Announcements - archive
Thursday, 05 August 2010 08:21
Written by Winston Baccus
Surveys show strength, enthusiasm, and areas to improve
PDS conducted an anonymous on-line survey consisting of 270 questions in a variety of areas involving the school. Participation included 75% of all parents/families, 95% of all sixth graders, 40% of alumni polled, and 85% of all faculty and staff.In a continuous effort to achieve excellence and move toward improvement, PDS recently conducted a survey to gain feedback from four key groups: parents, faculty and staff, sixth grade boys, and alumni in grades 7 through 12. The results were resoundingly positive with all groups agreeing that PDS is doing an outstanding or great joab in nearly every area.
“We want specific feedback,” says Headmaster Lee Burns. “Even if we think we are doing a great job, we can have blind-spots. We can always be better. If we are doing great in an area, we want to be outstanding instead of just great, and we want to move the goods to greats,” says Burns.
Dr. Bill Weary, a consultant from Washington, DC, who works with premier independent schools and universities, analyzed the four surveys and noted that the combined averages of “completely agree” and “mostly agree” were typically above 90%.
Weary says, “Imagining a more positive group would be hard. Faculty, administrators, and staff found excellence in the school’s treatment of them, its valuing of them, its ability to empower them, and its dedication to their professional growth,” he says. “Very clearly, they knew and appreciated the school’s mission and found it well implemented. The school’s religious foundation was reflected in their own commitments as well,” says Weary.
“As educators, they value the school’s focus on a 21st century curriculum, as located within a national perspective, and they take pride in being one of the nation’s finest elementary boys’ schools,” says Weary. “They find PDS boys to be happy, well taught, and subject areas were strong.”
Jamie Baker, also a school consultant and president of Reverb Consulting, studied the results and identified PDS’ culture as “cohesive and focused.” She claims teachers and administrators know where PDS is headed and why. They feel empowered to be contributing members in the mission. They are compensated and supported in their work and in their lives.
“As I work with many other schools seeking to shift their educational emphasis from traditional teaching of content to student-centric learning with a 21st century relevance, the single hardest aspect of this shift is achieving significant change and renewed commitment in the adult culture,” says Baker.
Describing parent responses, Weary claims:
“If anything, parents are even more enthusiastic than the administration, faculty, and staff. They expressed, strongly, their pleasure in the school’s knowledge and love of their boys, its instilling in them a sense of Godly manhood, the 21st century curriculum, and pride in being one of the city’s top academic schools,” says Weary.
“PDS, they said, knows boys, has an excellent faculty, is safe, and provides a good learning environment in a spiritual atmosphere with Christian values,” says Weary. “Class work was challenging and fun, overall subject matter well handled, technology strong, and self-discipline, confidence, and moral character were promoted. Communication between the school and parents is excellent; parents appreciate the chance to learn more about parenting boys, and know they can become involved if they wish,” says Weary.
Baker was impressed by the “strong parental support and approval of the direction of PDS,” especially given that PDS has made a number of changes such that PDS boys are experiencing school in ways that parents are not accustomed to from their own school days.
“Our parents are savvy enough to know that in a dynamic and interconnected world, the skills of yesterday are necessary but no longer sufficient for students and leaders of tomorrow,” says Burns.
Other encouraging data from PDS alumni, 7th through 12th graders, shows this group as thriving personally, spiritually, and academically. Says Weary: “Recent alumni were especially thrilled with teachers’ willingness to help, and felt that they had a Godly vision of manhood. Their academic records after PDS were distinguished, they had become community leaders and servants, their relationship to God was important to them, and they sought to grow spiritually.”
The vast majority, 82%, earned places on academic honor rolls in years since PDS, and nearly all, 91%, had a 3.0 GPA or higher. A remarkable 65% had 3.5’s or higher, and 34% had a 4.0 or higher.
“A performance like that speaks to excellent preparation at PDS and excellent teaching and learning at their future schools,” says Burns. “It’s important to know that our graduates are thriving in their future schools…schools with both similarities and differences to PDS,” says Burns.
Current sixth graders also felt well prepared for their future and gave PDS high marks. They report being known, nurtured and loved; gaining a godly vision of manhood; and becoming better thinkers. They indicated that their teachers are willing and available to give them extra help when they need it. They believe that technological tools deepen the learning process and make it more engaging. Most want to travel, study, or live in a foreign country one day. They report, almost unanimously, that a relationship with God is important to them and that they are striving to grow spiritually through prayer, Bible reading, or church/youth group.
In addition to feedback from professional consultants, the headmaster and his administrative team continue to review the surveys, as have various faculty groups.
“We are spending a lot of time with the data, looking for trends, sorting things into outstanding, great and good, and considering how we get better,” says Burns.
Areas for improvement are being addressed with phase two of the capital campaign, which includes a new music and art center, media center, and cafeteria/kitchen. “Currently, our facilities are somewhat limiting us. Our boys are hungry for more and different curricular opportunities,” says Burns.
Feedback from recent graduates shows that seventh grade is different and harder, and while they are earning high grades as 7th through 12th graders, current PDS boys need to expect to work harder than they did in elementary school. This group also suggested that boys need more independence.
Teachers, meanwhile, struggle with finding a good balance between their professional lives and personal ones. “They work so hard,” says Burns, “often involved in their PDS work into the evenings and on weekends, and we need to protect and promote a good balance that will keep them at their best.”
A consistent mark of PDS is continual assessment and improvement. Says Baker: “This survey reflects school leadership and a school culture that is truly committed to being an educational institution of world-class caliber. There is a true willingness to do the work to get there, which includes repeatedly looking in every dark place, reviewing all assumptions, and soliciting and using feedback responsibly.”
Echoing Baker, Weary says: “I find conducting and exploring the results of this thorough survey another sign of PDS’ excellence and of its intention to keep on growing.”
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News 
Thanks for clipping and saving all of those Box Tops this summer. We will collect them this Thursday, September 2, from your son's classroom. Please put the Box Tops in a Ziploc bag with your son's name on it and have him place it in the yellow Box Tops bag in his classroom. He'll receive a treat for participation, and the classroom that collects the most Box Tops quarterly wins a pizza party!
Dear Upper School Parents,
Dear PDS Parents and Families:
The new report card is an amazing way to give a parent a more holistic view of their son and his abilities.
