone of the learning experience.” A baseline expectation here is that the teacher “knows students’ goals and learner profiles and actively works to support growth through regular contact with and feedback to students.” For teachers who strive for Exemplary Implementation, we offer a goal: to “anticipate learner challenges and proactively engage students to strategize and trouble-shoot.” At the Academic Program, we’re committed to continuous improvement–for ourselves as well as our teachers. We’re confident that by staying at the forefront of educational research and best practices, we'll continue to empower our students to achieve academic excellence, develop global competencies, and become lifelong learners who are prepared to thrive in a changing world. |
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May 2024
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