As every school administrator knows, August can bring surprises. There are surprises that are minor and relatively easy to handle: the student who discovers a new passion over the summer and wants to change some courses; or the student whose schedule needs fixing because they’ve been double-booked for the same class period. And then there are those surprises can become full blown emergencies pretty quickly:  the teacher who needs time off to handle a health crisis or decides not to honor their contract; or the student whose life is upended by a family move or a new opportunity.  In either minor or major situations,  we’ve found that online learning can solve unique challenges that arise for schools.

Let me share a few recent cases, both minor and major:

• Minor: A  senior at  top mid-atlantic boarding school wanted to challenge herself by taking AP Latin, but she didn’t have enough room in her schedule. Taking AP Latin online with One Schoolhouse let her pursue her love of classics without giving up any of her other goals.
• Minor: A school called this summer because they have  lower than expected enrollment in statistics. They wondered if we could teach their handful of students online, in order to better align teaching resources on campus.  We were able to take on the students and solve this staffing challenge for the school. 
• Minor: A middle school student was starting 7th grade at a top day-school, having done her previous course work at a Chinese immersion school.  High school Mandarin wouldn’t fit into her middle school schedule, so the student enrolled in our online program with the support of the school -- and she will do so again this coming school year.
• Major: Two weeks before the 2018-2019 school year started, we got a call from a boarding school that suddenly lost its AP Physics teacher, and needed us to teach a full class of students. We were able to teach the class for the school and on-board its students to online learning -- in addition to our standard orientation practices, I Skyped in to the class to answer student questions and alleviate concerns.
• Major: We are blessed in independent schools to work with students who are immensely talented. In the summer of 2018, we got a call from Claire, a student at a top day-school, and her mom who were trying to figure out if it would be possible for her to complete her senior year online while spending most of the year in Russia studying ballet at the Bolshoi.  We worked with her school to create a course of study for her to complete her graduation requirements from the school online while being able to live in Russia

​In any of these cases, the relationship with the school was key.  The schools wanted to solve the challenges and retain these high achieving students, and we gave them an opportunity to do so, because they trusted that these students would receive a high quality education online. ​

For a deeper dive, check out these case studies, partner profiles and past blogs:

• ​Strategic Engagement with One Schoolhouse - Five case studies of school engagement in online learning are presented, with lessons learned from their experiences. 
• Strategic Ways to Partner & Partner Profiles: Archer School for Girls, Laurel School, Louisville High School
• Flexible Learning Programs
• Problem Solvers​

We love to brainstorm solutions to sticky problems in schools.  Sometimes One Schoolhouse can be part of the solution. Even when we don’t have the answer, our collective experience in a range of schools makes us a solid sounding board when a partner needs to work through options with a trusted colleague.  Because there is a human element to every change, it is often useful to have someone who isn’t connected to the personalities involved to process options and outcomes.  
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So who are the constituent groups and how do you handle conversations when the solution includes putting students into online courses?  Let’s be honest: A lot of people have negative preconceptions about online classes. Families may perceive that they are impersonal or aren’t rigorous; teachers worry they will change or take away their jobs; administrators think it may be another thing to manage. Let’s assume these concerns are the starting points for conversations, and diffuse anxiety by addressing them head-on. 

Families:  Most families choose independent schools for two primary reasons: college readiness and personal relationships.  Sharing our college list along with anecdotes about how online learning promotes college preparedness by increasing academic maturity can help alleviate concern around rigor.  So does describing the One Schoolhouse faculty, most of whom teach in top independent schools around the country and hold advanced degrees in their fields. Our faculty have the same goals that your faculty have: to understand the goals and needs of every student and to help every student find success.
Primary communications goal: Convey that online learning is an essential piece of a college prep education and One Schoolhouse is your trusted partner because we share your independent school values. 

Teachers: Independent school teachers care deeply about their subjects and their students.  In this moment of accelerating change, some are less inclined to adopt new innovations or are even fearful.  Obstacles arise because teachers worry that new pedagogical or curricular initiatives will subjugate content and one-on-one time with students, or because they worry that the online option will eliminate their position or that of a dear colleague.  Transparent communication about the school’s decision-making process reduces fear, which often surfaces because teachers don’t have the information that they need to understand what’s really going on behind the scenes.  
Primary goal:  Don’t be afraid to make your thinking visible to teachers as you process challenges - it prevents the toxic behavior of assuming the worst. 

