how to take your school to the next level
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Third Party Student Report Cards For Private Schools: GRIS Case Study Third party student report cards not only benefit parents and educators, but increase retention rates and improve the reputations of private schools. Read more… |
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How to Write a Good Report Card Need some tips for writing a report card or not sure what to review? Here are six key elements to consider for good report cards. Read more… |
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How Can Schools Achieve Teaching Excellence? In Jamie Feild Baker’s column, Teaching Excellence, learn why developing a culture of inquiry is key to the sustainability and renewal of the future. Read more… |
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How Teacher Evaluations Can Attract, Develop and Inspire Faculty From England to Montreal, the process of evaluating teachers is getting a hard look around the world. Learn effective ways to positively transform and motivate your staff and school. Read more… |
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Exit Interviews: Find Out Why Families Stay and Why They Leave Despite losing families every year, here’s how exit interviews can help you build a stronger school. Read more… |
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What’s Thwarting Online Learning in Schools? A new Canadian study demonstrates that, with the exception of British Columbia, the spread of online learning and virtual schools has stalled. Find out why. |
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Poke the Box: Transforming and Innovating Schools Through Action Find out why Poke the Box will soon become “hot” in education conversations and a must-read for schools. |
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Our Kids Exclusive Q&A: Maya Soetoro-Ng on Improving Schools Our Kids Media got an exclusive interview with Maya Soetoro-Ng — educator, author, advocate for improving schools and U.S. President Barack Obama’s sister — at a town hall inspired by Waiting for “Superman” in their family’s hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii. Read the Q&A and listen to the audio interview. |
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Suggest a Future Theme for Dialogue Magazine Since the magazine’s birth in 2004, Dialogue has aimed to stimulate discussion between private and independent school educators. As always, Dialogue magazine and Dialogue Online remain the place to express your ideas and to share your expertise with your peers. Dialogue shares educator knowledge and skills, reducing the workload and ensuring that students receive the [...] |
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Expert Q&A | Drew Dudley What key 21st-century skills or new literacies can better prepare youth for the future? I think the key thing we need to do is cultivate a belief in our young people that they can be extraordinary based on what they’re great at and love to do, not if they learn to do what “the market” [...] |
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Expert Q&A | Marie Battiste What 21st-century skills can better prepare youth for the future as leaders, innovators and other positive role models in society? Future leaders will need to have: • Multiple literacies (verbal, written, artistic and technological) • Multiple or at minimum two languages (two official and one indigenous), and understanding of more than one knowledge system as [...] |
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Service Learning: Breaking Down Walls, Opening Possibilities Students can make a difference through a dynamic, sustained program One hallmark of our times is that, at the pace we live, we have little conception of what the world will look like in another 10 years. I am reminded of this in visiting a variety of websites committed to coming to terms with 21st [...] |
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BC School Advisors Team Together To Establish The ‘Academic Advisors Consortium’ Academic Advisors Consortium (AAC), Vancouver: The History Continually haunted by the phrase “there is no ‘i’ in team”, it made sense to me that collaboration should come to the forefront in education. We should learn from each other in the area of academic advising and post secondary guidance. The senior year is literally where the [...] |
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Question: How is your school using technology and social networking? Everyday there are new programs, tools and online resources that emerge on the market. Information is at our fingertips and many schools are encouraging the use of some of these tools into both their operation and classroom activities. What are you doing with technology at your school? Do you run a laptop program? Does your [...] |
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Teacher salaries at independent and private schools Teacher salaries at independent and private schools Comparing apples to oranges What do teachers make at independent and private schools in Canada and the United States? That’s a very generalized question, and we can only offer a very generalized answer. The exact answer depends largely on experience, as do all questions of salary – in [...] |
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How Pirates Can Save a Failing Education System Moving from fact-based to concept-based curriculum When I moved to New York from Buenos Aires in 2002, I wanted to do for education what Johnny Depp did for pirates—take a failing system and make it sexy. That year, when only 38 per cent of New York City public school students graduated high school, I chose [...] |
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Encouraging Parental Involvement At Your School Independent schools and parent groups are working harder than ever to involve parents in the process of their children’s education and school activities. Researchers tell us that a closer partnership between schools and parents in any school system provides positive effects for the schools, the families and most importantly for the students. In order to [...] |
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Classroom Technology & Teacher-Student Interaction A key challenge facing schools is how to best empower teachers to take advantage of the new technology available in their classrooms With widespread investments in technology, a key challenge facing schools is how to best empower teachers to take advantage of the new technology available in their classrooms. More than 90% of students in [...] |
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Question: What is being done at your school to encourage sustainability? There are many ways for your school to ensure it is sustainable: financial, environmental, demographic, programmatic and global. What is being done at your school? In every issue of Dialogue Magazine, we ask a question to the independent educator community to spark dialogue about the issue’s theme. We’ve already heard from many schools and want [...] |
