It's Showtime!

When I first arrived at Houston Academy in 2012 someone told me, “We’re not an arts school.” First of all, that wasn’t true. We already had an incredible band, a fine chorus, a vibrant lower school music program, an award-winning visual arts program, and a talented dance team. What we lacked was a theater program. Secondly, though, that statement angered me. Why wouldn’t we want to be known as an “arts school”? Very few offerings in a school can more positively impact students’ competency in the 6 Cs[1] than participation in the arts. Moreover, people acted like it was a zero-sum game – that we could be good at the arts or we could be good in athletics, but you couldn’t do both. Frankly, that’s nonsense.  Given the caliber of our student body, we can and should be good at everything we do, and our students should have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of activities.

Well, my message to you today is that we have reached a point where our theater program is first rate. This year, we have already put on our 4^th – 6^th grade play. If you missed our production of Aladdin, you really missed an outstanding performance. It was not just “cute;” it was excellent. Plus, it’s worth pointing out that each performance we have done in each of the the last three years has been more difficult and has had a higher production value than the previous one. Additionally, our participation rate has been consistently high. This year, 44 students participated in the play, which constitutes 43% of the student body in grades 4-6.

Tomorrow night, (Tuesday, November 8^th) at 6:30 PM in Dunning Hall, the Arts Department will be presenting its Fall Showcase. Admission is free, and you will get a chance to hear our jazz band, chorus, and the extracurricular chorus. Furthermore, the drama class will be putting on Café Murder, a family-friendly murder mystery that only YOU can help solve. Admission is free, and having seen the rehearsals, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Finally, the 7^th -12^th grade students will be putting on a performance of Singin’ In the Rain. This will be an endeavor the likes of which we have never attempted at Houston Academy. It is full of intricate choreography and difficult numbers. From what I’ve seen in rehearsals, it should be outstanding. Singin’ in the Rain is a really entertaining and funny show, and it would be well worth your time to come see it. It will be performed in Dunning Hall at 7:00 PM from Tuesday, November 15^th to Thursday, November 17^th.

In short, in just three years, we have gone from having no drama program, to having one in which approximately 90 students are participating. Moreover, our program is of high quality, despite our lack of a facility. I should also note that our band has 54 members, our show choir has 13 members, our upper school chorus has 20 members, our extracurricular chorus has 20 members, and our dance team has 17 members. These students are not only doing outstanding work, but they are collaborating and learning in ways they would not do in any other environment. When we talk about 21^st Century Learning, this is what it’s all about.

See you on Tuesday!

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[1] Much attention has been paid in the educational literature and in the media to what has been termed “21^st Century Education.” Generally speaking, educators and business leaders have identified the competencies that our students will have to master to be successful in the workplace. Pat Bassett, former head of the National Association of Independent schools referred to these skills as the “5C’s plus 1.”[1] I’ve just started calling them the “6 Cs.” These 6 Cs are:

1.     Collaboration,

2.     Communication,

3.     Creativity,

4.     Critical thinking,

5.     Cross-cultural competence, and

6.     Character.

HA's Lower School - A Value Proposition

Every year, as a part of my introduction to our Lower School Holiday Concert, I make a statement about the value of the education provided at Houston Academy. In particular, I have pointed out that, while many schools across the country have cut their arts funding, Houston Academy has actually increased our commitment to the arts. One thoughtful parent, who cared enough to email me, questioned my statement, particularly in response to the value proposition of spending money on a Houston Academy lower school education.  

Before I go into the value proposition of HA, let me make one crucial point: I am a fervent supporter of our public school system. The future of the nation and the future prosperity of Dothan depends largely on the success of our public schools. Moreover, my wife and I are both products of the public school system. In fact, my wife has spent most of her career in Title I schools, including a stint in inner city Memphis, Tennessee. I have a great deal of respect for what our public school teachers and administrators do on a daily basis, especially given how they have been handicapped by inadequate funding, misguided “reform” efforts, and needless bureaucracy and paperwork -- all of which have been imposed upon them by people who are not educators. So, in enumerating the benefits of a Houston Academy education, I, in no way, mean to be critical of the public schools and the people who work in them.

