Annual Strategic Initiatives Updates
Catlin Gabel’s Strategic Plan has helped shape school priorities since 2017, and each year we have reported on our efforts. Learn more about how our ongoing commitment to excellence through dynamic classes and innovative programs taught by dedicated educators are preparing today’s students to respond to the needs of a modern world. These detailed annual reports are listed below.
- 2023-24 Strategic Initiatives Review
- 2022-23 Strategic Initiatives Review
- 2021-22 Strategic Initiatives Review
- 2020-21 Strategic Initiatives Review
- 2019-20 Strategic Initiatives Review
- 2018-19 Strategic Initiatives Review
- 2017-18 Strategic Initiatives Review
2023-24 Strategic Initiatives Review
Year Seven Review
Academic Excellence
Foundational Literacy Skills
Educators in the Beginning and Lower School deepened their commitment to research-based and science-based literacy this year, with instructional teams engaging in professional learning and launching a new preschool-2nd grade program to be fully implemented in the coming year. This is a natural evolution that continues our focus on helping young learners develop foundational reading and spelling skills as a compliment to our comprehensive literacy program.
Data-Driven Scheduling Change
Throughout the year, the Middle School leadership team collected and analyzed data related to time usage, and their empirical approach informed a series of scheduling decisions intended to improve the teaching and learning experience. In the coming school year, advisory time will be increased, for example, and each student will have a 65-minute proctored study hall to support homework completion and access to teachers for questions, and an additional session of math each week.
Illustrative Mathematics (IM)
This year, the Upper School finalized their phased-in adaptation of the IM curriculum, completing our plan for a fully-integrated, unified approach to mathematics across all divisions. All 6-12 math teachers will take part in a weeklong Exeter Mathematics Institute Training Program in August.
The Racial Literacy Project
To better support our Beginning and Lower School students with opportunities to examine and explore fundamental values related to identity, community, and justice, BLS educators this year engaged in a coordinated effort to adopt, adapt, and implement the Pollyanna Racial Literacy Curriculum. This series of lessons connect and extend current BLS social studies curricula to more fully include historical roots and current problems caused by race and racism. Throughout the year, homeroom teams and specialist teachers engaged in professional learning and planning sessions to prepare for full adoption of all lessons in each grade-level in the 2024-25 school year.
Middle School Arts Curriculum
Starting in the fall, students will be given more ownership and autonomy in determining their arts instruction focus. 7th and 8th grade students will have the opportunity to select from 16 fine art offerings, and every student will receive four semesters in blended 7th/8th grade selected arts experiences.
Competency Based Learning (CBL)
In the Upper School, the division-wide move toward CBL assessment and grading progressed, with successful pilots and creation of an iterative transition plan that prioritizes clear skill building over time. The CBL approach reinforces progressive education principles by providing students with specific feedback for each skill, a clear understanding of next steps, and grades that reflect progress toward learning outcomes.
Integrated Outdoor Education
After a year of planning, the focus of our program will expand in 2024-25 from discrete trips for grades 6-12 to a multi-year project of developing integrated outdoor education programs for grades PS-12. Our goal is to ensure that students in all grades can benefit from the skills and competencies available through a robust outdoor education curriculum.
Global Trips and Overnights
Global Education Program trips returned to pre-pandemic levels, with students practicing language skills and cultural understanding on six overseas excursions: Middle School students traveled to Ecuador, Taiwan, and Quebec, and Upper School students experienced Nepal, Ghana, and Northeastern Europe (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.) Many students were able to participate because of global trips financial assistance provided by Olive Bridge Foundation and an anonymous parent donor. Lower School students enjoyed overnights in Seattle, Eastern Oregon, and the Oregon Coast.
Institutional Improvements
Campus Ecosystem
Though the Fir Grove and other areas sustained environmental damage from the winter storm, rejuvenation efforts are underway throughout the campus. Twenty-two young poplars were planted in the Paddock, and beneath them fresh sod replaced pandemic-era gravel. Tents were removed from the Lower School Field and Paddock, and pollinator gardens—dense plantings of wildflowers—were planted by Middle and Upper School students in six locations on campus.
