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TEACHING
LEARNING
in the 21st century
Selectnews
Friends Select School
S P E C I A L
Spring 2015
B I E N N I A L
A C A D E M I C
R E P O R T
2 0 1 4
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William Penn holds a city proclamation that observes 325 years of Quaker education in America and declares September 8, 2014, Friends
Select School Opening Ceremony Day. Penn visited Friends Select on the first day of school, where he attended Meeting for Worship and
met with students and faculty throughout the day.
2 COMMUNITY NOTES
Robotics, chess, MathCounts, Model UN
4 FALCON NOTES
Fall sports wrap-up, history of Brown and Gold
CONTENTS
6 SPECIAL SECTION
Stories behind the numbers in the Academic Report
15 FROM THE ARCHIVIST’S CLOSET
Why FSS has never “taught to the test”
16 CLASS NOTES
18 OUT AND ABOUT
Athletic Hall of Fame, class reunions, National Alumni/ae Board
Selectnews
Friends Select School
17th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215.561.5900, x145 fax 215.864.2979
friends-select.org
Editorial Team
Join us:
friends-select.org/fss-connect
Design
Tina Dougherty, Associate Director
Marketing, Creative and Visual
Communication
Editor
Colleen Puckett, Assistant Head of School
for External Relations and Marketing
Writer
Jennifer Raphael ’88
Feature Photography
Craig Bierman, Tina Dougherty, Bruce
Weller
Selectnews
Select News is the magazine of Friends
Select School. It is published by the
marketing department twice a year and
distributed to alumni/ae, parents and
friends of the school.
Cover Illustration: Yin and Yang
spring 2015 Volume 26 Number 1
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A Message from the Head of School
“At Friends Select, learning is joyous, not rote.”
What does it mean to teach and learn “21st
century” skills? As our guest columnist John
Chubb, president of NAIS, points out in this
issue in his provocative essay “Are Colleges
the Culprit?,” educators have been talking
about 21st century skills for decades. Yet our
schools, in the main, still operate as they did
in agrarian and industrial eras. Now we are in
a digital age, and 21st century skills are
essential.
I posit, however, that Friends Select has been
teaching (and our students have been employing) 21st century skills for hundreds of years.
Our inquiry-based style of Quaker education
has always encouraged individual exploration
without prescribed answers. As Dick
Hoffman notes in this issue’s Archivist’s
Closet, when the SAT and ACT came into
vogue in the 1960s and 1970s, parents asked
the school to teach to those tests. Friends
Select resisted and then, as now, remained
true to its vision of education for the whole
of life.
Here’s an apt metaphor. The yin of education
in the 21st century perhaps can be thought of
as quantifiable content acquisition. This is
balanced however, by the yang, those less
readily measurable 21st century skills such as
collaborating with others, creative thinking,
global competency and connecting across disciplines.
At Friends Select, we fully embrace this yin
and yang. In these pages, we feature our
inaugural Academic Report (the yin), a datadriven report that measures content acquisition and which benchmarks student academic
achievement against state, national and inde-
About Friends Select
The mission of Friends Select School is to provide
a challenging, college–preparatory academic program to its diverse, coed student population, from
pre–kindergarten to 12th grade. The school offers
a full complement of athletic, art and community
service options. Its unique identity includes an
intentional, sequential emphasis on research, writing and oral presentation and a commitment to
interactive learning in a city–wide classroom.
pendent school norms. This report affirms
that Friends Select students are high achievers, as measured against traditional, yet limited, standards of academic excellence. They
perform well on standardized tests, analogous
to or, in most cases, exceeding standardized
norms.
The yang invites us to look beyond the standard. At Friends Select, learning is joyous,
not rote. Bracketing the Academic Report are
stories about 21st century teaching and learning that showcase how Friends Select steps
beyond traditional content and pedagogy to
prepare students to participate actively in an
ever-changing world. You'll learn what is
behind the numbers, what stimulates our students' curiosity, what drives them to innovate
and succeed on terms beyond the formulaic,
and how Friends Select inspires them to construct rich lives of sustained and personal significance and meaning.
Individuals here learn to grow into who they
are. Friends Select students are happy, intelligent, self-directed, multi-faceted, and accomplished and well equipped to meet assertively
the challenges of the 21st century.
Rose Hagan
Head of School
Members of the Friends Select community
believe in the Quaker values of respect for all,
simplicity, the peaceful resolution of conflict and
a constant search for truth. We work to achieve a
balance between the needs of individuals and the
community in an atmosphere of cooperation and
concern for the betterment of all. We value the
rich diversity of our urban setting and the
opportunities and challenges it provides for the
education of our students.
Under the caring oversight of dedicated
faculty and staff, Friends Select students gain
the knowledge, skills and character that will help
them to live full lives.
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Communitynotes
Never Too Young for Robotics
This year, kindergartners got a chance to participate in
the exciting world of middle school robotics. The middle school robotics team participated in the FIRST
Lego League, a program that club director and middle
school science teacher Tiffany Borsch was drawn to
because of its alignment with FSS values.
"There is a three-part component to the competition.
First, it’s about gracious professionalism, which is very
in line with how we teach the kids SPICES," she says.
"Second, there is a robotics challenge, where students
have to program the robot to perform a task and third,
each team also is challenged to find better, more innovative ways to teach something of value," she says.
That is where the kindergarten students came in – the
robotics team employed design thinking to help teach
the kindergarten students how to solve problems. This
year’s focus was on solving environmental issues,
specifically, the problem of litter and waste. The robotics team was tasked with helping the younger students
come up with innovative ways to solve the littering
problem using Lego robots. The project, "Design
Thinking: Kindergarten Style" produced robots both
large and small. Some of the robots ate the garbage,
and some brought litter to the trashcan.
"The machines' capabilities were only as limited as the
students' imaginations," says Lili May Muntean, an
eighth grade robotics team member. For Lili May and
her teammates, the chance to help foster those young
imaginations was very rewarding. "It was an amazing
experience to combine two great things, kindergartners
and their original thinking with a cause we support!"
Robotics Club team members (L to R) Lili May Muntean, Madeline Vlam (blue beanie) Adrian Altieri and Dasha
Sotnik-Platt watch their robots with bated breath, while FSS parents (center back) John Ryan, Charles Muntean,
Robin Mohr and Jaimin Shah observe.
2 Selectnews
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After School Gets
Life-Sized
Friends Select School After School
Program students worked hard over the
winter to construct 32 life-sized chess
pieces and a 14-square foot chessboard. In
November, students in the program gathered in Bailey Circle to put their chess
skills to the test.
Students who volunteered to play stood on
stepladders on either side of the chessboard
and called out moves while other students
moved the pieces. Spectators cheered on
the players, and passersby in the community stopped to join in on the action. The
After School Program Chess Club even
spent an afternoon trying out the board.
The project was a collaborative, materialsoriented experience for students. The yellow and red chess pieces (16 pawns, 4
bishops, 4 knights, 4 rooks, 2 kings, 2
queens) and black and white checkered
chessboard were constructed out of recycled cardboard. Other materials used were
items of everyday-use such as pipe cleaner,
wire mesh, and duct tape (to name a few).
Middlegame
MathCounts Exponentially
Expands Math
For the middle school students who participate in the
MathCounts competition, competing is only part of the
allure. MathCounts gives them a way to explore new
avenues of mathematics that aren't part of their everyday
curriculum, dig deeper into complex problems and even
freestyle problems, jazz style.
"We solve challenging problems that are way off from the
middle school curriculum," says Patrick Cassidy, the middle
school math teacher who leads the MathCounts team. While
many of the participants take advanced math classes,
Cassidy says that curiosity and enthusiasm are the most
important requirements.
