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Barnhart School Aims to be the Best
Arcadia Weekly Jun 06, 2016
Matt McSweeny has been in integral part of Arcadia’s business community for over 2o years.- Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News
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Barnhart’s class of 2016. – Photo by Greg Ross/DRCM
Barnhart School was founded in 1959 by Dr. Ethel Barnhart and is affiliated with the non-denominational Santa Anita Church. Students from kindergarten to eighth grade acquire a stellar education based on an ethos of respect and love that encourages independence and self-responsibility.
Tucked away in five acres of real estate between Colorado Place and Colorado Boulevard in Arcadia, close to the race tracks, Barnhart can easily by missed by someone driving by. But if Ethan Williamson, headmaster of four years, were to have his way, it would not be too long when everyone will know exactly where it is.
“My ultimate goal is for Barnhart to be the premier independent school in the greater Pasadena marketplace – Altadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Sierra Madre – the surrounding communities where we draw from,” Williamson pronounces. “I think we have an excellent product. We do exceedingly well placing our students into highly selective independent schools.
“We don’t track them to one particular school. And that’s also what I think is unique about Barnhart. We try to understand the child and make sure a Barnhart education is about stretch, not stress,” Williamson says further.
The 31 eighth graders graduating this year were accepted to 23 high schools, including Marlborough, Campbell Hall, Flintridge Prep, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), Mayfield Senior, Sequoyah, St. Francis, Westridge, and Stanford Online High School. Seven of them have been awarded merit scholarships. This wide range of institutions to which they applied and were admitted is proof that Barnhart ensures it finds the best fit for them.
“Academics are essential at Barnhart. The rigor of our program shows in our ERB scores which have been improving over time. But we don’t focus a whole lot on test scores, we focus on education. We recognize that excellent test scores follow excellent education.
“We have been tracking their GPAs and our graduates do better than the average incoming freshman into high schools. We have a really high cohort of students who test as gifted; about 40 percent of our students qualify for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) and participate in its summer program, and it’s still increasing,” Williamson proudly states.
Barnhart is also distinctive for its racially diverse student body – 40 percent of its enrollment is Caucasian, 30 percent Asian (Chinese, Japanese or Korean), 20 percent Hispanic, five percent African-American, and five percent mixed race. And while students attend 15 minutes of chapel every morning (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for elementary students and Tuesday and Thursday for middle-schoolers), a third of them are Catholics, another third are Agnostics or Atheists, and the rest belong to other world religions including Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.
Williamson says, “Cultural diversity and cultural competency are very important to our students because their peers are from all over the world. It mirrors what they will be experiencing in the future as society and jobs become ever more global.”
View from the middle school of Barnhart School’s five-acre campus in Arcadia. – Courtesy photo
With a total enrollment at 225, a faculty and staff of 50, the average class has about 13 students to one teacher; with a maximum of 15 from K-5. According to Tonya Beilstein, associate head of school/director of curriculum and instruction, Barnhart has 25 teachers, representing 336 years of total experience in the classroom.
Beilstein adds, “On average, our teachers have a little over six years of experience directly at our school. Half of our teachers have a master’s degree or higher; the school also expects all teachers to be credentialed.”
Barnhart’s elementary program schedule incorporates the core content areas into the homeroom classes. A focus on literacy (reading/writing) includes 90-minute teaching blocks each day. Math instruction occurs daily with a minimum of 60-minute lessons. Social studies and science classes are also built into the daily lessons. Balancing out the academic program is a variety of enrichment classes including: 45 minutes of art and library weekly; 30 minutes of music and Spanish, twice weekly; and 30 minutes of physical education daily.
The middle school program is designed to prepare students for the requirements of Pasadena-area high schools. Students have eight classes each day which include five core academic classes – algebra/geometry; English; history; science; and Spanish – and three opportunities to experience the Barnhart Balance.
Four exploratory classes rotate each quarter. In sixth grade: art appreciation; music appreciation; public speaking; technology. In seventh grade: human health; life skills; theatre appreciation; woodshop. In eighth grade: art appreciation; music appreciation; woodshop.
