New High Schools

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.

School of the Future Process

From Microsoft description of process:

Before we could build the School of the Future, we had to create a process that would guide the development team and provide a framework for decision making. Thus, the "6i Development Process" was born. This page explains the six stages of this process. Stage 1: Introspection Before any large undertaking, schools must spend significant amounts of time examining their organizational structure and establishing frameworks for instruction and methodology. Furthermore, they must attempt to define their culture, project benchmarks, and success metrics. In building the School of the Future, we began by creating a yardstick for measuring progress. This approach paved the way for a clearer journey. Objectivity is a key component to successful introspection. The ability to view one's strengths and weaknesses honestly can lead to tremendous growth. Without this capability, the status quo prevails. A tool known as SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis can help you accomplish this task. By identifying these qualities within your organization, you can plan more effectively, mitigate threats and weaknesses, and maximize opportunities and strengths. For further information about the SWOT process, see the following discovery brief: Download school_of_the_future_brief.pdf Stage 2: Investigation Our team has visited numerous schools around the world to see what education-related methodologies and technologies have proven most successful. Our efforts have allowed us to see beyond our own limitations. An important part of the investigation stage was the creation of an International Advisory Council. Composed of leaders from around the world, the council provided us with an objective viewpoint when we became too close to the project. We learned the importance of having a knowledgeable, outside perspective. It's OK not to know. Our motto has been, "It's easy to grow...when you know that you just don’t know." Mary Cullinane, the technology architect for the Microsoft School of the Future, writes in her blog about the lessons we learned during our investigation. Check out her blog. • September 2006:  The calm before the storm • November 2005: Have Hope • October 2005: It’s been too long! • January 2005: Lessons from abroad • November 2004: The good, the bad, and the ugly • August 2004: Questions for you • May 2004: Nothing without a leader • March 2004: Brick by brick • February 2004: Everybody's watching • February 2004: The journey begins Stage 3: Inclusion This stage identifies the many community stakeholders involved in building a school. In Philadelphia, the list was large. We brought more than 50 people from the community into the process. To ensure the community was well represented, we created five separate organizations. We made the critical decision to bring the community to the table at this point—stage three—instead of at the beginning of the project because we thought it important to complete both the investigation and introspection stages first. The community respected our decision. Philadelphia has a practice that has proven very successful: "If we are coming into your neighborhood, you are part of the process." Stage 4: Innovation Here is where the rubber meets the road. While many wanted to start building right away, our team held off. We held off on technology development until we had made instructional plans. We held off on classroom design until we had determined methodology. However, once we started, the creativity was explosive. This stage of the development process is rooted in the idea that we can always be better at what we do, and we must try constantly to improve. In this spirit, innovation thrives. No idea is too small, no thought too outlandish. Everything was on the table. Then, through careful consideration and application of the "educational yardstick" we created back in stage one, we were able to determine what ideas and innovations had true educational value. Those ideas and only those remain. If something could not be mapped to a stage of learning, it was deemed a wasted investment. Stage 5: Implementation Vision becomes reality in the implementation phase. Construction begins, the school principal is selected (more than a year in advance of the school opening), the staff is identified and trained, and eventually the doors are opened. Our schedule was considered to be unrealistic. We are building this school on a 14-month construction schedule, which began in March 2005. Not an optimal timeframe, to say the least. Our contractors built in overtime, and everyone understands we will open in September 2006. However aggressive and unrealistic this may be, we are going to deliver on schedule. Professional development is critical to a successful implementation. A comprehensive professional development plan was formulated during this stage and will commence during the first half of 2006. We will make the full plan available on the School of the Future Web site when finished. Stage 6: Introspection The chaotic nature of schools can make introspection difficult. We complete one project and rush to the next, with little time to ponder what we have just done. We must recognize the importance of debriefing and reflection. The time spent on introspection can be as fruitful as the time spent on the work itself. We believe that introspection is the only way to ensure that our goals and success metrics are met. Another key component of this stage is making sure members of our organization are comfortable with being wrong. Honest reflection is only possible when we allow ourselves to admit failure and mistakes. Creating this culture within an organization is critical. A climate of fear or intimidation can hinder honest introspection.

