The last several years have brought startling trends in student wellness: increased anxiety and depression, vaping, suicidal thoughts and tendencies. What do these trends look like in high performing schools? How are SAIS schools recognizing some of the challenges and creating systems or approaches to help support students? What might help? View this recorded online conversation with Debra Wilson, researcher Suniya Luthar, Authentic Connections CEO Nina Kumar, Lauren Wainright from Indian
In this recording, we joined SAIS President Debra Wilson for the new Trustee Education Series focused on best practices in independent school governance, including boundaries, confidentiality, committee structure, and more. The curriculum is designed for heads of school, board chairs, and trustees.
This is a recording of the webinar, Developing Financial Policies.
This recorded program will help heads of schools, deans, human resource professionals, and others involved in the hiring process to understand, develop, and adopt policies and procedures that help to ensure a legally compliant and effective hiring process.
Helping schools understand what some of the common safety practices are across member schools.
Schools have rigorous student abuse prevention protocols, but sometimes concerns do come up. This recorded session addressed navigating tricky situations including steps to take, whether to report, and who does the reporting.
The following is a recording from the heads of school virtual roundtable, which featured a presentation from Debra Wilson on current events and state initiatives. Special guest Amada Torres, vice president of research at NAIS, shared faculty compensation & benefit data as well as regional admissions data from around the country.
Josh Lutkus and Sarah-Frances Uffman from The Social Institute revealed 2022’s Biggest Trends With Students, Tech, and Social Media.
When polarizing issues come to campus, the business office can be a strong force in connecting the community.
With the pandemic wearing heavily on educators, schools will need to work harder and smarter than ever to find excellent employees. This recorded session will help school leaders move beyond the limitations of passive hiring.
This recorded session describes the four patterns identified by authors Joan C. Williams and Rachel Dempsey that affect women in the workplace.
This is a brief 6-minute video walk-thru of the SAIS Online Community called SAIS Connect. This replaces our former listserv system.
The following is a recording from the heads of school virtual roundtable, which featured a presentation from EMA who shared insights into national data and reenrollment.
This is recording featured Brooke Carroll, Principal Consultant & Coach, Acies Strategies. The workshop presented a recruitment process that has been implemented by many schools to expand and diversify their boards.
This is a recording of the webinar, Cryptocurrency in Independent Schools, featuring Bill Ullman, Founder & CEO, The Daily FinQ and Sarah Walton, director of development for Calvert School.
Skimmers: TikTok warning, virus news, and enrollment survey results
The following is a recording from the heads of school virtual roundtable, which featured a presentation from Debra Wilson covering Omicron, ADA laws, and the school shooting in Michigan.
Skimmers: student loan forgiveness exceptions, federal vaccine and testing mandates in the hands of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, UNESCO’s Reimagining Our Futures: A New Social Contract for Education, overview on grades v. gradeless, the toxic effects behind calling your school a “family” and more.
natives to help you appropriately support young people as they encounter and master these digital skills. The message: limiting or monitoring technology is no substitute for mentoring and engagement. Led by Devorah Heitner (Raising Digital Natives).
Skimmers: An article from Emily Oster about school quarantines and ending them for other models; Colin Powell’s 13 rules of effective leadership; reports from the National Association of Elementary School Principals on the leaders we need now; great overview on how politics and the pandemic are taking their toll on leadership within higher ed; trends in women in the workplace right now; and more.
This is a recording of the November 3, 2021, webinar, Financial Wellness for Trustees. Is your school’s current trajectory sustainable in the long-term? What actions can you take in the next five years to ensure future choices?
The following is a recording from the heads of school virtual roundtable, which featured a discussion of current hot topics, followed by a presentation by Michael Nachbar and others from the GOA leadership team. They shared how they’ve created a student-focused competency-based grading system, and what insights they gained from data to deepen how and when they spot student struggles, and how they provide additional student support.
The past few years have highlighted a number of community lightening rods, including in our schools. This interactive conversation for independent school administrators and faculty addressed several pressing questions:
Skimmers: a great free kit on thinking through mandating vaccines; guidance on how HIPAA works; healthy focus on social media and teens and tweens; a piece by a recent Minerva graduate, who went to high school in India on how high schools should change; and more.
The list below is designed to help heads and their boards consider the options that might be part of a compensation package designed specifically for the school leader.
SAIS reached out to Annual Conference speakers, Anne-Marie Balzano and Arti Betof of Mission & Data to tap their expertise in addressing conflict on the board and how to move forward in a positive direction.
Skimmers: YikYak is back, the virus numbers are definitely falling off, EUA could come before the end of this month, Covid vaccines for kids, fascinating conversation with Ian Symmonds at the heads’ roundtable, and more.