Administrators: No school administrator needs one more thing to manage, we can’t build a different school to address every single parent complaint, and we all want our school to be fully enrolled.  Circumstances such as these conspire to back us into a corner. Here are a few real examples from when I worked in face-to-face schools. There were moments we lost students for all sorts of reasons that were largely out of our control, but that could have been resolved with One Schoolhouse’s help: 

• A prospective family with a long legacy of French language study (a course sequence the school didn’t have) wants to enroll but is hesitating because of having to make a sacrifice on French;
• A student needs an extra free period so she can get to her dance studio by 2 pm every afternoon, but that means she can’t take the history class she wants because it is a single-section course;​​
• A family plans to go abroad for the child’s 10th grade year but wants to keep her in sync with her classmates so she might return to our school for 11th grade;​
• A student in AP Calculus as a 10th grader needs at least two courses in college level math while still in high school, but her family is afraid that the school can’t serve their child’s needs because those higher level math classes aren’t available in-house. 

​Primary goal:  One Schoolhouse can help you enroll or retain families in these situations, allowing you to earn the family’s tuition for the cost of a few online courses - a seemingly gnarly problem with a deceptively simple solution.  
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One Schoolhouse isn’t always the right solution to every problem.  But we can help you think about how to handle course issues, especially those involving sensitive relationships or high financial stakes.  We’ve seen communication go smoothly; we’ve also seen moments where you’d give anything for a do-over, and we’ve learned a lot about what makes the difference.  Bottom line: when you’re preparing for crucial conversations around online learning, make us your first call.

There is general acknowledgement across our industry that we have to continue to hire more people in our schools.  We can look back almost twenty years to 2000-2001, when schools had 5.5 students for every one full time equivalent employee. Today, it’s 4.5 to one. Back in 2000-2001, there were 9 students to every one FTE teacher.  Today, it’s 8 to one. The assumption has been that our schools have added more employees in administrative positions, not teaching positions in the last twenty years. That was true in the 1990s, but it hasn’t been the casein recent years.  We’ve added teachers, and often we’ve added teachers to teach smaller numbers of students.

As our partnerships with schools deepened, we learned that online education provided an innovative opportunity for schools to add programs: per student rather than per faculty.  This allowed schools to increase opportunities in more cost-effective ways and without making huge up-front investments in either spaces or people. also provided an opportunity to shift low-enrollment courses online to reduce costs without sacrificing the breadth and depth of their offerings.

​Consider this program expansion scenario from one of our schools.  This girls’ school in a tight market was looking to increase STEM opportunities for students, and considered two paths:  traditional staffing (Option #1) or an online partnerships (Option #2). They chose Option #2 to allow for greater depth to their program at a lower annual cost and no capital expenditures.

Ten years ago, there was a lot of thought in the independent school world that online learning could be used to create new revenue. Those predictions have not come true.  More importantly, however, independent schools can use online education to manage expenses, by adding value and increasing opportunities without having to add staff.

For a deeper dive, explore some past blog posts or check out the professional development courses offered in partnership with the National Business Officers Association: 
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Blogs:​

• Blog posts: Should Your School Pay For an Online Course?; Does Everyone Know How the Budget Meets the Mission?; Independent School Finances

Courses with our partners at NBOA on the finances and operations of independent schools:

• Culture Meets Compliance, September 30 - October 18, 2019​​
• Essentials of the Business Office, September 30 - October 25, 2019
• Long-Range Financial Modeling, September 30 - October 18, 2019
• ​Budget Meets Mission, October 21 - November 8, 2019
• Measuring Financial Health with CFI,​ October 21 - November 8, 2019
• Stewarding Donor Dollars, October 21 - November 8, 2019