In my 26 years working in independent schools, I have come to understand that independent schools must provide our students and families with some sort of “value added.” That is, we need to offer our families some benefit or advantage that they are unable to get in the public schools or elsewhere. At the core of our value proposition is our mission:

Houston Academy is an independent college preparatory institution. Our mission is to prepare all our students for responsible participation in a global society by providing an excellent learning environment and opportunities to achieve their highest academic, social, and creative potential.

These two sentences capture what makes a Houston Academy lower school education worth the tuition.  We offer a mission that is very different. The goal of the public schools is to graduate kids from high school; the goal of the local Christian schools is to provide a Christian education; the goal of Houston Academy is to graduate kids from college.

In fact, we are the ONLY school in the Wiregrass whose mission is explicitly college preparatory. This means that, in everything we do, from 3P to 12^th grade, we are working towards the goal of giving students the knowledge and skills to be a successful college graduate. Houston Academy also wants to produce global citizens and to push students to achieve their highest creative and social potential. HA has a different mission from other area schools- not better, necessarily -- just different. 

In practical terms, more than anything else, what we offer is rigor. As I have told parents and students who are worried about grades, “We will not apologize for our rigor.” We hold our students and teachers accountable to an unwaveringly high standard of excellence. At the same time, we provide a loving and nurturing environment in which our students receive the support they need to be successful. Still, no one should pay tuition for his children’s school to be easy. College will be hard; life will be hard; and we want our children to have the tools to be successful in both college and life. My own three children work hard at HA, every single day, and to them this is “normal.” They don’t get particularly stressed, they just do their job, because they are used to learning, and they are used to doing what they need to do to be successful.

Holding our teachers to a higher standard is another aspect of that rigor. No, we do not have “high stakes” testing, and our teachers do not have to fill out reams of paperwork; we prefer they spend their time teaching. As I have said in my blog, we have not adopted Common Core because we are teaching children, not standards. Our teachers are evaluated by the degree to which they pursue and achieve goals that they, themselves identify in conjunction with their Head of School.

Houston Academy also hires teachers with strong credentials who are compulsively driven to succeed.  Unlike most other schools in the Wiregrass, every single one of our 3P-6^th grade teachers has a four-year degree and is certified in her field. To me, taking your child to a preschool where teachers are neither qualified nor certified is a little like taking your child to a dentist who has never been to dental school.  Despite some people’s perception, preschool is not free play. Lessons should be planned by certified teachers to meet the developmental needs of the individual students in the class. It’s a purposeful exercise that requires a teacher to have education, training, and practice. It’s as much a science as it is an art.

Nevertheless, having outstanding teachers is not enough to ensure student success. The literature has consistently supported the notion that students thrive in a smaller classroom environment. We believe education is an intimate exercise. Fundamentally, your tuition dollars ensure that your child has a small student to teacher ratio. We have teacher assistants in every classroom through 1^st grade. Moreover, while the student to teacher ratio in the Dothan City elementary schools is 18:1 (20:1 in the magnet schools), the Houston Academy Lower School student to teacher ratio is 8:1.

Make no mistake: class size matters. The research has consistently shown wide-ranging and lasting benefits from smaller class sizes.  Smaller class sizes have a positive and significant relationship to higher standardized test scores, higher “cognitive and non-cognitive skills”[1] (e.g., effort, motivation, and self-esteem), higher academic achievement, higher salaries as an adult, higher college graduation and attendance rates, and lower incidence of poverty.[2] In fact, there have been quantitative studies that have shown that student-teacher ratio is the single most powerful predictor of student improvement in reading and math.[3] The reasons for these positive outcomes are obvious. In smaller classes, teachers are better able to meet the individual educational needs of the students, there are fewer distractions, fewer behavioral problems, and the engagement of students is increased.[4] Plus, with a decreased teaching load, teachers have more time to plan innovative lessons.

