A recent Ideas & Perspectives publication by ISM (Independent School Management) discusses several studies indicating the power of healthy faculty advancement programs. It begins, "ISM's six-year International Model Schools Project found powerful relationships between a professional-growth-focused faculty culture, on the one hand, and student performance, satisfaction and enthusiasm, on the other. The term "faculty culture" is critical.

Here's a peek into the forestry shed, where teachers (and an alumna!) huddle for early morning espresso by the woodstove:

 

The article goes on to reference a variety of studies, some of which documented higher test score results by students whose teachers experienced improvements in the observable characteristics of their colleagues. In other words, teachers who witness improvements in peers' teaching are more successful, themselves.

 

The term "professional development" is an umbrella for a wide array of real and potential advancement programs. At Proctor, we have tended to use the term to mean off-campus workshops and conferences, as well as entire graduate school programs (usually completed over summers.)

 
Perhaps we associate "professional development" with these programs because the school has been so generous encouraging and  funding them. In the past couple of years, however, the skyrocketing cost of graduate degree programs has gobbled up large junks of that specific budget, potentially threatening our ability to support attendance at less-costly conferences and workshops.

These guys are dissecting a nasty-looking lamprey eel.

 

Happily, at Mike's urging, funds were allocated to bolster this year's Professional Development Fund.

What appears to be a square dance represents pairs of homologous chromosomes engaged in cellular meiosis.

 

In today's economic climate, the studies reported by ISM have awesome weight as we consider how Proctor's tuition continues to be a value to three hundred-and-something parents! 

This pair of chromosomes--identified by colored wire crowns--are carrying the albino gene.

 

We have reasons to be optimistic. Remember that it was a culture of faculty growth that was significant in the ISM study. If it is anything, Proctor is a school steeped in its own culture, and that ethos is broadly embraced by faculty and staff. Our passion is unquestioned.

 

Moreover, while off-campus conferences and workshops boost skills, the cross-pollination of ideas and--critically--morale, the ISM article focuses on internal climate, an optimal environment created through vision and hard work, not attendance at off-campus programs.

 

Specifically, they call on schools to "establish faculty professional growth and development as a cultural norm within your own teaching corps." And, "Insist upon direct 'cross-pollination,' teacher to teacher..."

 

The article doesn't even touch on the role of such a teaching environment to the retention of excellent instructors, or to attracting new ones.

 





Below, Connor Compton--an intern in the social science department--leads a discussion of the ethics of John Brown's raid. A senior at Wheaton College, Connor is considering a career in education.