Innovation Strategy Focuses on Student Need and Propels St. Margaret’s Through a Pandemic
St. Margaret’s dynamic institutional blueprint lifted the school up as it embarked on one of the greatest educational challenges in modern history.
By Anne Dahlem and Ryan Wood
The school’s governing Board of Trustees and administrative leadership took St. Margaret’s in a bold and uncharted direction when they launched an aspirational, values-based strategic plan in 2016. Rather than providing a set of directives linked to specific metrics and predictive outcomes, the Board set forth broad institutional goals, aspirations and areas of focus for the professional community, and handed over the ownership and autonomy to design and take the next steps. Intentionally leaving the discovery and design of any new initiatives to the school’s educators and administrators, Trustees had high hopes for the results, yet even they couldn’t have foreseen the sea change in school culture that would unfold in the coming years as a result, nor could they predict it would lift up and buoy St. Margaret’s through one of the greatest educational challenges for schools in modern history.
St. Margaret’s educators searched for a new way to go about its work and tapped the empathy-driven design thinking methodology that came out of Stanford University, also called human-centered design and most often is used in innovation sectors like technology, and put its ‘end-users,’ the students, at the heart of the planning and design process. School leaders found that when they stepped away from traditional strategic planning driven by metrics and business-style analysis and leveraged the inherent skills, expertise, dedication and talents of the professional community, to hone in on the evolving needs of today’s students, the results were transformational to both students and the institution.
In the past few years, this fundamental shift in outlook and process uncovered and allowed St. Margaret’s to zero in on authentic student needs for deeper connection and relevance in their learning and a whole-child approach to student health and wellness. To answer their students’ needs, they created exciting and inventive new academic programs—a new school schedule, student health and wellness programs, reimagining and redesigning the service learning program, the creation of innovation blocks that explore life skills and student areas of interest, new experiential and interdisciplinary studies, expanded elective offerings, enhanced STEAM curricula, a scholar-in-residence program and new learning environments like the Lower School STEAM Center, Upper School Engineering Lab and the Early Childhood School Demonstration Lab. As significant as these valuable new programs are to our students, this new approach to planning yielded an important and enduring byproduct—an entirely new way of thinking and approaching challenges and opportunities at St. Margaret’s, a renewed energy, enthusiasm and collaboration for school planning and change, and a schoolwide culture of innovation among the entire professional community.
Today, St. Margaret’s leaders have cemented this approach as its signature Innovation Strategy, which is similar to design thinking, yet has unique characteristics to St. Margaret’s:
Guided by an ongoing, replicable process to continually design and actualize the future of the school
Student-centered and heavily influenced by principles of Design Thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, iterate)
Relies on the educational expertise of the professional community and fiscal expertise of the Board of Trustees
Results in the identification of aspirational strategic priorities within the school’s Core Values (Character, Community, Balance and Breadth, High Expectations and Equity and Inclusion) and Institutional Sustainability
Relies on diverse teams from across the school collaborating to generate creative solutions
Embraces piloting to test action steps at small scale before full implementation
Abandons traditional “Strategic Plan” name and approach, and moves toward continuous “Strategic Thinking” model
Executed internally without an external consultant
A Peek Inside Our Everyday
To view St. Margaret’s “Everyday” films, showcasing the vibrancy and energy of the learning environments and the joy and wonder of the St. Margaret’s community, click here.
At the beginning of 2020, the professional community engaged again in its ongoing innovation strategy, beginning with a qualitative review and analysis of its core values, including a newly introduced core value by the Board of Trustees, Equity and Inclusion. They also identified essential questions and embarked on a new chapter of need-finding exploration with students around each core value. As they began student ethnographic interviews with students across the school to discover new areas of focus for their work, an unforeseen challenge was lurking on the horizon that would refocus the institution’s priorities: a global pandemic.