"There are kids from many different levels, and they all feel
like it's their job to find out new things in mathematics," he
says. In competition, the middle school MathCounts team
usually places in the top five schools regionally, and FSS
students have made it to the state competition level. But
the brightest times in MathCounts don't always happen in
competition.
"I get excited when someone solves a problem that was
tough for them – or they don’t solve it in the session but
they come back a few hours later with it complete," Cassidy
says. "They act like they hit a home run. That feeling is possible and palpable in math, and it feels good as a teacher."
Model Students
At Friends Select, the Model UN gives upper school
students a place not just to learn about diplomacy and
politics. "There is a place for everyone in the Model UN
in terms of different interests and talents," says Jesse
Kennon, middle and upper school Spanish teacher, who
has guided upper schoolers in the Model UN for the
past 7 years. "They have a chance to develop their
strengths and fortify where they have weaknesses,
whether that is in public speaking or communications,
role play or working in teams." FSS works with the
World Affairs Council, which hosts the sessions on
Temple University’s campus at the Fox School of
Business. This December's topic was global warming
and how climate change is impacting world economies.
Model UN members, L to R: Owen Deng ’17,
Drew Kaplan ’16, Laura Haskin ’16, Jake Shapiro ’18, and
Ahana Rosha '18
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Falconnotes
VARSITY FALL ATHLETIC WRAP-UP AND AWARDS
Varsity Field Hockey
Varsity Girl's Soccer
The varsity field hockey team had a very successful season.
Not only did the team end with a winning record but they did
something that hasn’t been done in years… win league games!
The team beat both Friends’ Central and Germantown Friends
in two very close and well-matched games. What is so special
about this team is how they come together to work as one.
Many players were asked to play different positions and take on
various roles. Although the three seniors Maya Bogle, Sophie
Behrend, and Syd Chin will be greatly missed, the team has
high hopes for the returning players along with the addition of
upcoming middle school players.
The 2014 Friends Select girls’ soccer team had a very amazing
building year. Veteran members Lily McDevitt, Laura Searles
and Gabby Hebden-Pearl led the way with dedication and hard
work. New players added both skill and commitment. The team
experienced the joys of winning and the frustrations of defeat.
Great job to the team and here’s to another year of growth for
Friends Select girls’ soccer.
Outstanding Players: Maya Bogle and Sesley Cruz
Most Dedicated Player: Sophie Behrend
Most Improved Player: Lizzy Augustine
FSL All-League HM: Erin Augustine
Varsity Cross Country
The varsity cross-country team had a great season. The team
had many athletes new to running and some seasoned runners.
The team also had two new coaches. The first meet was on
Friends Select’s home course in Fairmount Park where runners
finished well, starting the season strong. Team captain Max
Frantz showed amazing leadership and set a solid example of
hard work for his teammates. During subsequent races Gabe
McCarthy and Jack Gontowski would often finish in the top 15
runners and were usually within seconds of each other. Brendan
Durst, Jack Cohen, Saiir Foy-Coles and CeCe Williams were
among the runners who ran cross-country for the first time and
pushed themselves throughout the season. Thomas Archambault
showed most improvement with his race times throughout the
season and brought much light and infectious energy to the
team. Denis Widdicombe and Jasper Perry-Anderson worked
consistently and always brought a positive attitude to practice
and races. Coaches Marissa Colston and Deneen Young were
very pleased with the season and look forward to growing as a
team in the coming years.
Outstanding Player: Gabby Hebden-Pearl
Most Dedicated Player: Lily McDevitt
Most Improved Player: Alyssa Spiller
Sportsmanship Award: Hannah Caskey
Varsity Boys Soccer
The 2014 season was one of growth. Two new coaches, with
strong dedication and experience, helped to bring the program
to a higher level. Many of the games were close in both technical and physical ability, however the influential factors in deciding a winner were depth and experience. This year, both of
those factors have improved. The main goal was to familiarize
the team with different aspects and situations within a game to
improve their mental resolve in order to compete during tight
games and finishing strongly. The future is definitely bright for
FSS soccer!
Outstanding Player: Vinny Koka
Most Dedicated Player: Will Layton
Most Improved Player: Matthew Mark-Ockerbloom
Sportsmanship Award: Felix Hunt
Most Outstanding: Gabe McCarthy
Most Improved: Thomas Archambault
Most Dedicated: Max Frantz
Sportsmanship: Denis Widdicombe and Saiir Foy-Coles
Middle School Award Winners
Middle School Boys Soccer
Outstanding Player- John Dinnall
Most Improved Player - Zuni Zarate-Ramirez
Most Dedicated Player - Philip Raine
Sportsmanship Award - Alex Haurin
Middle School Girls Soccer
Outstanding Player: Hannah Sieg
Most Dedicated Player: Madeline Vlam
Most Improved Player: Sofia Rodriguez-Burno
Sportsmanship Award: Rachel Luce and Jessie Littman
4 Selectnews
Middle School Field Hockey A
Outstanding Player – Isabelle Dean
Most Dedicated Player – Camryn Harvie
Most Improved Player – Mary Denham and Allura Tarrant
Sportsmanship Award– MaryElizabeth Greeley
Middle School Field Hockey B
Outstanding Player- Lily Cappello
Most Improved Player- Margot Schneider
Most Dedicated Player- Maddy Dumont
Sportsmanship Award- Mia Cohen
Middle School Cross Country
Outstanding Runner: Jonah Taranta and Maya Brand
Most Dedicated Runner: Ethan Pastor
Most Improved Runner: Matthew D’Annunzio
Sportsmanship Award: Carlos Eckert
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Brown & Gold
Forever
Middle School PE class
Every school has its colors, and FSS has been a school
of Brown and Gold going back generations. The first
mention of the school colors is traced back to the very
first school yearbook in 1898. The yearbook, which was
more like a literary journal with a handful of photographs, included an article on the new gymnasium. "The
gymnasium periods have been made much more exciting by dividing the classes into two sections, namely the
'Golds' and the 'Browns,' our school colors. We have
two flags, one gold, one brown, and the division which
does the better work is awarded the flag. The pupils
who have done the best work and those who have
made the greatest improvement are given bows of ribbon made of our school colors, which show the honors
bestowed upon them."
Bubble run
Falcon Festival Recap
The inaugural celebration of Friends Select athletes— the Falcon Festival – unified the students
and faculty for fun, frolic and fitness. Lower school
students got things rolling with a bubble run as
they raced around the rooftop through a delicate
field of bubbles.
Then the Falcon led the crowd in a pep rally, where
Bill Klose, co-athletic director and athletic trainer,
introduced the fall sports teams. Once the teams
were introduced, lower school students headed to
the gym for moon bouncing and more games, while
middle and upper schoolers enjoyed soccer and
field hockey games. The day culminated in a race
around the block with a very colorful ending – as
students were met with a rainbow color burst that
didn't leave anyone clean, but certainly left everyone happy.
A colorful end to a race
Many months of planning and hard work went into
the Falcon Fest – big thanks to the Falcon Fest
Committee (Andy Abramowitz, Jamie Cohen,
Suzann Frantz, Nic James, Bill Klose, Ned Luce,
Diane Pastor and Annemiek Young) for their generosity and tireless effort. We also thank the teachers and coaches at FSS for attending and participating in the event, the After School Program staff
and administrators for supporting the lower school
events, head of school, Rose Hagan and upper
school director, Jesse Dougherty for giving the festival the “go-ahead” and the Parents Association for
financial support. If you would like to be involved in
planning the Spring Falcon Festival, contact the cochairs Carolyn Levine ([email protected]) and
Beata Macos ([email protected]).
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6 Selectnews
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Are Colleges the Culprit?
