View From the Dean's Desk

Hello friends, and greetings from the Mount. It has been an exciting first few months of the 2019-20 school year. The issue of the “View from the Mount”  will provide you with just a few highlights of what our students, alumnae and faculty have been up to since the school year began. 

This year kicks off an exciting new affiliation for the Mount, as we are now members of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS), the leading advocate for girls’ schools. With 250 PK-12 all-girl member schools (independent, public, charter, religiously-affiliated, and boarding/day), the organization provides networking, research, professional development, and advocacy programs focused on girls’ learning and healthy development. The Mount is now part of a global network of more than 26,000 educators, 115,000 students, and over one million alumnae. 

Over the summer (actually while down in Texas on our service trip to the border), Barbara, a colleague from Independent School Management (ISM), reached out to me about the prospect of teaming up to submit a proposal for the (NCGS) symposium at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Maryland. As relatively new affiliates of NCGS, I thought it would be a great idea and opportunity to connect with other all-girls’ schools and further develop a network with like-minded educators. About a month later, we were informed that our proposal was accepted.

So, in mid-October, Ms. Kristen Zosche, MSDA Director of Curriculum and Instruction,  and I traveled to Baltimore to the “Educating Girls Symposium.” While there, Barbara and I led a breakout discussion where we connected my Doctoral research on administrator perceptions of faculty evaluation and professional growth, with ISM’s latest research on comprehensive faculty development. I shared some of the ways that our faculty at the Mount has structured their professional goals to account for the unique needs of their students, and how they find ways to create opportunities for the young women in their classrooms to develop important traits such as confidence, empathy, and a certain level of grit needed to excel in the larger world. After presenting, Ms. Zosche and I had the chance to attend additional breakout sessions and two keynote presentations from thought leaders within our all-girls education network. 

Our membership in NCGS speaks to the Mount’s commitment to continuous growth through the means of professional development, participation in all-girls’ school research, and advocacy of its many benefits. In the coming months, we invite you to learn alongside our faculty and look forward to sharing some of the many informative resources and research that NCGS publishes.