Breakout workshops were also featured at the 2012 NAIS Conference, and I chose to attend the following:

Institutionalized Citizenship:  A New Look at Diversified Leadership presented by Angelina Arrington and Adriene Rothstein of Saint James’ Episcopal School in California

This presentation focused on the notion of diversified leadership within schools based on a culture of “institutional citizenship”.   The idea here is that everyone in the organization participates (at all levels) and that everyone has a “green light” to spearhead projects.  This organizational model encourages thinking in terms of groups, relationships and networks within the school and focuses on the idea of being “interconnected.”  This expectation that is part of their organizational culture is made transparent in the hiring process because everyone in the school is expected to participate.  They introduced the term “Succession of Transmission” which is the idea that while one person may initiate the idea, it may be carried to the next “level” by another (like passing of a baton) as the project evolves.  This relies on strong networks and on having organizational “catalysts” in place to keep things moving forward.

Transformative Communications:  Advocacy, Admissions and Advancement presented by Lawrence Sykoff, Patricia Marshall and Valerie Francois of the Ranney School in New Jersey

This presentation focused on the experiences of Ranney School and how they managed to increase enrollment, decrease attrition, triple donations to their annual fund and benefit from “explosive” volunteerism at their school over the past three years despite the weak economy.  They credit this with having a Board of Trustees and staff who clearly understand that they are all message carriers for the school, and that every one of them is responsible for their communication about the school, and by extension, the public image of the school.  In particular, their Board of Trustees (which in this case includes primarily Ranney School alumni and parents) has taken a more active role in “telling the story” of the school.  Another strategy they used in their recent strategic planning was to develop a mission statement that sent a deliverable and personal message to parents – something they could rely on in an uncertain world – and their school’s mission statement simply is that “every child is known and valued.”  Once they arrived at this new mission statement, it was incorporated into all aspects of their strategic plan and the rest of their plan “just flowed.”  They note that feedback from parents on this mission statement and portion of the plan has been extremely positive.  They commented that in strategic planning, energizing ideas and better quality insights really helped to drive the plan.  They also shared, at length, the various PR strategies they use, one of which was a “State of the School” webcast that goes out annually to all alumni and parents.

How “Transparent” Do We Need and Want to Be? presented by John Littleford, Littleford & Associates consulting in Louisiana, and Joseph Cox from Haverford School in Pennsylvania

My decision to attend this workshop was an error.  I thought it would focus on transparency between the school and the community.  However, the focus was solely on transparency between the Headmaster and the Board of Trustees, which had no value to me since I am neither a Headmaster nor a Trustee, and since KS does not have a similar governance structure.  I politely sat through this workshop and wished I had selected the featured workshop with John Medina instead.

Finding Socioeconomically Diverse Students Who Are Ready for Success presented by Nathaniel Conard of the Pingry School in New Jersey; Elizabeth Duffy of the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey; Booth Kyle of the Lakeside School in Washington; and David Allyn from the New Jersey SEEDS organization as well as Gordon McHenry of the Rainier Scholars organization in Washington State

This workshop was not what I expected either – which was to say I was hoping for usable ideas for our Admissions Office with regard to recruiting and working with indigent applicants.  However, I did learn two key things:  1) That “socioeconomically diverse” at mainland schools has far more to do with race than it does with socioeconomics and; 2) That there exist in the United States school readiness organizations that function as “headhunters” for private schools.  This is like Sylvan on steroids.  I was amazed to learn that these organizations “identify/recruit/prepare” promising non-white students in specific communities and, using a combination of tutoring and week-long retreats, provide these children with the skills they need for admission to private schools.  The Rainier program, for example, is a 14-month program.  They focus on core subjects like algebra, science (chemistry, physics & biology), literature, oratory, as well as on social/emotional preparation and counseling.  What is not clear to me is how this is funded, whether there is a guarantee of admission into a private school, what the expectations are for the parents and students who participate in these programs, and finally who funds these students when they do gain admission to private schools.

Giving out to Gain More:  Leveraging Experts in Your School presented by Rosetta Lee and Rafael Del Castillo of the Seattle Girls’ School in Washington, and Kapono Ciotti and Betsey Gunderson of Maryknoll School in Honolulu

Because professional development can be so costly for schools, and in an effort to retain and challenge high performing staff, these schools have allowed specific staff to evolve into speakers/trainers that not only work with staff at their own schools, but with other schools as well – in the case of Seattle Girls’ School they are actually generating income from the school and the staff member’s salary is based, 20%, on the income she earns for the school when they send her out as a speaker.  Qualitative benefits that have been realized by both schools include:  Becoming locally, regionally and/or nationally known; their schools are becoming viewed as “resource schools”; more talented educators are expressing interests in working for these schools and; increased interest and enrollment as their reputations soar.  Opportunities include:  Low overhead costs; exciting opportunities for staff who are natural leaders; establishment of your schools as and “expert” or “thought leader” in specific areas; and collaboration, collegiality and connection.  This has lots of possibility for KS.

The What and How of Creativity and Innovation presented by Peter Nilsson of Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts

I originally planned to dutifully attend the workshop during this block on “Admission and Financial Aid Trends that Every School Leader Needs to Know”, however when I saw that the presenters were SSS and SSAT, I chose instead to attend this workshop on creativity and innovation.  It was really designed for classroom teachers, yet I found the presentation very interesting and applicable to encouraging creativity in everyone.  Nilsson talked about the three “regions” of creativity (mental, modal & material) and described how creativity evolves from imitation to variation to combination to transformation and, finally, to “genesis original creation”.   In terms of creating “successfully” he made four points:  1) Content is King; 2) Restriction promotes innovation; 3) Simplicity marks the best creative work and; 4) Chance favors the connected mind.  He challenged the hypothesis that educators need to adjust their teaching to the learning style of students, and instead asserts that there is empirical evidence that there may, in fact, be one best way to teach a particular thing/subject/idea that will be most effective for all learners.