Who will work on a new school?

It's not enough to oppose charter schools by saying that public schools can do everything that charter schools can do; the public schools have to actually do it. It's time for innovation advocates - both within the public school structure and outside it - to come together to make it happen for students.

The Board's approval of the MOU with the SEA regarding creative approach schools opens an opportunity for folks to change the way we teach children. I have spoken with a few people about this project and now I want to open the conversation to a larger group.

Who will join a group to develop and staff a new school?

I'm thinking of an elementary school housed in the Columbia building in Columbia City that would be a school that incorporates some of the best ideas that have been proven by innovative practices all around the country.
First principle: Set and maintain high expectations for all students.Everyone in the school must believe with perfect faith that every student - barring those few with physiological cognitive disabilities - can work at grade level or beyond. All barriers - non-cognitive disabilities, poverty, lack of student motivation - are barriers that need to be removed, overcome, or circumvented. In addition to academic expectations, we will also set and maintain high expectations for student behavior. These expectations, like the academic expectations, will be developmentally appropriate. There is nothing inherently virtuous about sitting still at a desk; and it may not be a reasonable expectation for a child.

Second principle: When students struggle to meet the expectations, they get the support they need so they can meet the expectations.
As stated, students have barriers that need to be removed, overcome, or gotten around. Some students will require supports in the classroom. Some students will require an extended class period, school day, school week, or school year. Some students will require two meals and a snack. Some students may require access to healthcare. Some students need exposure to a broader world. Some students need a stable, supported environment for homework. Some students are going to need motivation. Whatever it takes.

Third principle: The school will intentionally cultivate a culture that values education and academic achievement.
We are a multi-cultural society. Not only are multiple cultures represented among all of us, but multiple cultures are represented within each of us. We are each members and participants in multiple cultures - at home, at work, at church, with our friends, with our fellow hobbyists, etc. The school will intentionally foster a culture for the school, a culture that puts a high value on academic pursuits. This will help to motivate students to achieve academically. Our heroes will be scholars, thinkers, scientists, writers, and artists.

Fourth principle: Responsibility and authority go together.The adults will have the responsibility for student achievement, but they will also have the authority to do what it takes to bring students to that achievement. They will have the authority to do whatever it takes to support students. In this school, people with responsibility, administration, staff, teachers and students, will be granted broad autonomy and creative license in how they meet their expectations. They will also be held accountable for meeting those expectations.

Fifth principle: People will be regarded as individuals.Instruction will be differentiated for students so that they are all working at the frontier of their knowledge and skills.

Sixth principle: Regularly adjust classroom practice and school wide approaches based on data and evidence.

Practical considerations (in no particular order):

I reckon that the best way to deliver differentiated instruction on math skills and skill-building for most kids is through the use of technology. The children will arrive with varying levels of preparation and computer-based math instruction, ala Khan Academy (or something like it), provides a high degree of differentiation and has been shown to deliver effective instruction. All students will progress faster if their instruction is keyed to their exact level of preparation. There are sure to be students for whom this style of instruction won't work, so some exceptions will have to be made but they should be few.

While computer-based instruction works extraordinarily well for skill instruction and skill-building, higher level cognitive skills should be taught by teachers. Time with teachers will be devoted to those critical reasoning skills, to collaboration skills, to exploring underlying concepts, and the broad range of contexts in which those concepts apply. This is going to be very challenging lesson planning. There are some models out there that we can adopt and adapt. but they are few. No kidding, this will be hard.

Instruction in other domains (reading, writing, science, history and world cultures, P.E., world languages, music, visual arts, performing arts) needs to be approached in an equally thoughtful manner and should be integrated - the content of the reading assignment, writing assignment, science lesson, language and arts lessons - the P.E. lesson as well - should be related to the content and focus of the history and culture lesson. Teachers will differentiate through parallel instruction and project-based instruction. We should not have to resort to skill-based groups. This is going to be really challenging for teachers. We cannot ask teachers to take on this kind of work in any school that they didn't specifically choose to join.

Students with IEPs can be taught successfully in true inclusive classrooms that don't short-change any other students in the class. There are enough examples of how these classrooms should work that we can duplicate. Any school that actually devotes itself to serving the needs of students with IEPs is going to attract a lot of students with IEPs. There is a very real possibility that this school could end up with close to 40% of the students with IEPs. We need to be ready for that. Again, this will be an extraordinarily challenging workplace for teachers.

We must forthrightly address the inevitability of students who do not meet the expectations. Folks say that retaining them doesn't help, but clearly neither does promoting them. I think we need to make some clear rules. One should be that no student advances to the fourth grade without reading at grade level. Another should be that no student advances to the fifth grade without doing math at grade level.

Likewise we must forthrightly address the huge set of tasks that this style of teaching will place on teachers. We also have to acknowledge that it's going to be new for all of them. We'll make a search for ideas and plans from elsewhere, but we're going to need time to develop lesson plans, strategies, and practices. Over time, the body of intellectual property will grow and become a bank, a resource for new teachers and teachers at other schools. Even then we are always going to need really expert, talented people in these roles. We're not going to succeed every time, but we should get better every time.

Since the district budgets based on enrollment and this school has none, a fall 2012 opening is out of the question. We should target district approval for December 2012 or January 2013, inclusion in the open enrollment in March of 2013, budgeting and staffing in May 2013, and opening in fall of 2013.

While I am capable of helping to start this effort and I can offer support, I do not have the expertise to lead it. Someone else, most likely the principal, will have to take the lead.

It's possible that no one will have any interest in pursuing this idea or another idea like it. If so, then I, for one, am willing to acknowledge the failure of the public system to rise to the challenge and I will welcome charter school groups to come in and take their best shot with the resources and opportunities that the public system left unused.