Model+Schools

toc Model Schools for Seton Academy //These institutions represent ideals we value, innovations we seek to emulate, and infrastructure we can draw from.The following list of schools are models which we can study, critique, and converse about. Post your thoughts about each one in discussion or in a blog post.//

=[|The Purnell School (New Jersey)]=

Our Mission Purnell School's mission is to educate young women in grades nine through twelve whose potential has not previously been realized and to prepare them for college. Students learn to be ethical, independent, self-confident young women with a greater appreciation of the world around them. They understand how to be successful in a creative, supportive, and reflective environment that encompasses not only their lives in the classroom, but also their pride as participants in a vibrant residential community. Dedicated faculty act as mentors who understand how all types of minds learn. They teach and model the School's three founding guidelines:

// Consideration of Others // // Truthfulness in All Relations // // Use of Common Sense //

=[|High Tech High (California)]=

Questions we are currently exploring include:

1. How can project-based learning happen synchronously in a distributed learning environment? 2. What role might Open Educational Resources play in such an environment? 3. What training supports must be in place for all teachers to fully utilize social technologies? 4. How might an integrated communication system such as Google Apps better improve and expand the capacities of our people and programs? 5. Can virtual worlds and MMOG's be integrated successfully into students formal learning experiences? 6. How can intelligent tutoring systems be utilized to individual learning in areas such as language learning? 7. How might we continue to build innovative partnerships to explore new technologies and learning applications, extending the learning opportunities and experiences of our students?

We emphasize projects at High Tech High because we believe they represent an effective pedagogy, offering multiple entry points for students with varying learning styles and academic experience. The projects described here range across the grade levels and academic disciplines, yet they share certain characteristics. Most important, they are all teacher-designed. They address essential questions that are relevant not only in the academic arena, but also in the world beyond school and in students' lives. They culminate in a product or performance, with intermediate products or "checkpoints" along the way. And finally, they all involve lots of reflection on the part of teachers and students.

=[|The Dalton School (New York)]=

The Dalton School is committed to providing an education of excellence that meets each student’s interests, abilities and needs within a common curricular framework and reflects and promotes an understanding of, and appreciation for, diversity in our community as an integral part of school life. Dalton challenges each student to develop intellectual independence, creativity and curiosity and a sense of responsibility toward others both within the School and in the community at large. Guided by the Dalton Plan, the School prepares students to “go forth unafraid.” As a progressive school guided by the Dalton Plan, we are an intentionally diverse community committed to a tradition of life-long learning and educational innovation. The following are major principles that inform the daily learning environment at Dalton: 1. Valuing all dimensions of each child – intellectual, social, emotional, aesthetic, physical and spiritual. 2. Cultivating values of respect, integrity, compassion and justice to encourage community responsibility, combat prejudice and engage students as participants in a democratic society and global community. 3. Developing intellectual independence and risk-taking through inquiry, direct experience and collaboration. 4. Valuing all disciplines – the arts, sciences, humanities and physical development in an interdisciplinary curriculum, mindful of our historical emphasis on music, dance, theater and visual arts.

=[|The Equity Project (New York)]= //Redefined expectations, restructured work day. Similar to how Seton's typical day looks:// //==TEP Teacher Work-Day==// //Teachers should be spending the day teaching and learning. They should also be involved in a variety of activities that develop their capacity as leaders of the school community. To meet these redefined expectations, TEP teachers work professional hours, typically from 7:45 AM to 5 PM* in a work-day filled with a variety of teaching, learning, and leading experiences.//


 * **// DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TYPICAL TEP TEACHER //** ||
 * 7:45 AM || Breakfast & Morning Block Activities ||
 * P1 8:25 AM || TEACHING ||
 * P2 9:15 AM || PREP 1 ||
 * P3 10:05 AM || TEACHING ||
 * P4 10:55 AM || OBSERVE ||
 * 11:45 PM || Lunch ||
 * P5 12:20 PM || PREP 2 ||
 * P6 1:10 PM || TEACHING ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">P7 2:00 PM || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">TEACHING ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">2:45 PM || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Snack ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">310 – 4:00 PM || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">EXTENDED-DAY ACTIVITY ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">4:00 – 5:00 PM* || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Partner Planning / Whole School Service ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">4:00 – 5:00 PM* || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Partner Planning / Whole School Service ||


 * One day per week, TEP teachers have a faculty meeting from 4:30 to 6 PM.


 * Each TEP teacher teaches only 1 subject for 1 grade level.** This means that each TEP teacher can focus all of his or her energy and preparation on only 1 course, which the teacher teaches to 4 different groups of students. This contrasts with other schools where teachers often teach 2 or more different subjects or courses (e.g. a 5th grade teacher who teaches all subjects to a self-contained class or an 8th grade teacher who teaches both math and science).


