Episode 11 - Predictability and Support

The are several factors that makes New Covenant unique among schools.  We could point to the classical, Christian tradition from which the curriculum has been deeply shaped.  While that is a key factor, it doesn’t completely explain the culture of the school.  There are two other things that should be considered.  Our consultants at Independent School Management (ISM) have conducted longitudinal research to determine the factors that contribute most powerfully to student success and well-being.  With data from more than 4,000 schools they have found incontrovertibly that the biggest drivers in student success are predictability and support.  Predictability, by which we mean the “rule-reward” structure is strong, but also intelligible and fair from the student perspective; and support, which we define as  an environment in which  students perceive that the entire faculty, administration, and coaching staffs genuinely seek the students’ success and work to achieve that success without inflated reinforcement.  We can think of these factors as the two rails on which a train runs.  The rails are not the main thing - the train is - so these two “rails” are carefully maintained in our school.  Join me and our Principals for a discussion in this month’s Gentle Folk Podcast.