This report springs from a premise that we believe to be (in Thomas Jefferson’s term) self-evident: that both academic and ethical preparation are essential to 21st century education, and that this dual emphasis contributes to more meaningful school experiences and more fulfilled and responsible citizens.
But how do rigorous independent high schools achieve balance between academic demands and the ethical development of their student population? The Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) has collaborated with the National Association of Independent
Schools (NAIS) and with the Canadian Association of Independent schools (CAIS) to examine exemplary high schools and describe a clear set of replicable “best practices” that address this important balance.

After an advisory board for this project was formed early in 2005, NAIS and IGE staff canvassed NAIS and CAIS member associations to build a list of over 40 nominations for participating schools for the project. In consultation with the advisory board,
schools were selected according to their academically rigorous learning environments (based on admissions requirements) and their strong commitment to the ethical development of their students (based on nominations from regional independent school associations). The high schools finally selected for this study were chosen to ensure a sample broadly representative of the demographics of NAIS membership, as follows:

• School size: Two of the schools have over 750 students, while two have fewer than 200. Sizes of the other eight fall between 200 and 700 students, most being around 400.
• Geography: We included schools from the South, East, Midwest, and West of the U.S., as well as two schools from Canada.
• Location: Two participating schools are in very rural settings, and two are located in very urban, downtown locations. The other participating schools were considered suburban in either location of campus or of households served.
• Type: Six of these schools are day schools, while the other four have boarders.
• Student body: We visited four single-sex schools, and six coeducational schools. Four of our 10 participating schools would be considered diverse or very diverse, with at least 30 percent nonwhite students enrolled.

The schools chosen for this report were diverse in other ways as well. Some came from strong Christian traditions, while others were decidedly nondenominational. Some appeared most comfortable with strongly conservative or strongly liberal politics, while others appeared more centrist in their views. And while some had dress codes, students at others were indistinguishable from their peers in public schools.

In Round I of the project, Mirk visited five schools and spent two days at each school. Administrators at each school were invited to arrange a mix of interviews and focus groups that would best provide information about the school’s culture and its balance of attention to both academic rigor and students’ ethical development. At a minimum, each school provided opportunities to meet with trustees, heads, and other administrators, faculty, students, and parents. In some cases, more than one of these groups was made available. Schools were also invited to provide supportive portfolio materials to further describe the balance within its culture.

Many schools provided historical materials and school policy manuals that illustrated an emphasis on both meeting academic standards and being a positive member of the school community. In addition, students and faculty at these five schools were asked to fill out written surveys about the culture and structures contributing to students’ ethical development.

The data processed after Round I began to reveal some
key findings common to all these schools, despite their
demographic variety. In Round II, these key findings
were further investigated at five other schools. In this
case, Mirk spent one day at each of four sites, and
conducted two hour-long interviews with the head and
with one faculty member at the fifth school. Due to the
low return rates for surveys in Round I, data was
deemed inconclusive and surveys were not used for
Round II. While Round II schools also provided

portfolio material, by far the most substantive
information in this report comes from the extensive
interviews and focus-group discussions carried out
on site and face-to-face.
In anticipation of Round II opportunities for further
study, we commissioned a Literature Review of
Research on Private Schools from the Center for
Research and Evaluation at the University of Maine.
The review identified recent publications about,
specifically, U.S. “private school processes that
emphasize ethical values.” [pg.1] The reviewers note
that while some qualitative data is available
regarding school practices targeting ethical values
and community service, “More research is needed to
systematically collect such data, and to provide rich,
detailed descriptions of school practices that support
student learning in this area.” The Schools of
Integrity project attempts to begin that process in a
small way, by gathering and describing specific
ideas from the 10 schools involved in our study. Our
study is deliberately qualitative rather than
quantitative. It seeks knowledgeable observation,
and depends on accurate representation, of the ideas
expressed by those interviewed. It does not rely on
survey statistics or other quantitative investigations
of school programming success. While we don’t
presume that the ideas, structures, and practices that
surfaced in these interviews are the only ways to
comprehend the balance of academic rigor and
ethical development that characterizes the nation’s
“best practice” schools of integrity, this
methodology has yielded rich insights into the kinds
of cultures best suited to develop the complex
interrelationships between the moral and intellectual
lives of young people.
We look forward to continued efforts, as the
literature review recommends, to gather data that
will “provide evidence on the impacts and
effectiveness of these school practices” by
“collecting and comparing data before and after
interventions, and either setting up a control group
or carefully matching student and school
characteristics to create matched comparison groups
that do not participate in the intervention.”

Report Structure
This report describes 10 ideas that, although to varying
degrees and in a variety of forms, are common to each
of the schools participating in this project. Each of
these 10 findings forms a section of the report. Each of
these sections is organized the same way:
• Connection: We identify the finding and its
relevance to trust levels at the school.
• Description: We provide adult and student
thinking about the finding and its importance to the
educational experience.
• Replication: We provide the specific,
practical essence of the finding that can be
replicated in any other school context.
This report does not attribute quotations or ideas to
individuals or schools, both to honor confidentiality
and to avoid any appearance of favoritism. We
recognize that ours is a limited sample and that many
other independent high schools across the U.S. and
Canada, and all over the world, are equally effective at
inspiring a balance of academics and ethics in the lives
of their young people. It is our hope that this report
will shed light and provide support to this important
endeavor.

Copyright 2007 The Institute for Global Ethics