Weekly Message from Head of School 2022/12/18-2022/12/24
Dear Keystone Community,
Greetings!
This is the season of feedback! Our students are dutifully finishing up their assignments and projects for the semester, and teachers are engrossed in writing reports and sharing feedback designed to deepen student learning and inform families about the learning taking place in the classrooms.
Even in these complex times, we know that honoring our rhythms of learning and feedback is important. It is with that in mind that we will be conducting Keystone's third comprehensive parent and guardian survey next week.
Great schools are, at their core, learning organizations. To continue to learn and improve, we know we need the insights of all members of our community, including families. In each of the previous two parent surveys we identified critical areas for improvement in the school and subsequently taken sustained action based on the findings. Thank you to all of you who have participated in previous surveys. A few topics that have been of focus in the past have ranged from student-life issues such as the uniforms and school food service to more comprehensive curricular initiatives such as exploring the pedagogy and outcomes of our mathematics instruction at Keystone.
Our last family survey was administered in the fall of 2019, prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We know that so much has changed since then, and that the relationships and connection of families to the school have shifted just given the complications of gathering and being in community together. Also, as we find ourselves in another complex point in the pandemic, we considered whether or not this was the right time to go ahead with this survey. We think it is. Although things are far from “normal”, we want to keep working, keep improving and keep moving forward together. For this reason, we have decided not to delay this survey until after school returns to normal operations, even though we know that online learning will be a lens through which this survey will be experienced for many of our families. That’s okay—that is where we are right now. And as much as we are yearning for more simple times ahead, this moment is part of our history, and from this moment, we continue to improve and learn.
This survey that families receive will be anonymous and the results will be analyzed by Juliet London, the same third-party researcher that we have hired to conduct our previous two surveys. Based on the results of this initial survey, we will gather focus groups of parents to explore any themes and areas of opportunity for improvement.
As Keystone’s Executive Head of School, I eagerly await the insights that will come from this learning journey! I find hearing feedback as exciting as opening a package on Christmas morning! In my house growing up, we had all kinds of presents, some were things we needed, and some were things that delighted. My brother and I always got toothpaste and soap and things like that on Christmas—things that were mostly just necessary. And then we also got things that were surprising and delightful—or took us in a new direction, like sports equipment, or a new game. I feel the same excitement when I think about reading the insights of our families about how Keystone can continue to improve and realize its great promise. Thank you in advance to the parents and guardians who will take the time to complete this survey. The link will be shared with you on Monday via email.
To each of you, merry wishes on this cold and bright weekend-- the last of our first semester!
Warmly,
Emily McCarren