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Weighing Financial Options Making the right choices during tough times The recent economic crisis has refocused attention on the financial sustainability of independent schools. Pre-recession discussions questioned whether tuition increases above the level of inflation were sustainable in the long term or would negatively affect the diversity of our students. The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) continues to [...] |
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Uncovering Tomorrow’s Leaders Seven school leadership characteristics According to leadership experts Paul Bernthal and Richard Wellins, “In a complex and changing world, highly skilled and experienced leaders at all levels—not just senior leaders—are becoming harder to find.” Today, two key questions face all independent schools: “Where will the next group of future leaders come from?” and “What attributes [...] |
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Sustaining School Identity Montessori teaches about remaining true In 1907, Dr. Maria Montessori opened the first Montessori classroom in a tenement just outside Rome, Italy. Here began her experiment of applying scientific observation to the education of children. Since then, Montessori has become the world’s most practised pedagogy, with more than 8,000 Montessori schools on six continents educating [...] |
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Reviews for the iPad are In With more than 300,000 iPads sold on the first Saturday, conversation about its relevance – and its shortcomings – abound. The question of whether it is a new medium, a short-lived bridge to more revolutionary technology, or a device that will make social networking an even more ubiquitous is debated succinctly in the Room for [...] |
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Introducing students to risk awareness at a young age Safety is everyone’s responsibility and there is no exception in educational environments. A general awareness of one’s surroundings is necessary and students can be trained to become aware of potential risks. Involving youth in risk management and making them aware of potential dangers at a young age can have a positive impact on their future [...] |
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Expert Q & A | Mike Lipkin How can independent schools achieve success through pre-eminence? Pre-eminence it is not just about being the best; it is about being recognized as the best. What is your discipline? What is the core your school stands for? The moment I go outside these areas is when I am being less pre-eminent. It is important to [...] |
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Culture Of Communication Save money while making your school shine Cut costs. Maintain services. And preserve your culture. That was the mandate delivered to Brent Hall, executive director of Discovery Academy, by the school’s board of directors recently. The therapeutic boarding school, located in Provo, Utah, charges families almost $6,000 (U.S.) a month for tuition. Despite a rocky [...] |
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Blinded by the Light Understand your school’s real niche In August 2009, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office acknowledged that the American budget deficit estimate had soared to $1.6 trillion (U.S.) and that the current recession is now “the most severe since World War II.” Unlike those “Mad Hatters” in Washington, or their Canadian counterparts in Ottawa, private schools don’t [...] |
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Sustainability of Independent Education At the CAIS Heads Conference, Our Kids Media invited the leading Heads of Canadian independent schools to share their vision of independent education. Three questions were asked: 1. What is key to a successful school? 2. How are you ensuring the sustainability of your school? 3. How will future independent schools differ from those we [...] |
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A Manager’s Guide To Coaching: simple and effective ways to get the best out of your employees A Manager’s Guide To Coaching: simple and effective ways to get the best out of your employees Author: Brian Emerson and Anne Loehr Published by: AMACOM, New York, 2008 Not every one of us has an inner coach desperate to get out and help a stumbling colleague or show a new employee the way. We [...] |
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Teach My Kid, I Dare You! Teach My Kid, I Dare You! Author: Sherrel Bergnann, Judith Brough and David Shepard Published by: Eye on Education, 2008 The title of this book, a challenge, is taken from one of the many anecdotes the authors use to engage their readers. Educators often meet with parents who overtly or subtly deliver this challenge. The [...] |
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When parents become partners, the rewards are great for all A current parent speaks volumes to incoming families It is not unusual for parents to take a deeply vested interest in their children’s education, and at most independent schools, there is no exception. Conversely, independent schools rely heavily on the support of parents. It is a well-known fact that tuition alone often does not cover [...] |
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Walking the Tight Rope Keeping balance when helicopters hover “What did you learn today at school dear?” So goes the proverbial question parents ask in order to feel plugged in to their child’s educational experience. But, of course, for so many parents, their interest doesn’t begin and end at the dinner table. It’s no secret that—especially at independent schools—parents [...] |
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The SUV Caucus Shifting to the new reality Ask any school administrator how the job has changed during the past five years and parents will make the top three list. Today’s parents want to be involved and have many opinions on their children’s progress, as well as on the schools’ programs and operations.It seems, in fact, that this [...] |
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Question: What is your school doing to engage parents? Parents are your partners, patrons and customers. What is the view of your school? What programs are in place to engage parents? Open Door Policy At Trillium School, we constantly strive to make our parents feel welcome and a part of the school community. We have a very active PTA that meets regularly and organizes [...] |
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Protected Environment A plan to retain and educate I could hear her coming down the corridor. My secretary’s announcement, “Mrs. Chablis (not her real name) is here to see you,” was unnecessary. Mrs. Chablis’ red face, loud voice and violent gestures all proclaimed that she was unhappy and someone was going to pay. While hopefully not a [...] |
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Parent Participation as a Part of the Success of Therapy Special curriculum developed for parents to reinforce school and home consistency Therapy Success Depends on Parent Participation The Glenholme School is a therapeutic boarding school for children situated on more than 100 acres in Washington, Connecticut. Children, ages nine to 18 who need a highly structured learning environment to prosper academically and socially, find it [...] |
