<p>Elizabeth Duffy is the Head of Lawrenceville School.</p>
<p>Competitive bunch aren’t we (smile):</p>
<p>Okay - “wide” against SPS was a bit of stretch. I’ll curb my enthusiasm 
I just pulled the numbers. Deerfield wins on overall dollar contribution. Taft wins on parent participation percentage.</p>
<p>Hotchkiss…$1.043 million - 73% participation
Exeter…$1.246 million - 61% participation
SPS…$1.388 million - 86% participation
Taft…$1.562 million - 93% participation
Choate…$1.698 million - 65% participation
Deerfield…$1.900 million - 76% participation</p>
<p>Note this is just CURRENT parent participation for 2009-2010 - this doesn’t represent alumni, community or general donations to the overall annual giving fund.</p>
<p>Let the games begin!</p>
<p>Creative - glad to hear that. All my SPS pals are old school - although I recently met a young Harvard grad who suggested that some aspects still remain. Still - it’s a great school and my D liked it a lot during her visit.</p>
<p>Blair with around 445 students is much smaller than the schools listed in post #22. For the school year 2009-2010, current parent giving was $1,110,408 with 81% participation.</p>
<p>Updated Parent annual fund numbers for 2009-10 w/ correct figures for SPS and inclusion of Blair: </p>
<p>Hotchkiss…$1.043 million - 73% participation
Exeter…$1.246 million - 61% participation
SPS…$1.57 million - 87% participation
Taft…$1.562 million - 93% participation
Choate…$1.698 million - 65% participation
Deerfield…$1.900 million - 76% participation
Blair…$1.110 million - 81% participation</p>
<p>No offense to anyone but Exeter is kind of weak, however, they do benefit from that huge endowment.</p>
<p>I’ll see what I can do about that parent participation rate ;)</p>
<p>wow. this race to the top puts the ny marathon to shame. OP, where are you? I’m gonna attempt to shout across the sea of metrics. Hope you can hear me…As you clearly see, money talks (talks, talks, alks). But to your original question, yes, Heads of School do matter (matter, matter, atter, atter…)</p>
<p>You are too funny, Neato. I do donate to Exeter’s general alumni fund too but that’s not included here. I think they need more help with parent outreach. I think Taft has it down to a fine art.</p>
<p>We’re already sending in our parent pledge. Hoping this is a banner year for every school that is nurturing our “babies”.</p>
<p>@nylecoj007: Too funny. I don’t know how this thread turned into a discussion of parent participation in annual campaigns, but I appreciate your input on head of school!</p>
<p>Also, very interesting that so many great schools currently have women in the corner office.</p>
<p>SevenDad, a good Head is a vital asset for a school. The Head sets the tone. It’s a great thing when schools are able to take their time in finding the right successor for a successful Head.</p>
<p>@maddog: I think you somehow slipped Choate on to the list of female heads of school. The outgoing and incoming Headmaster are both men.</p>
<p>ops, must have Choate on my mind:D
Female headmasters: Impressive
Lville
Msex
Loomis
Andover
Deerfield</p>
<p>For some reason, headmaster sounds better than headmistress for this list. Is that wrong?</p>
<p>From what I have seen, some schools have done away with the “head master” and “head mistress” titles - it is more common now to see “Head of School”.</p>
<p>
A bit embarrassing, to be sure. However, I do know that Exeter parents who are also alums are not included as parent contributors. I don’t know how common that is. We stepped up to the plate back in mid-October and I hope other Exeter parents here will consider doing the same.</p>
<p>I’ve always wondered if Exeter’s poor parent participation relates to a kind-of large, factory-like nature. Does it make sense that Exeter may not prioritize a personal, warm, connected community as much as it does scores, stats and college matriculation? I’m not saying that’s bad; Exeter does so many other things beautifully and better than the rest. Large schools with better parent participation, like Deerfield, Taft or Hotchkiss, may put their goals in a different order to achieve different outcomes.</p>
<p>Just speculating, but could just be a different philosophy on fund raising, i.e. assessment of the value of getting a $20 contribution from a family on full financial aid struggling to get by just to boost the parent participation rate. With the high percentage of students on financial aid, and the current economy, I’m surprised the parent participation rate at Exeter is as high as it is. Personally, when I get hit up by my college or kid’s colleges for alumni donations, it doesn’t engender a more “personal, warm, connected community” in my mind. I understand the very real need to support these institutions, but it doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy. As a side note, I don’t see a personal, warm, connected community and a school that achieves high scores, stats, college matriculation as mutually exclusive. Personally, it’s been wonderful to see the sense of community my son has found at Exeter, in particular on the eve of the big ExEtEr/Andover annual rivalry. GO BIG RED!!</p>
<p>Also just speculating, but my sense at Exeter is that the emphasis is more on the child giving back, as an adult, to the school that gave to him/her. I notice that many of the required assemblies at Exeter are led by alumns who are now out in the world giving back, and participation in ESSO is almost universal…I really think they breathe non sibi while they’re there. </p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, why does parent participation matter so much? I have to agree that I don’t see that my measly FA parent donation is going to make much difference to Exeter in the long run. Is it possible that Exeter recognizes that many of its parents already sacrifice a great deal just to send their children to the school?</p>
<p>Little drops of water makes a mighty ocean! GO BIG BLUE!!</p>
<p>@Exeter123: Sort of miss the point(s) (on purpose, maybe?)…no parent likes getting hit up for money - whether it’s Exeter or the Academy of Warm and Fuzzy. However, Exeter’s poor showing in this regard, compared to its Tier 1 peers, suggests that Exeter’s parents don’t feel ENOUGH connectedness, loyalty and warmth to make a donation. Like it or not, that DOES say something about the school. You can’t be a proud chest-beater about Exeter’s stats in other areas re: SSAT’s, college matriculation and then get cranky and dismissive about the donation statistics.</p>
<p>Also, I think that most any head of school would tell you that a donation of $10 by a family on full financial aid IS important and IS desirable and that the percentage of participation IS important. Do you actually think Principal Hassan feels differently? I’d bet you $1,000 that he sees high levels of parent donation participation, regardless of donation size, as an important indicator of commitment and “connectedness” to the School.</p>
<p>Finally, I NEVER said that a sense of community and high scores/stats were mutually exclusive. That’s totally ridiculous. Many great schools, large and small, generate balanced results in both areas, which says a lot.</p>
<p>Classicalmama - you make my point. To ask the question “why does parent participation matter so much?” is to evidence the very disconnected feeling that I’m talking about it. </p>
<p>Mainer95, an Exeter/stats chest-beater if there ever was one (said lovingly, Mainer) doesn’t shy away from the bad stat. Instead, he puts his own skin in the game ($) and advocates that others do the same. Totally the right attitude - a bias toward action, participation and advocacy.</p>
<p>In don’t want to diminish the value and importance of giving, but I appreciate your point. For example, assume you raise the parent participation rate by 30% x 1000 total parents x $100 = $30,000. Fairly marginal versus $850M endowment. My guess is that total dollar donations tend to be heavily skewed by several large donations rather than high dollar donation levels across a broad % of parents.</p>
<p>I’ve also been very impressed with the assembly speakers and ESSO/non sibi program. My son has been involved in a mentoring program – wonderful to see how much he cares. Many more dimensions to Exeter and many other BS’s than just academics and college matriculation.</p>