Security and Safety
Improvements were made throughout the school, while also acknowledging the importance of sustaining the childhood development value of our expansive open campus. We invested in a new building security system, making buildings accessible only with key codes and key cards, and improved video cameras, communication systems, and law enforcement relationships.
Athletics Program Expansion
As plans develop for our Community Center for Athletics and Wellness, a parallel effort is underway for expansion of our athletics team sports program to the Lower School grades. The initial phase took place this year, with 5th graders joining the Middle School cross country team. In the coming school year, 5th graders will also have the opportunity to join middle schoolers on basketball and track and field teams.
Restorative Justice Practices
Largely due to efforts of Upper School educators and Judicial Council student leaders, restorative justice emerged as an important topic for discussion and practice throughout the school. This approach to conflict resolution, which prioritizes the building and maintenance of positive relationships over traditional forms of punishment, was the subject of meetings, assemblies, and presentations throughout the year. The opportunity to engage in restorative justice work was made possible through a grant from the EE Ford Foundation, which resulted in an endowment funded by families that support this ongoing work.
Advancement and Engagement
Community Events
In a new series of “Adult Education Events” for parents and guardians, guest speakers shared expertise on teen social media use, environmental justice, restorative justice practice, venture capital and gender equity, and other topics. Families increased their participation in traditional events this year, with high attendance at Homecoming, Heritage Day, and Spring Festival, as well as at concerts, plays, and athletics events.
Eagles Soar
The campaign for Catlin Gabel, the largest fundraising effort in school history, drew support from individuals and families throughout the community—current families and employees, as well as former employees and alumni—bringing the total raised to $23.7 million. Donations to the campaign will help to grow the school’s endowment, support the Catlin Gabel Fund, and build the new Community Center for Athletics and Wellness, which is scheduled for groundbreaking in the 2025-26 school year and completion in the second half of the 2026-27 school year. The Catlin Gabel Fund, which provides the annual funding we need to support the school in the here and now, is currently at $1.8 million. The Advancement Team will be working hard over the summer to reach our goal of $2.15 million to close out the year.
2022-23 Strategic Initiatives Review
Year Six Review
By Tim Bazemore, Head of School
Teaching and Learning Highlights
The Exploratorium
In the Lower School, the areas of library, science, and technology are now interwoven so students in grades 1-5 can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Three teachers with expertise in each discipline develop an overarching theme, learning goals, and experiences for each grade.
Neurodiversity and Differentiation
Dr. Joel Nigg, a psychologist and leading scientist in the field of brain development and ADHD spoke to the Catlin Gabel community. Through the Tal Family Honorarium for Differentiation, annual funding will be provided to teachers recognized for their efforts to develop classroom modifications and creative strategies to support improved learning outcomes and social-emotional wellness for students.
Illustrative Mathematics
The advanced version of this curriculum is now taught across divisions (from kindergarten through Algebra II). It has been fully integrated through 8th grade, after a two-year teacher training and implementation process, and the Upper School will complete the transition in 2023-24. This unified, cross-divisional approach emphasizes mathematical concepts, problem solving, and algorithms.
Outdoor Education Program
Middle and Upper School students participated in outdoor experiences across the Northwest, from rock climbing and backpacking to working on a local farm. Because this program is so effective in helping students develop leadership, social-emotional, and technical skills and as part of our commitment to equity and inclusion, we will begin laying the groundwork to integrate Outdoor Education skills into grade-level trips, existing field experiences, and other experiential educational opportunities for all students in PS-12. A limited selection of opt-in outdoor education trips will continue to be offered.
Institutional Excellence
Strategic inclusion Plan
The school’s three-year Strategic Inclusion Plan continues to serve as a guide as we seek to integrate equity and inclusion into all aspects of our school. The annual report on Year 2 will be published in fall 2023. We launched teacher-led Affinity Groups for interested Lower School students. Professional learning sessions and employee onboarding focused on ways to integrate our equity and inclusion principles into classroom and operations practices.
