Introduction to Independent Schools: Issues and Opportunities

Many independent schools—private, nonpublic schools that are governed by independent boards of trustees—were founded hundreds of years ago, yet their futures are in no way certain or set in stone. Whereas some independent schools have long histories of academic excellence, notable alumni achievements, enviable endowments, and exceptional physical plants, other independent schools are brand new, working to establish themselves in a local, or even global market, and struggling to balance their budgets within the context of competing demands, expanding competition, and escalating costs. The majority of independent schools fall somewhere in the middle.

The recession of 2008 was a great challenge for many independent schools, but also a time of great opportunity. Financial pressures jolted many schools out of a period of complacency, forcing them to reevaluate both the educational and financial models that had sustained them for decades. From governance to student well-being to teacher evaluation, many independent schools are working to transform the ways they deliver an education that best prepares students for success in the rapidly changing world that their graduates must navigate.

The relatively small size of independent schools, their nimble governance structure, and freedom from many state mandates provide opportunity for experimentation and innovation. The approximately 30,000 private schools in the United States represent almost a quarter of our nation's schools and enroll just over five million students, which accounts for nearly 10% of our nation's school-age children (Broughman & Swaim, 2013). Independent schools are a type of private school noted for their independent governance and financing, and their mission focus. Drawing on their relative autonomy as educational institutions, independent schools can serve as laboratories for new and effective practices, testing various pedagogical, governance, financial, developmental, and leadership approaches that could be applied across other learning environments.

In this issue of the Peabody Journal of Education, we have drawn together research about independent schools and several of the key issues that they currently face, including ways to improve governance, information on cultivating the skills necessary for leadership, diversifying the candidate pool of independent school personnel, and easing headship transitions. We also look at a set of student issues, such as the correlation between stress and sleep duration, how perceptions of spirituality influence emotional intelligence, and the use of specific questioning techniques in classrooms. The articles are based on research and practice in independent school settings, but they address topics with broad application to other types of schools.

In “Independent School Leadership: Heads, Boards, and Strategic Thinking,” Troy Baker, Stephen Campbell, and David Ostroff evaluate the characteristics of effective school governing boards. The vast majority of independent schools are governed by boards of trustees and operate as nonprofit institutions. Although the head of school is ultimately responsible for managing the staff and all day-to-day operations of the school, the board hires and evaluates the head and makes certain the school is fulfilling its mission and stewarding resources wisely. In their article, the authors contend that there is limited empirical evidence to support specifications of effective independent school governance, both in structure and function, and little consensus on the topic. Their research identifies three areas independent school boards should focus on to improve organizational effectiveness: (a) onboarding trustees over extended periods of time, (b) strategic cultivation of potential trustees, and (c) purposeful use of trustee committees. This work focuses on issues that charter school boards and other nonprofit governing bodies will find relevant.

In “Leading and Managing Today's Independent School: A Qualitative Analysis of the Skills and Practices of Experienced Heads of Independent Schools in the New York Metropolitan Area,” author Jean-Marc Juhel looks at the skills independent school leaders need to master in order to create and sustain high-performing learning communities. He does this through analysis of the real-life contextual experiences that informed the development of leadership skill of a group of school heads with limited formal training prior to assuming their leadership roles. Juhel's research provides a framework to help school leaders improve their effectiveness on the job, and the findings suggest that school leadership programs focus on team management skills, relational skills, board management skills, and communication skills. This piece will be of particular interest to aspiring and new heads of school, and those involved in the design of leadership development programs.

In “Examining the Pipeline: People of Color's Pathway to Headship,” Ara Carlos Brown investigates one of the pressing challenges facing not just independent schools but schools of all types: how to ensure that people of color are represented among the top leadership ranks. Brown's research shows that recently appointed heads of color are more likely than their white counterparts to be alumni of independent schools and to hold terminal degrees. Given the widespread leadership transition facing the independent school world in the next decade, we are at a critical crossroads in terms of working to identify and remove the barriers preventing people of color from being seen as viable candidates for leadership positions. As this conundrum is not unique to independent schools, or even K–12 education, this article suggests ways to identify candidates of color for leadership roles that can be applied at schools of all types.

In “Managing Headship Transitions in U.S. Independent Schools,” Pearl Rock Kane and Justin Barbaro investigate the large number of leadership transitions forecasted in independent schools in the near future and suggest ways to improve the transition experience. Their research looks at the experiences of heads of school in their second year of service to determine different ways boards, other school leaders, and school communities can provide meaningful supports for incoming school leaders. Because leadership transitions impact the entire school community and represent a considerable expenditure of both human capital and fiscal resources, it is important to purposefully plan for and deliberately enact leadership transitions. The insights contained in this piece will prove illuminating for a wide array of school communities experiencing leadership transitions.

Angela M. DeSilva Mousseau, Terese J. Lund, Belle Liang, Renée Spencer, and Jill Walsh tackle an important aspect of the student experience in “Stressed and Losing Sleep: Sleep Duration and Perceived Stress Among Affluent Adolescent Females.” The authors investigate the relationship between stress and sleep duration for teenage girls, noting that the relationship between perceived stress and sleep duration is reciprocal and negative, with perceived stress having lingering, negative effects on sleep. This research was conducted among students attending two all-girl independent schools, but the findings provide insights that are relevant to all educators working with adolescents.

