Page 3 - Priorities #18 2002-April

From the Headmaster
DTear Priory Community,
hree years ago, our campus
received a six-year accreditation
from the Western Association of
Schools and Colleges (the maximum
accreditation achievable). The
accreditation process is detailed and
thorough, involving an extensive self-
study among the campus community as
well as a visiting team study and a report from WASC. Its main value is in guiding every school to evaluate, adapt, and improve.
This year we are working on a three-year "update evaluation." We are reviewing recommendations and checking our progress. This is a particularly appropriate time, then, to also complete another "State of the School" report. In the State of the School, I like to highlight the facets of Priory education not generally covered in our annual financial report.
I would like to share with you a few highlights from this report. The full report will be mailed to you (or possibly posted on the school Web site) this spring.
• The Boards of Trustees and Directors (our monks) approved an updated philosophy and mission statement. This is possibly the first restatement of our mission since 1992. It is printed for you on the back cover of this magazine.
• Our students continue an upward trend in academic performance. In last year’s National Merit competition we had seven Commended Scholars and two Finalists (representing about 21% of the senior class). This year we have four Commended Scholars and three Finalists.
• Nearly every senior student has taken at least one AP course (most take many more). Last year, eighteen students achieved various levels of AP Scholar ranking, and one student reached the highest level—AP National Scholar. SAT scores for the class of 2001 averaged 614 in verbal and 639 in math, compared with state averages of 498 verbal and 517 math.
• Our faculty is building the Atlas Curriculum Mapping database. This program will help teachers coordinate course content within subjects, across subjects and across years. For example, when the data entry is complete, a teacher could query "writing
skills" or "Benedictine values" and locate teaching support throughout the entire curriculum. Detailed descriptions of every course will also be on line for anyone who would like to read them.
• Alicia Parker, Director of Residential Life, and Erik Carlson, Dean of Students, are developing a special curriculum for the boys who live in the
dorms. This curriculum will map out the life experiences we want the boys to have during their four years in their "Priory home."
• Mitch Neuger, sixth grade core teacher, is heading a yearlong reflective study of the Middle School curriculum. This study is an effort to be sure that Priory faculty are offering the most effective and age-appropriate experiences, and we might see modifications to the program as soon as next fall.
• Our campus now has a fiber optic backbone that has doubled the bandwidth (and hence increased the speed) of the campus network. We have wireless Internet access throughout the campus. Students have "roving profiles" that allow them to access their work from any computer on the campus. Our Web-based email allows students, faculty and staff to access their accounts from any computer with an Internet connection.
There is much more, and I look forward to sharing it with you soon.
As we approach to the excitement of the Auction, and the beginning of the Performing Arts Center phase of our Golden Jubilee Campaign, the spring activities, the June reunion and the graduations that will soon be upon us, I am grateful again to be living and working in such a vibrant community. After the disquieting events of September 11 and its aftermath, this is a gift I would not trade. I sense the connections to the past through Priory alumni and families—and to the future through the current Priory community. These links give me a satisfying sense of the rightness of the Priory’s contribution in this time and place. Thank you for your part in it.
Tim Molak Headmaster
3
I would like to share with you a few highlights from the Priory’s State of the School report.