John Chubb, President, National Association of Independent Schools
What should students know and be able to do at the
end of high school? This is, after all, the 21st century —
and it has been for 14 years. As educators, we've
discussed the needs for "21st century skills" since well
before this century began. Working with others, learning
how to learn, thinking across the disciplines, understanding new technologies, STEM, STEAM —
the list goes on. . . .
But most schools are working around the edges. Our core curricula, especially in
upper schools, are dominated, as they have been for generations, by traditional academic subjects and traditional marks of distinction — honors and Advanced
Placement programs. Integrated math and science are not common.
Interdisciplinary projects supplement. Engineering and other courses undergirding
invention and entrepreneurship remain electives. A handful of schools have jettisoned the AP. Still, high school in the 21st century does not look a lot different
from high school in the 20th century.
Why? . . . what I hear most from our schools is that college is the culprit. Our
schools are college preparatory. Parents expect that graduation from our schools
will bring success in college admission. Colleges demand high SAT or ACT scores;
honors or AP courses; and ample clubs, service, athletics, and other co-curricular
activities. Schools say that they cannot make their own blueprints for the 21st century — at least not without imperiling the college hopes of their students.
In mid-October, the Harvard Graduate School of Education hosted an institute that
I helped plan with Professor Jim Honan, who has taught at our own NAIS Institute
for New Heads (INH) for the last 20 years . . . We learned a lot about the fundamental changes already coming our way — intergenerational, instructional, technological, demographic, and more. Equally interesting was what we learned about
Harvard University. It wasn't part of the institute's curriculum, but the lessons were
plain nonetheless.
Professor Richard Light, a distinguished statistician at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education . . . led a particularly insight-filled session on assessment. He
asked our group, "How many of Harvard's undergraduates are students of color?"
One hand shot up — "22 percent." Another: "18 percent." Light politely cut off the
guessing. "Our undergraduate population is now 53 percent students of color." I
was astounded, as were most, if not all, of us in the room. "This is something we
have been working on systematically for the last decade. The world our students
will inhabit is diverse. The college experience should emulate that world. We try to
represent that diversity in all respects. About 300 of our 1,600 freshmen each year
grew up in poverty; 11.7 percent come from overseas," Light added.
. . . "Does your school practice globalism?" Light continued. Hands shot up.
"Yes," "Yes," "Of course," attendees proudly responded. "I'm sure you do, and do it
well," Light responded. "But how do you know? How do you know if students
leave your schools thinking globally?" Not so many hands went up . . .
Not all of the skills surveyed are new ones. Harvard assesses an old-fashioned skill
that it believes the world still values — writing. As soon as freshmen arrive on
campus, they are given a prompt — for example, a brief summary of the acts and
words of Abraham Lincoln. This is followed by the question: If Lincoln were alive
today, would he be a Democrat or a Republican? . . .Faculty score the essays blind-
ly and holistically on a 10-point scale.
The following May, freshmen repeat the
assessment with a different prompt.
Harvard has learned from this exercise
that students are generally becoming better writers during their first year — scoring gains have been significant. But
Harvard also found that students in the
physical and natural sciences were not
improving their writing at all. The university has since instituted a two-semester writing requirement.
Independent schools certainly care about
writing, an essential element of a liberal
arts education. Many of our schools are
formally assessing student engagement.
Others are gauging skills beyond the traditional curriculum — teamwork, curiosity, creativity, resilience, and the like.
These are traditional strengths of our
schools — solid building blocks for our
future. The question is: Do we know
how these aspects measure up to the
evolving expectations of our best universities? Harvard is looking for excellent communicators, students who
know how to work with others
from a wide range of backgrounds, young people deeply
committed to tackling problems
and gaining the education
required to solve them, and individuals who think globally automatically. They do not see those attributes in SAT or AP scores. "We've talked
for 90 minutes about assessment without
ever mentioning a standardized test,"
Light summed up.
College admissions offices obviously
pay attention to test scores; there are too
many applications not to — regardless
of what they may tell our schools.
College counselors still see their students with stellar traditional résumés
(Cont. on pg. 20)
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Reading
Drop Everything and Read
Reading takes us into a
multitude of worlds –
some as gritty and haunting
as Richard Wright's Chicago
or Charles Dickens' London,
and others as magical and
bewitching as C.S. Lewis'
Narnia or William
Shakespeare's Fairyland.
Reading takes us into the
minds of characters who
share our frustrations, our
desires, our heartache and
our joy. At Friends Select
School, a love of reading is
deeply ingrained in the culture, a fire that is lit in the
earliest grades.
"Kids become good readers by doing a lot of reading. We build that in early. We
surround them with beautiful literature and we want them reading, reading, reading," says Amy Segel, assistant director of lower school. One of the school’s
secrets to building excitement around reading is empowering the students with
choice. "We want them to choose books that interest them. You may have a child
who isn't the most voracious reader, but if he loves dragons he will sit down with a
pile of books about dragons," she says.
As many parents know, children come into lower school at all different reading
levels. "We certainly wouldn't expect a pre-K child to be reading, but there will be
pre-K and kindergarten kids who can decode any text they see. Then there are children who start first grade at the very beginning stages of reading. We expect to
support them at various levels," says Segel.
Part of that includes a focus on comprehension, vocabulary and critical thinking.
Even if a child isn't capable of reading a text by herself, from read-alouds, students
are challenged to discuss the text and push their thinking about it. "We are asking
them to talk about books at the earliest ages and to think more deeply about the
text. We ask, 'Why is this happening?' 'From whose perspective is the story being
told?' 'What does that mean for the character?' Young children are very tuned in to
the issue of fairness which is great for teaching critical thinking skills," says Segel.
By third grade, students move from learning to read into reading to learn. Third
and fourth grades do quite a bit of read-alouds in their social studies classes.
"Students learn a significant understanding of American history from a read-aloud
and it pushes their comprehension and vocabulary further than with books they can
read themselves," she says.
The middle school curriculum winds reading around a theme. This year the students tackle eight different units on urban living – including homelessness, transportation, business, houses of worship, food, the arts and infrastructure.
Teacher John Galligan during
“read-aloud” with fifth graders
8 Selectnews
"I love that I can take a standard curriculum and tailor it to a program that is relevant to how our students live," says John Galligan, who currently teachers 5th
grade. To stimulate the critical thinking piece, Galligan creates reader response
packets based on the texts for the students to tackle. Some of the questions are
basic, such as asking the students to find the simile or alliteration. But some questions push readers to stretch a little further. "I try to find questions that are thoughtprovoking that they can't find in the book. For example, in the last book we read,
one of the girls' bedrooms has more ruffles in the décor. Asking why that was provoked a conversation about socioeconomics and that girl living a wealthier life,"
(Cont. on pg. 20)
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FRIENDS SELECT SCHOOL
BIENNIAL ACADEMIC REPORT 2014
F
riends Select School has long
maintained an educational
vision that extends beyond traditional content and pedagogy. At
Friends Select, faculty and students
engage in deep and meaningful
learning. Education is student-centered, interdisciplinary, interactive,
project-based and globally focused.
Students learn to collaborate, use
design-based thinking, and synthesize
and integrate content across academic areas.
The benefits of this type of education
are not easy to quantify. Faculty do
not teach to the test. The school’s educational program moves well beyond
“rigor” as traditionally measured by
test scores and other quantitative
data. At the same time, data in this
report show that a Friends Select education does prepare students to perform well against external standards
that are a defining, albeit limiting,
barometer of educational quality in
the United States.
This report benchmarks quantifiable
school data against state, national
and independent school norms and
attaches objective measures around
the school’s academic rigor and
excellence as traditionally defined.