Skimmers: A step by step piece for to map out a plan to comply with the vaccination mandates, Bloomberg on the pandemic road ahead, a piece on the Great Resignation, what instructional coaches do, how instructional coaching helps reduce stress and build trust, and more.
Free curated resource links for new teachers to help new teachers feel confident going into the new year.
What do you really need to know about working in a school? How can you fit into the existing school culture?
Developing the culture of your classroom is the catalyst for a successful school year. Classroom agreements, setting norms, and discipline will be discussed.
Face to face conferences, weekly newsletters, phone calls, emails, social media. How can you effectively communicate with parents? How can you best handle unexpected encounters?
Defined by their mission, each school was created with a purpose and vision. The culture of the school is shaped by its core values.
FINN Partners shares a checklist to get you started as you evaluate your communication plan and develop a crisis working group to learn from the pandemic and prepare for the future.
Topics include: Covid cases, leadership articles of note, how students respond to teaching, the interdependence of student and faculty wellness, and more.
Skimmers: Covid tracking page, uptick in pediatric cases, effectiveness of masks and the need for fewer other mitigation strategies when they are used, parent insights and related data from McKinsey, Census charts, a less existential read on the Great Resignation (it might be hitting our industry), a piece from the NYT that highlights changes coming in high school athletes as they can cash in on their names, and more.
Skimmers: Catch up on some virus stats, studies show that long-term COVID still seems to be rare in children, if the decisions behind returning to campus feel like chaos you are not alone, this Swiss Cheese model reminder might help, Challenge networks can help you get your thinking straight, Thinker Analytix can help get a better hand on tough arguments, Ian Symmonds and six areas of education disruption, and more.
Skimmers: Atlanta area public schools have announced that masks will be required, American Academy of Pediatrics guidance, new guidance on school re-openings from CHOP, data gurus are projecting a peak some time in mid-October, the results of our survey on masks and vaccines, a federal judge recently upheld Indiana University’s vaccine requirement, Venable on exemptions for higher ed, medical and religious exemptions forms from Fisher Phillips, and more.
Here's a summary example
Topics include: updated CDC school opening guidance, stories regarding sports, the NCAA, the Supreme Court, and college athletes, data around learning loss and the pandemic, research around challenges of students in high achieving schools, why the ages of 2-7 matter so much in brain development, and more.
Topics include: Tom Rochon at ERB on a report just published on learning loss over the last 16 months, the heart condition that occasionally develops in young people, Is Education No Longer the ‘Great Equalizer’?, and more.
Helpful advice for making strategic hiring decisions, resume suggestions, EEOC policies, and social media screening.
Sample interview questions and legal reminders for what can and cannot be asked during an employment interview.
Helpful strategies for both recruiting externally and developing internal talent.
Topics include: what kinds of request schools are getting from families looking for flexibility, the delta variant, camp guidance, the malware attack on Colonial Pipeline, free Trustee Table podcast from NAIS, and more.
As part of the accreditation process, SAIS offers financial health questions to help schools think more deeply about financial wellness. As the school year winds down and you start to look to next year, make financial wellness one of your school’s goals. You do not need to attain wellness overnight, but you should be creating a path to solid financial equilibrium.
Lawrence Alexander, director of equity and inclusion with Carney Sandoe & Associates shares strategies for recruiting, hiring, and retaining diverse faculty and administrators. This session will assist schools in moving from recruitment and onboarding to inviting and welcoming, help school leaders address the “hidden culture” on campus that derails equitable and inclusive hiring, and address reconciling our desire for diversity within our schools with the work necessary to realize it.
The following sample staff surveys have been provided by SAIS schools. Schools should bear in mind that specific surveys used at one school may not be appropriate at all schools and take appropriate steps to customize their own tools, with the help of legal counsel as appropriate.
The following sample parent surveys have been provided by SAIS schools. Schools should bear in mind that specific surveys used at one school may not be appropriate at all schools and take appropriate steps to customize their own tools, with the help of legal counsel as appropriate.
Many schools are creating tables or grids to help visualize what various phases or stages of re-entry may look like when aligned with the state, city, or county opening rhetoric. This table can help get you going.
It's been a decade since the Great Recession hit independent schools head on. That experience has forged a "new normal" in terms of affordability strategies, financial aid demand, and the use and distribution of precious aid dollars. Where do independent schools stand? Where are they headed? How do schools in SAIS compare to national trends? In this recorded webinar, our panelists examine how school affordability in various markets is shaping up in this “new normal” moment between recessions.
The following videos provide an overview of how highly effective independent school boards operate and fit into the wider picture of independent schools.
In this FastStats article, gender trends for students, teachers and heads of school in both SAIS and NAIS over the past 20 years is presented
