National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)

I appreciated the opportunity to be in Seattle with fellow Heads of School at the annual gathering of NAIS, our national governing organization, at the end of February. I consider my time at such gatherings to benefit the school in a variety of ways. 

First, I spent casual time with Heads from around the country, beyond the usual ISAS (Independent Schools Association of the Southwest) group, which includes around 90 heads that I see at least three times a year. I had dinner with the Heads of fellow Malone Scholarship schools. (FWCD is the only school in Texas with the Malone Family distinction.) I attended a reception at Seattle Academy for the Arts and Sciences (renowned for its curriculum innovation) with fellow Heads from the Klingenstein Program at Columbia University. (I am a 2013 alum of their Private School Leadership M.Ed. program.) That time with fellow Heads includes sharing anecdotes and innovations. I am perpetually curious about what is going on at other schools. I am eager to benefit from other schools’ experiences. My job is to filter those experiences and see what might apply at Fort Worth Country Day.

At Seattle Academy, I took a number of photographs of their multiple makerspaces … and even of the courses listed on the outside of those spaces: Software Development for Mobile Apps, Advanced Engineering, Infectious Disease, Sustainable Fashion Design. I don’t want Fort Worth Country Day to be Seattle Academy, but I am inspired to learn of fascinating and great work being done by other wonderful schools across the country. 

Second, as part of the actual conference, I attended sessions presented by fellow Heads. FWCD benefits from my attending these sessions when they expose me to something new or clarify something pertinent to our effort to always be improving as a school and community. 

In February 2026, school historians will note that at least 25% of the workshops and sharing sessions involved Artificial Intelligence. These are just a few of the sessions of NAIS 2026 that list AI. There are many others that involved AI. Below are just sessions with AI in the title.  

Co-Thinkers with AI: Designing a School-Wide Literacy Framework for Students

Smarter, Not Harder: AI Tips for Small Communications Teams with Big Stories & Limited Time

Governance in Action: How One School Made AI a Strategic & Community-Aligned Initiative

BOARD in Action: Leveraging AI in Trustee Professional Development

The Essential Question: What Good Is Education in the Age of AI?

Third, attending conferences like NAIS, I get to represent the School with FWCD alumni and at local colleges. For this Seattle conference, that meant I got to host the School’s very first 60th reunion, I got to spend time with an FWCD member from the Class of 2022 who is now a senior at the University of Washington, and I got to meet with a member of the University of Washington admission team to convey information on Fort Worth Country Day and to ask a few of my latest questions for college admission offices: How do you treat applicants from schools that do not have Advanced Placement (AP) courses? How do you treat applicants from schools that have converted to the Mastery Transcript (more or less replacing grades with narratives)?