School of the Future

Now open! The School District of Philadelphia and Microsoft have worked together on an ambitious and purposeful task: To build a School of the Future. Read Mary Cullinane’s final blog before the school opened.

Understand the vision Learn more about the people who turned this idea into a reality and how the School of the Future will address the needs of its 21st century students.

Explore the process Look inside the 6i Development Process, and download resources created to help your institution benefit from this historic project.

Experience the school Take a virtual tour of the building, see the project timeline, and meet the visionaries involved through this interactive demo.

Discover the Education Competencies Find professional development tools for educators and take the first steps toward incorporating them into your development

High Tech High Facilities

A Transparent, High-Performance Work Environment
Visitors to any High Tech High remark that it looks and feels more like a high-performance workplace than a school. With beautiful textures and colors, lofty ceilings, comfortable furniture, informal meeting areas, and lots of interior and exterior windows, our facilities communicate a high level of trust and respect for the work of teachers and students.  Visitors are struck by the effect  on students of all ages, who can be seen interacting with adults in collegial, respectful, and engaged ways.

HTH facilities have been designed to support key program elements: team teaching, integrated curriculum, project-based learning, community-based internships, frequent student presentations, and exhibitions. HTH students make use of the flexibility that the buildings afford them, working individually and in groups large and small. Teachers work in teams to design integrated projects that cut across subject area boundaries.  Each team shares an office  adjacent to the “seminar” rooms in which they teach. These rooms have movable walls that support a variety of room configurations and activities.

HTH buildings aim for a high level of “transparency” to make each school’s particular culture of learning readily visible to its inhabitants.  To this end, every wall surface in the school’s public and circulation spaces offers a place either to exhibit student projects or to look (through abundant expanses of glass) into the school’s dynamic seminar rooms, conference rooms, and specialty labs.  Even the ceilings are used to showcase student work, with projects such as human powered submarines, mobiles, and sculptures suspended from the exposed truss systems.  Fifteen minutes of wandering through any High Tech High building should be enough to give any newcomer a strong sense of what that particular HTH learning community is about.

Essential Spaces
School design in the United States has remained largely unchanged for the past 100 years. By changing the types of space in HTH schools, and the terminology we use to refer to them, we encourage our faculty and students to find new ways to teach and learn.  Creating a new language of design, both spatially and verbally, helps give form to the HTH vision.

The key spaces within HTH buildings that are generally not found in traditional school facilities include:

1.  The Commons Room—the intellectual hub of the school, a centrally located meeting area for student gatherings, exhibitions, presentations, performances, and community meetings.

2.  Teaching Clusters—small “neighborhoods” of adjacent seminar rooms, studio spaces, and teachers’ offices, designed to promote team teaching as well as a sense of ownership and place.

3.  Multi-Purpose Seminar Rooms—learning spaces with flexible furniture and walls that adapt to accommodate direct instruction, independent student research, group project work, and presentations.

4.  Studio Areas—multi-purpose spaces for shared use by groups from adjacent seminar rooms to support individual, small group, and large group activities.

5.  Shared Teacher Offices—individual teacher workstations and storage areas, clustered by teaching team and offering direct visual and physical access to adjacent teaching spaces.

6.  Gallery Spaces—exhibition walls and areas for display of student work, often located in or along corridors and circulation routes.

7.  Specialty Labs—labs and project rooms with access to technology and equipment for learning in specialized areas such as biotechnology, mechanical engineering, and graphic design.

8.  Outdoor Learning Spaces—study areas, courtyards, amphitheaters, and performance spaces that extend learning beyond the walls of the school.

Each of these spaces is more fully explained and illustrated in the Building Design Elements section of the HTH Resource Center.



