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 Note: This is the second in an occasional series of articles that take a look at the 2011-2012 National Association of Independent Schools’ Trendbook (see Dec/Jan FSS Newsletter, Message from Head of School). This month we report on the chapter “A Marketplace Filled with Choices.”
How many schools did you consider before choosing Friends Select? Thought so. Families have more education options than ever before-what used to be strictly a choice between public or private schools now has expanded to include public assigned (your local neighborhood school), public magnet schools (think Masterman), public charter schools (Independence Charter School), home schools, cyber schools, and more.
And parents are taking advantage of the choices offered them. According to Trends in the Use of School Choice: 1993 to 2007, a report put out by the National Center for Education Statistics, the percentage of students enrolled in assigned public schools dropped from 80 percent to 73 percent since NCES’s previous study. This trend was evident across all demographic groupings: socioeconomic, racial, family structure, parent educational levels, and regions of the country.
While there are many variables that affect how parents make education decisions, data suggest that parents’ income and education level do play some role in school choice. Parents with graduate or professional level degrees, for example, are more heavily represented in private religious and private nonreligious schools than in their public counterparts.
Here’s what Trendbook has to say about the various educational sectors:
Online Schools
Online learning represents one of the fastest growing segments of K-12 education. The Sloan Consortium estimates that 1.3 million children at the K-12 level took an online course in 2007-2008, an increase of 47% from two years earlier. The New York Times reported in 2011 that in Idaho, the state plans to push a requirement that high school students take four or more online courses, tied to a state bill stipulating that the state will provide every student a laptop.
Predictions
• By 2019, 50% of all high school classes will be delivered online
• Colleges are entering the K-12 online market
o Stanford University launched an online program for gifted high school students in 2006; now
serves grades 7-12
o George Washington University launched an online high school in January 2011
o In a recent survey, 33.9% of responding institutions of higher learning reported launching or
expanding online education programs as a key strategy to address financial issues
Homeschooling
Two million students are homeschooled in the United States today, according to National Home Education Research Institute.
Why Homeschool? (Dept. of Education study, 2007)
• Main reason: desire to provide religious or moral instruction
• Concern about environment at other schools
• Dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools
Prediction
• Homeschool numbers will continue to rise. The economy, the fact that homeschooled adults are more likely to consider homeschooling for their own children, and the increasing availability of online tools/consortiums that bring homeschoolers together in more structured settings; all point to a trend that is not going away.
Public Charter Schools
In the 2009-2010 school year, there were close to 5,000 charter schools operating in 33 states, making up 5.1% of the public school system. Charter schools are a relatively new phenomenon; their average duration of operation is 6.7 years. Because of this, relatively little research has been done to measure their impact on educational decision-making.
It’s a Buyer’s Market
With more educational options than ever before, it’s truly a buyer’s market. At the same time, parents are operating in a post-recession environment that has changed the way they make decisions. In Spend Shift: How the Post-Crisis Values Revolution is Changing the Way We Buy, Sell, and Live, the authors state:
“We are returning to traditional values that dominated society and the marketplace in every period but 1990-2007. These values favor common sense, quality over quantity, artisanal and local sourcing, ethical practices, dignity, resiliency, and personal connection . . .. This means the things we spend money on will take on greater importance. . . we’ll search for things that offer us value and values.” (boldface mine)
What Type of Parent are You?
NAIS
has identified five emerging parent segments, with the following goals
and motivations driving their school choice. Do you recognize yourself
in any of these?
Parents Who Push want a
top-notch education for their children and are open to alternatives to
the local public school. They are looking for a challenging curriculum
at a reasonable cost.
Success-Driven Parents believe
in independent school education and are very concerned about getting
their children into top-tier colleges. They are less likely to believe
public schools are up to the task and less concerned about cost than the
other parent segments.
Special Kids’ Parents want
to get their children the help and attention they need to succeed, but
they are choosy—they want the highest quality education at the lowest
cost.
Character-Building Parents are already well
represented in independent schools. They believe that independent
schools offer a better education, and they often have a family tradition
of attending private schools. Their key focus is to raise students with
strong character, morals, and values. Like Success-Driven Parents they
are less concerned about cost.