 * Partner teachers have time to observe, be observed, and plan during multiple periods each week.** TEP’s professional development structure is based on an observation model in which each grade has 4 pairs of partner teachers (partners rotate each quarter). Every week, each teacher spend time observing his/her partner teacher, being observed by his/her partner teacher, and planning/debriefing with his/her partner during a common planning time each day.


 * TEP teachers spend time each week leading one [|whole-school service] program.** Teachers typically work on their whole school service activity during some prep periods and during the 4 to 5 PM hour.

Reallocating public monies to fit the community and learners needs.

The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, a 480-student middle school in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City that opened in September 2009, aims to put into practice //the// central conclusion of a large body of research related to student achievement: //teacher quality// is the most important school-based factor in the academic success of students, particularly those from low-income families.[i] In singling out teacher quality as the essential lever in educational reform, TEP is uniquely focused on attracting and retaining //master// teachers. To do so, TEP uses a three-pronged strategy that it terms the //3 R’s//: Rigorous Qualifications, Redefined Expectations, & Revolutionary Compensation.
 * ==Philosophy==

TEP recruits master teachers who meet [|**rigorous qualifications**] in four major areas. These teachers then meet TEP’s [|**redefined expectations**]. These expectations center on (a) a professional work-day that includes daily peer observations and co-teaching (b) a work-year that includes an annual 6-week Summer Development Institute, and (c) a career arc that fosters professional growth through a mandatory sabbatical once every five or six years. These redefined expectations are unified by one principle: student achievement is maximized when teachers have the time and support to constantly improve their craft.

TEP teachers are valued and sustained through [|**revolutionary compensation**]: a $125,000 annual salary and the opportunity to earn a significant annual bonus based on school-wide performance. TEP has created a sustainable and conservative financial model that allows the school to compensate its teachers appropriately //without relying on outside private funding//.[ii] It accomplishes this primarily through cost savings that result directly from the tremendous quality and productivity of its teachers. In short, hiring and paying master teachers what they are worth is a cost-effective mechanism for boosting student achievement.

[i] Dan Goldhaber and Emily Anthony, “Teacher Quality and Student Achievement,” //ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, Urban Diversity Series// No. 115, May 2003: 1

[ii] **TEP does NOT fundraise to support its investment in teacher compensation.** This is because a central feature of TEP’s mission is to demonstrate that schools can make a radical investment in teacher equity by reallocating //existing// public funding.

[|**Mission**] [|**Investment**] [|**Leadership**] || = = =[|The Village School (New York)]= =[|New Rochelle High School (New York)]=
 * The only area for which TEP solicits donations is the cost of its school facility**, since, in contrast to traditional public schools which receive a free public facility, New York State charter schools typically must pay for their own school facility. || [[image:http://www.tepcharter.org/img/vertline.gif]] || ** Philosophy **

The Three I Program "Postman Proposal" 1969

__A PROPOSAL FOR AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM IN SECONDARY EDUCATION__

__BACKGROUND__

Jim Gaddy, Alan Shapiro and I have begun to design a program for learning that would function alongside of our regular curriculum (that is, as an alternative to it). The extent of the program would depend on the number of teachers and students (with the permission of their parents) who volunteer to be part of it. No one who disagrees with the assumptions, philosophy, or practice of the new program need be involved in it, although suggestions from any source on how to make it better will be valued. The program is an experiment. It would be conducted for a period of one year, at which time it would be reviewed and a decision made on whether or not it should be continued.

__TWO SETS OF ASSUMPTIONS__

Most school curricula are based on a set of assumptions which the experimental program rejects. For example, most school programs assume (1) that knowledge is best presented and comprehended when organized into "subjects," (2) that there are "major" subjects and "minor" ones, (3) that subjects are things you "take," and that once you have "had" them, you need not take them again, (4) that most subjects have a specific "content," (5) that the content of these subjects is more or less stable, (6) that a major function of the teacher is to "transmit" this content (7), that the practical place to do this is in a room within a centrally located building, (8) that students learn best in 45-minute periods which are held five times a week, (9) that students are functioning well (i.e., learning) when they are listening to their teacher, reading their texts, doing their assignments, and otherwise "paying attention" to the content being transmitted, and (10) that all of this must go on as a preparation for life.

This memorandum is not the forum for a serious and thorough critique of these assumptions. Hopefully, it is sufficient to say that contemporary educational philosophy disputes most of them, in part or whole, and that few teachers would deny the merit of experimenting with programs based on an entirely different set of beliefs.

The following quotation from __Walden__ expresses compactly the major beliefs which generate the form of the new program:

> Students should not play life, or study it merely while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end. How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living? In other words, we are assuming (1) that learning takes places best not when conceived as a preparation for life but when it occurs in the context of actually living, (2) that each learner ultimately must organize his own learning in his own way, (3) that "problems" and personal interests rather than "subjects" are a more realistic structure by which to organize learning experiences, (4) that students are capable of directly and authentically participating in the intellectual and social life of their community, (5) that they should do so, and (6) that the community badly needs them.