Design Considerations
One important characteristic of High Tech High buildings is their adaptability to the changing needs of HTH students and faculty. Our thinking about how best to achieve this evolves with each new building we design. Our students and teachers are quick to tell us what works and what doesn’t. From the planning of commons rooms, to seminar rooms, to studio spaces, to storage areas, we have learned that it’s important to try new things and not be afraid to make mistakes along the way. The design considerations that inform our thinking include:

1.  Flexibility
Seminar rooms and public spaces must adapt to multiple uses.  For all spaces, this means wireless laptop access and sturdy but easily reconfigurable furniture. Seminar rooms and specialty labs must have hard surfaced floors for easy cleaning (projects are messy); sinks for project clean-up; adequate locked storage; good control of ambient light; plentiful electrical outlets; dependable sound and projection systems; data and voice access; and movable walls for team teaching.

2. Ownership
HTH achieves a personalized environment by creating small learning clusters within its already small learning community. This approach promotes a high degree of ownership, as students and teachers decorate and customize their classrooms and studio areas to reflect who they are and what they are working on.  Public spaces such as commons rooms and gallerias are used by the larger school community in the same way.

3.  Transparency
Unlike traditional school buildings, HTH facilities are transparent, with easy viewing to and from all offices, conference rooms, and seminar rooms. Copious amounts of glass create an atmosphere of “visible learning.” Large areas such as commons rooms and studios are located along main circulation routes to promote a sense of openness and coherence.

4.  Originality
Although HTH facilities may appear simple and unassuming from the outside, the interiors elicit an immediate “wow” upon entering.  For some visitors it is the openness that is most surprising.  For others it’s the unexpectedly non-institutional look and feel.  In any case, as our teachers and students push the boundaries of active, project-based learning, we are happy to communicate the message to all that, when it comes to school, this is not business as usual.

High Tech High

HTH Design Principles                 Source:  http://www.hightechhigh.org/

The roots of the High Tech High program and curriculum lie in earlier work of Larry Rosenstock and colleagues in the New Urban High School Project (NUHS), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education, 1996-99. The aim was to select, study, and assist six inner-city high schools that were using school-to-work strategies, such as internships and other forms of field work, as a lever for whole-school change.  The findings were summarized in a practitioner’s guide and a high school planning guide centered on six design principles.

High Tech High has distilled the six NUHS design principles to three: personalization, adult world connection, and common intellectual mission.  Responding directly to the needs of students,  all three principles connect to the broad mission of preparation for the adult world. Moreover, all three call for structures and practices that schools do not now routinely employ.

The design principles permeate every aspect of life at High Tech High: the small size of the school, the openness of the facilities, the personalization through advisory, the emphasis on integrated, project-based learning and student exhibitions, the requirement that all students complete internships in the community, and the provision of ample planning time for teacher teams during the work day. We discuss each design principle in turn below.

High Tech High: A Snapshot for 2006-7

• Seven schools (three high schools, two middle schools, and one elementary school in San Diego; one high school in Redwood City)
• Approximately 2500 students and 200 employees
• 100 percent of graduates have been admitted to college, 80% to four-year institutions
• $45 million in real estate holdings; annual operating budget $18 million
• First charter school to be authorized to credential its own teachers
• Granted first statewide charter in January 2006

Best Practice High School

What’s so special about BPHS?
In addition to our being a small and supportive learning community, there are a number of other unique programs and opportunities available to Best Practice students. All students who attend Best Practice High School participate in these programs or utilize these tools. This list demonstrates our commitment to fostering the life of the whole person, and to the high standards we set for ourselves.

The Best Practice Code -- See Below.
The Code is a document developed by both students and teachers to help focus all of us on what is important. The Code articulates the personal, social, and intellectual Best Practices we seek to embody. It heavily emphasizes personal responsibility for one’s actions and education. The Code is the framework from which all of us, students and teachers, pursue our educational-growth goals. Live it!

Physics First for Freshmen
Our science curriculum re-orders the conventional sequence of classes: physics, chemistry, biology. Physics First allows first-year students to get a grounding in the visible, experiential, and testable laws of the physical world before proceeding to the molecular and microscopic realms of chemistry and biology. Physics First also allows the Physics and Algebra teachers to plan and work together. This type of cross-disciplinary subject integration supports student learning and models the way knowledge is exercised in the world outside of school.