WHAT THE DATA SHOW
Friends Select students perform very well on standardized tests, matching or, in many cases,
exceeding national, suburban public school, and independent school norms. The demanding FSS
academic program prepares students well for their next level of academic work, as they transition
from lower to middle, and middle to upper school. FSS students are engaged in a broad range of
co-curricular learning activities. College placement is competitive and indicates students attend
appropriate schools for academic success.
External Assessments
Standardized Tests Administered Annually at FSS by Grade
GR 3
GR 4
GR 5
GR 7
GR 8
GR 9
GR 10
GR 11
GR 12
DRP
ERB
ERB
ERB
National
Language
Exams
ERB
PSAT
PSAT
SAT
National
Language
Exams
National
Language
Exams
ACT
ACT
AP
AP
SAT
SAT
Subject Tests
DRP
National
Language
Exams
SAT
Subject Tests
National
Language
Exams
spring2015 9
Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 12
LOWER SCHOOL
Highlights:
Students’ ERB scores
exceed statistical expectations in almost every
category, with a particularly strong showing in
mathematics and quantitative reasoning, followed
by writing concepts and
skills and reading
comprehension. Lower
school DRP scores are well
above national norms.
2013-2014 Grade 4 ERB
MIDDLE SCHOOL
FRIENDS SELECT SCHOOL
Highlights:
Middle school students
exhibit strong ERB scores,
especially in literacy
competencies.
DID YOU KNOW?
Comparison Median FSS Student with Median Scores in National, Suburban Public, and Independent
GRADE 4
National
Suburban Public
Independent Schools
Verbal
Auditory
Writing
Writing Concepts Quantitative
Rea
Reasoning Comprehension Mechanics
and Skills
Reasoning Compre
88%
70%
54%
94%
84%
68%
80%
62%
36%
How to read this chart: Scores noted in the boxes reflect how
the median FSS test-taker performed in relation to the median
national test-taker, median suburban public school test-taker, and
the median independent school test-taker. A score of 88%, for
example, indicates that the test-taker performed at or above 88%
of the comparative group.
92%
75%
61%
96%
76%
65%
92
77
63
Next steps: The only area in GR 4 with
independent school 50th percentile was wr
faculty continue to discuss how to improve
particular, spelling, without sacrificing the h
quality writing output. Note that by GR 5,
content mastery for both writing mechanics
(see below) were higher than suburban pu
schools.
2013-2014 G
Comparison FS
MS students earned 3 Gold, 4 Silver, 3 Bronze, and
8 Honorable Mentions in Spanish National Language Exams
GRADE 5
MS MathCounts Team 4th in City
FSS
Suburban Pub
Independent Sc
2 MS students named among top 10 MS mathematicians in city
(4th and 8th place, MathCounts competition 2014)
2014 Philly Young Playwrights Young Voices Monologue Festival winner
14 number of MS students who have taken upper school math courses over past three years
GRADE 7
UPPER SCHOOL
FSS
Suburban Pub
Independent Sc
Highlights:
Upper school PSAT and
SAT scores consistently
exceed both national and
independent school
averages. ACT scores
consistently rank higher
than national and regional
norms.
Preliminary SAT/
National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test
(PSAT/NMSQT)
MEAN (AVERAGE) SAT SCO
MEAN (AVERAGE) PSAT SCORES 2009-2013 (on a 20-80 scale)
10th grade
Critical Reading
Year Ending
2013
2012
2011
2010
Nat’l
42.6
43.1
43.1
42.5
2009
11th grade
PA
45.2
45.6
45.7
44.0
FSS
49.5
50.6
48.5
53.7
Mathematics
Nat’l
43.5
43.6
43.1
44.0
PA
46.3
46.0
45.3
45.2
FSS
51.4
53.1
52.1
50.8
Writing
Nat’l
41.2
41.8
40.9
40.4
PA
43.6
43.9
43.2
42.2
SAT
FSS
49.1
47.9
45.9
50.6
42.0 43.4 53.7 43.3 44.2 48.7 41.0 42.4 50.8
Critical Reading
Year Ending Nat’l
10 Selectnews
SAT
Reasoning Test
PA
FSS
Mathematics
Nat’l
PA
Writing
FSS Nat’l
PA
FSS
2013
47.4 47.4 54.0 48.6 48.7 56.3 45.9 45.6 53.5
2012
47.7 47.8 51.1 48.6 48.4 55.0 46.5 46.1 51.6
2011
47.6 47.8 53.7 48.3 47.9 56.4 45.6 45.5 51.3
2010
47.3 46.9 55.1 48.9 48.2 51.9 45.4 45.2 52.5
2009
46.9 46.7 58.1 48.2 47.5 55.0 45.8 45.6 57.2
Critical Re
Year Ending Nat’l NAIS
2014
N/A
N/A
2013
496
588
2012
496
588
2011
497
589
2010
500
590
2009
499
592
NAIS - National Association of In
Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 13
BIENNIAL ACADEMIC REPORT 2014
Spring 2014 Lower School Degrees of
Reading Power (DRP)
DID YOU KNOW?
d Independent Schools
LS teams placed 2nd and 4th in
2013 Pennsylvania State Scholastic Chess
Championships
tative
Reading
Mathematics
ning Comprehension
%
%
%
92%
77%
63%
The FSS winner of National
Geographic Geo-Bee advanced to the
Pennsylvania state
competition two of the four years the
school has participated in the contest
97%
84%
75%
a in GR 4 with a median below the
ercentile was writing mechanics. LS
how to improve writing conventions, in
sacrificing the high level of demand for
e that by GR 5, the FSS ERB mean %
riting mechanics and writing concepts
an suburban public and independent
Median
Mean Percentile
Percentile
FSS
GR 3
77%
75%
GR 4
92%
89%
How to read this chart: The average 3rd grader at FSS scored at or above the level of 75-77% of
national test-takers. The average 4th grader scored
at or above the level of 89-92% of national test-takers. Percentiles are noted as both medians (middle
score) and means (arithmetic average).
2013-2014 Grade 5 and Grade 7 ERBs
Comparison FSS Student Mean Percent Content Mastery to Suburban Public, and Independent Schools
GRADE 5
Verbal
Reasoning
Vocabulary
Reading
Comprehension
Writing
Mechanics
FSS
Suburban Public
ndependent Schools
73%
69%
76%
72%
58%
68%
75%
68%
76%
71%
58%
67%
GRADE 7
Verbal
Reasoning
Vocabulary
Reading
Comprehension
Writing
Mechanics
FSS
Suburban Public
ndependent Schools
79%
70%
77%
71%
57%
68%
78%
75%
75%
68%
59%
69%
Writing Concepts Quantitative
and Skills
Reasoning
77%
68%
75%
62%
55%
62%
Writing Concepts Quantitative
and Skills
Reasoning
82%
73%
79%
48%
45%
52%
Mathematics
1&2
68%
62%
70%
Mathematics
1&2
59%
59%
65%
DID YOU KNOW?