In addition to the intimate environment in the regular classroom, we have full-time enrichment teachers in every conceivable area (library, computer, foreign language, art, music, character education, and PE). Other schools may claim that they offer these enrichments, but they don’t have full-time, certified teachers dedicated to these pursuits, and the students do not take part in these disciplines with any consistency. To this end, our financial commitment, in terms of faculty development and faculty resources, is unmatched. We have a:

• Full-time teacher with a Master of Fine Arts teaching 5-6 grade chorus (pursuing a doctorate)
• Full-time band director with a music degree (pursuing a master's degree)
• Full-time lower school music teacher with a bachelor's degree
• Full-time lower school art teacher with a master's degree
• Lower school art assistant, with a bachelor's degree 
• Full-time Spanish teacher, with a bachelor's degree
• Full-time PE teacher, with a master's degree
• Two, full-time PE assistants, with a bachelor's degree
• Full-time computer teacher, with a bachelor's degree
• Full-time library and media specialist, with two master's degrees
• Full-time library assistant, with a bachelor's degree

We also offer:

• Smart boards in every classroom
• A yearly, lower school musical
• Instruments and band instruction to every student in 5^th and 6^th grade
• iPads in every lower school classroom
• 1:1 MacBook Pros in grades 5-12

Perhaps the most meaningful aspect of our “value added” is the support we provide to help our students be successful in our highly rigorous environment. HA now has three, full-time learning specialists who work with students who are struggling or who have special needs. Two of these teachers are trained in the Orton-Gillingham method for dyslexic students, one is a speech therapist, and the third has a special education degree and a master’s degree.

Finally, in my short time in Dothan, I have found that most people will concede that HA offers the finest, college preparatory education in the region, but many people feel that HA is unaffordable. For preschool, we are nowhere near the most expensive option in Dothan. For lower and upper schools, when you compare “apples to apples,” and include fees that other schools charge, our cost is quite competitive. Moreover, we offer substantial financial assistance to those who qualify, making the cost of an HA education well within the reach of most middle-class families.

In short, when you are looking at the value of paying tuition, it’s important to look long-term. In the history of Houston Academy, 100% of our graduates have been admitted to a college of his or her choice. Over the past two years, our senior classes of approximately 50 students have earned $6.4 million in college scholarships. That is remarkable, even if one controls for the educational level of our parent body. We offer smaller classes, more opportunities, more rigor, and more support than any other school in the Wiregrass. The evidence shows that a Houston Academy education gives your child a better chance to be successful in college and in life; this all begins in lower school.

Further Reading

Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J. S. (2010). The credibility revolution in empirical economics: How better research design is taking the con out of econometrics. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(2), 3-30.

Angrist, J.D., & Lavy, V. (1999). Using Maimonides’ rule to estimate the effect of class size on scholastic achievement. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(2), 533-575.

Bain, H., Lintz, N., & Word, E. (1989). A study of fifty effective teachers whose class average gain scores ranked in the top 15% of each of four school types in Project STAR. ERIC Clearinghouse; paper presented at the American Educational Research Association 1989 meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Browning, M., & Heinesen, E. (2007). Class size, teacher hours and educational attainment. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 109(2), 415-438.

Chetty, R., Friedman, J.N., Hilger, N., Saez, E., Schanzenbach, D.W., & Yagan D. (2011). How does your kindergarten classroom affect your earnings? Evidence from Project STAR. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(4), 1593-1660.

Chetty, R., Friedman, J.N., & Rockoff J. (2013). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood (Working Paper No. 19424). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Dynarski, S., Hyman, J., & Schanzenbach, D.W. (2013). Experimental evidence on the effect of childhood investments on postsecondary attainment and degree completion. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 32(4), 692-717.

Finn, J., Gerber, S., & Boyd-Zaharias, J. (2005). Small classes in the early grades, academic achievement, and graduating from high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(2), 214-223.

Fredriksson, P., Öckert, B., & Oosterbeek, H. (2013). Long-term effects of class size. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(1), 249-285.

Hanushek, E.A. (1997). Assessing the effects of school resources on student performance: An Update. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 19(2), 141-64.

Hanushek, E.A. (1986, September). The economics of schooling: Production and efficiency in public schools. Journal of Economic Literature, 24, 1141-77.

Hoxby, C. M. (2000). The effects of class size on student achievement: New evidence from population variation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(4), 1239-1285.

Jepsen, C., & Rivkin, S. (2009). Class size reduction and student achievement: The potential tradeoff between teacher quality and class size. Journal of Human Resources, 44(1), 223-250.