Public School Proponents
are committed to public schools. They believe that public schools can
provide everything their children need, and they are most focused on
finding a well-rounded education at a reasonable cost. |
Takeaway for Friends Select
For parents today, it’s all about value and values. As we have for more than 300 years, Friends Select will continue to work hard to demonstrate and communicate to you, our parents, the value of a Friends Select education imbued with the timeless Quaker values lived every day at the school (simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship). At the same time, Friends Select will remain open to trends that create an enhanced teaching and learning environment, such as online learning tools and creative pairings with local city institutions. Finally, we will strive to communicate meaningful content to you consistently, transparently, and with integrity.
Send reactions and comments to this article to Colleen Puckett at colleenp@friends-select.org.
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In conjunction with Center City District (CCD) Plant!Philadelphia, Friends Select’s student body is fundraising and contributing toward the installation of six new London Plane trees around the campus along N. 16th Street. The CCD has created Plant!Philadelphia so individuals and organizations can directly participate in the effort to expand Center City’s canopy of healthy street trees and add to the citywide goal of planting 300,000 trees by 2015.
Like many community members, David Wood, director of lower school, liked the idea of increasing the green space around the school. He thought the idea of trees on 16th St. would align with efforts made last year to “green” the back entrance, which was done through the installation of six planters of evergreen boxwoods and fountain grass. Additionally, faculty advisors to student groups in middle- and upper school reported interest in planting trees.
Conversations aligned when Wood, Mike Noonan, business manager, and Rose Hagan, head of school, sat down with representatives from CCD to review diagrams and spacing restrictions to determine if the initiative would be possible for the property. Once approved, Friends Select put in a request for six trees to be planted. The City is scheduled to prepare the sidewalk openings and to plant the trees this spring, around Earth Day.
 “Center City District has worked for years to improve the quality of life for people living and working in the city,” said Wood. “Working with the CCD to plant new trees aligns with our mission of urban education and helping children understand the benefits and challenges of living in Center City.”
In an effort to fiscally support this positive venture, each division agreed to host a fundraising event to raise money to contribute toward one out of the six trees. Among other efforts, the middle school Green Thumb Club held a jewelry sale before winter break that raised $270 and plans to hold another similar sale in the coming weeks. The upper school Green Notebook Club will hold a plant sale in mid-April, and the lower school will hold their annual Bazaar/Flea Market with the funds this year going to support the trees.
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 Never thought I’d be a tweeter. I used to believe it was so silly when people claimed that their main news source was Twitter. In September, I embraced the social media micro-blogging platform and have gradually worked my way up to tweeting at least twice a day.
Why did I ever doubt the communications medium? Every day I learn from live ongoing conversations, whether it’s with President Obama, Bishop Desmond Tutu, or commentator Steve Colbert. I no longer have to wait until the 6 o’clock news to be informed.
MS outside the classroom
My tweet: “And now we're touching sharks!”
When the sixth grade visited Adventure Aquarium in January, parents could follow my tweets and get a behind-the-scenes look at our experience. More recently, fourth grade parents were able to follow along with me while their students visited the middle school. I provided parents with in-the-moment comments and pictures; 29 tweets over a span of five hours. Hopefully for fourth grade parents, it was almost like being here with us and sharing in on their child’s day.
Read along with us
Fast Company retweet: “The Creative Brain On Exercise"
Twitter has also given me access to journals that I didn’t even know existed. I am finding informative, meaningful articles and professional discussions that I never would have stumbled upon otherwise. Through Twitter, I’m able to share articles about best practices in education, teenage brain research, meaningful instruction and content with faculty members and parents.
For example, have you read The Creative Brain on Exercise? Only if you subscribe to Fast Company OR get my tweets would you have! If you missed it, the article can be found here. Along the same lines, I never would have known about the Web site, Mind/Shift: How We Will Learn. The articles posted there are quite enlightening. Check out the site. Really fascinating stuff.
Community sharing
Dalai Lama’s retweet: “The human capacity to care for others isn’t something trivial or something to be taken for granted. Rather it is something we should cherish.”
