The Essence of an Independent School

The Country Day School is an independent, not-for-profit educational corporation having no affiliation with any church or government agency. The school is a parent-owned corporation governed by an elected (volunteer) Board of Directors. Primary support of the corporation is from tuition, charitable donations, fundraising, and grant awards, not from tax or church funds.

Independent schools, such as CDS, exist for the purpose of fostering the intellectual growth of our children while challenging them to develop reasoning skills commensurate with their abilities. The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, national origin, or ethnicity in the administration of its educational policies.

The Country Day School follows guidelines suggested by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). The State Department of Education acknowledges CDS as an independent school operating in the State of West Virginia, and requires us to participate in a standardized testing program. We have chosen to use the same standardized testing program as the public school sector of Jefferson County. The academic requirements of independent schools, and CDS in particular, tend to be more demanding than many public schools nationwide. We traditionally average between the 80th and 90th percentile on these standardized tests.

"The Essence of an Independent School"

By John Esty, former president of National Association of Independent Schools

1. Independent schools stress the individual student and channel their resources to student learning, counseling, and growth. Independent schools, free of hierarchical control, can concentrate on building a capacity for serving students rather than compliance with regulations. The teacher is a basic unit; the basic interaction is between teacher and student.
2. Independent schools believe that significant teaching and learning happen all the time - on playing fields, in activities, in the dormitories of residential schools, in a quiet stroll with a teacher. Teaching and learning are not bound by time clocks or classroom space. A recent sample of NAIS schools found that 89% of the teachers ranked good relationships with students as the most important element in their job satisfaction.
3. For independent schools, therefore, student competence is not something to be tested for, after the course, after it may be too late to do something about it; teaching and learning continue, with constant checks, until every child is competent. The emphasis is not on teacher certification but on learning results, on output, not input.
4. Independent schools set high academic standards; we believe schools are basically for learning skills of the mind. Along with high standards go high expectations of every student. Basic skills are stressed not only for their own importance but as the foundation for complex reasoning. We believe the world is not simple but complex, that problems are often ambiguous and solutions highly variable. We believe it takes complex skills to deal with complexity.
5. Independent schools stress values and ethics - not for simple situations but for complex ones, not just with doctrinaire answers but with highly human, often agonizing ones. We believe this takes a great deal of time and talk and the support of sympathetic adults, always available. We are aware of our advantage in being chosen by parents who are looking for consistency in values between school and home; basic values are reinforced by parents and by teachers.
6. Independent schools stress social responsibility. We believe that learning involves differences, diversity, and pluralism. We believe that ambiguity and alternatives are needed for the context to build complex reasoning and problem solving skills. As rising tuitions tend to homogenize our student bodies toward the high end of the economic scale, we try to equalize access by our endowments, by our annual giving programs and by special grants for financial aide.
7. Above all, independent schools stress public responsibility. It takes many forms. Although we now seem to be the gainers by the migration of families from the public to the private sector of education, we view with alarm the negative reasons for their disaffection. We stand ready to work with public education wherever that makes sense and we can be helpful. Most independent schools develop an ethos of service that often permeates all aspects of school life. For many, the public good is the highest good.