Top Long ago I argued with my sister. I was a sophistic college junior; she a college freshman. Majoring in sociology, she had decided upon social work as a career. “A contradiction,” I proclaimed to her (contradicting my younger sister being one of life’s greatest pleasures), “the two are fundamentally at odds with each other.” A sociologist concerns herself with trends, the macroscopic, data analysis, and demography; a social worker, to the contrary, must by vocation attend exclusively to the individual needs. A social worker treats persons, a sociologist numbers.

I was wrong: it can greatly empower a social worker to recognize how the ills of the individual are influenced by the currents of the masses. But still I suggest there does lurk an underlying tension: how much influence ought numerical data have in our work as educators on decision-making while we remain deeply dedicated to the individual child and student.

Like many a school, we at Saklan are long in the practice of viewing our work through a lens that privileges the individual, the experiential, and the subjective: How strong is this student’s diligence, initiative, follow-through, responsibility, attention to detail, and scholastic excellence in comparison to her own prior efforts? How impressed are we as teachers by the art, the creativity, the originality, the critical thinking, the articulation of the idea? These are questions hard to answer with data—rather answers come from the acute insight of an expert educator.

Nevertheless, technology is making data analysis ever more available, and here at Saklan we have firmly decided to embrace a more energetic effort to collect and process data for our planning. Examples abound—for one, instead of guessing how people experienced Back to School night based on what they said on the way out the door, we asked parents to respond to a quick online survey, where we discovered that though the evening was clearly a success for the respondents, parents would like more information on the specialists’ enrichment curriculum, and so we are trying to put in place plans to do that.

One form of data analysis that we have long employed regularly is the ERB test. Of course, our bias for holistic appraisal leads us to not overly rely on standardized testing’s significance in assessing our student’s scholastic growth. In small classes like our own (which averaged 13 last year) our teachers gain far greater knowledge of your child’s strengths and possible areas of concern than any standardized test can provide, and they share that knowledge with you in conferences, both formal and informal, and on the report cards.

Saklan’s school-wide performance on the ERB last year was again outstanding. We calculate school-wide performance by averaging each grade’s median achievement as calculated by percentile on a nationally normed scale, and then we compare that to other population sets:

• (National, which by definition is the 50th percentile for median performance because that is the scale’s calibration);

• the set of independent (private) school students taking this same test across the country,

• and the set of suburban public school students taking this same test across the country.

This creates the following table, of which we are quite proud:

Grades 3-8 SVS Independent Suburban National

Grades	SVS	Independent	Suburban	National
Math Average	93.7	87.9	86.8	50
Verbal Average	89.2	88.1	84.2	50

We can also graph the results with more detail, indicating the comparative performance of our students at each of the individual testing areas:

Finally, we also track the proportion of our students who, via their ERB test results, qualify for the Johns Hopkins national academic talent search. The criteria required for entering the search is achievement on standardized testing at the 95th percentile or higher in one or more section, by that standard some 70% of our student population qualifies!

We ask parents to please remember test scores are only one facet, a small one really, of any school’s and any child’s demonstration of overall scholastic success and effectiveness. We all know many a successful adult—scores of them perhaps—who are flourishing in their careers, their family life, and their community endeavors who didn’t always earn the highest numbers on “fill in the bubble” tests. Character, resilience, joy, a sense of humor, concern for others, confidence: all these Saklan instills in addition to academic achievement, and all these marvelously prepare our students for their future.

We also know that despite the fact that our school as a whole did well, very well, it does not for a moment render insignificant to us the individual students who encountered an obstacle in their testing and who may require some additional attention; these students remain, even when outside of the data norms, enormously important to us.

***

Last spring’s Parent Survey was certainly the most prominent example of our new embrace of statistics for school management’s introspection, review, and analysis. I take pains to point out that this was no small project, and we approached it with the greatest of seriousness. OMP Research, the independent firm conducting the survey, is very truly the state’s stop research agency in our particular field; last May they managed a survey for our state association itself, the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS).

OMP asked nearly a hundred questions, and parents took on average 30-45 minutes to complete each survey. Our schoolwide participation ranked among the tops among the 20 some odd schools for which OMP has surveyed parents: 72% overall, more than 80% among Kindergarten through 8th grade families. Parent satisfaction, as reported to us, was extraordinary: ­­­­

The OMP consultants added orally some anecdotal observations: Two of the especially gratifying points were:

• First: At every other Kindergarten to Eighth Grade school surveyed by the firm, parent appreciation declines in middle school when compared to elementary parents’ appreciation presumably because of the trials and tribulations of the middle school years: at Saklan, middle school parents

recorded satisfaction levels equal to our elementary parents and better than recorded at any other client school.

• Second: At most other client schools, when comparing parent satisfaction in math and language arts curricula areas, there is a skewed result: parents are especially happy perhaps with one, but then disappointed with the other; at Saklan, parents are remarkably equally happy with each—we appear to be presenting a very well balanced curriculum to our parents.

