CAIS 2014--An Overview

The following message was sent to the CAIS community on October 20, 2011

Dear Members of the CAIS Community,

This letter is the first in a series of communications in which I will share with you the integrated and strategic school improvement initiatives that CAIS is undertaking.

Our efforts began last year to create and maintain a culture of continuous school improvement that remains true to the spirit of our school’s visionary founders while preparing our children for the future that they will face.

Over a year ago I sent a letter to the community outlining a process for evaluating CAIS and improving the school program.  Subsequent communications from me have included the following diagram, which is a visual representation of the school improvement process at CAIS:

The initial stage of “Observation, Listening and Learning” was based on several sources, which include:

• 2009-2010 Faculty survey;
• 2009-2010 Parent Association survey:
• 2008 Accreditation report;
• 2009-2010 Chinese and English Program Review;
• Individual “stakeholder meetings” with members of the faculty and staff;
• Individual “stakeholder meetings ”with CAIS parents;
• An array of various group meetings and observations;
• Research and writing on best practices.

At the end of the first semester, I met with the faculty to discuss the things that I thought we had learned in the first half-year. Based on faculty feedback, I then hosted a community meeting at which I outlined the following five Areas of Focus where I believed the school needed to place its efforts and resources over the next three to four years:

• Curriculum and Instruction;
• Chinese Language and Culture;
• Communication;
• Technology;
• School Identity and Culture.

The faculty and community meetings in which I outlined the above themes and priorities led to feedback and subsequent revisions that constitute the “Feedback & Revision” stage of the planning process represented in the diagram above.

Early in 2011 we entered the “Planning & Creating a Shared Vision” stage of the process.  This stage included a series of half-day, facilitated planning retreats, each one focused specifically on one of the five Areas of Focus.  In the planning retreats, targeted teams of faculty, staff and in some cases other CAIS stakeholders met and developed high level statements of vision for each Area of Focus.  The statements of vision are concrete expressions of those things we are committed to achieving by the beginning of the 2014 school year—a date that coincides with the Board of Trustees’ strategic planning cycle.

Early spring of 2011 was focused on “infrastructure” issues; restructuring and staffing in order to ensure the school had the capacity to achieve our vision for each of the Areas of Focus.  The community was informed of the restructuring and staffing plans in February and kept up to date on key hires in the subsequent weeks and months.

Concurrent to restructuring and staffing, groups of faculty and staff began establishing some initial short term goals to finish up the last school year in each of the Areas of Focus.  A goal is considered appropriate and relevant if its successful completion advances the school toward achieving the visions that have been articulated for 2014.  Thus we began making the transition from the planning stage to the “Implementation” stage.

While planning is always ongoing, we completed a major shift in focus from planning to implementation over the summer of 2011.  During a two day retreat facilitated by recently retired Head of School at Head Royce, Paul Chapman, a leadership team of 12 CAIS employees developed all school goals for the 2011-2012 school year, organized primarily around the Areas of Focus.  These goals, which are owned and have been operationalized by various members of the CAIS administration, constitute those things that the school is committed to achieving during the current school year.  Successful achievement of these goals will move us closer to the fulfillment of our 2014 visions for each of the Areas of Focus.

We are calling this plan “CAIS 2014.”  The vision statements for each of the five Areas of Focus as well as the specific goals for 2011-2012 can be viewed by clicking here.  I hope you will take the time to look at “CAIS 2014.”  Obviously it is not an exhaustive list of everything we are doing at the school, but it constitutes an overview of important strategic initiatives. As I mentioned at the beginning of this letter, I will share with you more details about the specific initiatives within CAIS 2014 in a series of communications that will follow.  The next one will address “School Identity and Culture.”

As always, thank you for your support.  If we want to go far, we need to go together as a community, and only if we go together will our kids go even further.  That’s why we’re here.     

Best,

Jeff

Click here to download "CAIS 2014" 

On Confucius, Character and Carp

A message sent to the CAIS community on Nov 6, 2011

At the Confucius Temple

In early June of 2009 I had the good fortune of being asked to speak at the high school graduation ceremony of the senior class of Western Academy of Beijing, a large international school where I served as board chair.  For me this was a special opportunity for a number of reasons.  One reason was that the ceremony was held at the Confucius Temple in central Beijing.  It also happened to be the first day of the  gāo kǎo 高考 that year–the national university entrance exam.  As I formulated my remarks to the class of 2009, I thought that the venue and the timing could not have been more fortuitous.