g Test
US students took home 12 medals
(1 Gold, 5 Silver, 6 Bronze) and 4
Honorable Mentions in Spanish
National Language Exams
AGE) SAT SCORES 2009-2014 (on a scale of 200-800)
Critical Reading
Mathematics
Nat’l NAIS
Writing
Nat’l NAIS
FSS
N/A
N/A
579 N/A
N/A
619 N/A N/A 601
496
588
598
514
602
614 488
590
607
496
588
604
514
603
574 488
592
603
497
589
616
514
602
608 489
593
632
500
590
637
515
603
622 491
593
627
499
592
610
514
603
603 492
593
605
al Association of Independent Schools
FSS Nat’l NAIS FSS
FSS students performed well on the
highly challenging SAT Mathematics
Level II Subject Test and the AP
Calculus AB and BC Exams, far
exceeding national and independent
school averages; and average state
(PA) and global mean, respectively
US Play Rent: 5 Cappies nominees,
2 Cappies winners (Best Supporting
Actress and Spirit Award)
3 students qualified for highly competitive American Invitational
Mathematics Exam 2012-2014
27 students inducted into Cum Laude
Society 2012-2014
US Robotics Team 4th in city FTC
First Tech Challenge, Outstanding
Rookie Team of the year
26 number of US students who
accelerated in math sequence
over last 5 years
3 FSS honors winners at Model
UN/Senate
Class of 2014 24% Honors
8% High Honors
% students exceeding graduation
requirements in 2014 by subject:
science 69%; mathematics 84%;
history 60%; world languages 56%;
English 9%
25 number of semester-long
independent studies courses over last
three years
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Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 14
Mean ACT Scores 2009-2014
(on a 1-36 scale) (N/A-Not Yet Available)
Number of students taking ACT 2014 - 9, 2013 - 10, 2012 - 7, 2011 - 11, 2010 - 9, 2009 - 3
English
ACT
Reading
Mathematics
FSS
Science Reasoning Composite Score
Year Ending
Nat’l
PA
FSS
Nat’l
PA
FSS
Nat’l
PA
2014
N/A
N/A
26.9
N/A
N/A
24.3
N/A
N/A
26.6 N/A N/A 24.8 N/A N/A 25.4
Nat’l
PA
FSS
Nat’l
PA
FSS
2013
20.2
22.2
26.1
21.1
23.0
26.5
20.9
23.0
27.4 20.7 22.2 25.9 20.9 22.7 26.4
2012
20.5
22.0
23.3
21.3
22.7
24.4
21.1
22.7
24.1 20.9 21.9 24.0 21.1 22.4 23.9
2011
20.6
21.9
29.3
21.3
22.6
28.8
21.1
22.6
28.8 20.9 21.8 24.2 21.1 22.3 27.1
2010
20.5
21.3
29.9
21.3
22.1
29.1
21.0
22.1
28.3 20.9 21.4 25.0 21.0 21.9 28.1
2009
20.6
21.7
30.3
21.4
22.4
31.3
21.0
22.2
25.0 20.9 21.5 27.0 21.1 22.1 28.7
2013-2014 Grade 9 ERB
Comparison FSS Student Mean Percent Content Mastery to Suburban Public, and Independent Schools
Verbal
Reading
Writing
Vocabulary
Reasoning
Comprehension Mechanics
GRADE 9
FSS
Suburban Public
Independent Schools
73%
76%
79%
66%
68%
72%
74%
75%
79%
Writing Concepts Quantitative
and Skills
Reasoning
60%
60%
66%
70%
70%
73%
61%
54%
61%
Algebra 1
55%
52%
52%
Note that Gr 9 is an entry point to FSS. New students come to FSS from varied and global educational programs which may or may not have prepared them for this test.
AP Five-Year School Score Summary 2014
Success on an AP exam is defined as a score of 3 or higher
80
% of Total AP Students
80
67 67
60
Number of colleges by category to which students of the classes of
2012-2014 were accepted
82
68
67
66
60
68
69
61
61
60
40
20
0
2010
2011
2012
n Friends Select School
12 Selectnews
2013
2014
n Pennsylvania
7 of 44 students (16% of the graduating class)
were admitted to Ivy League schools
Three-Year College Acceptances by Category
91
82
CLASS OF 2014
Total 4-year merit scholarship awarded to Class of 2014: $642,109
% of Total AP Students with Scores 3+
100
COLLEGE 100% of the graduating class attends college
n Global
4
59
39
142
45
3
13
42
5
2
2
5
3
Ivy League Schools
Small Liberal Arts Colleges
Urban Colleges/Universities
Private Colleges/Universities
Public Colleges/Universities
Quaker Colleges
Arts Colleges/Universities
In-State Colleges/Universities
Women’s Colleges
Two-Year Colleges
Historically Black Colleges/Universities
STEM Colleges/Universities
International Colleges/Universities
Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 15
Writing
Some believe that good writers are born that way –
genetically stacked with the ability to produce the silkiest
of sentences, craft a clever metaphor, or tease out a rich
plot. But at Friends Select, every student is viewed as
possessing this potential, and every student is given the
opportunity and the tools to develop into a strong, solid
writer.
At Friends Select, building skilled writers starts in the earliest grades with simple
storytelling. "A lot of stuff happens informally in kindergarten. Playing in the loft,
having chat time at the lunch table, and in pretend games where children learn to
use their imaginations and build a story," says Amanda Pitt, who currently teaches
fourth grade. "Younger children can do more sophisticated things verbally.”
The actual act of writing requires a different set of skills, skills the youngest students work hard to master – shaping letters, creating sentences, puzzling out how
to spell words correctly. The storytelling and structure piece happens during readalouds and morning meeting, where they are pushed to elaborate on their thoughts
and oral stories.
In third grade, students start to explore more structured formal writing. The personal essay is the first step. "We start simple. They have a topic they enjoy, such
as, 'I have the most amazing mom.' The goal for them is to support their reasons
with evidence," says Pitt. The lower school faculty help the students learn what
details are important to include. Students receive one-on-one coaching for revisions where they develop experience in plucking out the most pertinent facts to
support their story.
“FSS kids are so refreshingly intellectually
curious.” Suzanne Morrison
In the "Become an Expert" writing project about colonial America in third grade,
students are tasked with identifying the five most salient facts about the person or
subject they chose. "It’s clear that the process of writing and revision forces them
to think about what is most relevant. By the middle of fourth grade the students
will be able to write an essay about anything," says Pitt. "Writing is the architecture for more sophisticated thinking."
In middle school, the curriculum nourishes both the creative and analytical sides of
the craft. Laurie Morrison, who teaches 7th and 8th grade, is herself a writer of
young adult fiction. "I want the kids to see themselves as writers," she explains.
She enjoys doing shadow writing with her students, where the students do a writing exercise inspired by the text they read, such as creating their own post-apocalyptic or dystopian stories. "When you give them a structure, it can be freeing and
they find more creativity," Morrison says.
To engage and inspire her students, Morrison takes them to visit the Free Library
for author events and also arranges several author visits and interviews throughout
the year, both live and via Skype. The students have met A.S. King, author of
Everybody Sees the Ants, Lisa Graff, author of Tangle of Knots and Double Dog
Upper school English teacher Suzanne
Morrison with a student
Dare, and Eliot Schrefer, author of
Endangered. "I love watching their
excitement over reading the books of the
authors they meet," she says.
The other half of the picture is the development of their analytical skills. In middle school, the students perfect the analytical essay. FSS students are guided by
the TIQA method for paragraphs – topic
sentence, introduction of quote, quote
and analysis of quote. This formula is
not an old, dusty relic, but instead it is a
classic tool that students will continue to
use in upper school in a more sophisticated manner.
"People are saying the five-paragraph
essay is over. But the five-paragraph
essay is one of the few activities that
requires students to be strong critical
thinkers, to build and sustain a critical
argument. It isn’t old news. It's a technique that exercises the critical thinking
part of their brains," says Suzanne
Morrison, who teaches upper school
English.
(Cont. on pg. 20)
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Arithmetic
Middle school math teacher Patrick Cassidy engages with a mathematician
Mathematics. For some it is
a bogeyman, an assault of
integers that freeze the
brain in its tracks. For others
it is like music, every number a note to weave into a
beautiful composition.
Is there any school subject as divisive as
math? (Yes, pun intended). Historically
taught using drills and rote memorization with strict adherence to textbooks,
students tended to fall into one of two
categories – you either had a brain wired
for math or wired to panic at math.
But at Friends Select, students have a
very different math experience, starting
from the youngest group.