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Going Global Panel Discussion What is international education and how can schools work to achieve global citizenship On Oct. 30, 2008, a Going Global conference was held at Ridley College in St. Catharines, Ontario, sponsored by the school and the Canadian Educational Standards Institute (CESI). Educators, students and parents, joined by others tuning in via a webcast, questioned a [...] |
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Balancing a Consumer Community Education as a commodity “The customer is always right” is a mantra at the core of our consumer-driven economy. However, when the product is education and the consumers are parents, this assumption leads to complex and sometimes problematic relationships in private and independent schools. It is challenging, especially within a newer for-profit educational environment, to [...] |
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Meeting the Needs Of Students Open Forum Audience Question and Answer Comments On November 13, 2007, 165 independent school educators attended an engaging evening of discussion on the topic of differentiated instruction. The event, held at Upper Canada College in Toronto, was organized by the Canadian Educational Standards Institute (CESI) and hosted by CESI and CAIS (Canadian Association of Independent Schools), with [...] |
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What We Know About Successful School Leadership What We Know About Successful School Leadership Author: Kenneth A. Leithwood and Carolyn Riehl Published by: American Educational Research Association (AERA), 2003 This American Educational Research Association (AERA) concludes five major principals about successful school leadership. This research-based document can be sued to guide leadership practice, policy and research. Leadership has significant effects on student [...] |
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Re-building Character Why private schools can, and should, lead the way We have devolved into a society of cheaters, who regularly evade taxes, steal from the workplace, lie and deceive, pirate Internet music, games and videos, and pinch satellite signals. What has happened to us? We commonly break “the rules” to get ahead personally, socially and financially. [...] |
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Question: How do you teach character, values and virtue? Many independent schools include ‘character education’ in their mission statements. Does your school have a specific program or approach to moral education? We asked hundreds of schools to share programs and ideas on this topic. The following were published in the 2005 edition of Dialogue magazine. Join the discussion and post your own response. The [...] |
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Prescription for Change Today’s schools must find a cure for what ails them Have our schools lost their moral compass? According to some of our foremost educational thinkers, the answer is a firm yes. Michael Fullan in The Moral Imperative of School Leadership asserts that the system is in deep trouble. In Professional Communities at Work, Richard Dufour [...] |
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Leader of the Pack School heads set the moral tone for both students and staff A number of years ago, I hired someone for a managerial position. After the successful applicant had been working with us for a relatively brief time, cracks started appearing in the working relationship between him and the people he was managing. He and I [...] |
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For Goodness Sake Consider students’ hearts as well as their minds At St. Clement’s School, we have always provided moral education and recently decided to emphasize the importance of this commitment in our mission statement. It now reads: “Our mission is to develop women of character by encouraging academic excellence, self-confidence, leadership and independent thinking in an enriching, [...] |
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Choices and Consequences Students must learn to be responsible for their actions As educators, we have a responsibility to do more than teach the 3 Rs. Some might argue that there simply is no time to incorporate anything else into the curriculum and that to do so would compromise the academic program. But if we do not nurture [...] |
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3 Rs and an M Reading ‘riting, ‘rithmetic and morality Why do we not teach ethics as a discipline? Many academic disciplines have formal methodologies educators use explicitly to guide students in mastering subject areas. Scientific method steers inquiries in chemistry, physics and biology. Rules of grammar — despite the many exceptions — direct language development. Why, then, is so [...] |
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The Moral Imperative of School Leadership The Moral Imperative of School Leadership Author: Michael Fullan Published by: Corwin Press, 2003 “People only call me a guru because they can’t spell charlatan,” says Michael Fullan in a May 1, 2004 Globe and Mail article. And yet, only one week earlier, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Education Minister Gerard Kennedy had appointed Fullan [...] |
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Taking Account of Technology in Schools The Canadian Educational Standards Institute reports on the use of technology in schools After salaries, the financial outlay for information technology is rapidly becoming the largest line item in the budget of many independent schools in Canada. But it has become increasingly clear that little or no consensus exists as to how that money might [...] |
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Research Spotlight: For-Profit Schools Allow Principals Freedom Greater personal lattitude, long-term security and stability just a few of the advantages for principals The notion of a school principal running a for-profit private school is a century-old tradition. Canada’s earliest schools were primarily run by churches, but 100 years ago religious groups began to assume less responsibility for private schools, while lone owners [...] |
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Raising a New Generation Today’s computer-savvy youth are ready for tomorrow Digital technology in the classroom is transforming the traditional education model and reshaping the dynamic between teacher and student. For centuries, the educational system embraced a one-way, teacher-centred broadcast model of learning. The teacher transmitted information from the front of the classroom to students, who were supposed to [...] |
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Let’s Get Together A collaboration model for schools Collaboration has become a buzzword in the field of technology. As technology becomes ever more diverse, and the idea that “no man is an island” becomes ever more real, collaboration between schools with similar philosophies about technology is now a requirement for success. The Bishop Strachan School (BSS) and Appleby College joined [...] |
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