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Stakeholder involvement: Part 3b

5/2/2014

 

9/14ths of participants

14 amazing Philadelphians participated in the workshop. Below are nine of the participants.

Power of Excitement

3/25/2014

 
The School Design Leaders of each of the new schools made a commitment to the 11 zip codes (19120, 19121, 19122, 19123, 19124 19125, 19130, 19132, 19133, 19134, 19140) surrounding the new school sites. There are 52 schools with 8th graders in those zip codes, and we have reached out to each one to schedule in-person presentations.

Students, parents/guardians and school staff have been very excited about this opportunity. There are lots of great stories to share, but there is one in particular that stands out.

Late last week I received three calls and a message from the same number. When I returned the call, the father said that after a presentation made at his daughter's school she was so excited about going to the U School. He said, "we live near the school and it usually takes her about 20 minutes or so to get home from school every day."  He continued, "Yesterday, she and three of her friends kicked down our door at 3:10, one minute after school gets out. She ran in and said, "Daddy, daddy, I know where I want to go to school! You have to get in touch with the man about getting into the school." The father said, "I have never seen her so enthusiastic about something, it made me feel so great, that I had to call you." I expressed excitement to the father, and began to explain the application process, and he quickly informed me that she was in the 7th grade, and they wanted to know what could be done for next year. 


That was one anecdote of hundreds that we have had out in the field. Creating excitement and enthusiasm is the easy part. Sustaining that energy and excitement is the challenge of the school moving  forward.

Funding Clarity

3/24/2014

 
We have been out in the field speaking with counselors, students and families about the new schools, and many have commented about receiving money from the Philadelphia School Partnership (PSP).  The announcement and subsequent articles in local new outlets may have blurred the notion of who is receiving funds.

The U School will operate with enrollment driven teachers and $40 dollars per pupil next year. The Carnegie Corporation grant--the research and development funds which supported the design thus far-- will fund capacity building amongst the  founding staff for the first few years of existence. It affords the U School the opportunity to pay for summer PD, but the grant does not buy people, only time.


Carnegie's Opportunity by Design Challenge +      Design Principles

3/1/2014

 
This blog will document important elements of this school design effort, so that there can be greater understanding of the grant and this important work.

opportunity by design challenge

Published in the Spring of 2013, The Opportunity by Design Challenge, synthesized by Leah Hamilton and Anne Mackinnon offers evidence-based arguments for rethinking schools. While the transition to the Common Core and Next Generation Science standards possesses significant implementation challenges,  there is opportunity in the challenge. The authors signal this early in the paper saying, "As the mixed record of standards implemented during the No Child Left Behind era shows, standards cannot drive real, widespread improvement unless they are coupled with a push to redesign how schools actually work for students and teachers" (p. 1).  Schools must have the flexibility and autonomy to adjust their program to the needs of its users.

These new standards, however perceived, demand deeper learning than before. At right,  you can see a series of data sets that represent the current national data (4-year and 6-year graduation rates and 4-year and 6-year dropout rates), and projected graduation and drop-out outcomes without school shifts to meet the needs of secondary students. Here in Philadelphia, our 4-year graduation rate steadily increased over the last decade to 64% (see the Philadelphia Council for College and Career Readiness Report, 2013). Even though, this number has increased, rates of college persistence and the economic well-being of our citizens do not reflect these changes. 

As the sands of education policy shift often in our country, younger students do not have the  same adjustment issues of high school students, as current secondary leaners were acculturated under a different standards culture (No Child Left Behind).  Hamilton and Mackinnon acknowledge this by saying, "...high school teachers face a difficult dilemma: they must strive to hold all students to significantly higher standards for graduation, while at the same time supporting and motivating even the most underprepared students" (p. 3). New standards implementation cannot exclude current youth from the chance to acquire valuable learning experiences.  This reality is daunting, especially given the current fiscal barriers in Philadelphia, as adding significantly different expectations to education systems that struggle to inculcate the skills and values of our world.

Below you can find an attached version of the Opportunity by Design white paper. You can also read more here. 
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opportunity_by_design_final.pdf
File Size: 4021 kb
File Type: pdf
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Integrated design principles

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The principles listed below were employed in the effort to design a non-academically selective high performing secondary school.
  • Youth Development
  • Mastery of Rigorous Standards
  • Personalized Student Learning
  • Empowering and Supporting Students through Transitions
  • Collective Strengths
  • School Operations
  • Human Capital Strategy
  • Porous & Connected
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Mission & Culture

Working in concert, the principles facilitate the design of a high performing model. Read some of the elements associated with each principle (
The principles attachment can be found below.). 

10_design_principles.pdf
File Size: 1386 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


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2000 N. 7th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Phone: 215.400.7460