"If you ask our pre-K and kindergarten
kids what they are doing in math, they
say 'we're not doing math!' But they are
doing it every day," says Amy Segel, assistant director of lower school and lower
school math enrichment specialist. "When they do surveys and number lines and
weather graphs or put numbers together on a hundred board, they don’t see it as
math."
Foundations are set in lower school with the Everyday Mathematics program,
developed at the University of Chicago. "There isn't a one size fits all solution for
children in lower school," says Segel. "Everyday Math is a good program, but it's
what our teachers do with this program that makes it great." Faculty examine
where lower school students need more facility with basic facts, such as with times
tables, and make adjustments in the curriculum accordingly. "We want the students
“Some of the most beautiful constructions
on earth can be traced back to
mathematical ideas.” Patrick Cassidy
to be able to multiply easily so they don't have to think about the steps. It can be
overwhelming if every step is laborious."
Building a strong number sense is another emphasis in lower school. "You want
children to see a number, like 16, picture it in their heads and know what it represents. If you are adding 16 plus 9, you want the child to manipulate the problem to
add one to the 9 to make it 10, then add the remaining 5. It's conceptualizing quantity, and it's something we work on in the early grades," Segel says.
By the time a child leaves 4th grade, she isn’t just prepared for middle school, she
also has a foundation that is strong and more conceptual. "It's not scripted. We
want to give kids a sense of math as a language, math as a way of thinking," says
Segel.
Middle school takes this concept of math as a language and develops it, placing
emphasis on process and creativity.
Lower school math first grade
14 Selectnews
"I talk to the students about math as a creative pursuit. Instead of copying and
repeating, we like to wake them up to math as one of their creative classes," says
(Cont. on pg. 20)
c
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From the
Archivist’s
Closet
Dick Hoffman
Teach to the Test?
NEVER!
As this issue of Select News focuses on the Academic
Report and Friends Select's philosophy of education and
testing, we take a look back into the archives to find
copies of the General Information Test – an exam given
to students in the beginning of the 20th century. We
found copies of the tests from most years between 1915
and 1924. These tests are notable for many reasons, and
one just has to take a glance at the diverse questions to
understand why.
Questions about literature, language, geography, history
and government were interspersed with questions about
local art and music, such as "Who conducts the
Philadelphia Orchestra?" and "What portrait recently
exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts was severely criticized? Who painted it?" Other questions examined individual values, such as "What in your judgment is the
greatest service that a person could render in the world
today?" A few more asked students to task their memories of the school itself, "Name five famous buildings,
photographs of which are hung in this school" and
"name three authors whose portraits hang in the dining
room."
The faculty of old understood – as today's faculty do –
that knowledge of facts is only one small aspect of a
larger educational landscape. FSS has a clear history of
giving students as well-rounded an education as possible, an education that promotes critical thinking, curiosity and creativity.
While the curriculum has evolved over time, Friends
Select never adopted a program of study designed solely
to produce good test results. The focus on tests gained
importance in the 1960s and 1970s, as the SAT and the
ACT started to play an increasing role in education.
When some parents asked the school to focus on teaching to those tests, the school resisted, choosing to remain
loyal to its foundations and principles, principles that are
reflected in this unattributed quote on the front of the
1918 General Information Test:
"He that has an eye that sees, an ear that hears and a
mind that comprehends, he lives in the midst of Life."
Sample questions from the
1915 FSS General
Information Test
n Name the nations on
each side in the European
War.
n What protest did our
government recently
make to Great Britain?
n
Name:
• The present Pope.
• The King of the
Belgians.
• Two famous living
Philadelphia artists.
n What foreign country
has recently forbidden
the sale of intoxicating
liquor?
n State the most
unselfish act of which you
have known during the
past year.
n
What kind of bank has
recently been established
in the United States?
n What are the emergency directions for a
severed artery?
n State some important
fact (recent, when possible), about:
• General Samuel C.
Armstrong.
• Sir Ernest Shackleton.
• Fritz Kreisler.
• Foot and mouth
disease.
n Arrange in the order in
which they lived:
Washington, the
Apostle Paul, Napoleon,
Moses, Bismarck,
Abraham, Alexander the
Great, Elijah,
Charlemagne, Julius
Caesar, Lincoln, Frederick
the Great.
n Identify by author or
work the following quotations:
• “My strength is as the
strength of ten
Because my heart
is pure.”
• “Go west, young man,
go west.”
• “There is no new thing
under the sun.”
spring2015 15
Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 18
Class Notes
1940
Jane Egan Dittig
My walker has become my dearest
friend.
1944
Betty Jane Wetherill Moore
I am still in Hawaii. I love it here, but
miss my family.
Olga D. Dambly
In April 2014, I moved into the
Fountains at Cedar Park. I’m enjoying
my life here. There’s always something
to do.
1946
Andrew Lucine
My brother, Al (Class of 1943), died in
March 2014.
Lores LeVita Gilfix
My husband, Ed Gilfix, passed away in
March 2014, after a marriage of 62
years. We were fortunate to have had so
many good years together. My best to
the Class of 1946!
1948
Melissa Blair Day
I fondly recall FSS, especially Mrs.
Laurie and the art history attic. My husband Richard and I are looking forward
to our 64th anniversary! We love living
in Columbia, S.C., near our son and
family, and have been here 39 years. We
have many years of foreign travel, supporting the abundant music venues and
the arts.
1951
Dolores (Ginger) Sabin Mastrangelo
I am enjoying my retirement. I am
spending summers at the Jersey Shore
and springs in Florida. I was saddened
to attend Ken Benson's funeral in May
(husband of classmate Marilyn Huzzard
Benson). We need a class reunion. It
has been a long time.
1955
Ann Tarshish Krupnick
We continue to enjoy travel, the graduations of grandchildren from college
(Barnard, Franklin & Marshall) and
gathering with classmates.
Fran Sussman Israel
I’m looking forward to my reunion in
2015. All status quo in sunny southern
California.
16 Selectnews
Robert D. Berger
I’m living in Maryland and looking forward to our 60th reunion.
1961
James Lipschutz
In 2011, I was ranked first in men's 65
and over singles tennis in the Middle
States (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and
Delaware).
1962
Anne Nichols
Reynolds
After retiring
from three terms
on the District
Board of Trustees
at South Florida
Community
College, I pursued my love of
writing. My first
novel, Winter Harvest, was published
this year and my second, A Will of Her
Own, will come out in 2015.
1970
Barbara Bell
I lost my sister and best friend, Robin
Bell, Class of 1968, in January 2014.
She was a microbiologist and teacher
for more than 20 years and had many
interests: she was an athletic swimmer,
she was interested in science, history,
the environment and anything equestrian. She was part of history, as she was
at the finish line to witness Secretariat's
victory in the Preakness. I miss her
every day. She was a special person.
1974
Carlyle Alford III
The 40th reunion was the highlight of
my year. Just as the Friends believe
there's a little of God in each of us,
there's a little of the school and, more
importantly, each of my classmates
within me. Reconnecting was an incredible experience!
1963
Ken Singer
I am a survivor of the Class of '63.
Teachers Margaret Sheets, Margaret
Conover, Olive Tatman, Master Gene
Kerrick, all like tattoos, left an indelible
mark on my life. I am battling Agent
Orange Cancer but am still upright and
alive, unlike a disproportionate number
of my classmates.
I hold a BBA, an MA, and a JD. I retired
as a very senior executive of a Fortune
500 company. Despite it all, my life's
successes were grounded in an educational foundation that served me my
entire life. For that my eternal gratitude
to an institution of education that stands
alone as the pinnacle of excellence.
