10/16/20

Dear Friends,

At Westtown, we care deeply about the lived experiences of our students and their families. Learning about your joys and concerns helps us grow as a school and as a community. Our dearest wish is to help young people seek out and honor that of God in each other and in themselves, to develop the self-awareness and confidence necessary to discern their purpose and live their truth, and to help them become stewards and leaders of a better world. Your candid feedback helps us do exactly that.

This year more than ever, I am very grateful to those of you who have shared your experiences about academics, social-emotional support, co-curriculars, and other aspects of our program during the pandemic. Thank you to all who have reached out with appreciation or constructive criticism directly to me or your children's division principals, deans, teachers, coaches, and advisors. We are also indebted to everyone who has participated in recent survey instruments, including our weekly flash surveys and last week's Westtown Distance Learning (WDL) Survey. We will use all of your observations and reflections to learn and grow.

In turn, we are committed to sharing our survey results with you. Please click here for a summary of last week's WDL survey, including a side-by-side comparison of your responses and our students' responses to the same questions. In case you missed them, here are links to the first, second, and third flash survey summaries. In addition, returning parents and guardians will recall that right before the pandemic arrived, Westtown partnered with Independent School Management (ISM) on a self-study. We were elated to read the positive responses about all areas of school life, and to hear our consultants' conclusion that Westtown is a strong, healthy, mission-aligned school with a dedicated and enthusiastic community, in the upper echelon of ISM's matrices about stability and success in independent schools. Please click here for a summary of the ISM survey questions answered by our families in February.

Looking ahead, we will continue to provide opportunities for families to share their experiences. As many of you know, the arrival of COVID-19 found us in the middle of our Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM) self-study. We have paused this work pending Westtown's upcoming institutional equity audit, about which you will soon hear more from our Board of Trustees. The audit will include opportunities for you to share your experiences, and when the time is right, we will resume the AIM study too. And of course, our flash surveys will resume next week.

Friends, thank you for entrusting Westtown with your children's education and growth. It is a privilege to partner with all of you!

Yours,