I’m writing to you this week from San Francisco, where I’m attending a conference with heads and coordinators from French-American and French-Canadian schools. During the workshop sessions, I had the pleasure of presenting the way we do things at The École–an exercise that is always fascinating, allowing, as it does, for feedback on our practices from external perspectives. Three things stood out for my colleagues: the clarity and balance in our class schedules (not a compliment I was expecting even though we’ve worked long and hard on them, as I mentioned here); the amount of time allocated to math in our Middle School (evidently a rare occurrence in bilingual schools that tend instead to place emphasis on language classes); and finally, the considerable and unmatched effort we put into accompanying and supporting our teachers and students through our new STRIVE department, an initiative I first mentioned to you here and then here, and which has been up and running at The École since September.

I would like to dwell on STRIVE a little today because it is a unique, ambitious, and effective program, and also because I believe it symbolizes our shared commitment to making The École a truly exceptional school. Given our students’ MAP Growth scores in recent years, we would be excused for patting ourselves on the back and sticking to the same path, particularly when you consider that we are achieving excellent results while welcoming a growing number of students. But we have no intention of resting on our laurels, which is why we decided to create a STRIVE Department–so we can go even further with children who are already going above and beyond expectations while also providing a boost for those who need support.

To accomplish this, we do not pull children out of their classrooms and work on skills and competencies that bear no resemblance to what is being covered in class. Rather, the STRIVE teachers go into the classrooms (in Maternelle, Elementary, and Middle School) and work alongside the class teachers–the masterminds and guiding forces behind their students’ learning. There is no question of creating high-level or lower-level groups; instead, the class and STRIVE teachers plan and lead activities together that empower every child to advance at their own pace. We don’t talk about certain children “doing STRIVE” and others not because everyone benefits. Some teachers take advantage of STRIVE time to work with a smaller group while their STRIVE colleague leads the class (our STRIVE teachers are certified teachers). Others invite the STRIVE teachers to lead a workshop with alternating groups of students. And, of course, our STRIVE teachers also work with students who have specific language needs in French or English, following a more traditional language support model. STRIVE is quite simply the incredible good fortune to have four full-time teachers, in addition to the class and specialist teachers, available to work with our students in a way that is intentionally versatile and flexible, in keeping with The École’s philosophy.

You will find our latest MAP Growth results here–once again, they are exceptional (especially bearing in mind that every student from 4th to 8th Grade takes the tests, even those who arrived from France this summer and have only just started to learn English). It is too soon to see the impact of the STRIVE department, and we may never measure its success by the MAP Growth scores–it remains, after all, a standardized test with all the inherent strengths and weaknesses of that type of assessment. Of course, MAP Growth isn’t the be-all and end-all; it is just one measurement tool, and, for example, it doesn’t assess students’ social and emotional well-being, something that is an absolute priority for us, as evidenced by our ongoing commitment to our Counseling Department spearheaded by Stéphanie Antoine.

The feedback from my peers in San Francisco this week convinced me that we are asking the right questions. I hope you know that you can count on us to provide the right answers. The STRIVE Department* is clearly one of them.

 

*STRIVE:
We Stimulate academic curiosity to its fullest potential
We Transform students’ learning experience
We Reach every child
We Identify and deploy remediation strategies
We Value collaboration between all staff
We Enrich the academic program