Another benefit that Twitter has brought to my life and hopefully, the life of your child is following and sharing the thoughts of great thinkers such as the Dalai Lama. His messages of empathy, sincerity, and integrity are daily reminders to me of the benefits of a thoughtful Quaker education. In addition, the musings of Ellen DeGeneres remind me to laugh unnecessarily. The postings of Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert urge me to be informed but not jaded. Who are your great thinkers? They probably tweet.
With my constant Twitter updates, now you don’t have to wait for your child to come home to tell you all about the cool happenings occurring around the middle school halls. You can hear the daily highlights at your convenience, on your time, from your electronic device. Obviously at 140 characters once or twice a day, it’s a small glimpse. But it’s enough to know what questions to ask your child when they return home at the end of the day. Or it’s enough to know what to look for on the school’s Web site, flickr and vimeo pages. So try it out. I promise you won’t be disappointed! Click to visit my @FSSMiddleSchool twitter page.
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As an academic institution, it’s essential to listen and respond to student's needs in a timely and effective manner. Friends Select continues to assess and refine its curricular programs often. As reported in the fall 2010 FSS Newsletter, the upper school division came up with a solution for a new community-service model based on feedback from students. Today, the service program has grown into an opportunity where students think about service not as an act of one-shot charity, but rather as a way for them to shape their world.
“After looking at our priorities as a school and considering the merits of various service models, we decided that the best way to serve both our students and the wider community was to assign each grade a service topic that they keep throughout their time in the upper school,” said Jim Miller, religion and service department chair and upper school English teacher.
This enables students to develop a much deeper understanding of a particular issue over time, and have a chance to build meaningful, long-term relationships with the organizations that deal with their respective issue. The model also allows students to make some of their own decisions about what their service will look like.
In ninth grade, students are focusing on the topic of hunger and the main group they’re working with is St. John’s Hospice. Tenth graders are concentrating on the environment and the organization they are working with is the Fairmount Park and the Department of Recreation. In eleventh grade, health and well being is the topic of focus and they are working closely with the Gift of Life Donor Program. Twelfth graders are spending time learning about housing and homelessness. The organization they’re working with is Habitat for Humanity.
There are four phases to the service model, which were launched at the start of the second semester:
Phase 1: Educating ourselves
Right after winter break, representatives from each organization came to speak to the respective grade about their issue. In the case of grades 11 and 12, Gift of Life Donor Program brought an organ transplant recipient in to speak and Habitat for Humanity invited a partner who is working toward her own house. They presented the issue and what their organization does, and the students asked questions. In addition, the tenth grade took a nature walk along the Wissahickon to learn about environmental issues in the city.
Phase 2: Educating each other
Currently in phase 2, each grade is tasked with thinking of a way to educate the other grades about their issues. Ideas include: posters around the school, making and showing movies during weekly devotions, and hallway displays. In addition, giving presentations to lower- and middle school classes are among their ideas.
Phase 3: Off-site service
Because logistics never allow students to get on-site to do service as much as they’d like, upper schoolers are planning ways to serve without being physically present on a site. Ideas include: supply drive for Habitat, toy and book drive for children at Gift of Life, letter writing campaign to Congress and fundraisers.
Phase 4: On-site service
At the end of the quarter, upper schoolers will do service at the actual sites with the partner organizations such as working in the kitchen at St. John’s Hospice, helping at a construction site with Habitat, making meals for families at the Gift of Life House, or doing work at Fairmount Park.
“Service is more likely to be meaningful if students see it as a way for them to shape what their community is like and how it responds when there is a need rather than if they see it as just a nice thing to do for some other,” said Miller. “The newly refined model is designed to build the relationships that will help students feel more invested and empowered by their service.”
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With an already well-established food service system in place and a brand new food service manager of Metz Culinary Services, the Friends Select Matthew H. Huffman ’91 Dining Hall is shaking things up a bit.