Hiring and Retention
Concerted efforts to attract and retain extraordinary educators supported our hiring and retention goals. Working with recruitment firms and hiring committees within the school, we engaged in successful searches, which attracted a deep and diverse pool of candidates. Employee retention will be higher this year than the last two years, including among colleagues of color. Retention data is finalized in August 2023 and will be shared as part of the Inclusion Plan Report.
Incoming School Leadership
Divisional hires include Nick Zosel-Johnson as the Head of Beginning and Lower School, Tracy Larry as the Assistant Head in that division, and Beth Vallarino as the Middle School Assistant Head. Sharon Keiser begins her first full academic year as Chief Finance and Operations Officer.
Academics and Sports Achievements
Upper Schoolers competed in person at the Oregon State Speech and Debate Championship, BPA Science Bowl, OMEA All-State Music Ensembles, and the First Robotics World Championship (in Houston, Texas). Our student athletes completed successful seasons, earning our 21st Oregon Athletic Coaches Association All-Sports Award for the best all-around 3A athletics program in the state.
Experiential Learning and Collaboration
Family Partnerships
Parents and guardians provided expertise for class activities such as Senior Projects and Medical Day, and helped with class trips, track meets, curb duty, social events, and more. In the last month, families attended the Lifer Celebration in the Beehive, Lower School Community Meetings, the Middle School Spring Art Show, and graduation in Cabell Theater.
Student Connections
Middle School students wrote and performed “The Joy Project,” a new interactive musical created for a Lower School audience. Seniors partnered with first graders in the buddies program, and a new student-led poetry and music collaboration brought together students from the first, third, and eleventh grades.
Off-Campus Experiences Return
Students went on trips to Taiwan, Ecuador, the Galapagos, and Turkey, and took part in Wonder Week, Experiential Days, Breakaway, and Immersives. Lower School students went on field trips and overnights, Middle Schoolers took part in community engagement projects across the city, and seniors completed their final projects.
Community Support
Eagles Soar Campaign
We are proud to engage in fundraising efforts that address current student needs and sustain the excellence of our school and community. We hope all school families will contribute, according to their capacity. Since the public launch, the Eagles Soar campaign has raised more than $19 million toward our $37 million goal, thanks to the generous support of more than 852 donors. It will take the ongoing commitment of the entire Catlin Gabel community to continue to make progress on our three campaign priorities: building a new Community Center for Athletics and Wellness, growing the endowment for teacher support and financial assistance, and strengthening the Catlin Gabel Fund. Details about the campaign and its wide-ranging impact can be found here.
The Catlin Gabel Fund
This year, generous gifts to this essential fund help to sustain the excellence of the school by funding experiential learning, financial assistance, teacher and staff retention, unique educational program costs and expenses, and more. To date, over 700 community members have made donations totaling over $2 million.
2021-22 Strategic Initiatives Review
Year Five Review
By Tim Bazemore, Head of School
Teaching and Learning
The academic experience was elevated with new programs and initiatives this year.
Illustrative Mathematics
Math teachers from across the three divisions began to implement our integrated PS-12 math program, Illustrative Mathematics (IM). This program will align math instruction across the school, requiring students to think critically and analytically and understand math concepts more deeply. Adopting IM as our PS-12 math curriculum will smooth transitions across divisions and ensure that inquiry is part of every child’s Catlin Gabel math experience. Next year, the Middle School will transition to IM, and the Upper School will do so the following year.
Tinkering with Tech Program
For PS-5 students, we continued to provide interdisciplinary experiences that integrated wellness, arts, science, and core subject collaboration to enhance language acquisition, nature studies, and other subjects. A new Tinkering with Tech program was introduced for 1st-8th grade students, providing them with hands-on opportunities to explore and experiment with robotics, programming, and other technology.