1966
Carol Lisker Kennedy
I'm a retired school librarian, and still
active in Tri State Book Reviewers and
other children's literacy work. My
daughter, Susan, is a Ph.D. candidate at
UC Berkeley, and my son, Dan, is a
music teacher and electrician in
Philadelphia. My husband, Dan, is also
retired, and an avid gardener.
1968
Joy Rosner Reif
We are now Florida residents! My husband, Max, and I will be living in
Florida and spending summers in
Longport, N.J.
Lucinda Finley ’74 with Carl Alford
Paul Libiszowski
I am taking up a position in Madagascar
for four years.
1976
Gabriella Jordan
I continue to head the Education
Division for the Handel Group where I
teach courses on Designing and Leading
Your Life at several schools including
Stanford Business School, MIT, Yale,
Columbia and NYU. I am loving it. I
am still singing and living with my fabulous husband and two daughters in
New York City.
1987
David Spawn
I moved to New York City to take a
new job with Brixmor Property Group.
We love living in the city and I just spent
time with alumna Rachel Sherman ’87.
Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 19
1989
Karen Young
Editor's Note: Karen recently illustrated
a children's book called Stewie
Boomstein Starts School. She donated a
copy to the Elizabeth Wallace lower
school library and writes, "I give so
much credit to art teacher Alice Cook!
As for the book, we have since become
Gold Award recipients for the Moms’
Choice Awards in Children's Books."
Daniel Traub
My first book of
photographs, North
Philadelphia, was
published in
November 2014 by
Kehrer Verlag. The
Barefoot Artist, a
feature-length documentary I co-directed about artist Lily
Yeh, my mother, screened in film festivals across the country in the fall of
2014.
1991
Vikki Sloviter
I am living in Wynnewood, Pa., and
raising four kids (Maya-14, Noah-12,
Benn-9 and Eli-5) and two bull mastiffs. I am also finally realizing my calling and am a ballet and portrait photographer. Last spring, I was one of five
winners of the "Capture the Moment"
Pulitzer Prize Photographs contest
where my documentary image was on
display at the National Constitution
Center. This fall, my black and white
photo of a ballet dancer was on a billboard above I-95 welcoming drivers to
Philly, and I recently had my first exhibition, as part of the 1st Annual
Philadelphia Dance Photo Expo. Check
out my site if you're bored:
vikkiphoto.com.
Photo: Vikki Sloviter ’91
2000
Mahriana Rofheart
In August 2014, I started a new job as
assistant professor of English at
Georgia Gwinnett College in
Lawrenceville, Ga. My book, Shifting
Perceptions of Migration in Senegalese
Literature, Film, and Social Media was
published in December 2013.
2002
Rich Oakey
I rode my bike across the country from
Pittsburgh to Florence, Ore., from May
to mid-August. Some of my trips were
solo, but I was joined by my brother,
John '06, in Wyoming.
Rich and John Oakey
2003
Editor’s Note:
Forbes Magazine
has named
Matthew
Rudofsky as
someone to watch
in its Forbes’ 30
Under 30 2015:
Food & Drink
issue. Matt, 27, is executive chef at
Momofuku Ssam Bar in New York City.
2006
John Oakey
Editor’s Note: John is working as an 8th
grade language arts teacher at Mott Hall
III MS #128 in New York City. He
joined his brother, Rich, on a bike ride
from Jackson Hole, Wyo., to Florence,
Ore.
2008
Emmeline Kim
Editor’s Note: Emmeline’s film called
dearSAPPHO was accepted into a
British Film Institute Festival in
London, LGBT division. The film ran
in London from March 20 through
March 30, 2014, and was then shown at
the Toronto Film festival in June 2014.
A film festival in Argentina has since
asked Emmeline to send over her film
for public view. More information on
her work can be found at emmelinekim.com
2009
Zachary W. Wright
I am working in Malvern, Pa., as a
SEO-Content Coordinator for a company that deals in nothing but Mustang
aftermarket parts. I’m very grateful to
love what I do and to have a job that
puts such an emphasis on creativity.
2011
Arman Dezfuli-Arjomandi
Editor’s Note: Arman has taken a leave
from Santa Clara University after completing his sophomore year, and he is
still enjoying his life in Silicon Valley
as an independent iPhone (iOs) app
developer with four current apps in the
iTunes store, most notably Falcross,
Slide, Jake and Amir and Photopinions.
He is also singing a capella with
Supertonic.
2012
Gabrielle Gibson
Editor’s Note: Gabrielle is a business
informatics major at Widener
University. She recently teamed up with
three other students enrolled in the
School of Business Administration for
the first international student idea contest hosted by Software AG's University
Relations department. Gabrielle and her
team pitched the idea of how to use
Software AG's Presto to enhance athletic performance. Her team won the third
place prize in the international competition as well as a trip to New Orleans to
present their idea at Software AG's
Innovation World 2014 conference.
spring2015 17
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Former Faculty
OUT AND ABOUT
Jane Ashcom (1981 - 1994)
I’m still volunteering as a docent at the
Princeton University Art Museum and
now volunteering at Doylestown
Library. I’m also enjoying my grandchildren.
David H. “Master Dave” Rinald
(1964 - 1970)
I am still living in Florida and “staving
off” retirement while serving as organist and choirmaster at St. Francis of
Assisi Episcopal Church in Lake
Placid, Fla. Regard to all!
Stephanie Judson (1977-2000)
Amy Rosenberg Cohen '82, came to
Penn Charter to catch up with me as her
former teacher, and to work with Lee
Payton ’95. Amy works for History
Making Productions, and Lee is the
chair of the social studies department at
Penn Charter. Head of School, Darryl
Ford ’83, came in to say hello.
In Memoriam
Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet
May 30, 2014 Honorees, Megan Roe ’01, Lawrence Schlosser ’00,
Nolan Borgman ’08, Mia Curran ’06, Kelli Sawyer ’03 and Coach Ed Burnley
Ellen Speiser Katz ’52,
January 25, 2015
Albert Lucine ’43,
March 18, 2014
Geraldine H. Rehrig ’38,
April 5, 2014
Peter Batson ’45,
May 15, 2014
Edmond Suez, Jr, ’52,
May 17, 2014
Dorothy Hutton Snowdon ’37,
July 16, 2014
Joel Nobel ’52,
August 13, 2014
Mack Vaksman ’76,
September 1, 2014
Judith Lorry Murphy ’58,
October 7, 2014
Jerome B. Reed ’49,
November 5, 2014
Henrietta Howell Slote ’47,
November 13, 2014
Richard Alden Bull,
former Board of Trustees member,
parent of alumnus Ben Bull ’93,
December 26, 2014
18 Selectnews
Alumni/ae Thanksgiving Classic
November 28, 2014 Back row L to R: Varsity Girls Coach Mary Beaman, Paul Norris ’95,
Erick Emerick ’93, Bob Shaw ’95, Chris Arlene ’00, Khaliel Walker ’03, Pete Kada ’06, Jon
Mozes ’08, Varsity Girls Coach Kelli Sawyer ’03, Benjamin Serinsky ’02, Julian Kimble ’03,
Eric Cohen ’00
Front row L to R: James Otwell ’06, Lee Payton ’95, Gab Dondici ’16,
Sydney Leffler ’15, Dom Dondici ’16
FSS Travels to China
Director of Development & Alumni/ae
Relations, Christine Jefferson,
Director of Upper School, Jesse
Dougherty, Chris McNeur ’65 and
wife Ana Wong McNeur in Shanghai,
China, met late last year with families
of current international students
Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 21
Class of 2014
Alumnae Mary Morris ’14, Cass LeJeune ’14, and Mya Drew
Flood ’14 (center) joined FSS Students and faculty advisor
Marissa Colston (far right) at a Black Student Union meeting in
December
Class of 1955 59th Reunion on September 6, 2014 at the
home of Lois Dennis Hoffman ’55 in Moorestown, N.J.