Krueger, A.B. (1999). Experimental estimates of education production functions. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(2), 497-532.

Krueger, A.B. (2003). Economic considerations and class size. Economic Journal, 113(485), F34-F63.

Krueger, A.B., & Whitmore, D. (2001). The effect of attending a small class in the early grades on college testtaking and middle school test results: Evidence from Project STAR. Economic Journal, 111, 1-28.

Krueger, A.B., & Whitmore, D. (2002). Would smaller classes help close the black-white achievement gap? In J. Chubb & T. Loveless (Eds.), Bridging the Achievement Gap (11-46). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Molnar, A., Smith, P., Zahorik, J., Palmer, A., Halbach, A., & Ehrle, K. (1999). Evaluating the SAGE program: A pilot program in targeted pupil-teacher reduction in Wisconsin. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 21(2), 165-77.

Mosteller, Frederick (1995). The Tennessee study of class size in the early school grades. The Future of Children. 5(2), 113-127.

Unlu, F. (2005). California class size reduction reform: New findings from the NAEP. Princeton, NJ: Department of Economics, Princeton University.

Urquiola, M. (2006). Identifying class size effects in developing countries: Evidence from rural Bolivia. Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(1), 171-177.

Word, E., Johnston, J., Bain, H.P., et al. (1990). Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR): Tennessee’s K-3 class size study. Final summary report 1985-1990. Nashville: Tennessee State Department of Education.

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[1] Schanzenbach, D. (2014, February 1). Does Class Size Matter? Retrieved January 7, 2016, from http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/does-class-size-matter

[2] Reducing Class Size: What Do We Know? (2010). Canadian Education Association, 1-22. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://www.cea-ace.ca/classsizereport

Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Teacher quality and student achievement. Education policy analysis archives, 8, 1.

Mosteller, F. (2008). The Tennessee Study of Class Size in the Early School Grades. The Future of Children, 113-113. Retrieved January 7, 2016, from https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/05_02_08.pdf

[3] Vasquez Hellig, J., Williams, A., & Jez, S. (2010). Inputs and Student Achievement: An Analysis of Latina/o-Serving Urban Elementary Schools. Association of Mexican American Educators, 48-58. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://www.classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Inputs_Student_Achievement.pdf

[4] Blatchford, P., Goldstein, H., Martin, C., & Browne, W. (2002). A study of class size effects in English school

reception year classes. British Educational Research Journal, 28(2), 169-185.

Graue, E., Hatch, K., Rao, K., & Oen, D. (2007). The wisdom of class size reduction. American Educational

Research Journal, 44(3), 670-700.

J.D. (1997). Class Size: What does research tell Us? Spotlight on Student Success #20.

Forming a True Middle School

Many of you may not be aware that Houston Academy has a strategic plan.  This plan, devised by a special committee of the Board of Trustees, outlines our goals for Houston Academy for a five-year period.  A major component of that plan is the establishment of a middle school. 

You might ask, “Why do we need a middle school?”

That’s a good question. After all, Houston Academy has been very successful with the lower school comprising 3-year-old preschool through 6^th grade and the upper school comprising 7th grade through 12^th grade.

The driving force behind the middle school movement, nationally, is the research-based idea that children ages 10-14 have a unique set of learning needs; therefore, those children need a school setting, curriculum, and culture that meet those unique needs.

If you’ve ever spent time with a group of middle schoolers, you will quickly see that they are, indeed, “unique.”  As one of our teachers, who is in love with the middle school child, likes to say, “They’re not real people yet! I love them, but they’re not real people!” One of my former colleagues aptly described the middle school children as “hormones with feet.”  I particularly love a description I read in the NAIS, Middle School Handbook:

You know them.

We all do.

They are the ones we hear in a much too near booth in the fast food restaurant, talking, laughing, eating so loudly they complicate our digestion. They are the ones who cause us to hurry to new seats in a movie theater just as the theater goes dark. They are the ones we brake for as they skateboard past us down a steep hill and through a busy traffic intersection. They are the ones playing comfortably with toy cars at one moment and dreaming of real ones at the next…

Middle schoolers are complex. Next to old people, early adolescents may suffer more age-based prejudice than any other group in society. Through the middle school years, the young person frequently wonders or asks, “Am I normal?” (Finks and Stanek 2008)

If you’ve had a middle school child in your home, you’ve seen it. One day, they talk to you eagerly, like a 40-year-old historian, and the next day they sulk alone in their room, listening to Rhapsody on their iPhone, while wondering why “nobody gets them.” My own middle school daughter describes herself as “angsty.”