Hands-On Experience
In Middle School science, students studied paleontology and conducted research by examining prehistoric artifacts on loan from Seattle’s Burke Museum. In the Upper School, the social studies American Environmentalism course included learning about and planting a tiny forest on campus, an effort that reinforced our school value of sustainability and brought together hundreds of community members, including students and teachers in every division.
Equity literacy training
Our teachers have been deepening their professional knowledge, as well. Throughout the year, faculty from every grade engaged in Equity Literacy training to improve their skills in providing equitable learning experiences for every student and fostering a culture of kindness in every classroom. In formal workshops and discussion groups, teachers learned to recognize obstacles to student success and self-esteem and how to productively address them. And throughout the year, the instructional coaching team worked closely with individual teachers to offer ideas and support. The instructional coaching model will continue at Catlin Gabel, with three expert educators joining us in the fall, including a new equity instructional coach.
Institutional Excellence
We continue to have full enrollment across all divisions and next year will welcome our most diverse student body in school history, with 51% of students identifying as people of color.
Strategic Inclusion Plan
We released our Strategic Inclusion Plan, a three-year plan and call-to-action focused on transparency, accountability, and change at Catlin Gabel. Based on input from students, parents and guardians, faculty and staff, and trustees, this plan expresses our shared desire to better understand the experiences and perspectives of all community members, and to use those learnings to inform curriculum and learning experiences, hiring and enrollment practices, institutional decision-making, and professional learning for all employees.
ISACS Survey
Also in the spirit of improvement, we recently took part in the semi-annual Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) Survey, in which we invited all community members, including alumni and parents of alumni, to share their impressions of the school and our direction. Survey responses will be shared this fall, and the feedback is always valuable and actionable.
Strong Fiscal Health
Our improvement efforts are possible, in part, because the school’s fiscal health continues to be strong; we ended the year with a balanced budget once again. Our fundraising efforts—which are so important to our ability to offer financial assistance and to attract the nation’s best educators—have been highly successful. The joyful gathering of our Gala & Auction broke school giving records and was instrumental in reaching our Catlin Gabel Fund goal of raising $2.06 million.
2020-21 Strategic Initiatives Review
Year Four Review
By Tim Bazemore, Head of School
Teaching and Learning
Instructional Coaches
This year, we launched our redesigned professional learning program, a strategic plan priority in development for the past two years. Instead of traditional conferences and one-off or one-size experiences, we followed the research and shifted professional learning to be embedded, relevant, and ongoing. The instructional coaching program provided teachers with feedback on how to improve their practice and promoted promising innovations in the spirit of our educational laboratory initiative. Our three instructional coaches partnered with over 60 teachers, observing Zoom and in-person classes and offering feedback on everything from student engagement to virtual assessment to tech tips.
PS-12 Math
An important experiential learning initiative was realized this year when we concluded a primary curriculum project: review and alignment of our PS-12 math program. Following research and decisions made in 2020, Beginning and Lower School math teachers implemented the Illustrative Mathematics (IM) curriculum, employing inquiry-based materials to support students in their investigative approach to learning mathematics. A committee of Middle and Upper School math teachers reviewed a variety of math curriculum options and concluded that Illustrative Mathematics was the best choice as the core text for students in grades 6-12, as it requires students to think critically and analytically, and to understand math concepts more deeply before practicing algorithms. Next year, teachers will pilot IM materials with the goal of transitioning all grades to using IM in the 2022-2023 school year.
Equity and Antiracism
A significant area of focus and work this year has been on issues of equity, antiracism, and inclusion. The tragic events of last summer emphasized the need for Catlin Gabel, like all institutions, to better understand the experience of marginalized people in our community, and how systems and culture sustain inequity.
This acknowledgment led to a variety of efforts, including cross-constituent work groups considering areas such as hiring and curriculum, the student-led Anti-Racism Collective meeting with administrators to learn and question how the school operates, and parent affinity groups meeting with the board of trustees to share their experience and recommendations. We took steps to initiate change and institutionalize this work with new financial and staff commitments and are developing an overarching strategic equity plan that will integrate ongoing diversity and inclusion initiatives with the antiracist imperatives we identified this year.