By early March, Head of School Will Moseley had already assembled a school Task Force of leaders from each area of the school’s operations—academic, facilities, technology and the recently expanded student health and wellness department, which was meeting daily to monitor and plan for many contingencies to handle the emerging COVID-19 health crisis. With only a few days of advance notice, division principals and faculty were charged with developing plans for classes and connecting with students in the event of a campus closure, thinking through classroom resources, communications, technology and connectivity. Naturally, the professional community didn’t skip a beat leaning on their well-honed, well-flexed innovation strategy to face the evolving situation—putting the students needs for learning at home and amid a changing landscape at the center of their thinking and planning. There were countless large and minute aspects of determining the best way to continue school during a campus closure that principals, department chairs and faculty had to identify, find solutions for and implement in rapid pace and by division differentiated for four different age groups of student learners. On Friday, March 13, 2020, St. Margaret’s closed its campus and shifted to unknown territory: remote learning beginning on Tuesday, March 17--an entirely new model of teaching and learning for its 1,250 students.
“Where some schools took weeks off from classes to determine their right course and make the shift while their campuses were closed, our professional community pivoted from a Friday afternoon to a Tuesday morning barely skipping a beat in student learning,” St. Margaret’s Head of School Will Moseley said. “I can’t begin to describe the herculean effort of brain power, ingenuity, time and sheer determination, that took to accomplish. Our professional community has demonstrated an invigorated spirit through unprecedented challenges fueled by fundamental shared qualities of school-wide innovation, a sense of ownership and, quite frankly, Tartan excellence and confidence that we can do what is best for our students and not sacrifice the St. Margaret’s way. There is no doubt in my mind that this unique St. Margaret’s culture, unlike any I’ve ever known, emerged from the wise decision and leap of faith of the Board to turn the heavy lifting of strategic planning over to their very capable hands four years prior.
“Our Board President Paul Westhead said we were flying the plane while building it through the month of March and April, which aligns with our innovation strategy of rapid development and testing of new approaches. While there were a few early bumps, by the time we hit Spring Break, we were already planning for the students’ safe return to attending school on campus again, no matter the challenges around us, which emerged as the Every Tartan, Every Day plan.”
In the coming months to close the 2019-2020 school year and to open the 2020-2021 year, St. Margaret’s educators and leaders reimagined best pedagogical practices, leveraged industry expertise and leading technologies, engaged in faculty professional development and collaboration, and redesigned much of the campus to develop a new school model, a new three-pronged St. Margaret’s blueprint that ensured the continuous learning of every student with a focus first on a safe and healthy learning environment that supports every student and their unique situation.
By putting students at the center of the process, and empowering the professional community to create and innovate new solutions, St. Margaret’s continues to nurture the growth and well-being of students so they can persevere and thrive through this dynamic national health crisis. Read more about some new programs and innovative curricula developed by St. Margaret’s faculty and professional community.
Continuous Learning and Campus Flex
When the pandemic became a reality last spring, it soon became clear it would not be business as usual at St. Margaret’s or anywhere else for the near future.
Along with the health and safety of the community, St. Margaret’s placed a high priority on the continuity of its students’ academic experience amidst the dynamic and changing context. So school leaders went to work, creating a learning plan designed to be both flexible and adaptable, and serve the needs of students and families across a variety of scenarios.
From March 13 through the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, the St. Margaret’s campus was closed, and learning took place remotely. Zoom was the most common tool to bring classrooms together, but faculty found a number of different programs and platforms to further the learning. Middle School math teacher Stephanie Windes used Quizizz, a trivia-like online platform, to turn an algebra 1A exercise into a fun, class-bonding competition. In Middle School Spanish, teacher Lisa Botts pivoted an in-progress “Preterite Idol” creative competition incorporating Spanish verbs into an online showcase using Flipgrid.
St. Margaret’s invested in enhanced technology, including videoconferencing cameras.
As the 2020-2021 school year approached, the uncertainty of the pandemic and its short- and long-term effects on school attendance forced the implementation of a flexible learning model that can accommodate students on campus as well as off. Two models stemmed from this: Campus Flex (in-person learning experiences when campus is open) and Concurrent Learning (at-home learning experiences for students not on campus). St. Margaret’s prepared to adjust between these models based on meeting state and local health guidelines.