Kai Bynum also investigates a student-centered topic at a single-sex independent school in his article, “Exploring the Spiritual Lives of Adolescent Males.” Within the context of secular independent schools, this paper looks at how boys experience and express their spirituality and how that affects their perceived emotional intelligence. The study helps educators understand how boys actualize the values of self-awareness, connection, and inquiry in their perceptions of spirituality. As we can all attest from our own experiences, adolescence is a formative time in the lives of students as they navigate the development of connections within themselves and with others. As such, while the study suggests ways to foster mindful, empathetic, and emotionally aware boys, the implications of the study hold more universal appeal.

Turning to a topic centered on effective instructional practice, in “Questioning Techniques: A Study of Instructional Practice,” Joan Buchanan Hill evaluates how teachers use the levels of questions and wait time as a teaching technique. The article provides a thoughtful review of the literature related to the history of questioning before turning to a few specific pedagogical practices. Using practice in one independent school as a test case, the study investigates how teachers can help students better articulate their views and communicate with one another as a learning tool. Because the article's frame of reference for how these issues play out is within the context of a school where students’ ability to articulate understanding and their own point of view is purposefully promoted and highly valued, the insights will have broad applicability across a full set of schools seeking to cultivate student voice. 

Matt Balossi and Natalia R. Hernandez look at ways to measure teacher effectiveness in “On Teacher Quality in Independent Schools.” Their research found that independent schools use four key characteristics to describe high-quality teachers: they develop strong relationships with students, they possess strong pedagogical knowledge and content expertise, they have a growth mind-set about their own capacity, and they fit within the school's culture. Balossi and Hernandez investigate recruitment and hiring practices and show that although practices are generally effective for identifying talented educators, many schools’ teacher evaluation procedures have room for improvement. The independent school sector may have a greater degree of autonomy in teacher selection, compensation, and evaluation, but all sectors of schooling have a vested interest in improving teacher quality, and as such, this article will have wide appeal across all school types.

In the final article of the issue, Vince Durnan explores the topic of partnerships between independents schools and their neighboring colleges/universities. The author describes key historical, governance, fiscal, personnel, and programmatic components of partnership at six sites across the country, ranging from schools that have been established for over 350 years to entities within their first decade of operation. Lessons from these cases in contrasting experience run in two broad directions: the practical, how-to insights gleaned from daily life in these varied partnerships, and the philosophical, broad-sweep implications for connecting one segment of the American educational sequence with another, connecting school to university. The study generates observations for wider application by looking closely at the sources of mutual benefit, looking for the practices that help avoid a loss of interest or a sense of resentment from either side, and looking at the ways partnerships can change culture and enhance the educational experience.

Taken together, these articles represent the tapestry of topics that independent schools are currently grappling with as they seek to reaffirm and reinvigorate their places within the educational landscape. The diversity of topics addressed in this issue mirrors the variety and uniqueness present within the independent school community. And yet, the topics all directly relate to, and are drawn from, the independent school context in a way that acknowledges a deep underlying unity—an interconnectedness among an otherwise “independent” set of educational entities. A desire to look beyond the apparent differences and contextual nuances across the broader K–12 landscape and within the independent school world, in order to wrestle with a set of shared challenges and generate prospective solutions, guided the development of this issue.

DEDICATION

This issue of the Peabody Journal of Education is dedicated to John Chubb. We are indebted to John for his leadership and guidance in compiling this issue. John served as President of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) from July 2013 until his passing in November 2015. Throughout his career, John studied the most pressing challenges in education and earnestly searched for innovative solutions. From 1984 through 1992, John was a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. His work focused on education policy, researching in-depth issues such as how to best improve the quality of education in the United States. Underscoring his passion to improve the lives of students, in 1992, John cofounded Edison Learning, Inc., an education management organization, where he strove to build a network of public schools that could provide high-quality education to students in underserved communities.

The structure and autonomy of independent schools, with their individual governing boards and freedom from many state mandates, also appealed to John. He believed that independent schools could pilot new forms of education, and serve as catalysts for reform. It was this freedom to experiment with different approaches to educational excellence that attracted John to the National Association of Independent Schools.

John believed passionately that sharing ideas and researching topics from different angles could suggest solutions to the world's biggest and most enduring challenges. Leading by example, he encouraged members of NAIS to reach out to educators in other communities in order to exchange ideas and to learn from one another.

It is in this spirit of open exchange, this hope for reciprocal growth, and with John's passion for innovation in mind, that we present this issue of the Peabody Journal of Education. As John so aptly modeled in his life, we hope the articles in this issue inspire reflection and action, and that you are drawn to improve your sector of educational research and practice, and enhance the experiences of all stakeholders within your school communities.

AUTHOR BIOS

Patrick Schuermann is the director of the Independent School Leadership Master's Degree Program at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, and Chair of the Independent School Peabody Professional Institutes. Previously at Vanderbilt, he served as the director of Policy and Technical Assistance for the U.S. Department of Education's Center for Educator Compensation Reform, and the director of the Vanderbilt/Abu Dhabi Leadership Capacity Building Program and the Tennessee/Shanghai Shared Leadership Initiative. Prior to Vanderbilt, Schuermann served in teaching, coaching, and leadership roles within the independent school community, at Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, SC, and Lake Highland Prep School in Orlando, Florida. His undergraduate and master's studies were completed at Furman University and his doctoral degree is from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.

Myra McGovern is the Vice President of Media at the National Association of Independent Schools. She oversees a team responsible for content creation and distribution through various channels, including the NAIS website, the Bulletin newsletter, NAIS books, and other publications. McGovern also manages the association's media relations program, speaking on behalf of the association and the independent school industry, and developing statistical resources and information for reporters and editors across the country and around the world. Prior to joining the NAIS staff in 1999, McGovern worked with an arts charity in the Republic of Ireland and as a freelance photographer. She earned a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in New York and an M.A. from the George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management.