Yuan Dynasty Stone Tablets

Just inside the entrance to the Confucius temple in Beijing there are rows and rows of enormous stone tablets, dating back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).  The tablets are inscribed with the names and home towns of all the successful candidates on the kējǔ 科举—the highest level of exam in China’s imperial civil service examination system.  Those who succeeded on the kējǔ achieved the lifelong goal of all scholars in the Yuan, Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties—service in the imperial court.  The hard work, focus, dedication and perseverance displayed by these scholar officials have not been lost on modern day students preparing for the university entrance exam in China.  Each year before the exam, countless families make the pilgrimage to Confucius temples all over China and pray for good luck on the exam.  As I prepared my remarks for the the class of 2009 at the Confucius Temple, I drew my inspiration from the imperial scholars whose names were inscribed on the stone tablets just inside the temple’s gates, as well as from the Chinese high school seniors whose years of hard work and dedication were to be put to the test that day on the national university entrance exam.

Recently much has been written in the popular press about the issue of character and American children.  Earlier in the school year I recommended two articles on the topic to the CAIS parent community that have received wide spread attention, Lori Gottleib’s “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy” in The Atlantic Magazine, and Paul Tough’s “What if the Secret to Success is Failure?” in The New York Times Magazine.  Both articles address the concern that US kids are less and less able to overcome life’s inevitable obstacles because the adults in their lives are sheltering them from challenges and fighting their battles for them.  In the process, the authors argue, children are losing out on opportunities to develop the necessary “grit” (Paul Tough’s term) to face challenges successfully on their own.  Interestingly, parents in China have been ringing their hands in angst about the same issue ever since the national birth planning policy resulted in a generation of only children, the so-called “little emperors.”  My own experience is that the “little emperor” is the exception and not the rule in China, and that the overwhelming majority of Chinese exhibit an admirable amount of “grit”; in fact, this is a major cultural factor in China’s mind-boggling rise from developing country to world leader in just three decades.  In other words, the spirit of hard work, focus, dedication and perseverance embodied by the scholar officials whose names and home towns are inscribed on the stone tablet at the Confucius Temple (and their modern day protégées preparing for university entrance) is very much alive in China today.  If I were asked to list what I thought were the core values in Chinese culture, I would include the belief that hard work pays off.  This was the core message in Amy Chua’s controversial book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which you’ll recall seemed to be the only topic CAIS parents discussed for several weeks last winter.  One of my issues with Ms Chua is her impossibly narrow definition of “pay off.”  Yet I think she definitely struck a chord with many people by emphasizing the value of Paul Tough’s “grit.”

Carp Jump Over Dragon Gate

There is a FABLE in Chinese culture that exemplifies the importance of “grit,” called “Lǐyú tiào lóngmén” 鲤鱼跳龙门 or “Carp Jump Over Dragon Gate.”  In the story, nine carp battle upstream against a strong current.  When they reach a waterfall called Dragon Gate, they leap from the water, turning magically into dragons as they clear Dragon Gate falls.  This, it is said, is the reason that dragons have scales.  The fable represents the belief in Chinese culture that hard work and perseverance—“grit”—lead to success, for the dragon represents power and success.  It was common to say, when a scholar passed the highest level of imperial exam—the kējǔ—that he had successfully “jumped over Dragon Gate.”  The image of carp jumping over an actual gate (as opposed to a waterfall) is now visible everywhere—in paintings, murals, sculptures—you can even buy one on Amazon.com!  Chinese parents, when speaking of their children, often use the well-known phrase “wàng zǐ chéng lóng” 望子成龙” which means “to wish your child becomes a dragon.”  It is understood that to become a dragon, “grit” is required.

As CAIS, it is important that we honor the idea hard work pays off.  This means that we need to be serious about allowing our kids to develop the toughness and resilience that is required.  As a school, CAIS also has its own gritty history of which we all should be extremely proud.  Thirty years ago, and against all odds, our founders created a school out of nothing.  Today, after thirty years of hard work, focus, dedication and perseverance we are standing strong and looking to become great, a “dragon” among independent schools.  In our anniversary year we can celebrate thirty years of “grit.”  As fate would have it, we will also celebrate the year of the dragon (which begins on January 23, 2012) this school year. It is important that we not lose sight of the importance of this cultural symbol and what it represents.  Our float in this year’s Chinese New Year parade will render the fable “Carp Jump Over Dragon Gate.” This will be an opportunity to display our school with pride while also affirming our commitment to the belief, represented in the fable, that hard work pays off.  Those of you who have had the opportunity to visit CAIS’s preK facility on Waller Street have seen the beautifully rendered four-claw dragon hopscotch mural on the ground of the corridor immediately inside the school gate.  As our youngest “scholars” pass through our own dragon gate—like the fabled carp—they encounter the dragon.  Hopping along it’s winding, scaly spine they learn to count, yī, èr, sān . . . perhaps persevering all the way to thirty, they exhibit the grit they will need to fulfill the wish of their parents that children become great, like the dragon—“wàng zǐ chéng lóng.”