Internship Program
Through our Internship Program, all 400 BPHS students leave the building every Wednesday for a 1/2 day internship at one of over 70 sites and locations. Students go to not-for-profit organizations, city agencies, cultural institutions, community organizations, schools, hospitals, day-care centers, and some businesses. Students satisfy the CPS graduation requirement for service learning hours by successfully completing the program.

Choice
The other half of the day on Wednesdays (the flip side of Internship), is spent in Choice. Choice is a two-hour long class that allows students and teachers to explore in-depth academic, artistic, political, social and/or interdisciplinary content that is not part of the regular week’s schedule. Examples of Choice classes include: silent movie film festival, mask and doll-making, character development, yoga, yearbook, young women’s discussion group, play writing, Pep Club, Science Fair preparation, furniture refinishing, the economic and social effects of sweatshop labor.

Integrated Units
Four times a year, teachers in each grade level team plan and coordinate interdisciplinary, integrated units. Integrated units allow students to test, stretch, and combine the content-area material usually isolated in a classroom across the academic disciplines. Teachers model interdisciplinary fluency by joining forces with other teachers and/or community partners. Students connect their classroom work to larger issues of personal exploration, historical development, social justice, or current culture. Examples of recent integrated units include: sexual and reproductive health, war crimes, careers, -isms, standardized testing, Chicago history, "Fast Food Nation."

Peer Mediation
Non-violent conflict resolution is essential to the smooth functioning of a small learning community. The BPHS Peer Mediation program trains select students in a process of mediation that is objective and non-judgmental. In this way, the entire student body benefits from the program, as students have available to them the option for settling differences outside the institutional disciplinary system.

Source:  http://www.bphs.cps.k12.il.us/

What's Happening in Denmark?

North Carolina received an $11 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve high school education.  Called the New Schools Project, it has launched an unprecedented effort to create at least 100 academically rigorous, focused and flexible new and redesigned high schools over the next five years called High School Innovation Projects (HSIP).  (See criteria for HSIPs below)

Part of this project involved delegations visiting Japan, Great Britain, the Netherlands, South Korea and Denmark.  Study planners selected Denmark because it offers high school students an array of choices in different focus areas, provides students with guidance on which path would be best for the needs and ambitions of each, and has a high ratio of young people completing their high school education.

What they found -- “they are preparing young people for life, not for tests.”

Delegates found that Danish high school students indeed have many choices: those who are interested in higher education can attend one of three different types of gymnasiums (high schools)—the general gymnasium specializing in sciences, languages, and humanities, the business gymnasium specializing in economics, business, and languages, or the technical gymnasium specializing in technical and natural sciences—or one of a number of vocational education programs, typically a combination of school-based instruction and practical training in company-based apprenticeship programs comparable to our technical college environment. They learned that a system offering students real choices can be created within a public school system and that students in such a system are more likely to embrace the choices they’ve made and successfully finish high school. They learned that the Danes value practical, hands-on learning and provide both classroom and on-the-job learning for non-college bound students.

In the Danish system, intensive counseling begins in what we would call middle school; students take aptitude tests and are counseled about what the results mean for their high school choices; and students are encouraged to spend a week or two in work environments that appeal to them so they can test their interests and assumptions. Instead of rigidly “tracking” students, the Danish system allows students to switch from vocational schools to gymnasiums and vice versa or to complete one course of study and go back to a different focus area. Students also are given ample time to make decisions: they can even take a year off between middle and high school to travel or take an extra year of middle school before deciding on a high school. Once they do decide, students are treated more like adults and relied upon to behave appropriately and attend classes without a lot of monitoring. N.C. delegates noted that the students rise to the occasion and take responsibility for attending classes and making the most of their learning experiences. Likewise, teachers are treated as professionals and are given more on-the-job time to prepare for classes, lighter teaching loads, and more freedom generally than U.S. teachers.

