Head of School

Greetings from the Hillside:

The weeks seem to be flying by in the 2021-2022 school year. The weekend of October 16th and 17th marked the end of the first academic quarter as well as Fall Family Weekend to which we welcomed the boys’ families to campus for a few days of presentations, meetings and conferences before we all took a break from the routines of classes and games for a long weekend. 

The most informative session that we hosted for the parents was a discussion of our “mastery” approach to teaching and learning mediated by Humanities Chair Kevin Benz, Humanities teacher Jesse Brennan, and STEM chair Scott Farley. The descriptions which follow come from their excellent presentation.

While we are members of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, there is no one way to develop a mastery approach in teaching; each school develops practices and protocols that are designed to take advantage of that school’s culture, history and strengths. From the Mastery Transcript Consortium webpage:

“Our schools are reimagining what students learn in high school, and how they best learn it. They embrace real-world, collaborative, project-based learning, and prioritize 21st Century skills, SEL, and meta-cognitive skills. Member school leaders appreciate that traditional transcripts are poorly aligned to learning models of the future, and that Mastery Learning empowers learners in–and out of–the classroom to tell their own stories.”

The Wall Street Journal
HOW SCHOOLS ARE REWRITING THE RULES ON CLASS TIME FOR STUDENTS—AND EVEN DITCHING GRADE LEVELS

Before I explain what mastery is, it would be helpful to discuss what mastery is not. Mastery is not a set of teaching “best practices.” There is no list of teaching strategies, lesson activities, or assessments that are deemed to demonstrate mastery. There is no one way to teach mastery just as there is no one way to learn. Instead, mastery is a mindset, model, or approach to teaching and learning. Several years ago we spent a great deal of time learning how best to complete the fragment: “Boys learn best when…” This work, and the realizations coming from it, were the watershed moments in our embracing of mastery and developing the best ways to apply this approach on the Hillside. 

South Kent School prepares young men to succeed in college and thrive as thoughtful and engaged citizens in a rapidly changing and intensely competitive world.

Based on our mission and the work we did to understand how boys learn best, we developed seven principles to guide our mastery teaching.

South Kent School's Principles of Mastery

Principle #1 Mastery as Differentiation - In a mastery approach, the student’s instruction is differentiated to their individual physical, emotional, and cognitive development. By providing student choice in topic, level of difficulty, and execution, each student is made aware of and involved in adjusting the curriculum to improve his own outcomes. 

Principle #2 Mastery as Intrinsic Motivation - In a mastery approach, adults inspire students to be motivated by curiosity and learning, not through extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic motivation comes from living and learning in a loving, supportive community where they have meaningful relationships with inspiring and dedicated adults. Intrinsic motivation is most observable in practical applications of mastered skills.

Principle #3 Mastery as Higher Order Skills - In a mastery approach, skills are emphasized equally with content, and are developed as the building blocks toward mastery. Those skills begin with the highest order in mind, and then we work backwards to develop a curriculum designed to meet those higher order skills. Higher order skills include inquiry, reasoning, analysis and presentation.

Principle #4 Mastery as Real World Application - In a mastery approach, assessments challenge students to experience their curriculum through vivid and intense activities with frequent practice and thoughtful feedback, and to apply course concepts and skills to real world scenarios.

Principle #5 Mastery as Community Relationships - In a mastery approach, teacher and student have dialogue with one another, not a monologue wherein the student is simply a receptacle for information provided by the teacher. These dialogues, and the ensuing self-reflection, result in collaborative efforts and a deeper understanding of a student’s own learning and value within the community than does a more traditional “sit and git” approach.

Principle #6 Mastery as Autonomy - In a mastery approach, the student takes ownership of his learning by developing healthy habits of mind that build a strong sense of self and character. The student comes to recognize the role he plays in his own education.

Principle #7 Mastery as Creation - In a mastery approach, assessments challenge students not to replicate or to regurgitate, but to create and apply the course concepts and skills in an authentic and unique way. Mastery provides the environment in which students can imagine, innovate, and create in a community founded on tradition and values.

Above all else, a mastery approach to teaching and learning is fundamentally different from the classrooms that most of us experienced in high school. The mastery classrooms are spaces curated by the teachers that allow students to take ownership of their learning and growth. Our mastery classrooms are places in which ownership of the conditions and proceedings belong equally to the students as much as they do to the teachers. 

From my personal perspective, the area where mastery is the most different from traditional teaching is in assessments. In a mastery approach, assessments are constant and ongoing, and based on the individual student's progression on a matrix of skills rather than a course-wide evaluation of remembered content in a backwards-looking exam. Mastery assessments span both time and projects, moving from “emerging,” to “developing,” to “approaching” and hopefully/finally to “mastering.”

This year, only the Third Form’s curriculum is completely based on mastery, though all the classes in all the other forms are using modified mastery integration. By our Centennial year we intend for all of our courses to be completely mastery based. 

Head of School's Reading List:

Strategic Plan Session 11/2/21

SKS Board of Trustee members lead the conversation, including an overview of where we were and what we envision our future to be as we approach our 100 Year Anniversary 2023-2024.