Matt Micciche, Head of School
Friends School of Baltimore
The world needs what our children can do.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

From American Psychological Association Journal - "Results from the highest quality studies ... do not support the view that SS (single sex) schooling provides benefits compared with CE (co-ed) schooling."


In this articleauthors Erin Pahlke of Whitman College and Janet Shibley Hyde and Carlie M. Allison of the University of Wisconsin—Madison share the results of their analysis of a wide variety of studies of the impact of single-sex v. co-ed learning environments.  Pahlke, et al. concluded that, despite persistent claims to the contrary by advocates of single-sex education, there is no evidence that gender-homogeneous classrooms lead to improved learning outcomes for students.

Given the self-evident limitations inherent in an environment that by its very nature excludes one gender or the other, this lack of demonstrable learning benefits is, it seems to me, particularly problematic for those promoting this educational approach.

The Imperative of and Looming Crisis in Student Engagement


In his article "Getting Our Students to Own Their Educational Experience," Raymond Cirmo, a physics teacher at Connecticut's Cheshire Academy, nicely articulates every teacher's struggle.  "There is no getting around the need for knowledge, and as classroom teachers it is our job to make that knowledge available to our students," he writes.  "But it is also our responsibility to create an environment in which students will want to gain the knowledge presented in the classroom. And therein lies our greatest challenge."


In considering how we can design the most powerful education for our students, I believe that we must realistically take into account the myriad developments in their lives beyond school. The competition for our students’ time and attention is fiercer than it has ever been.  To the already formidable ranks of distractions that all of us faced at this age have been added the proliferation of social media and the many-faceted fruits of ever-evolving technology.  Any study of this landscape reveals quite clearly the qualities that young people seek and appreciate in their lives beyond school; experiences that are deeply interactive, that are relevant to their particular interests, that make room for choice and differentiation, that provide avenues for self-expression, that allow for ongoing and escalating mastery and recognition of achievement, that give the opportunity to collaborate with others towards common goals, that offer the chance to make a lasting impact on their world.  If “school” continues to consist of the same kind of experiences that traditional education has provided, with remarkably little variation for the past 100-plus years, we run the risk of chronic disengagement.  Students - especially motivated and conscientious students - will undoubtedly continue to do what is asked of them, but this compliance should not be mistaken for meaningful engagement. Acquiescence is not a transformational quality.  In order to motivate our students to invest themselves fully in their schoolwork, we must offer the same qualities in their educational experiences that they seek and can so easily find in their lives outside of school.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Visiting a Model School for the Future of Education

Having heard a great deal online and at February's NAIS conference about the exciting developments at Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, the Friends School academic leadership team and I visited the school last Thursday.  The logistics were tricky for a one-day visit, but it was worth every hassle, as we saw a school that is truly a model for what education can and will be in the years ahead.  Many thanks to the folks at MVPS for making us welcome and generously sharing their staff, their classrooms, and their thinking with us.

I can't do justice in this post to all the fantastic work being done at MVPS, but here's a link to their website, which gives a good sampling of the energy, passion, and unity of purpose that we saw everywhere we went on the campus.  We came away thoroughly impressed and greatly inspired to act with a similar level of boldness as we continue to evolve our academic program to meet the needs of our students and our world.

One comment in particular has stuck with me in the days since our visit.  Bo Adams, the Chief Innovation Officer at MVPS, shared with us a question that has helped to guide the design of their program.  "If school is supposed to prepare students for the world, why does what happens in school bear so strikingly little resemblance to the way the world actually works?"  Great question, Bo, and one that all of us involved in the ongoing design of education need to energetically engage with.