EXPLO Elevate shares good ideas, practices, and wisdom to help schools and their communities flourish.
Dear Friend,
When other educational institutions quiet down a bit, things around the EXPLO world ramp up. We’ve jumped into summer engagements with schools working on projects ranging from strategy development to scheduling. At the same time, our summer programs have launched and we’re already into session two. Our nearly 50-year-old summer academic enrichment program functions as a lab school, a place where we are always experimenting. Wellesley College is our summer home and hundreds of students from all over the world have descended on the College taking courses in game theory, medical rotations, engineering, psychology, and more. We’ve utilized this lab to bring a group of independent school teachers to campus for observation work and professional development. Starting this fall these folks will begin teaching EXPLO designed experiential courses every week in a variety of subjects ranging from forensic science to architecture and we’ll be coaching them throughout the year in an approach to teaching that drives student engagement and agency. Then the week after next we’ll be welcoming district leaders to campus to think with them about how to transform their middle schools. I’m deep into life at Wolfeboro Camp School leading the AISNE accreditation team for Wolfeboro's inaugural accreditation. What a remarkable school! Life is full, but in the best of ways.
This issue we cover the parallels between K-12 and higher ed; how fractional senior leadership can be a powerful and great investment in transforming departments; what makes a great teacher today and what to look for; what to be doing now to turn your families into school champions; and a case study that although extreme, provokes some questions about the perils of poor board-head relationships.
Overcoming Over-thereness: A Call to Empower Strategic Conversations Between K-12 and Higher Education
By Ross Peters
When the likes of Harvard and Columbia face existential pressures, every educational institution should be alarmed—yet K-12 schools, colleges, and universities continue operating in dangerous isolation from one another. While these sectors wrestle with identical crises from mental health to financial sustainability, they're trapped in silos, each reinventing solutions that already exist elsewhere in education. Ross challenges educators to break down these barriers and create the strategic conversations that could transform how we serve students across their entire educational journey.
Beyond Traditional Coaching: The Case for Fractional Senior Leadership
by Moira Kelly
Your school has solid department leaders who care deeply about their work—but they may lack the specialized expertise needed to transform their departments. While traditional leadership coaching develops general management skills, it doesn't provide the operational knowledge required to deeply evolve how admissions, development, finance, or other critical areas actually function. Fractional senior leadership can offer a powerful solution: experienced practitioners who work alongside your current leaders to redesign strategies, implement best practices, and build lasting expertise.
What if the teachers who seemed most impressive to you in high school—those who appeared untouchable and above it all—were actually missing the mark entirely? Ross challenges the dangerous allure of the "teacher-as-silo" approach and reveals why the most vital work of any great school isn't just about academic instruction, but about cultivating adults who actively model the process of becoming lifelong learners themselves. Explore the strategic questions every school must ask to hire, grow, and retain the kind of transformative educators.
Early Days: Turning Families Into School Champions
A repost of an article we published last year. Summer is the time to be thinking about how you turn new – and old – families into institutional champions. This should be a key goal for all school leaders.
Julie Faulstich and I join forces again, this time to dive into the case of Northampton Academy.
What happens when a head of school ignores expert advice and hires a CFO that the finance committee deemed unqualified? At debt-ridden Northampton Academy, this scenario has sparked a governance crisis that threatens both the school's financial future and key board relationships. With enrollment declining, deficits mounting, and the finance chair threatening to resign, this case study reveals how quickly operational decisions can become governance disasters—and why the "lanes" between board and administration aren't as separate as we'd like to think.
Reach out to chat about how we can help your school community move forward this coming year.
Moira
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