Delegates also found there are different philosophies underlying the U.S. and Danish school systems. The Danish system does not rely on standardized test scores; rather it focuses on life skills that are marketable. As one delegate noted, “ they are preparing young people for life, not for tests.” In addition, Denmark prepares its students to live in the international community: there is a strong focus on foreign languages and culture and many apprenticeship programs include placement in other countries.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, the Americans found that the Danes invest far more of their dollars in education. Education at all levels is free, and high school and college students receive government financial support while enrolled, the theory being that they can then focus on their educations without having to take part time jobs to earn spending money. The financial support also is an incentive for them to stay in school.

As the New Schools Project gets under way and begins a statewide examination of North Carolina’s approach to high school education, delegates hope their observations about the Danish educational system will spark serious discussion throughout the state. The SMT Center’s Dr. Houston noted, “of course we can’t import the Danish model wholesale into the N.C. system, but there are many elements of the Danish system that we ought to seriously consider for North Carolina.”

Source: http://bwfund.org/news/focus/archive/winter%202004/Denmark%20trip.html

Foxfire

In the mid-60s, a frustrated teacher in the north Georgia mountains challenged his students to think of a project that would interest and engage them.  To his surprise, they decided to create a magazine about their mountain culture.  The name they chose was Foxfire and the magazine captured the imagination of people and led to an ongoing series of magazines and books and to a radically different approach to teaching.

Core Practices of the Foxfire approach:

The work teachers and learners do together is infused from the beginning with learner choice, design, and revision. The central focus of the work grows out of learners' interests and concerns. Most problems that arise during classroom activity are solved in collaboration with learners, and learners are supported in the development of their ability to solve problems and accept responsibility.

The academic integrity of the work teachers and learners do together is clear. Mandated skills and learning expectations are identified to the class. Through collaborative planning and implementation, students engage and accomplish the mandates. In addition, activities assist learners in discovering the value and potential of the curricula and its connections to other disciplines.

The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and collaborator. Teachers are responsible for assessing and attending to learners' developmental needs, providing guidance, identifying academic givens, monitoring each learner's academic and social growth, and leading each into new areas of understanding and competence.

The work is characterized by active learning. Learners are thoughtfully engaged in the learning process, posing and solving problems, making meaning, producing products, and building understandings. Because learners engaged in these kinds of activities are risk takers operating on the edge of their competence, the classroom environment provides an atmosphere of trust where the consequence of a mistake is the opportunity for further learning.

Peer teaching, small group work, and teamwork are all consistent features of classroom activities. Every learner is not only included, but needed, and, in the end, each can identify her or his specific stamp upon the effort.

There is an audience beyond the teacher for learner work. It may be another individual, or a small group, or the community, but it is an audience the learners want to serve or engage. The audience, in turn, affirms the work is important, needed, and worth doing.

New activities spiral gracefully out of the old, incorporating lessons learned from past experiences, building on skills and understandings that can now be amplified. Rather than completion of a study being regarded as the conclusion of a series of activities, it is regarded as the starting point for a new series.

Reflection is an essential activity that takes place at key points throughout the work. Teachers and learners engage in conscious and thoughtful consideration of the work and the process. It is this reflective activity that evokes insight and gives rise to revisions and refinements.

Connections between the classroom work, the surrounding communities, and the world beyond the community are clear. Course content is connected to the community in which the learners live. Learners' work will "bring home" larger issues by identifying attitudes about and illustrations and implications of those issues in their home communities.

Imagination and creativity are encouraged in the completion of learning activities. It is the learner's freedom to express and explore, to observe and investigate, and to discover that are the basis for aesthetic experiences. These experiences provide a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction and lead to deeper understanding and an internal thirst for knowledge.

The work teachers and learners do together includes rigorous, ongoing assessment and evaluation. Teachers and learners employ a variety of strategies to demonstrate their mastery of teaching and learning objectives.