Institutional Excellence
Guided by our long range strategic plan, we continued this year to pursue institutional excellence in key areas: fiscal health, sustainability, operations, and social-emotional health.
After assessing the budget impact of COVID-19, we identified savings to ensure a balanced budget. Increased tech, facilities, financial assistance, and personnel costs were offset by freezes and reductions, and lower utilities and transportations costs. The school qualified for an EANS grant to help offset COVID-19 expenses. The overall result is a stable and positive financial picture as we head into our next fiscal year, which begins on September 1, 2021.
The Catlin Gabel Fund, which provides nearly $2 million in gifts to support the school’s budget, also met target goals this year. The generous philanthropic support of community members made this possible.
A significant factor in our financial health was a successful admission season. Our enrollment team designed a virtual process that was highly engaging and informative, and the result was a well-qualified pool of applicants across the grades and a projected full enrollment of 775 in 2021-22.
Our investment in PGE’s Green Future Enterprise Program, which commits us to 100% renewable energy, led to over two million fewer pounds of CO2 entering the atmosphere this year. The Sustainability Team supported families and colleagues with ways to conserve resources and reduce carbon footprints at home. On-campus community efforts were limited, but we have joined forces with SCRAP to serve as a pick-up site for reusable materials.
In our ongoing efforts to support a healthy and positive culture of relationships, we hired an independent firm, SOS360, to conduct a review of our student safety policies, practices, and employee trainings. They provided us with positive reviews of existing systems, as well as suggestions for updates and other opportunities.
2019-20 Strategic Initiatives Review
Year Three Review
By Tim Bazemore, Head of School
PS-12 Math Alignment
Last fall, two significant academic initiatives were launched: a schoolwide review of the math curriculum and a new instructional coaching program. Led by Kenny Nguyen, Upper School math teacher, teachers in every grade collaborated on establishing a schoolwide math instruction philosophy. This will inform curriculum choices and teacher practices to ensure a more seamless and successful path for each student up through the grades. This work already has led to agreement on new materials in kindergarten-grade 5, with training happening this week.
Instructional Coaching Program
Three instructional coaches began their work this fall and have partnered with over 50 teachers on areas of individual growth and small teacher groups on topics such as student feedback, building resilience in students, and culturally responsive teaching. The coaching program, a proven model, is part of our redesign of professional learning systems. Research shows that embedded, relevant, personal, and ongoing coaching results in better student outcomes than teachers attending large conferences or one-off training events.
Competency-based Learning
We also made progress this year working with the concept of competency, or mastery-based learning in the upper grades. Each teacher defined learning objectives and success criteria in one “throughline,” and then assessed and gave feedback to students based on their progress. Throughlines are based on strategic plan-related competencies, such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and cultural responsiveness. The long-term goal is to define competencies all graduates should master, and for which they could earn transcript credit. While we are still years away from changing grading practices and giving students credit for mastery of academic and non-academic skills and knowledge, we are encouraged by the potential of this approach to foster deeper and more personal learning.
Remote Teaching and Learning
The most obvious example of our educational laboratory culture was the design work and technology learning each teacher undertook to support remote learning. While some teachers had online teaching experience, most teachers were in a rapid learning and iteration mode from March through June. This led to adaptations in how we teach and assess, use technology tools, and support social and emotional learning. Along the way, teachers gained new expertise, and we realized the challenge of sustaining community and relationships in an all-virtual environment. This learning will inform our plans for the 2020-21 school year and beyond, as we incorporate online methods that have merit and happily return to the value of in-person learning.
School Culture
The 2019-20 year will prove to be significant in other ways for our students as well. I talk frequently about the importance of students feeling known and valued. This year we had both the need and the opportunity to work on improving the culture of the school to ensure student safety and well-being. Difficult issues in our younger grades in 2019 led to a schoolwide effort to define more clearly the school’s behavior guidelines and expectations, and how we respond when children fail to meet them. A climate culture guide was produced in the Beginning and Lower School and drafted in the Middle and Upper School to that end. The release of findings from a yearlong investigation into reports of former employee sexual misconduct accelerated ongoing efforts to develop employee training, student education, reporting mechanisms, and professional accountability systems.
