WHEN IS PREP NOT PREP?
The terminology in this book is specifically American. British and Commonwealth schools use similar terms but for entirely different meanings:
AMERICAN USAGE BRITISH USAGE
High School College
University or college University
Junior boarding school (pre high school) Prep school
Prep School or Boarding School (high school) Public school
Government chartered high school Academy
Additionally, American usage makes a distinction between boarding “schools” and “academies”.
And as noted, to muddy things further, the American usage of “prep school” can mean either a preparatory boarding school or preparatory schools in general, whether boarding or non boarding.
CHAPTER 2
BOARDING SCHOOLS TODAY
Modern American boarding schools strive to balance their enduring community traditions with a forward thinking stance towards educational innovation and societal change. Academics are supported by co-curricular and experiential learning after class, day and night, in sports and activities, at meals, in the dorms, with frequent extra class contact with teachers who also coach sports and oversee dorm life. Teachers and students also interact at meals and at social events — coffees and teas, school rallies and other events, all additional opportunites for discussion and learning. The Schools are in essence a collegiate environment but with close adult supervison.
Boarding schools are highly social and self contained; students rarely leave the campus community. A widely diverse student body is norm, with students from different ethnic, racial, geographic, income, and national backgrounds. Minority representation is much higher than at private day schools.
Financial aid tends to be much more ample and available than at day schools. As a consequence, these schools enroll large numbers of students from middle and lower income backgrounds. Also, families with incomes too high to qualify for financial aid at day schools often find that they are eligible for aid at boarding schools.
Issues of status and prestige are deliberately controlled. All boarders live in dorm rooms which are typically spare and small. This uniformity and lack of space diminishes status of possessions. Instead, school policies enchance the status of rank (upperclassmen over underclassmen) and success (through positions of leadership in academics, athletics and activies).
Today’s boarding school typically provide advanced systems for student support — counseling, advising, tutoring, medical and psychological care, sports training and therapy with fully equipped facilities and resources in support of these services. Certain school policies enhance student safety. Campuses have 24 hour security.
Drugs and alcohol are banned, and while such bans are not 100% effective, student access to these substances is more restricted than at day and public schools. Boarding students typically do not have cars at school, nor are they allowed to ride in cars without express parental permission. Off campus trips are controlled and require faculty permission.
Challenges remain. Elitism is an ongoing concern. The schools continue to strive for excellence and to prepare young students – now coming from every cultural and societal background – to assume the mantle of leadership in the society of the future. How this equates with the schools’ professed values of democracy, equality, and social justice remains an unresolved question.
Blacks and Hispanics continue to be underrepresented in prep student populations, as are students from lower income families. Many schools have responded with vigorous financial aid support, including some programs offering free tuition to families under certain annual income levels.
The status of LGBT students remains a subject of controversy as school attempts to promote tolerance and support for these students comes into conflict with traditionally minded alumni.
The intense pressures of boarding school life have prompted some schools to step down some of their programming to allow students more free time. Recent sex assault scandals and revelations of others from decades past have resulted in new prevention and reporting policies on many campuses. Boarding students’ success in elite college admissions has fallen significantly compared to rates in decades past, but continue to strongly outperform compared to day schools and public schools.
THE ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF BOARDING SCHOOLS
Trustees are the legal owners of the school; organized as a corporate board of directors, trustees are volunteers chosen for their sagacity and business acumen. Trustees tend to be very successful players in the business or professional communities. They are often alumni/ae, sometimes parents, or occasionally outsiders who are major donors. One of the trustees’ most critical functions is to choose the Head of school; a poor choice can affect the school for years after. Their second function is to consider and approve or deny major proposals such as new construction programs as well as tuition raises or reductions. Their third main role is to assist the Head to manage any major crisis that may arise. Trustees typically travel twice a year to the campus for general meetings, take on committee work, and spend many more volunteer hours in other school service. Trustees usually are very slow to interfere with the school’s normal operations, but their gravitas and legal power can be brought to bear in times of challenge or crisis.
Heads of School go by various titles – Principal, Rector, Director, Headmaster, Head Master or simply Head. The Head is the spokesperson of the school and articulates its fundamental principles and a vision for the future. The Head also embodies the school and serves as chief executive of the school’s business organization, which is quite often a multi-million dollar entity. The position also requires a great deal of political and social intelligence. The great school Heads have somehow managed to balance all these demands, but typically Heads tend to be stronger in some areas than in others.
Heads who are weak in finances can steer their ship onto the reefs, while corporate types can fail to sufficiently cater to the various constituencies in the school communities. The impact of a new Head takes a while to take effect and lasts well after departure.
Administrators serve at the pleasure of the Head. Each department – Facilities, Development, Alumni Relations, and so forth – is charged with implementing the policies set by the Head and the Trustee. Sometimes a school’s power structure tips the other way, with a Head articulating policies generated by the departments.
The administrators of most concern to applicants and their parents include the Dean or Director of Admission, who is charged with putting together the incoming class (usually 9th grade, though a few schools begin at 8th grade) as well as adding new members to upper classes to replace those who withdraw or are expelled. The Dean of Admission is the face of the school for applicants, manages a staff of assistant and associate directors, and oversees the very central task of meeting the enrollment needs of the school. Admission is a personnel management field that must balance an array of constituencies and needs, including the school’s need for certain student assets – academics, athletics, arts, and diversity are prominent examples.
Admission departments increasingly use data management and forecast modeling to put together strong classes of incoming students. The arrival of a skilled and gifted Dean of Admission can have an immediate impact on a school community; so too, it must be noted, can the departure of one. The Director of Financial Aid manages decisions about which admitted students will receive financial aid, under what terms and conditions, and in what amounts. As with some colleges, some prep schools are adding a Dean or Director of Enrollment Management. This senior officer manages enrollment after the admission process, including such issues as attrition (why students withdraw from the school) and yield (why