As teachers, we all have our own flavor of innovation, and we leave for summer with ideas (or, if you’re like me, a stack of haphazard notes in a drawer) to revamp our courses for next year.  Sometimes there are new tools we’ve heard about that we want to test out, and sometimes we have a new course to design. Whatever the motivator, teachers are lifelong learners and we seek to grow professionally.  I’ve noticed two essential ingredients that are necessary for this growth. First, teachers need time and space for expansive reflection. Second, they need a structure to guide the process of designing for a reimagined learning experience. Here’s how we’ve taken these challenges on.
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Expansive Reflection
Meredith Mikell, One Schoolhouse Astronomy and Marine Science teacher, has to refuel each summer because, in her words, she teaches “intellectual recklessness.” Concerned that so many good science students have a fixed mindset, Meredith spends her summers pursuing her own passions - including attending the annual Star Trek convention! - so that she can shift the learning paradigm for her students.  By designing activities that allow for creative application, Meredith’s projects allow students to “discover” basic science principles. For example, the null hypothesis is a notoriously tedious topic to teach because it is so abstract. But Meredith’s Astronomy students uncover its true meaning when they are asked to determine whether their teacher is actually an alien.  Far from the rote experimental design question, this crazy origin story inquiry pushes students to the brink of what science can answer, and therein lies the lesson.  (Her home planet is earth, in case you are wondering). If Meredith didn’t take her own growth and rejuvenation seriously, she could never conceive of the wild ideas that promote brave discovery in her classes.  Even if you have to leave this galaxy to clear your mind, make this part of your professional growth; protect it like your students’ learning depends on it--because it does.
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Structure to Guide Design
Given the frenetic pace of the school year, summer is the only time when teachers have time to think.  This is why we believe that the best formula for teacher growth is summer planning. Here’s an outline of what transformative summer professional development might look like:  

1. Identify the challenge:  You can make a pedagogical change (mastery-based portfolios, personalized pathways, project-based learning) or build something new (a new course, an interdisciplinary program with a colleague).
2. Gather resources:  Find an online class; do your own research; meet with an expert.  But don’t overdo it. Nothing is more paralyzing that too much information.  Find a few good articles, watch a video, and then get on with it.
3. Measure what you value: Identify what you value most and determine what artifacts your students will produce that will demonstrate mastery.  Even if traditional testing is part of your normal routine, deciding on evidence of mastery will help you design more expansive lessons because the outcomes will be authentic evidence of learning.  
4. Template it out:  Mock up a sample lesson and spend time making decisions about the learning flow.  Consider order of and time spent on different activities. Identify the joints - places where students will need to be persistent, where they will get feedback, where they can change direction.  
5. Seek accountability:  Meet with a colleague or ask your own kids what they think.  Talking through your plans will help you process the choices that you’re making and work through points of friction.  Make a note on your calendar to return to your accountability partner in the middle of the school year.
6. Draft it up:  Keeping the value outcome in your mind’s eye, sketch out the change.  Find places to get feedback from students when you try it out, and make sure that you have at least three chances to implement and iterate throughout the year.  The more you can design now while leaving space for adjustment in the moment, the more likely you are to be able to leverage this summer’s work into transformative change next year.  

A good summer refreshes you for the upcoming year by refueling your own body and mind, and by laying the foundation to try new things in your courses. I think about the energy teachers need and use like a reservoir, and this process fills it back up. When teachers return to school in the fall, they’re full, eager and ready to lead their students. Throughout the year, they use that water as they tend their classes. With great summer PD, they have the resources they need at hand, and don’t have to drain their reservoir dry as the year progresses.  The work teachers can do over the summer energizes and helps them dive deep, and you can help make it happen.

​Improve your practice this summer and register for upcoming professional development at One Schoolhouse - courses start July 15, 2019.
Beyond
Building Leadership in Schools for Boys
Introduction to Boys' Schools
Introduction to Girls' Schools
Introduction to Independent Schools
Mastery Practice in Teaching Boys
Relational Teaching

Tim Fish, Chief Innovation Officer at the National Association of Independent Schools, talks about the importance of continual learning for faculty and how that happens best online. 

​Learn more and register for upcoming professional development at One Schoolhouse here - courses start July 15, 2019.