Here's a little risk I take at the outset of each school year: a set of predictions about the themes that will dominate the independent school conversation in the year to come. They generally fall into two categories: things that were percolating last year that might take center stage this year, and persistent challenges and opportunities that show no signs of ebbing.
Centering the Mission
Schools leaders will respond to national and world events through the lens of their schools' missions, and not be badgered into side-taking. Likewise, they'll do more to help employees understand their responsibilities as representatives of the school and its mission, and to help parents live up to the mission as well.
Faculty/Staff Retention and Mentoring
Schools will move aggressively on categorical improvement in salary and benefits, combine this with clarity in job expectations, and wrap it all with ongoing professional support, with a particular focus on early career teachers or teachers new to independent schools.
Tech Circumspection
Schools are approaching AI very deliberately having finally become wary of edtech hype. Disruption, move fast break things, this changes everything--all empty hype that enriched Silicon Valley techbros and left schools on the hook for expensive digital tools that often proved underwhelming.
Outdoors
Place-based learning, open-ended exploration, tech-free expeditioning, all increasingly hard to get past the school attorneys and to fit into kids' already overpacked schedules, and yet, more important than ever for nature-deficit kids.
Athletic Director
The job of the Athletic Director has become increasingly complex in the last 10 years. On top of excellent management skills, ADs must now be public relations specialists, creative hiring directors, outstanding mentors, and marketing masters. The matter of coaches is one of the top challenges. As fewer and fewer teachers choose to coach teams, schools must carefully hire outside coaches and orient them to the mission and culture of the school.
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