This set of beliefs is sometimes referred to as the "judo" principle of education. Instead of trying to forestall, resist, or neutralize the natural curiosity, intelligence, energy, and idealism of youth, one uses it in a context which permits both them and their community to change. Thus, the experimental program reduces the reliance on classrooms and school buildings; it transforms the relevant problems of the community and the special interests of individual students into the students' "curriculum"; it looks toward the creation of a sense of community in both The Program students and adults.

Below are some of the activities that might constitute the learning experiences of the students. These are offered only as __illustrations__ of how the process would work:

Let us assume that the City of New Rochelle, like many other cities, has serious problems with traffic control, crime and law enforcement, strikes, race relations, urban blight, drug addiction, garbage disposal, air pollution, and medical care. Students would be formed into teams, each team consisting of a teacher, a high school senior, perhaps a lay member of the community, and ten or a dozen students. Their task would be to select one of these problems for study, with a view toward designing authentic, practical solutions to it. They would do whatever they needed to do in order to learn about the problem (including previous attempts to solve it) and to communicate to others their own solutions. For example, imagine one team has selected the "crime" problem for study. Some students could spend two or three weeks at the police station, serving in some capacity that would allow them to observe the problem from the perspective of the police. (Some might even go out on calls with police officers.) Others might report regularly to the criminal court, observing the problem from that vantage point. Students could spend many days on interviewing assignments: insurance men, police officers from other towns, ex-convicts, prison wardens, merchants, town officials, __et al__. Students could review the available literature (both non-fiction and fiction), correspond with prisoners, write to law enforcement officers in other countries. The classroom would be used as a place of assembly when students needed to assess their findings, and to plan and organize additional inquiries. It is important to stress here that the activities described above do not constitute "field trips." Most of the students' "school life" would be spent outside the school where the realities of the problems being studied are to be found. However, included in the process must be a serious attempt to offer solutions and to communicate these to the appropriate people. This might require meeting in school for the purpose of writing resolutions, letters, pamphlets, handbills, etc. Or the students might wish to publish a newsletter about the problem, or produce an audio-tape for broadcasting on the local radio station (in which case some students might spend a week or two at the radio station), or produce a film for presentation to the town council. The possibilities are almost inexhaustible.

Much of the teacher's work would involve making arrangements for the students' daily and weekly activities, e.g. arranging with the police, the court, the radio station, the newspaper, etc. for the most beneficial "internship" experience. The nature and locale of the students' activities would depend on the problem they are studying. A study of medical care problems would lead students to hospitals, doctors' offices, homes for the aged, welfare agencies, etc. A study of race relations might lead them to the Chamber of Commerce, the courts, the newspaper office, churches, etc. Each team would have to spend some time planning its activities., and might even wish to reserve one or two mornings a week for planning sessions.

In addition, students might meet on a regular basis in seminars with adults to consider community problems. These seminars could offer opportunities for exchanges of views on matters of common interest., the undertaking of joint projects, the building of enduring relationships between youth and adults.

Another aspect of the new "curriculum" would offer students the opportunity to pursue special interests independently or with the guidance of adults (not necessarily teachers). Students might paint in an artist's studio, write poems and stories, build a TV set, tutor younger students, do scientific research in a laboratory, act in a play, be an apprentice to the manager of a local bank.

All of these activities would bring students into regular contact with adults and, hopefully, generate among both groups respect for differences of opinion, shared commitment to common purposes, a fuller sense of community.

In brief, the major idea is that the community itself will become a laboratory for the inquiries and interests of students. The classroom would be only one of many resources that the students might choose to use.

For certain purposes it might be used in more or less conventional ways (e.g., for the study of a foreign language or for instruction in typing). For other purposes it might be used for small-group workshops in which the progress and problems of student inquiries could be analyzed.

This proposal, then, views the experimental educational program as having three major contexts:

> > It would be patronizing to detail here the characteristics of the teacher's role and general behavior in the first two learning situations. This much can be said: the teacher will not know in advance what will be studied, will be spending as little time in school as the students, and will serve more as an adviser than a "teacher." For the proposal to move forward two immediate steps seem essential: NEIL POSTMAN
 * 1) A community context (inquiring into community problems, the pursuit of special interests in studios, laboratories, factories, etc.)
 * 1) A Seminar context (in homes, churches, public buildings, etc.)
 * 1) A School context (workshops, foreign language study, typing instruction, etc.)
 * 1) the holding of a meeting with all secondary teachers to acquaint them with the proposal
 * 2) the selection of a teacher-administrator team and the provision of time for the further development and planning of the experimental program.