• Third: Relative to other schools, Saklan seems to have performed especially well in communications, the satisfaction parents have with the Friday Note, the sense of community that families feel exists here, and in particular, that so many parents volunteered, in the open response section, that Saklan provides a supportive and encouraging environment for learning—the consultants had rarely found that at other schools.

Our own takeaway is as follows:

• First and foremost: our parents are very happy with what happens at our school, and all of us here at Saklan must continue to work hard and strive not to elevate parent satisfaction but rather to maintain it.

• Second: French is very popular with our parents, and while we will take strides to find ways to bring more Spanish language and Latin American cultural education to our students, we are certainly going to maintain our French language curriculum for the foreseeable future.

• Third: Our library, parents told us in May, needs more attention, and we are all very happy here to have welcomed our new Librarian Mrs. Moebius and to see all the progress occurring in that area.

• Fourth: Our students could benefit from more science, particularly in the elementary and early childhood curriculum areas, and we are delighted to have expanded Ms. Bozzelli’s role as our elementary and era science specialist and that elementary students now benefit from science instruction in the school’s science lab.

• Fifth: The music program needs to continue to improve, something to which we are giving strong attention.

• Last, but by no means least!: Our campus facilities need to continue to be expanded and enhanced, something our Board of Trustee treats as being of great importance, to be sure.

I hope you will take the time to review the summary report yourself — a 17 page summary is available on line -

Click here to view the Survey - (Username and Password similar to School Directory)

Please let me know your own “takeaways” from this report—what lessons are there to be learned from it, do you think?

***

While we will certainly employ all kinds of statistical data for our planning and decision-making, please be assured — we will still too continue to be concerned for each and every individual parent in our school, and we know that the best school is one where broad based statistics never “trump” the importance of the individual student and parent’s experience. Saklan Valley School is a “retail” operation, not a wholesale one: to quote a corny commercial, we earn our keep one customer at a time, and each and every parent reading this, please know—you are as important to us as the entirety of the data set. Numbers are important; persons, especially students, are more important. My sister was right and I was wrong— not only can you be both a social worker and a sociologist, but to excel as an educator you have to be.

Jonathan Martin

Head of School

Voyage en France 2005
by Amy Sullivan, French Teacher

Last summer, Saklan students spent eight exciting days in the city of lights. Saklan French teacher Amy Sullivan, along with French For Fun’s Catherine Jolivet-Johnson, planned and directed a trip for nine middle school students to Paris. The trip focused on utilizing the French language our students have been studying in real-life situations, and learning first-hand about French history and culture.

Experiential learning was key. For example, when we needed stamps to send post cards, we of course needed to first purchase the cards at the papeteri, before making our way through la Poste to purchase stamps and send them off. The group sat on the quais of the Seine engaged in activities about the history of Paris. Our students also joined the artists of Monmartre as they sat in the streets painting images of narrow streets and the Sacre Coeur. Taking shelter from a thunderstorm inside Notre Dame was yet another unforgettable event!

According to one student, the best part of the trip was “living normal daily life as if we were French people”.

As we explored our local quartier of the 7th arrondissement, we experienced the similarities and differences of culinary shopping in France, since we of course had to purchase everything for our picnic on the Champs de Mars in front of the Tour Eiffel! Eating baguettes, fromage, and saucisson in the park that day was just the first taste of the wonderful cuisine française in which we partook during the trip. Whether it was eating escargots or moules in a brasserie, spreading Nutella on bread as a snack, or drinking diabolos or citron pressés in a café, Paris had plenty of gastronomical goodness in store for us.

Trips out of the immediate metropolis included reliving Louis XIV’s era at the Château de Versailles, exploring impressionism at Monet’s home in Giverny, and discovering French history through comic strip characters and exciting rides at Parc Astérix!

All students were accompanied by, and spent the night with their parents. So while we were out and about exploring Paris from a pedagogical standpoint, the parents had their days free to admire the beauty of the city, go to parks and museums, and even prepare a decadent dinner party for the whole group! In the words of one parent, “Paris seen through the eyes of our adolescent kids is not the same as Paris seen through our own. However, it has opened their eyes to new sights, sounds, smells, tastes and experiences that will create a desire within them to return someday. And when they do, they will have a broad base of memories to draw upon that will allow them to discover more and more of it’s beauty.”

Now back in the United States and back at Saklan, the educational benefits of the trip are noticed daily, as the participating kids enrich their French lessons with cultural examples learned first-hand in Paris last summer. An unforgettable time was had by all, and we are already looking forward to doing it again in the summer of 2007!

For more pictures click here...

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Sun - Nov 09 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM		Open House 2PM - 4PM
Fri - Nov 14		End of Trimester I
Fri - Nov 14 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM		Author visit: Paul Feig Grades 5-7
Sat - Nov 15 -- Sun - Nov 16 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM		Basketball Clinic Sports court
Tue - Nov 18		Professional Development Day NOON DISMISSAL
Fri - Nov 21		Parent Association Meeting After flag at the church next door.
Mon - Nov 24 -- Fri - Nov 28		Thanksgiving Week NO SCHOOL