Walk into a classroom during a typical school day and you will see teachers nimbly working with students both in-person, sitting six feet apart and wearing masks, and students off campus tuning in remotely. St. Margaret’s invested in enhanced technology, including videoconferencing cameras and large touchscreens installed in each classroom, to connect classrooms and accommodate students wherever they are.
Teachers are often seen showing material to in-person students, then walking to the camera and showing the same material to remote students to ensure everyone is engaged and learning.
In the Lower School, students remain physically distanced in classroom cohorts, with each classroom split into two cohorts of 10 to 12 students. Special-subject teachers adjust to these cohorts by meeting with students where they are to ensure minimal crossings of cohorts.
While the cohort protocol is more challenging in Middle School and Upper School, classrooms remain set up to promote physical distancing. Classrooms have been created where none previously existed, such as in the Library, and videoconferencing is used if a class size exceeds the new classroom capacities.
Leveraging Connections
Many in St. Margaret’s professional community, recognizing their limitations during remote learning, sought to leverage their industry connections to provide a glimpse to a career in their subject.
Upper School students listened as biopharmaceutical leader and St. Margaret’s parent Nazli Azimi presented scientific insights on the novel coronavirus and the work being done to combat it. Dr. Azimi is CEO of Bioniz Therapeutics, an Irvine-based company pursuing discovery and development of peptide therapeutics. She presented to about 40 Upper School students on the coronavirus and some of the work being done to fight the virus, including Bioniz’s work on a therapeutic treatment for COVID-19.
Elsewhere, Ms. Bennett, a former music editor for Hollywood films, arranged Zoom sessions with several prominent Hollywood professionals, including director Niki Caro and actress/comedian Sydney Park.
The career insight culminated with a surprise visit by comedian and actor Dave Chappelle, who stopped by to discuss the topic “What does it mean to be a storyteller and what is our responsibility as artists to the world during such a painful time?”
“He said it was never too soon to let your art reflect tragedy, reminding us of the great quote by author Toni Morrison: ‘This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal,’” Ms. Bennett said.
Melvin Sims speaking to English I students.
In English I, Upper School teacher Pete Clark brought in a special guest to join a recent classroom discussion of the classic text A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. To better understand the history of housing discrimination in Chicago, a main theme of the play, Chicago landlord-tenant and real estate attorney Melvin Sims, a friend of Mr. Clark’s, joined the class via Zoom to lead an insightful discussion of the real-world issues the play spotlights.
“We are so appreciative of Mr. Sims sharing his family experiences and professional expertise with our students,” Mr. Clark said. “His discussion was engaging, insightful, and specific, relating the historical context to individual lines of Hansberry’s play. He also conveyed the compounding and devastating effects of COVID-19 upon communities that already face inherent societal challenges.”
Pivoting in Performing Arts
The cast for the Upper School musical The Addams Family was fully rehearsed and ready to go when the school closure caused a cancellation of the shows in March.
Undaunted, director Dan Pacheco and the talented Tartan performers had an innovative idea.
“I wanted the students to show the product of their learning and also reach a wide audience digitally,” he said.
That led to the recreation of five musical numbers from the show, with multiple students performing individually at their homes and all the videos compiled and made into short films by St. Margaret’s film teacher Karen Bennett. The set of the musical, which was already built in Hurlbut Theater, was inserted as a backdrop in several of the films.
“From a technical perspective, these videos were challenging to not only coordinate, but also produce,” Mr. Pacheco said. “The end result, while not perfect or as good as it would have been on stage and live, made all of the work worthwhile. It is exciting to make these performances come to life even when the student performers are far away from each other.
“I am thankful for the opportunity we have to work innovatively like this at St. Margaret’s.”
Once in-class learning returned in the fall, the challenges of putting on a show remained and even grew—considering some students were on campus while others continued learning remotely. The production of the Middle School musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown was a groundbreaking triumph of overcoming such obstacles. The show featured 28 students over two casts, the audience watching remotely, but the cast performing 100 percent live. Cast members rehearsed for two months from home using software like Zoom and Google Meet. They then broadcast separately from private practice rooms in the Performing Arts Center, each of which was equipped with a computer, a ring light and requisite chargers, cables, cords and plugs. Every aspect of this production occurred in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines to ensure a safe experience for everyone.
