The bigger takeaway from the Brearley discussion is that nothing is locked in at kindergarten; however psychologically satisfying it is to say that you’ve made it and your kid got into a TT and it’s smooth sailing from now on, you haven’t and it isn’t and anything can happen.

The school that seems so great now could fall apart in 13 years, or it could simply fail to be a good fit for your kid, or your kid might be happier on a different path than the one you imagine for them; you have no idea at age 5 where their life will go.

This also works in the other direction - missing out on your top K choices likewise means nothing long term.

Anonymous wrote:The B parent doesn’t have anything new to contribute, that doesn’t mean the posts are full of falsehoods or that far outside the consensus of parents (or, at least, large number of them).

It takes years for the reality of a school to percolate and reach those outside of the institution and form a new reputation. You may be shocked at what day and boarding schools were “hot” or considered TT back in the early 2000s and are now considered undesirable. I’m sure the naysayers then got shouted down too.

Let’s flip this:

The B parents’s posts are not necessarily full of falsehoods or that far outside of the consensus of parents, but it doesn’t mean that she has anything new to contribute after repeating herself 100 times.

The B parent doesn’t have anything new to contribute, that doesn’t mean the posts are full of falsehoods or that far outside the consensus of parents (or, at least, large number of them).

It takes years for the reality of a school to percolate and reach those outside of the institution and form a new reputation. You may be shocked at what day and boarding schools were “hot” or considered TT back in the early 2000s and are now considered undesirable. I’m sure the naysayers then got shouted down too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spence’s head of school is relatively new, but the head of academics Eric Z has been there for many years. He led the math department before. I think the academics head at Brearley has a history background? I think Eric is really smart with the program design that aligned with the broader girls in STEM trend in the past decade, and that really helped their college outcomes.

Interesting…do you know how most of the Spence parents feel that way about him or is he more polarizing with some loving him and others really opposed to him?

I had heard he was involved in the firing of that French teacher and think he was named in the lawsuit?

During the admissions process this year, I came away with the impression that he was quite smug and seemed to enjoy the sound of his own voice.

Eric has to cozy up to the new head for sure. Yes he may be a little smug but that really doesn’t matter in my opinion. His program certainly works to get the girls into good schools, but that’s also different from being effective in teaching the fundamentals. I sat in a couple mock classes at Chapin and was happy with that I saw: very thoughtful teachers and in-depth engagement.

Some of the incoherent writings in this tread is giving me headaches so I’m closing my browser.

Thoughts on the academic dean at Chapin? What do you think accounts for the lower college successes in the last year? Attributable to the new head of school or something else? We’re seriously considering Chapin and want to make an informed decision.

Anonymous wrote:Spence’s head of school is relatively new, but the head of academics Eric Z has been there for many years. He led the math department before. I think the academics head at Brearley has a history background? I think Eric is really smart with the program design that aligned with the broader girls in STEM trend in the past decade, and that really helped their college outcomes.

Interesting…do you know how most of the Spence parents feel that way about him or is he more polarizing with some loving him and others really opposed to him?

I had heard he was involved in the firing of that French teacher and think he was named in the lawsuit?

During the admissions process this year, I came away with the impression that he was quite smug and seemed to enjoy the sound of his own voice.

The academic head at Brearley started two years ago and is implementing an anti-racist culturally competent pedagogy.

I loved the old academic head who retired, but the new one is not my cup of tea. The DEI director was at Bank Street before this, also not my cup of tea (he’s nice, but Bank Street is just not a curriculum I believe in or would think would work for my kid).he and the psych department weirdly have a lot of power over what happens on campus and what is and is not taught and what students move from one grade to the next.

It used to be one person of had their own little kingdom, Admissions, Lower School, but now every little thing — can we say the pledge of allegiance — goes through a committee and they won’t tell you who is on it, but they get to decide if material is anti-racist enough to be taught or if say the way they teach math facilitates belonging and equity. That’s not exactly “let’s try to get everyone’s math scores above a 700 by junior year” mentality they had when we applied and it’s unclear how the kids who start now will fair because it’s a totally new program.

Math teacher sounds fantastic in comparison. If the academic director was really on point, head would matter less. It’s just that people in charge, head of school, academic dean, dean of faculty, DEI, admissions and head of the psych department, have all started in past 5 years and most have almost has no background at all as a teacher or admin in a TT school with a traditional focus.

It’s just all over the place and I can’t imagine isn’t going to have longterm effects to have admitted and recruited people to one kind of school, only to quickly gut it and restart it as another. You can reboot a computer, but you cant turn it back on if you throw out the hard drive.


school is relatively new, but the head of academics Eric Z has been there for many years. He led the math department before. I think the academics head at Brearley has a history background? I think Eric is really smart with the program design that aligned with the broader girls in STEM trend in the past decade, and that really helped their college outcomes.