Week 5: Get Affiliated!

Before spring break, we continued an effective dialogue that began on the google doc. This dialogue mainly centered on the issue of tuition, one we had been tentative to probe. Tuition maintains a healthy cash flow which could ensure the stability of our school. Charging tuition has a heavy cost, however; doing so would place EdCo among the many independent schools who risk perpetuating elitism by compromising values for dollars and cents. So, we collectively decided not to charge tuition for the majority of our students (as little as possible, really) in order to more fully embrace the pool of potential students.
Refusing to charge tuition puts our school at a disadvantage from a practical standpoint. The interest accrued from our sizable assets may be sufficient only if our school remains small. Fundraising from wealthy donors will prove essential in replenishing our operating cost. Our lack of cashflow may mean we affiliate with another larger institution–perhaps a nonprofit or university. But, as I will outline below, each of these consequences that seem like compromises actually support our fundamental philosophy that is the core of our school.
First, a smaller student body enhances our ability as educators to ensure that each of our students can thrive. Since interpersonal feedback and customized curricula are both critical to the conception of EdCo, having a small student-to-faculty ratio ameliorates multitudes of potential logistical headaches. Moreover, with a smaller number of students our culture of abundance becomes much more feasible. With smaller class sizes come a smaller number of high-caliber, well-paid faculty. We can also afford to admit more at-risk youths and those of lower economic strata. In instrumenting this policy we plan to begin as a high school and then open a middle- and lower-school at later stages to gradually implement a broader no-tuition system.
Second, we plan to affiliate with an institution of higher education to facilitate our mission and establish an economy of mutual benefit. A board of trustees from that college or university provides a pool of education- and social justice-minded donors that might be interested in supporting us. Furthermore, collaborating with students and faculty at both undergraduate and graduate levels expose future educators and policy makers to the benefits of experimental education. An affiliation also helps solve some practical issues like facilities management and maintenance. Ideally, through this partnership enrollment would be guaranteed at the institution in question, thereby eliminating the external pressures of the "college hunt."
As a proof of concept regarding this second point, we plan to explore connections with Occidental College in Los Angeles, a liberal arts college that considered administrating a high school within the last decade. Occidental has many administrators and trustees that can give us clarity on our plans and the process of affiliating with a university. Once we establish a connection with Oxy, an affiliation with a school with graduate programs in education (UVA, for example) will seem more legitimate.

Below are some hard facts we came up with this week that will shape the profile of our school:
-High School (25-35 kids)
-Roughly 20 faculty (starting salary around 60K)
-As much as half or two thirds of our starting assets invested and accruing interest
-80%+ student body financial aid recipients
-Sports/arts programs in tandem with college/university offerings
-Board of trustees of affiliated institution

Week 4: A Shape Emerges

This past week has brought many new ideas and a lot of clarity to the project. First of all, the class settled on the "Sweet Briar" model of funding. As we're well aware, the organization representing each school will receive the facilities, grounds, and remaining assets of Sweet Briar College, a small liberal arts school in rural Virginia. Using that scenario as a mold, each group can tailor their creations as they see fit. This week, our group took that newfound freedom and ran.

First, we were able to talk with our Lower School Director, Ms. Paula Martin. She gave us details of the financial concerns of running the Lower School, and gave us guidance on the specific dollar amounts required to run programs and activities like field trips. We plan to stay in contact with Ms. Martin and reach out to Keith Huyssoon, C.F.O., for more information in the future.

We next focused on developing a feedback process for our students and their teachers. All feedback, quarterly evaluations included, will be conducted via in-person, one-on-one conferences. Students will come prepared with a short written paragraph on their engagement and thoughts on the previous term, and the teacher will use this document as a guide to talk with the student about areas of progress and areas of potential growth. Similarly, our group discussed the possibility of extending this model into faculty evaluations, though no consensus has been reached. A model prompt appears below:

As an institution of education, we feel that feedback is an essential part of the growth process. As such, we seek to create an environment where feedback can occur openly and without judgment. A direct conference can inform both student and instructor about what is most effective or ineffective within the given curriculum. Prepare a paragraph to bring to your conference so that you feel you can adequately voice all of your significant class experiences and opportunities for growth.If your engagement was the ultimate goal of the class and your instructor, how close to this goal would you say we came?

After diving into a discussion about grade division, we agreed that a typical LS/MS/US split seemed best for our school, with some room being left for changes around fifth, sixth, eighth, and ninth grades. This will be developed further as we do more research into the efficacy of existing divisions.

Our final conversation of the week revolved around wealth and representation of wealth in our school's model. In striving to create a culture of abundance, we hope to give every student access to the financial resources to engage their interests. Regardless of wealth background, we will work toward the goal of financing every student's needs and interests. How we get the money to do this is another story, but preliminarily we supposed that an innovative group of board members (technology industry folks, academics, etc.) might be able to fund an initiative.

Week 3: Practical concerns

This week we had some dialogue about finances, curriculum, and administration. We also chose a template name for our school: Education Cooperative (EdCo), which will most likely be modified by location once that has been chosen.
We were all quite busy over the week, so our dialogue was mostly focused on decisions made in Monday's class and will continue for Week 4. In our original brainstorming about the curriculum, we had mentioned a focus on the outdoors and sustainability. In light of the class decision to grant each school up to 3200 acres of land, we will definitely incorporate gardening and other outdoor activities. We feel that learning in and about the outdoors can only benefit our students. As we move forward with a more definite daily schedule, we will build in outdoor time.
We have decided that due to financial concerns, we will need to charge tuition for our students, but we have not yet discussed how much it will be and what financial aid might be available. We plan to research costs of comparable existing schools in order to create a budget.
Our dialogue regarding the administration focused on transparency and student involvement. We are still considering where transparency might not be appropriate and to what extent students should be involved in administrative decisions.

Week 2: Expatiating Details

Where are we?

Building on the foundation of core values that we outlined last week, our group has discussed in further detail the manner in which the essential tenets will play out in the context of our school. We have narrowed down several aspects of the format of our simulated class, leaning towards a younger age group for our trial (Lower or Middle School), and a curriculum centered on the application of our methods of instruction in the realms of math and/or music. Our group also conferred in regards to administrative characteristics of our school, and is currently engaged in dialogue about how to give students a greater voice in the shaping of school values. We are still honing the specifics of financial management (deliberating between private and charter), the formation of a student-based judiciary committee, faculty hiring and evaluating processes, and school rules.

Where are we going next?

As we continue the dialogue and clarify the administrative and financial basis of our school, we will start to form committees and procedures that function effectively within the system. We will also develop an outline for our trial class including a lesson plan as well as demarcating broader goals for student takeaway.