“We are proud and grateful that we were able to put a production together,” Mr. Pacheco said. “While most theaters remain dark, our St. Margaret’s theater is very much alive in this reimagined format.”
Elsewhere in performing arts, band director Chris Carbajal had a similar idea of bringing performers together even while apart. In the spring, Mr. Carbajal created arrangements and click tracks custom-tailored for each student in St. Margaret’s Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble A and Jazz Ensemble C students. The students recorded their parts separately on their smartphones, doing multiple takes to perfect their part.
Mr. Carbajal and Ms. Bennett took the student audio and videos and brought them together for an incredible rendition of “Gonna Fly Now” from the soundtrack of the 1976 film Rocky, complete with evocative and emotional images of the Class of 2020 band students, as well.
The success of “Gonna Fly Now” led to further distanced collaborations between band students for shows such as the Tartan Jam in November.
“I’m so proud of their ability to pivot, rise to the occasion and continue to create,” Mr. Carbajal said.
Early Childhood School
St. Margaret’s Early Childhood School launched an extensive and comprehensive online resource of curriculum provocations and experiences created by the division’s expert faculty. The Library of Invitations is full of learning tools meant to provoke ideas and experiences to implement at home.
Early Childhood School Director Dr. Cris Lozon connected with her vast network of early childhood educational leaders from both the United States and countries around the world to share best practices and lessons learned as remote learning made its way around the globe last spring.
“There were a few common threads among the schools,” Dr. Lozon said. “Schools continue to evolve and refine their practices, even for some who are into the 12th week of distance learning. For the youngest learners, online education is a difficult task to undertake without the support of family and an understanding of developmentally appropriate practices.”
That insight led to the development of the Library of Invitations, an extensive and comprehensive online resource of curriculum provocations and experiences created by the division’s expert faculty. The curriculum resource has sections related to art, nature, food, literacy, writing, games, music and movement. There is a section for scholars to teach each other through videos, and a section where older students can share their knowledge.
“This site is unique to St. Margaret’s Early Childhood School and we will continue to add content from our families and from early childhood experts,” Dr. Lozon said. “We truly seek to be innovative and keep to the core value of community.”
As St. Margaret’s youngest learners returned to school in August, they were welcomed back with some modifications for physical distancing, with adjustments including smaller cohorts, consistent teachers throughout the day and staggered schedules for the Outdoor Classroom allowing the dynamic, play-based learning to continue safely.
COVID-19 in the Curriculum
As the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Margaret’s teachers quickly realized the multitude of unique teaching moments to be taken from this challenging time.
The rapidly developing science behind diagnosing and treating COVID-19 was brought into the Upper School’s research methods of life science honors class in October, as students had the opportunity to read and discuss new scientific papers on the coronavirus, such as one published by New England Journal of Medicine soon after the virus became known.
Students also had the opportunity to conduct a simulated lab test to determine if patients have formed antibodies to the SARS-CoV2 virus—an indication that they had the virus recently. The lab involved using micropipettes to test samples from two hypothetical patients, and record observations and findings in their laboratory notebook.
“Students ran a simulated diagnostic test on Patient 1 and Patient 2 trying to determine if they test positive or negative for the antibodies,” Upper School science teacher Jennifer Ross-Viola said.
In the Middle School, world history teacher Katie Harris connected the historical implications of COVID-19 with a unit already in place for grade 7, which studied the devastating Black Death plague epidemic of the Middle Ages.
They read primary sources from the Middle Ages on the pandemic, then made the connection that for COVID-19, they could be a primary source for future generations to reference. Students worked on their own documentation of the year 2020, which included a wide range of historical projects including podcasts, scrapbooks, digital animations, documentary films, physical and digital time capsules, and transforming existing journals from 2020 into mixed media keepsakes with photos, newspaper headlines, and other memorabilia.
“My hope is that they will see themselves as active creators and archivists of history,” Mrs. Harris said, “while also connecting with others as they process the events we are living through.”
