Dear Rivermont Community,

The New Vision Collaborative is a group of college presidents and independent school heads who along with the NAIS President (National Association of Independent Schools) Pat Bassett have held discussions on what students need to know and be able to do in the 21st century.  The participants in this dialogue have explored how to prepare graduates for the rigors of life in this new century.  An initial draft of "demonstrations of learning" include:

• Conduct a fluent conversation in a foreign language about a piece of writing in that language.
• Write a cogent and persuasive opinion piece on a matter of public importance.
• Declaim with passion and from memory a passage that is meaningful - of one's own or from the culture's literature or history.
• Produce or perform a work of art.
• Construct and program a robot capable of performing a difficult task.
• Exercise leadership.
• Using statistics, assess whether or not a statement by a public figure is demonstrably true.
• Assess media coverage of a global event from various cultural/national perspectives.
• Describe a breakthrough for a team on which you served and to which you contributed in overcoming a human-created obstacle so that the team could succeed in its task.
• Demonstrate a commitment to creating a more sustainable future with means that are practical and feasible.

Conspicuously absent is any mention of the SAT or other standardized measures.  Interestingly, over 800 colleges in the United States no longer require applicants to take the SAT.  The dean of admissions at Harvard, William Fitzsimmons was quoted in the New York Times saying, "It would be much better for the country to have students focusing on high school courses that, based on evidence, will prepare them well for college and also prepare them well for the real world beyond college instead of spending enormous amounts of time trying to game the SAT."

Tony Wagner from the Harvard Graduate School of Education interviewed 600 CEOs  asking for the qualities needed for success in the 21st century in college, career, and citizenship.  Wagner's Seven Survival Skills is the result of those interviews.

• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
• Agility and adaptability
• Initiative and entrepreneurship
• Effective oral and written communication
• Accessing and analyzing information
• Curiosity and imagination

These lists challenge many notions of how schools function.  I am proud to say that at Rivermont they provide reassurance that for 128 years we have been on the right track!  The values listed continue to inspire how we teach, what we teach, and what are authentic measures of success.  The faculty continues to look to best practices in the field, feedback from recent graduates, reports from college professors, and the needs and goals of the business and professional community as we design both the written and the unwritten curriculum of Rivermont.  Our mission challenges us to develop excellence in academics to be sure, but also in character, leadership, creativity and citizenship.

Rick St. Laurent

Headmaster

2010-11 Year in Review