New High Schools

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson's speech to the TED Conference.  Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Learn Science

Learning Science is a website that collects free science resources and relates them to science standards.  Here's a webshot for a K-4, Characteristics of Organisms. 

And one for a Grades 9-12 class on The Cell.

Principal Interview

Valerie Lott is the principal of Shenandoah High School, Eldorado, CA.  It is a Big Picture School with 130 students, started in 2002.  Here is an overview:  Download Shenandoah.pdf .

And, here are the rough notes from the our conversation which started with how they get students to their internships since they are in a rural area and then proceeded randomly through other parts of the program.  The most exciting part of the conversation was hearing what students are doing with their internships and community service work.

NOTES:  Bought vans to transport students to internships – 2x week … leave school at 8:30 pick up at 1 to return to school … no classes those days.  Come to school in morning.   Last year 100%; now 75% in internships because the LTI coordinator had to leave due to a death in family.

Important:  Teach business environment training – started using materials from ROP, now JA materials.  Deal with issues in work place.  Mock interviews.  Helped equip the students for their internships and eliminated some problems about how students interact in the workplace.

Project Driven Curriculum

Jenny Morgan designed this activity to stimulate deep thinking around a topic.  Download project_driven_curriculum_j_morgan_nxpowerlite.ppt

One Laptop per Child

The goal of this group founded by Nicholas Negroponte: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. read more

New 3Rs

From: Gates Foundation

An old expression says that children need to learn the 3Rs: readin’, ‘ritin’, and ‘rithmetic. Today, however, two-thirds of ninth graders will leave high school without the English and math skills to handle college or land a job that can support a family. This statistic has devastating consequences for our young people and for our country.

The good news is we know how to fix our broken high schools. We must base them on a brand new set of 3Rs, identified by education experts as the key ingredients of an effective education:

• Rigor: all students need the chance to succeed at challenging classes, such as algebra, writing, and chemistry
• Relevance: courses and projects must spark student interest and relate clearly to their lives in today’s rapidly changing world
• Relationships: all students need adult mentors who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve

These new 3Rs are the building blocks for a redesigned system of high schools, one that will truly prepare graduates for college, work, and citizenship.

Rigor, relevance, and relationships aren’t like the individual answers on a multiple choice test: schools can’t just pick the one that fits best. They must choose all of the above. That’s the only way education reform can work.

And it does work. The best high schools in the United States have already put the 3Rs to work with incredible success.

• Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) Schools
  KIPP schools are founded on the principle that all students can achieve when schools set high expectations, demand results, and provide opportunities for students to excel.
• High Tech High Schools
  These unique, rigorous charter schools integrate technology and pre-engineering throughout the curriculum, and strive to increase the number of disadvantaged students who study math and engineering.
• Withrow University High School
  At Cincinnati’s Withrow University High School, students start ninth grade by going to college.
• Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST)
  In today’s world, young people need a strong background in science and technology. DSST, a small, diverse high school, is giving students exactly that.
• Bronx Laboratory School
  In a city whose graduation rate is a dismal 55 percent, Bronx Lab is committed to making sure its students graduate, go on to college, and succeed in life.
  

Getting Serious about Play

It seems Scotland public schools are in for an overhaul according to a recent BBC News article, School lessons to focus on play.

Schools will still use traditional methods when necessary to teach pupils to read, write and count. But the Scottish Executive also wants teachers to use play-based techniques.

Isn’t this a refreshing change?  I wonder how many students in the US will have to fall on the sword of external motivation and come up swinging or apathetic before the balance shifts toward valuing children over scores?  I continue to  be impressed and influenced by the work of Edward Deci and  Richard Ryan on intrinsic motivation.  Read their paper Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being  (downloadable from their Web site).  While there, view what should be mandatory reading for every politician making educational legislation: The High-Stakes Testing Controversy: “Higher Standards” Can Prompt Poorer Education.

Source:  http://www.tommarch.com/ozblog/2006/12/19/getting-serious-about-play/

Less Is More

Schools can demand rigorous intellectual work from students only if they are willing to forgo the goal of superficial content coverage. Successful schools follow the Coalition of Essential Schools’ (1994) guiding principle of “less is more,” carefully choosing what to focus on so that students gain in-depth understanding, rather than simply exposure to large quantities of information. In-depth study does not imply haphazard selection of a few interesting ideas to focus on. Instead, topics are judiciously selected to provide a framework for many related key ideas, so that students come away with an understanding of the core ideas of the academic disciplines they are studying.

At an effective small school, “less is more” applies not only to curricular choices, but also to the entire school program. Small schools simply cannot offer the breadth of choices that their large counterparts can if they want also to personalize instruction. They must make deliberate choices about what is most essential, and do those important things well. Successful small schools also supplement their own core offerings with out-of-school experiences such as community service, internships, and courses at local colleges. These programs, which require partnerships with community-based organizations and other agencies, allow a small school to provide a more well-rounded education and to give students the opportunity to understand the world in which they are growing up.

Source:  http://schoolredesign.net/srn/server.php?idx=225&page=3

Project-Based Learning

One strategy for linking the curriculum to real-world issues is through project-based learning, where students are engaged in challenging tasks that usually involve knowledge and skills from more than one academic discipline. These tasks require students to work independently to solve complex problems, and they culminate in real-world products.

Source:  http://schoolredesign.net/srn/server.php?idx=225&page=3

Authentic Assessment

There is evidence that more authentic assessment and teaching can change student outcomes. For example, in a study of more than 2,000 students in 23 restructured schools, most of them in urban areas, Newmann, Marks, and Gamoran (1995) found much higher levels of achievement on complex performance tasks for students who experienced what these researchers termed “authentic pedagogy” – instruction focused on active learning in real-world contexts calling for higher-order thinking, consideration of alternatives, extended writing, and an audience for student work. A recent analysis of national data found that students in restructured schools where “authentic instruction” was widespread experienced greater achievement gains on conventional tests (Lee, Smith, & Croninger, 1995).

Source:  http://schoolredesign.net/srn/server.php?idx=225