Students take one elective class per year: advanced band; studio art club; drama club; outdoor education; science club; screenwriting; and yearbook.
Physical education is a required daily 45 minute class.
Students participate in daily physical education class at Barnhart School. – Courtesy photo
Barnhart has made incredible strides in technology. Says Williamson, “Four years ago, not every student had individual access to an iPad or a laptop or any sort of tech device; they had to go to the computer lab. But our vision is to make technology as ubiquitous and available to students as pencils. This year we have iPads for every student in kindergarten to second as they’re easy for children to use with their small fingers. Third to fifth graders use Chrome Books; we recognize that students enter the world of Google so we have Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom. In middle school it’s ‘bring your own device’ because we know this is the generation that will be device-agnostic. Many students already have both Apple and IBM at home so we intentionally gave them the flexibility to choose the right tool for the job they need to accomplish.
“We thought a lot about making sure our students are ready for the world they will encounter outside of college. We’re not just getting them into their high school or into college; we’re thinking about what their workplace will look like. And that’s especially true around technology where collaboration is key. In grades 3 to 5 our students use Google Doc so if they have a group project, which they might want to work on during the weekend, they can edit simultaneously without being in the same room.
“Investing in a seamless wireless infrastructure became a priority for me when I first came on board. By spending $75K on a wireless network, we were able to integrate our entire system. Another enhancement we’ve created is a comprehensive student information system database – the instant students apply to Barnhart, we are able to track their progress in the admissions process. Once they’re accepted, we are able to interact with the family, keep all of them updated. Grades, test scores are all available in real time – there’s no hiding as a student,” Williamson laughs.
It is springtime at Barnhart School’s Harvest Garden, which also serves as an outdoor classroom. – Courtesy photo
There’s much yet to be accomplished in the future, as Williamson says. “We’ve made major improvements in our school facilities. While it isn’t exciting to talk about, last summer we pulverized 75,000 square feet of asphalt. But what’s cool about it is that we were able to recycle what we dug up and used it as a foundation for the new asphalt … and we were able to complete the project in 30 days, between summer school and the start of the school year! In the process, we also took down outdated poles, put in brand new basketball hoops, put in a nice white fence.
“Our future goals include updating our facilities to make them inspiring and competitive with our peer schools. We are currently on the planning stage of figuring out our priorities for improvement, how to go about that, what fundraising that entails.
“In terms of our curriculum and staffing, we want to optimize what we’re already doing by making changes every year as warranted. We have something solid; it’s simply a matter of continuing training. On the technology side, we will keep up with students’ needs to get their work done.
Ethan Williamson, head of school, with Barnhart students. – Photo by Linda Good-Hart
“We have a big rollout on a social curriculum this coming school year. We’ll be using a system from a book developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children called ‘Teaching Children to Care – Management in the Responsive Classroom.’ It’s a proactive approach using a social curriculum that involves creating community standards or rules in the classroom. We will have teachers model the expected behaviors. This consistency in conduct means students don’t have to adjust to teachers’ expectations and styles; while personalities differ, the language we use does not.
“More broadly, it’s a management system for the classroom. Research talks about ‘affect’ – how you feel in a classroom or work environment, for that matter, tremendously affects your performance. If one is scared, that uses up a lot of brain energy and leaves less available for learning. As students feel comfortable, their brains become fully engaged on their activity. So I think an investment in the social curriculum is critical to everything else we do.
“We have adapted the system into our middle school what the Northeast Foundation for Children designed for kindergarten through sixth grade. They have now come out with a middle school-specific book for which we have the honor of hosting the training. This summer, from Aug. 8 to 11, an international group of 90 educators will be on campus to learn it. It’s pretty exciting!” Williamson enthuses.
Williamson’s infectious passion for learning and social responsibility is pervasive in the entire Barnhart community. It is this spirit that will continue to draw students and parents in.