Anti-racism Action Steps
In recent weeks, the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis led to global protests against systemic racism in society and institutions. Members of the Catlin Gabel community raised their voices and shared experiences of inequity or mistreatment that require changes here in our community. As we develop action steps in the weeks and months ahead, we are inviting input from Black community members and people of color to ensure what we do leads to tangible, demonstrable, and permanent change. These steps will include efforts related to antiracist curriculum, as well as training, hiring, and accountability. In all these areas of school culture—student behavior expectations, safe boundaries between adults and children, and combatting racism here and everywhere—we need to make changes to more fully live by the values we espouse. This is essential for everyone in our community.
Institutional Excellence
We pursued institutional excellence this year in other ways as well. While the economic impact of COVID-19 will extend the timeline of major campus projects, we continued to plan and prepare for transformational improvements. We completed a schematic design plan that supports our vision to relocate the Middle School to the former OCAC campus and integrated that with our 2018 campus master plan. We developed a concept design for a new athletics and wellness center and endowment goals for teacher support, financial aid, and inclusion work for our nascent capital campaign. The board finance committee designed a ten-year financial model to help us to make sound decisions amidst unpredictable economic times. And thanks to leadership from the students, parents, and employees on our Sustainability and Environmental Action Team, we achieved our goal of reducing our campus carbon footprint by 5% and converted to 100% renewable energy sources.
Also on the institutional report card, I am pleased and grateful to report that we achieved our CG Fund goal of $2 million thanks to the generous support of many families, relatives, employees, alumni, and school friends and a surprisingly successful virtual auction. We have raised $5.7 of the $6.5 million needed to fund the East Campus purchase. And hundreds of donors stepped up in May, providing critical funding for emergency and ongoing financial aid to support families whose continuation at the school is jeopardized by the pandemic economy. Finally, family support through tuition allowed us to continue to improve teacher compensation so we can attract and retain the very best talent for our students.
2018-19 Strategic Initiatives Review
Year Two Review
By Tim Bazemore, Head of School
In the 2018-19 school year, we continued to focus as an institution on our Strategic Plan priorities, and how these initiatives promote growth in learners across the grades. Some of our institutional work this year resulted from new opportunities and emerging needs, but most accomplishments reflected years of planning and careful, staged implementation. Much of this work is already having a significant and positive impact on our students’ experience. See an overview of 2018-19 student successes.
Highlights of our ongoing work are listed below. In every area, our efforts this year were guided by the three main objectives of our Strategic Plan—deepening our commitment to experiential learning, becoming an unrivaled educational laboratory, and reaffirming our commitment to excellence.
In all of our institutional work this year, we remained focused on the benefits for students.
- PS-12 Math Alignment: Recognizing a need for more coherence in our PS-12 math curriculum, we are aligning and articulating our schoolwide math program objectives for the coming year. Upper School Mathematics Teacher Kenny Nguyen will take on the role of PS-12 Mathematics Academic Leader, helping us connect our math curriculum and instruction across the divisions.
- Instructional Coaching Program: Because they can provide professional learning that is ongoing, embedded, and specific to the class and curriculum, instructional coaches are a powerful addition to our educational model. This innovation will help further grow a culture of feedback and collaboration and will have a positive impact on our students.
- Campus Expansion: The Board of Trustees set the stage for a new phase in the school’s progress with the purchase of an 8.6-acre neighboring property, for many years the campus of the Oregon College of Art and Craft. The property expansion provides Catlin Gabel with an opportunity to advance long-term strategic, enrollment, and campus goals, and to deepen its community connections.
- Teacher Compensation:The challenge of employing the very best teachers given the rising cost of living in Portland led us to work on teacher salaries and begin to examine how we structure compensation. A Compensation Task Force was formed and will meet regularly over the next 12-18 months to look at compensation structures and models, consider research, formulate a philosophy, and consider relationships between compensation and professional expectations.