For example, Metz recently participated in this year’s InterSession program by bringing the food of Central and South America to the students so they could get a glimpse of daily culture in the regions they were studying. Metz Chef Ryan McNulty joined the FSS Metz Dining Hall crew and held 4 demonstrations for upper schoolers covering the indigenous ingredients and some typical dishes. On Thursday, January 26, the whole school enjoyed an authentic South American lunch served in the dining hall.
Here’s a closer look at FSS student dining, which is certainly a much looked forward to part of every student's day!
Dining Hall Makeup
The dining hall services support committee is made up of food service manager of Metz Culinary Services Rachel Ames; parent and student representatives; lower- middle- and upper school faculty; school nurse; director of lower school; and business manager. During regularly scheduled meetings, the group discusses all things dining hall; food, nutrition, prices, choices, etc. all while keeping the students’ best interests in mind.
Healthy Choices
Ames and the dining hall services committee aim to provide students with the food they love, while enticing them to eat more healthily by offering health conscious options that are aesthetically appealing and delicious.
On a daily basis, lower school students may choose from a variety of foods. The hot lunch and dessert changes every day, and the dining hall provides an assortment of basic sandwiches, bagels, hard boiled eggs, and yogurt so students are provided with an option they are comfortable with.
For middle- and upper school students, the salad bar, pizza station, and grill menu are available, as well as the Grab-and Go-cooler, sushi, snack food, and other beverages. As interesting produce comes into season, the dining hall features those items such as blood oranges, and they’re shifting snack options more toward whole grain, protein-rich, and baked items. There is soda offered with the fountain beverages, but the new all-natural flavored waters are a tastier alternative.
Whenever possible, the dining hall uses whole grain buns, breads, and pastas. All of the food is made with olive oil or an olive oil-soy blend. They do not add salt to the hot lunch items. There is at least one cooked-from-fresh vegetable offered daily, as well as an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables in the Grab-and-Go and the salad bar. The milk they serve is artificial hormone- free, and all individual yogurts are natural or organic.
The daily MS and US break periods is a time in the flow of the day where the dining hall provides food service to students. It's a period mid-morning where students can come together to socialize or meet in groups and get over the hump to lunch.
All divisions are welcomed to take advantage of the breakfast service the dining hall offers each day. It's very popular, especially with lower school parents, who get to spend some extra time with their child before going off to work. Plus, it's a great way for all FSS students to start their day.
Sustainable Efforts
A few small changes can go a long way in terms of being more earth-friendly. The dining hall is doing their part by eliminating disposables (cups, forks, knives, etc.) and recycling as much as possible. They also work with local vendors, use eco-friendly detergents in the dish room, and contract Valley Protein to pick up the used oils and fats to recycle into bio-diesel.
For Ames, it’s a two-part goal for their sustainable efforts. She states, “I’d like to work with the school to help educate the students on why sustainability initiatives matter in the long run and how easy it is to make those choices. Also, it’s the right thing to do.”
Some of the produce served is from local farms, thanks to the school’s association with the Common Market, a wholesale distributor of local foods. They work directly with farms nearby to sell their products in the urban Philadelphia market.
Click here for the March dining menu.
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 If you're a big concertgoer or looking for an evening out on the town with the kids, here's an upcoming event to add to your list. On Tuesday, April 10 at 7 p.m. the Friends Select ensemble will be performing at World Café Live downstairs, presented by Live Connections, a curated series.
Friends Select students will share the bill with a student ensemble from the Curtis Institute of Music,  Ensemble39. Thirty-seven upper school students of the FSS ensemble are paired with Ensemble39 as both groups perform with non-traditional/flexible instrumentation. Ensemble 39 will play the first half of the show, and sit in with FSS for the second half. The Friends Select percussion ensemble will also perform their samba piece with recent artist-in-residence Alex Shaw, a project that came out of this year’s Intersession.
The performance represents the culmination of the group’s year-long study of Beethoven’s Symphony #5. To rehearse and get acclimated to playing together, Ensemble39 will be visiting our school for two activities before the performance.
The doors open at 6 p.m., and attendees are welcome to come for dinner before or during the show. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and are on sale now at the World Café Web site or box office.
