Vance Wilson
Vance worked at four independent schools before becoming the Head of St. Albans School in Washington, DC, where he served for 19 years.
Vance Wilson began his career as an English teacher and coach, and then in the course of his forty-four years in independent education has been a dorm supervisor, department head, dean of faculty, division head, associate head, and Head of School. Prior to becoming the head of St. Albans School in 1999, he taught at four independent schools and two colleges and evaluated the Klingenstein Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. He also served on the Academic Services Committee of NAIS. He co-authored two highly acclaimed books on curriculum reform and a study of integration in southern private schools. He is a graduate of Yale College and has graduate degrees from Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Virginia.
When Vance Wilson arrived at St. Albans in 1999, the school was recovering from a nationally publicized dispute, was in serious debt, and had an endowment of $10 million. During his 19 years as head, the yield on St. Albans admissions, on average, grew to 70% in the Upper School and 90% in the Lower, and the numbers increased 10% with an acceptance rate comparable to highly selective colleges. The financial aid portion of the budget grew to 27%, and at the same time a program for students entering from underserved areas was endowed at $2 million. The school raised $180 million in his 19 years and the endowment grew to $90 million. New facilities included the Cornerstone Garden, a new academic building, renovated gyms and dorms, and a $45 million athletic complex. During his tenure Wilson had been president of the International Boys School Coalition and led conferences on four continents, served on multiple boards and associations, and was the recipient of a number of awards having to do with teaching and leadership.
In 2019 with Rick Melvoin he founded Strategic School Leadership, a consulting firm that “serves school leaders so that school may thrive.” He worked with Fed Kiel and Kelly Garramone of KRW International to introduce the Return on Character Leadership Assessment to independent School leaders. He has worked directly with the heads of schools at Albuquerque Academy, Deerfield, Gateway School of New York City, Punahou, and St. Bernard’s; he has worked on strategic plans with Montessori School of Raleigh and Salisbury School. His variety of projects include advising the new head at Girls Preparatory school, leading a board retreat at Montessori School of Raleigh, a faculty workshop at Roxbury Latin School, and a yearlong Vision statement project at Seabury Hall. He led the search committee at St. Thomas Church School, and with Rick Melvoin and Margarita Curtis did a study of open inquiry at Trinity School in New York. He is currently on the board of trustees at Browning School in New York.
Each Day: A Veteran Educator’s Guide to Raising Children
In vibrant prose, Z. Vance Wilson offers insight to anyone, whether parent or teacher, responsible for guiding children on the joyous, difficult, and ever-unpredictable path to becoming their best selves intellectually, socially, morally, and spiritually. With judiciousness, good will, and humor (all sharpened as Head of a leading boys’ school in Washington, D.C.), Wilson puts forth a clear set of principles, both practical and idealistic, for adults directing children toward wisdom and joy. An award-winning novelist, Wilson draws on colorful tales from his childhood in the American South; rousing episodes in history; and a remarkable assortment of poems, novels, and biblical readings, to illustrate the challenges children face and to illuminate the ways adults may best reach and teach them.
“As Headmaster, Z. Vance Wilson thinks carefully about what boys must understand about life if they are to become whole, morally and intellectually. He leans against the ephemeral values that surround his students and tries to communicate what is real and enduring. He’s their last chance, in a sense, before they’re buried by college and adult life.…Wilson writes in the knowledge that his voice will echo in memory for his boys. As his title conveys, it’s a message conveyed by Headmaster, and heard by the boys, ‘each day.'”
–From the Foreword by David Ignatius, best-selling author and award-winning Washington Post columnist
“Imagine an educator in this self-seeking age who cares about something more important than test scores, college admission, and financial success. Imagine an educator in this cynical age who talks about God, heroism, and self-sacrifice. Z. Vance Wilson is a voice crying in the wilderness of an age in which young people are starved for meaning and thirsty for purpose. Each Day: A Veteran Educator’s Guide to Raising Children is a book every parent and teacher should read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.”
–F. Washington Jarvis, Headmaster Emeritus of the Roxbury Latin School and director of the Educational Leadership and Ministry Program at Yale Divinity School
Taking Measure
Taking Measure provides the perspectives on independent school curricula of education experts Stephen C. Clem, Karin H. O’Neil, and Z. Vance Wilson. A useful guide for most schools, the book operates under a broad definition of the word “curriculum,” which includes all aspects of a student’s growth and learning process. From athletics, to leadership exposure, to multiculturalism, nothing is left out of the scope of the curricular focus in Taking Measure. The book stresses certain values over others, and, eighteen years later, it is interesting to take measure of how this book may have impacted today’s prominent educational values.
Paths to New Curriculum
Paths to New Curriculum is a useful guide for how to review and update a school’s curriculum. Stephen C. Clem and Z. Vance Wilson recognize the possible barriers to a new course of study and provide schools and administrators with the tools to overcome these obstacles. Following the path laid out by Clem and Wilson will result in a re-energized curriculum that will positively impact the educators, the community, and, most importantly, the students.
The Quick and The Dead
Opening with quick and intense action that does not let up, The Quick and the Dead is an emotional journey following a devoutly religious family from the American South. The Quick and the Dead focuses on the religious divide between an ardently Christian father and his two sons, Luke and Will. Each maintaining their own unique relationship with the family and with religion, the three men consequently undergo three powerful, different journeys in life. Having grown up a Southern Baptist, Wilson injects his Alabama experience into the novel, giving it an authentic Southern feel that leaves the reader questioning, wondering, and wanting more.
They Took Their Stand: The Integration of Southern Private Schools
Wilson’s They Took Their Stand is a thought-provoking discussion of integration efforts in southern private schools from 1963 to 1983 that chronicles the successes, failures, and progress made in integrating schools belonging to the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools. As the opening line of the introduction points out, “This book ends at the beginning.” In other words, although much progress had been made by the time of the book’s publication, the book itself is a call to action, an attempt to make its audience realize that integration must be an active effort, not only on the part of the school, but also on the parts of students and parents. They Took Their Stand urges everyone to take a stand to wipe out segregation in southern private schools.