Dear US Families,
November has arrived and with it a sense that we are truly in the school year. With wonderful traditions like Spirit Week behind us (and a fantastic Homecoming dance!) and important ones like interim Comments just ahead of us, we can all say with assurance that the “start” of school is in the rearview mirror. Please be sure to click through to our USNews website to read more about our community response to negativity in the media, interim comments and grades, ongoing conversations about school climate and culture, and notes from the grade level Deans and the Director of Student Activities about giving ahead of the Holidays.
On Anti-Semitism:
Last Monday, I followed up with the students about Pat Boig’s message from last week about anti-semitism in the media. While I don’t normally read a written statement to the kids, I chose to on Monday because it was important to me that I said all that needed to be said and that I be able to share with families exactly what was said. I do hope that Pat’s message and this one will serve as a jumping off point for further conversation at home about the importance of building a culture of care both at DE and beyond.
Words have power and more and more people these days use that power to do harm rather than good. There are a lot of examples in the world of adults using their platform – whether it’s social media, a political ad, an interview, or their podcast – to spread hateful messages. Messages that are, at their core, racist, xenophobic, misogynist, antisemitic, homophobic, and so on. As someone who didn’t grow up surrounded by this vitriol, it makes me really sad that you all are. In part because the metaphorical bar has dropped so low, it’s disappeared entirely and left us with not only a hole where role models should be but a cascade of adults filling that hole not with uplifting messages but instead, messages of hate and derision.
Though we can’t control how folks outside of our community behave, we do have a choice about how we treat one another. That means that while folks outside of our community behave badly, we ought to hold one another accountable for our actions and words. I realize that this is something the adults at DE need to work on. It would be naive to assume that hurtful words and actions aren’t happening at DE. That said, my hope is that you walk away from this meeting secure in the knowledge that those words and actions are not acceptable and won’t be tolerated. We are an intentional community and our goal here is to do more than just not harm one another but to actually care for and support one another; to create a culture of care – to meet the challenges of a changing world and make it better.
On Comment Season:
Comment season is upon us which means that while the students were home (hopefully) resting on Friday, the teachers were very hard at work crafting narrative comments about each of the students they work with. The purpose of the comment is to provide students and families with information about that student’s learning process and their progress over time in a course. Comments should include three different kinds of feedback: appreciative (what a student brings to the work or classroom), evaluative (what a student’s growth area(s) is or are), and coaching (how a student can make progress).
Students will have access to their comments on Thursday, November 10th and will review them first with their Advisor. Parents and guardians will have access to them the next afternoon. We separate the two because we want to center the student’s personal reflection on the Comments in the process and to give them room to set individual goals and intentions. When you do sit down to review Comments with your student, consider the following:
- The information in the Comments is just that, information. It’s designed to be reflective of their work so far and is not a judgement of their character or a prediction for how the rest of the year will go.
- Focus on the feedback itself – what is the teacher saying your student does well and what can they work on? Then, discuss an action plan if needed.
- Look for themes and encourage your student to think about what shapes and determines those trends.
- Lean into the positive! This can be a really stressful time for our students so be sure to spend some time talking about all of the wonderful things they bring to their school. Even if these things aren’t mentioned explicitly in the Comments, it’s always good to remind them of their value and contributions.
On Interim Grades:
Interim Grades are also just around the corner. We intentionally separate Comments and Grades to ensure that students, and their families, consider their process and progress in classes before they consider the product of their work (the grade). Grades will be released to students the week after Comments are released and, once again, to students first. When reviewing your student’s interim grades, be sure to keep the following in mind:
- Interim grades are progress grades. They are indicators of a student’s work thus far and will therefore continue to shift over the course of the second quarter. They are not reported on transcripts and are only seen by members of the DE community.
- As we slowly get back to “normal” school, it’s possible that students will see a shift in their grades. This reflects what we know to be true of first quarter grades; that after a summer break, it takes some time for students to rebuild their “school muscles.” Also, as we emerge from the pandemic this period of rebuilding may feel more challenging than in past years. Rest assured that we – students and faculty – are working together in this effort.
- We see grades as information. They tell us how the work students are doing in and out of the classroom is helping them develop as learners, both generally and in discipline-specific ways. We hope that you’ll apply this lens when discussing interim grades with your students.
- Please remember that we are only a few short weeks away from Parent Conferences. They will be virtual this year (you’ll get a separate email about signing up later this month) and are the ideal venue for specific conversations with your student’s teachers about their work so far this year.
On School Climate & Culture:
School climate and culture is very much top of mind for all of us these days and we began conversations this week at the grade level about what is shaping the Upper School student experience. Some of what we’ve been observing is no doubt a consequence of two years of pandemic schooling and other concerns seem rooted more in modern social and political culture. This week, the Deans worked with their classes on an issue related to school culture that is specific to the grade (please see the “Deans Corner” for more information). In the coming weeks, we’ll be doing a deepdive into the Student Handbook to make sure that all students are familiar with the schools’ behavioral guidelines and expectations, and at the end of the month we’ll be partnering with an organization called Authentic Connections to conduct a student wellbeing and school culture survey. We look forward to gathering data on the most significant challenges facing our students and taking action to continue to support them in the ways they need most.