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 It’s that time of year again! The 7th annual Friends Select Auction will be held on Saturday, March 10, 2012 beginning at 6 p.m. at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
This year’s auction theme is Operation Friends Select. “The auction theme over the past few years has been tied to the location: Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Citizen's Bank Park, 2009); A World of Art (PAFA, 2010); Our Night at the Museum (Academy of Natural Sciences, 2011),” said Jacki Sufak, chair of this year’s event. “We thought the highly recognizable Operation game would provide a fun, attention-grabbing theme and be a great fit for the setting.”
Throughout the evening, guests will bid on various items at the silent and live auctions, as they
enjoy hor d’oeuvres, entrees including pad thai in Chinese takeout containers, and dessert.
Under the leadership of Beata Macos, president-elect of the Parent Association, and Molly
Mullahy, director of parent programs, the live auction has been reinvigorated with the addition of several exciting new items. There is an emphasis on multi-item packages to provide one-of-a-kind, complete experiences that bidders won't find elsewhere. The auction committee has secured many new items in the silent and live auctions, thanks to hundreds of emails and online applications.
One silent auction table will feature a new way to purchase items based on the Operation board game. A Potables & Potpourri table where participants purchased wrapped, unidentified bottles of wine and other "mystery" items proved popular last year and will be repeated again this auction...but with a twist.
During the live auction, getaway packages to Atlantic City's Borgata; Bethany Beach, Delaware; Orlando/Disney World; Trump Tower in NYC and more, will be offered. Additionally, guests will have the chance to bid on a private special dining experiences that includes a sushi-making lesson, lunch and gift cards for 10 at Kisso Sushi. Attendees also will be able to contribute to "Fund-A-Need" to help the school send more teachers to the 2013 NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) conference taking place in Philadelphia, as well as other professional development opportunities throughout the country.
All proceeds of the auction benefit the Annual Fund at Friends Select. There’s still time to purchase tickets at $85 per person and to donate an item or sponsorship. The goal of the auction is to net more than $60,000 to benefit students and programs at the school. Since tuition only covers 80% of a Friends Select education, the auction will help to fill the gap.
To buy tickets or make a donation, visit the FSS Web site for more information. Can’t make it to the actual event? Bid online. The online auction is open and offers some fantastic items.
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In late January, regular classes were suspended for five days between semesters while upper school students and faculty engaged in the second year of InterSession and explored Central and South America—its geography, peoples, natural resources, governments, culture, religions, economies and politics.
The overarching question, “Does geography define the character of Central and South America?” structured each day’s activities. Outside experts in fields ranging from Central and South American history, to government and politics, to arts and culture worked directly with student/faculty teams in a variety of formats: large seminar-style survey lectures, small group meetings, films, and guided discussions and debates around topical issues.
Some highlights of the week included a culinary demonstration by the FSS Metz Dining Hall crew; a panel discussion on “What is the impact of the Amazon on the region and the world?” between Wyatt Hoback of University of Nebraska, Ann Guinan of Penn Museum, and Aaron Bauer of Villanova University; and a presentation on “Latin American Governments from a Journalist’s perspective,” given by Vanessa Neumann of Columbia University.
"The Amazon was really interesting to learn about," said tenth grader Matthew Angelides. "What affected me most was the indigenous culture and the very impact it has on Latin America. It's fascinating to hear how the Spanish and indigenous cultures mix."
Students were placed into trade delegations teams and were tasked with marketing their respective countries while responding to the following major areas: government and economic stability, economic disparity, education transportation, tourism, infrastructure and geography, natural resources, climate, health and population, culture/religion, and native populations.
Throughout the week, each team worked on a group project, and the culminating assignment was a ten-minute presentation that demonstrated critical thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of each team's designated country.
Completing its second year, InterSession is an international studies immersion program that was launched on January 31, 2011. InterSession is made possible through a matching grant by the Edward E. Ford Foundation and is part of the Friends Select School International Studies Program.
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Winter 2011/2012
Philadelphia Inquirer | February 13, 2012 Philadelphia Inquirer | February 10, 2012
Huffington Post | February 1, 2012
Weekly Press | January 18, 2012
Philadelphia Gay News | January 13, 2012
Click here to view all 2011-2012 school year media clips.
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