I don’t know that our board has much involvement in day to day but big decisions absolutely. I think you want to have some balance between administration, board, faculty and parent body. The pandemic really exposed all these relationships, similar thing is playing out in public school districts, colleges, etc. It also became clear which schools want to lead and take risks and which ones are more risk-averse and perfectly willing to have others be the trailblazers.
But to me it is not as clearcut as some others here think, opening is not necessarily better than being remote, there are many kids/families better off with remote scenario in current situation, and indeed even schools that are open in person have a lot of students opting for remote schooling, for a variety of reasons. Just keeping fingers crossed we will get fairly close to normal by the fall, but with the new variants in the picture and slow pace of vaccinations it is far from guaranteed.
Ok… I’m a senior at Andover and, contrary to what many of you “outsiders” think, the school does care about students. Teachers have been incredibly engaged, perhaps, like some noted, even more-so than in other years. As a senior, I’ve been able to be on campus for a lot longer than my younger peers. In the fall, the school dabbled with in-person classes, but only towards the end. Now, as vaccines become more widespread, the school just announced that, for the spring, “as many classes as possible will be held in person”, also noting that “all faculty members (with some exceptions) will be expected to teach in person during the spring term” (email sent to community). If this is true, then many of the unsupported claims about the so-called year-long “contract” are fake. As for the HOS, yes, he is much more reserved than Mr. Palfrey, whom we all loved. However, I understand the hardship he is going through: he was placed into a completely new and different environment, had no time to acclimate, and immediately had to begin navigating through the worst medial crisis in a century.
Overall, it looks like Andover will be changing its approach this coming spring. As someone who actually knows the administration, I know how many complaints and how much criticism they’ve received from parents and students, and how much they actively try to appease them, even if they don’t do it as publicly as other schools do.
So, although many people here would, for some unknown reason, like to think so, Andover is not “broken”.
Glad you hold the school in such high esteem. It gives me hope that things can be better.
Point of fact however: the faculty was granted the choice for the entire academic year. This was confirmed to parents at the board and senior administration level multiple times. It’s also one of the reasons that “as many classes as possible will be held in person” and not all classes, and among the reasons that “all faculty members (with some exceptions) will be expected to teach in person during the spring term” as opposed to without exception.
Thanks for all for the great discussion which gave us who’re applying to Andover a balanced view of the school.
It’s great to hear from a current senior. Agree that it gives us hope for what could or maybe just should be.
We would be the first to say we thought an Andover education would be exemplary on every level given the Andover ‘brand’ in the outside world.
For our family starting out, the interaction and subsequent hype with the admission team was incredible. Hard to say no to such an engaging, knowledgeable, positive group of people.
Unfortunately our actual experience has not been as positive.
There were some suggestions of issues pre pandemic, pre new HOS. Those have just grown exponentially since we are remote and dealing with Covid.
Lack of communication overall and seemingly lack of leadership. There must be great inconsistencies in the faculty team as what a current senior highlighted above is very different from our day to day.
Canceled ‘zoom’ classes, issues with technology, inconsistent assignments, little feedback, educators who are not engaged. Assignments given out for students to teach themselves through watching independent videos.
When you are paying tuition you can’t help but compare this disappointing experience to similar independent schools or public schools in high functioning school districts who don’t seem to be having the same difficulties.
And when you step back and consider all, it sadly seems like Andover -at least currently-is broken.
I find it so interesting that we are experiencing such different things at Andover. Teachers literally chase me down if I miss one assignment or mark me tardy if I’m one minute late to the Zoom meetings; to be honest, I sometimes wish they would be more lenient given everything that is going on in my personal life and the political sphere.
Being at Andover has helped me and most students navigate the current social and political occurrences. They even brought in a congressman (who’s an alumnus) to help explain to us the effects of the capitol riots! Yes, they could have been more transparent and open; nonetheless, an education at Andover goes well beyond the timing of zoom meetings and minute issues with technology. Again, Andover is not broken.
I’d add, as someone who was disappointed in the Fall and unhappy/angry about the Winter, that I am hopeful and cautiously optimistic about the Spring.
And, based on what I understand about the intentions for the Fall of 2021, I would absolutely send my kids to PA next year. And of course that’s what we are doing.
Which is not to say that I’m pleased by the effort required to get here and the toll it’s taken on all of us. Yet here we are.
Onward.
Honestly, given it’s size, I’m not surprised that there are different experiences of Andover by kids/families currently at Andover.
It’s also important to remember that what kids consider acceptable isn’t always the same as what parents consider acceptable. I know both my kids “drank the koolaid” at their respective schools even when I had issues that annoyed me.
In terms of having bad teachers - both my kids have had some horrible teachers at two of the “best” BS. It has been a huge source of disappointment to me each year it’s happened.
@one1ofeach We have had the same experience you have. Something my DS pointed out to me when we hit a MAJOR block with his school’s administration was “The school you experience (i.e administration), is not the school I experience. What makes this school so amazing is the teachers/staff that we students interact with on a daily basis. I never interact with the people making these ridiculous decisions. MY school is the one affected by those administrators.”