Not surprisingly, the brain-based research tells us that our teaching methods and environment should be driven by students’ brain structure, growth, and development.  We would never think of teaching a kindergartner the same way we teach a fifth grader, because we understand that their brain development is at a very different place. Inexplicably, though, we seem to think it’s perfectly fine to teach a 7^th grader the same way we teach a senior![1]

To successfully educate the middle school child, we also need to make sure we have a structure that reflects middle schoolers’ impulsivity and seemingly inherent need to test boundaries. Again, from a disciplinary perspective, it’s neither productive nor realistic to hold an 11-year-old to the same standards as a 19-year-old.

In short, the middle school child needs a guided and planned transition from childhood to the teen years and young adulthood. Early adolescence is an absolutely critical point in human development, and a carefully designed educational experience from grades 5-8 can have an indelible and lasting impact on our children and their future. Unfortunately, many of our schools in this country have not done a very good job structuring their middle schools. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that our middle schools have collectively failed our children.

The middle school at Houston Academy will be a model for the region. At the beginning of the year, we formed a volunteer faculty and administrative committee to study and plan for a middle school.  Before Thanksgiving, our committee took a trip to two quality independent schools: Altamont in Birmingham and the Montgomery Academy. Both schools have a middle school that encompasses grades 5-8.

Subsequently, the committee has decided to move forward in steps.  Our first step will be to reorganize the 5th and 6th grades employing a schedule that will allow the students to move between disciplines and have more class time in science, math, English, world and classical languages, and social studies.  This will NOT mean that we will denigrate the time for the arts; it will merely mean that we will rearrange the schedule to fit a middle school model.  In addition, we are looking to have a smooth transition in terms of expectations, responsibilities, and class structure from 5th grade to 8th grade. In other words, 5th graders will be handled differently from 6th graders. Our goal is to have this in place by next year. We also hope to have some athletic, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities for these grades. Concurrently, we are studying academic and social best practices of middle schools and working to integrate those ideas into our new middle school.

In the 2016-17 school year, we plan on fully integrating the 7th and 8th grade into the middle school.  Pending strong enrollment and a sound financial footing, we will hire a middle school head.

As we move forward, we will be dealing with the issues outlined below:

 I. What is our educational vision? Envision our middle school….

     A. What kind of education should we provide?

     B. What will our middle school provide that other schools don’t provide? What will our middle school provide for students that is NOT being provided under our current structure?

     C. What kinds of academic and social experiences do we want to give our students?

     D. What do we see implementing right away, in five years, in ten years?

II. What is our structure and curriculum?

     A. Day-to-Day operations

          1. How long will our classes be?

          2. How many classes in a day?

          3. When will the day start and end?

          4. How will lunch work?

          5. We will have an Advisory program. How will it work?

          6. How will we schedule teachers and students (structure and method)?

          7. What extracurricular activities will we offer? At what grades? What is our middle school athletic philosophy?

     B. Student Learning

          1. What is the objective of student learning?

          2. What do they need to know/be able to do?

          3. What criteria will we use to assess learning?

          4. How will students be tested?

          5. What constitutes successful completion of the middle school?

          6. How will curriculum be developed?

III. Write a statement of good practice in teaching

     A. What pedagogy will we use?

     B. Are we writing-based, collaborative-learning based, etc.?

IV. Facilities

     A. What physical facilities are necessary?

     B. Where will those facilities be?

     C. What will the facilities cost?

At first glance, this outline contains an overwhelming list of questions. On the other hand, this is incredibly exciting for both our teachers and our children.  We already offer the finest education in the Wiregrass. We have no educational peer, but we are going to be even better.  I can’t wait to see what we become as we evolve as a school of excellence!

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[1] Actually, research suggests that male adolescence continues well into our mid-20s. I know most women will not find that fact surprising!