- Mastery Transcript Project: At Town Hall discussions this year, school leaders shared how this initiative challenges traditional thinking about student assessment in high school, and how it can allow students to be recognized for the full range of skills and dispositions they demonstrate. With a focus on competency-based learning, the project has been embraced by hundreds of peer schools across the country.
- Environmental Sustainability Work: This year a new PS-12 Sustainability Team was created, with program and facilities members working together to ensure that sustainability decisions are both institutional and curricular. To reduce environmental impact, the school instituted “Meatless Mondays” in the Food Service; banned plastic water bottles on campus for all events; and instituted an all-grades recycling program.
- “Immersives” (Upper School Courses): New experiential learning 10-day mini-courses will allow students to delve into new disciplines or expand their interests. Students will have opportunities to advance their mathematics understanding, immerse themselves in language experiences, learn the foundations of programming, delve into a humanities topic, take a science-lab immersive, or engage in a media-specific art course.
- Institutional Excellence: All indicators this year are in the top 10% of independent schools in the nation. Applications increased over last year, leading to a 23% acceptance rate, and over 96% of families re-enrolled. Our student diversity will increase next year to 44% students of color—the highest in school history. And with generous support from our community, over $4 million was raised in annual and capital gifts.
As in any school, there are issues we need to address and improvements we must make to provide the experience our students deserve. Partnership with and feedback from Catlin Gabel families is an essential part of that continuous improvement process.
2017-18 Strategic Initiatives Review
Year One Review
By Tim Bazemore, Head of School
In the 2017-18 school year, our primary focus as an institution has been on our ongoing Strategic Plan priorities. After much careful planning, these initiatives were put into action, and the impact is already being felt. We focused on many areas of the school and the student experience, with all initiatives sharing a common goal: to improve teaching and learning across the grades and divisions at Catlin Gabel School.
Highlights of our work are listed below. The initiatives address the three main objectives of our Strategic Plan: Deepening our commitment to experiential learning, becoming an unrivaled educational laboratory, and reaffirming our commitment to excellence:
Our initiatives share a common goal: to improve teaching and learning across all grades and divisions at Catlin Gabel School.
- Enhanced Professional Learning: Throughout the year, teachers in all divisions engaged in professional learning to help them further understand and design curriculum that embeds academic learning in active, hands-on experiences.
- The Ed Lab Team: A group of teachers was trained in classroom research methods and partnered with colleagues to research ways to improve classroom environments, increase student engagement in nature, foster independence, and more.
- Mastery Transcript Consortium: As part of our work with the Mastery Transcript Consortium, the Upper School faculty is defining in new ways the skills and concepts we want all Catlin Gabel graduates to learn.
- Student feedback surveys: Upper School teachers piloted quarterly student feedback surveys, providing them with real-time and actionable data on depth of understanding, class pace, homework, feeling included, and more.
- Traverse Portland Conference at Catlin Gabel: To share our innovative ideas in teaching and learning, we hosted Traverse Portland, a three-day experiential education conference for over 100 educators.
- Environmental Sustainability as a School Value: Thanks to the efforts of the Environmental Advisory Council, the board of trustees endorsed a statement on environmental sustainability to signal our institutional position and support future policies and practices.
- Campus Master PlanningProject: We developed a long-term vision for campus development, based on our mission and strategic plan, to be shared with the community in fall 2018.
- Rethinking structures of school: A school committee is exploring possibilities for a redesign of our daily class schedules and the school year calendar, and how we can best allocate time to support student learning. We’ll share our findings and decisions in fall 2018.
- Attracting Top Talent: We looked closely at our professional learning programs and evaluation systems, and are launching a committee to determine how we can improve our hiring and compensation systems to attract the very best educators.
- Learning Support Alignment: We created and implemented structures that align student support across the divisions.
As in any school, there are issues we need to address and improvements we must make to provide the experience our students deserve. Partnership with and feedback from Catlin Gabel families is an essential part of that continuous improvement process.