Zoo School

At School of Environmental Studies, learning is about becoming an expert and solving real problems -- doing in-depth, interdisciplinary research using innovative technology that results in practical applications. Every aspect of the school, from its curriculum and close student-teacher relationships to the architecture of the building, supports the school's get-out-there-and-do-it approach to learning.  The school is built around a partnership with the Minnesota Zoo and located on its property.

Principles:  Project-based, real-world learning, shared learning and work

Academic Program First, Design Second

The construction of SES was an all-too-rare case of fitting the building to the academic program, says Principal Dan Bodette. "Once we fleshed out our entire two-year program (which took two years), then we went to the architect and said, 'Architect, please design a building that will meet our needs, our expectations for how kids are going to learn best.'"

Students and teachers are grouped into "houses" -- 110 or so students and three or four thematics studies teachers who are teamed up for three hours every day. 

The main "building block" of SES is the student workstation. The workstations look like typical office cubicles, with storage and books and other study accessories. But the most interesting workstation artifacts are the ones that tell about the person whose workstation it is -- snapshots of a mountain climbing trip, magazine cutouts of small airplanes, photos of teen heartthrobs like Josh Hartnett and Angelina Jolie, and stuffed monkeys and lizards.

Students are grouped into "pods" of about 10, and about 10 pods form a house. Pod members make their own rules ("No hissy fits. Trust. Respect everyone's individuality. Don't worry, be happy," exhorts one pod poster) and often do academic work together. It's common for each member of a pod to be assigned to read an article or chapter and then explain that article or chapter to the rest of the group. Pods may also have homework nights at one another's houses or regular lunch potlucks that further the feeling of family and the idea of educational collaboration.

Article & Video:  It's All Happening At the Zoo School

Big Picture Schools/The Met

Big Picture Schools ... one student at a time.

The Big Picture Company’s mission is to catalyze vital changes in American education by generating and sustaining innovative, personalized schools that work in tandem with the real world of their greater community.  There are currently 36 schools in 16 cities in 12 states with 18 more to open by 2008.  They are focused on underserved, urban areas and creating cohesive learning communities of no more than 150 students.  There is now one big picture school in a rural environment -- El Dorado, outside Sacramento.   It has adapted the model successfully.

Principles:  Community involvement
Student internships based on individual interests ... see Distinguishers below.

Philosophy:

The Big Picture Company believes that schools must be personalized, educating every student equally, ONE STUDENT AT A TIME. Each student’s learning plan should grow out of his or her unique needs, interests, and passions. We believe that the education system must ensure that students and families are active participants in the design and authentic assessment of each child’s learning. Schools must be small enough to encourage the development of a community of learners, and to allow for each child to be known well by at least one adult. School staff and leaders must be visionaries and life-long learners. Schools must connect students, and the school, to the community - both by sending students out to learn from mentors in the real world, and by allowing the school itself to serve as an asset to the local community and its needs. Finally, schools must allow for admission to, and success in, college to be a reality for every student, and work closely with students, families, and colleges throughout – and beyond - the application process.

In addition to designing and supporting our own Big Picture Schools with this philosophy, The Big Picture Company is committed to spreading our philosophy to as many individuals and communities as possible. Through our own publications and videos, writings in local and national publications, and our work with the Alternative High School Initiative and Big Picture inspired schools, we seek to use a multitude of avenues to help CHANGE THE CONVERSATION AROUND EDUCATION.

The 10 Distinguishers: One Student at a Time - Personalization -- individual learning plans are developed based on the student's interests, talents and needs.
Learning in the Real World -- 2 day per week internships with an expert mentor in the student's field of interest.
Authentic Assessment -- real world standards of the projects and demonstrated growth.
School Organization -- use time, people, facilities, resources, and space in unique ways.
Advisory Structure -- small groups of 15 students have the same advisor throughout their high school journey.
School Culture -- more than a school ... it's a neighborhood.
Leadership -- shared, democratic leadership.
Parent/Family Engagement - Adult Support -- family and community involvement is key to success.
School-College Partnership - College Preparation -- all students take college entrance exams and apply to college and must have post-high school plans even if they do not include college.
Professional Development -- staff development for advisors, teachers and administrators is ongoing.