Front row, L to R: Llewellyn Kramme Rinald, Barbara Bleznak
Goodfriend, Jane Likoff Yudis, Suzanne Kaufmann Goushian, Gloria
Campisi McGuire, Joy Campbell Mazur, Lois Dennis Hoffman
Back row, L to R: Charles Emmel, Dominic "Donny" Oriolo, Calvin
Morris, Joseph Sickenberger, Stephen Solos
Class of 2008 Reunion at the home of Jenn Gorzelany
Weinheimer, December 28, 2014
Back row, L to R: Jenn Gorzelany Weinheimer, Nolan Borgman,
Tyler Teran, Jon Mozes, Eric Mozes , Alex Zimmerman, Jacob
Todd, Jacob Robbins
Front row L to R: Kelcey Johnson, Hannah Silverblank, Ellie
Clark, Leigh Silver, Alexandra Degutis, Veronica Goldstein,
Abbe Stern, Hannah Wilkin, Nina Starner
Class of 1969 45th Reunion at FSS, November 1, 2014
L to R: Peter Pelensky, Wayne Parker, Kathryn Deans-Schaub, George
Burdick, Trixie Beller Heck, Steven Berger, Richard Conrad, Fran Stier,
Steve Maurer (husband of Fran Stier), and
Jack Woehr
National Alumni/ae Board
Members visit Ralph Reinwald’s
Latin class
October 24, 2014
Back row, L to R: Dan Scheffey ’74, Gaby
Jordan ’76, Rick Hunt ’74,
Rob Einhorn ’81, and Rob Kusner ’78
spring2015 19
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Are Colleges the Culprit?
Reading
gaining admittance to elite universities.
Nonetheless, higher education is expecting
different things from students today. We
have more license than we may believe to
shape what those differences should be. says Galligan. Galligan also weaves the different writing genres into the unit, including
personal narrative, essays, research, fiction
and biography. The reading fuels the writing
and the writing pumps the energy right
back.
(Cont. from pg. 7)
John Chubb is president of National Association of
Independent Schools, a nonprofit membership association that provides services to more than 1,700 schools
and associations of schools in the United States and
abroad. This article was adapted from a blog post that
first appeared Nov. 5 on the NAIS website. To see the
complete article, go to nais.org.
Writing
(Cont. from pg. 13)
"Once you get a grasp of how to make a
strong argument, that skill is transferable,"
adds Margaret Smith, who teaches upper
school history. "It doesn’t matter if you are
taking the AP exam, doing the essay portion
of the SAT, writing an Op-ed or a blog
entry. Once you have the structure of an
argument and an understanding of what
makes a strong argument, you can apply
that to any exercise."
Students find freedom and creativity in
upper school writing through choice.
"Regardless of the type of writing project or
the grade level or the course, student choice
is consistent throughout. You have to be
personally invested. That is the strength of
the program," says Smith. "Students are free
to follow their interests and curiosity to
develop their arguments. The argument is up
to them, but you have to have sound evidence from a variety of sources."
One sizeable part of the writing process is
revision. FSS students get the opportunity to
turn in several drafts of their papers – both
analytical and creative – before the final
product is due. One-on-one time with teachers during this process is key to helping
them hone their skills. "This process allows
us to point out where the students are strong
and where they need work. When a student
can verbalize what they are trying to communicate in the paper and I work on an outline with a student, that's where the true
progress comes. The practice of writing a
history argument and refining it and making
it stronger is an act of critical thinking,"
says Smith.
"It's amazing to be able to teach writing the
way I dream of doing, with revisions and
having one-on-one time and pushing the
work back to them to move it forward," says
Suzanne Morrison. "FSS kids are so refreshingly intellectually curious. I want them to
see the text as sacred, to find a voice and to
see how clarity and precision are essential
to the presentation of themselves and their
beliefs."
20 Selectnews
(Cont. from pg. 8)
"There is a culture here of loving to read
very early. It's my job to keep them loving
reading by finding books they can relate to,
with characters who have similar life experiences," says Galligan. "Our students are
sophisticated readers, at least a year or two
ahead of what a lot of fifth graders are reading elsewhere. Their reading levels are so
high that it's interesting to be able to find
things that are challenging enough."
Challenging material is a hallmark of upper
school reading. "It hits me how well they've
learned to analyze text. They know what to
do when they're confronted with a metaphor
they don't get. We've taught them to unpack
it. I can teach them to take a line of poetry
and suck all the juice out of it," says Wendy
Buckingham, the upper school English
department chair, whose own enthusiasm for
books and words is palpable. "We practice
close reading. They are required to annotate
the text, then explain to me what they chose
to underline and why. When they talk
through their choices, I hear them share
things I haven't thought of and I teach these
texts."
The variety of books the students read in
upper school – both in the standard curriculum and in electives – is delightful, blending
Twain and Kerouac, Shakespeare and
Kingsolver, Morrison and McCourt,
Dickens and Woolf.
"We read Sula and they were beside themselves," says Buckingham. "Teaching Great
Expectations and Mrs. Dalloway in 10th
grade is intense, and the students always
rise to the occasion."
Friends Select is a school where the
Shakespeare elective is always oversubscribed and teachers create more non-traditional electives such as Memoir and
American Road Trip.
"We are reading so many diverse books, and
it is a gift," says Buckingham. "The students
are really ready for the experience you want
them to have. Their minds are wide open."
Arithmetic
(Cont. from pg. 14)
Patrick Cassidy, who has been teaching
math to middle school students for 9 years.
"People who are good at innovating in
mathematics are artists. Some of the most
beautiful constructions on earth can be
traced back to mathematical ideas."
Cassidy, who took a more straightforward
approach to teaching math earlier in his
career, enjoys the more freestyle approach at
FSS. "I don't want my students to say 'I'm
not a math person.' That won't happen on
my watch."
He argues that what students need to be successful in math is problem solving skills,
learning how to manage setbacks and getting comfortable with the amount of time it
takes to complete a problem.
"Exploring those skills has improved our
outcomes in how they do math and how
much they enjoy math," says Patrick
Cassidy, "I also talk about failure as an
option. If you are doing anything interesting, challenging or difficult you will fail!"
The formula is clearly working – there are
several students taking advanced mathematics in middle school, including nine who are
taking upper school level math. Once they
move to upper school, the flexible math curriculum allows them to continue to challenge themselves every day.
"I have three 10th graders taking a senior
level calculus class." says Abbi Smith,
mathematics department chair and upper
school math teacher. "We figure out the best
place for our learners to be so that they are
challenged." Those challenges include a college level elective, Introduction to Complex
Analysis, taught by Ralph Reinwald. "There
are at least 10 students in that class. I don't
know a lot of schools that are doing things
like that," she says.
Smith explains that the upper school mathematics curriculum emphasizes a deep theoretical understanding, so that students don't
just learn algorithms, they learn the connections behind the algorithms. "We don't do
rote process without first understanding why
we are doing it." Smith also credits her students, who are fully engaged and committed
to challenging themselves. "There is such
discomfort in higher mathematics. I speak to
students about seeking comfort in being sufficiently challenged."
In a testament to how aligned the three divisions are, Smith shares the upper school
philosophy, which echoes those of the lower
and middle school.
"It's fun for me to get students to appreciate
math as a language and as an art," says
Smith. "Seeing it all as one connected world
is what I enjoy."
Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 23
Schedule of Events
Friday, May 1st
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Photo
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Fred Robinson
’81‘81
Photo
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Robinson
Spring2015FINAL_3RevFall05.qxd 4/7/15 11:23 AM Page 24
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