I think as parents, we are subject to a completely different “school”, at times, than our kids are. DS is a champion of his school and tells DD all of the time that there is no other that can compare. I am so grateful that he has had that experience and I am grateful that the administration decisions that have sent DH and I into a tailspin have not greatly affected him or his affection for the school.
A school CAN be broken, even if there are those still happy with certain experiences. If a car is unable to shift gears, but you can get it to run…it is STILL broken. And it probably should be fixed. Some people may be perfectly happy with the car not shifting gears, others would not even consider purchasing it.
Andover is more like a car whose windshield doesn’t work, but which will be repaired in less than a month, when spring term starts.
Again…“broken” is in the eye of the beholder. And as I said in my post-- students have a VERY different take on this than parents. Keep in mind parents are the ones financing this experience, so they have different gears to work with as far as determining “function”.
Neither view should be minimized nor discredited.
In our household both parents and students find it broken, FWIW.
Funny/true story my parents always used to tell… When my mom and dad were dating, they would frequently double date with my uncle and aunt who were also dating at the time. Anyway one night they went out and got pretty well liquored up. The four of them got into the car to drive home (…) and about a block later my uncle realized he was too drunk to drive. He and my dad switched seats, and another block later my dad too realized he was too drunk to drive. My aunt then gave it a whirl and got a couple blocks before she too realized she was too drunk to drive. My mom, mostly a tea totaler and so the least-drunk among them, finally got behind the wheel where she saw…a stick shift, which was very much an unknown to her. So she drove them home about 30 miles. In 1st gear. Broken indeed!
Perspectives can differ. The student above sees added comments to a paper that’s being submitted with an application as above and beyond and feels supported by this.
Another take is that the original feedback was inadequate and the original teacher did a sub-par job.
Another is that if the college wanted to see what kind of feedback students received on papers throughout their high school career, adding comments now is dishonest.
It depends on where you sit in this situation, your expectations, and probably how you felt even before this happened. I suspect that this is what’s at the heart of this discussion as well.
As a parent who had to consider the substantial financial commitment of tuition when choosing where to send my child last Fall, I have a lot of sympathy for the parents who feel they had to make decisions on the basis of incomplete or even deliberately misleading information. That would sting, particularly because the in-person element of boarding is a significant part of the experience for which your child has worked so hard, and you have paid so much.
At the same time, I am really struck by the concern that so many students are voicing for the welfare of their teachers and their community. That shows real character and frankly elevates PA in my estimation. If it is any comfort to parents who are worrying, at least it seems that your children are developing an ability to think both critically and compassionately; people who think like that have learned something that will outlast any crisis, however painful.
Thank you for sharing, my child is applying to Andover and though not her top choice this gives me something to think about if she gets in.
Absolutely…unlike some entitled parents who place their childs high school experiences and abilities to play sports over the health and safety of the ENTIRE PA community, the students seem to get it!
Yeah, its uncomfortable when parents are “entitled” to favor science and real data over unfounded fear and self interest? Perhaps if you could point to the science supporting your slander of such “entitled” parents, your comment might add to the discussion.
Recent Andover alum here. I know this time is frustrating, and I empathize with people who are frustrated about not having in-person learning. However, I do not think that this article was entirely fair. Right now, we are in the midst of a global crisis, one that almost no one was realistically prepared for. I understand the frustration, but I do not really think that a school’s response to an unprecedented, unforeseen global crisis is a valid metric of whether or not they are “broken.” In such a bleak time, we should be coming together and supporting one another, not casting blame.
Additionally, you state that the school’s willingness to accommodate the faculty, who wished to teach primarily online, is a sign of systemic failure because you feel they did not adequately meet the wishes of parents, who wanted a full reopening and in-person classes. The way I interpret the scenario you lay out is that the school was in an extremely difficult position, attempting to devise a solution to appease two highly polarized groups of people: Parents, who, understandably, want their kids to have the optimal learning experience, and teachers, who, also understandably, are fearful for their lives and their health. To me, the partial reopening Andover implemented seems not like a sign of failure, but like a compromise, an attempt to appease as many people as possible in a community that is currently deeply divided.
Finally, I would like to point out that this February, Covid cases were at a record high, and that there is proof that being indoors has increased transmission. At my college, I have already had to quarantine due to exposure to Covid, and my sister, who attends a different institution that reopened fully, had to quarantine twice in one month due to exposure. It is easy to complain that barely any students were invited back for one month in which other schools opened, but the reality of the situation is that if the school, a school of 1,200 students in a highly populated, metropolitan area, had reopened in February, there is no telling how many cases or, god forbid, deaths there may have been. I respect the school’s decision to plan conservatively for February, as it indicates that their commitment to community health and safety outweighs their commitment to teaching high school kids in person for a month.
In this time of all times, it is important to be compassionate and patient, and attacking a school for prioritizing community health and trying to deal with a highly polarized community is, in my opinion, not quite reasonable. Thank you
^^This is why location and situation matter so much. There are numerous private schools that have been open, with in person teaching in MA, with no in school spread since fall.