When we are told what
schools cannot do (and business can)
to engage our students,
educators must speak up.
Lest we forget: Good classrooms (and good books) can be relevant too.
Part of a series of newsletters on the theme: The business of education – is education.
I am increasingly concerned that K-12
education is no longer seen as–the key word here–RELEVANT. What we do in
high school classrooms does not “relate” to our teenagers and their future.
This is the message delivered by the business community; told more subtly, but clearly, by our state leaders. I present recent comments from Gov. Jared Polis and Commissioner of Education Susana Córdova. Their focus: work opportunities off-campus. Not education in the classroom.
High schools
struggle with student apathy and disengagement,
with chronic absenteeism and too many dropouts. Apparently the business
community has solved the problem: Take
students out of school and put them in a business setting. Where they
will find RELEVANCE and BE ENGAGED. Where they will see a connection to their
future, perhaps even to a specific career.
High
schools, do you hear this message as I do? Which in effect says: Take
students to places where they will NOT BE BORED. Even better—where there will
be NO BOOKS!
Part 1 - State
leaders make their case - for what happens out of school
Part
2 - Today's zeitgeist - examples: one district, one high school
Part 3 - What
good schools do to engage high school students – ON CAMPUS!
High
school reform – Have we given up? The business community offers a way out …
Not
that long ago educators led efforts to reform the American high school. RE-FORM:
to create a new design. From 1990-2010, many exciting new ideas. A time of
hope. And now?
At its March 12
meeting the State Board heard updates on five chronically low-performing high
schools, all on Performance Watch. Questions were raised: after 15 years of
trying to turn around these schools, how is it we still seem to have no clear idea
of how to do this well? Looking at the grim results, one board member was
reminded of a “hamster’s cage.” Efforts that go nowhere.
Since the
education system cannot heal itself—a lack of imagination? a lack of confidence?—we
have allowed the business community to pull us in a new direction. Apprenticeships
and internships. That take place (this is essential) OFF CAMPUS. Where our
students will have a better chance to be excited and engaged. Where they can
experience “real life.”
|
“High school is not engaging
for most students. Students
would benefit from greater opportunities for rigor, RELEVANCE, and
experiential learning. Since the COVID-19 crisis began, young people across
the country have not consistently engaged in remote learning, and low-income students and students of color are
experiencing even higher rates of disengagement.” “Introducing the Bill that’s Reimagining High School,” Colorado Succeeds, 2/25/2021.[i] |
State leaders would put forth a vision untainted
by what the business community imposes on us.
State leaders would not concede the
argument.
Part 2 reveals they are hardly alone. Their
views are echoed by Colorado school leaders and legislators. Education has no
answers. What holds promise? Exposure to the “real world” of work.
I have not lost hope that the American high school can address such fundamental issues as engagement, motivation, and purpose. (Without “help” from business.)
Part 1 - State
leaders make their case - for what happens out of school
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis
Our governor is a strong advocate for programs serving students beyond the classroom.
1.
From “How Blurring the
Lines Between High School, College and Careers Can Set More Teens Up for
Success,” by
Jared Polis, The 74, Jan. 27, 2024.
“… Students and young professionals deserve
more opportunities to gain skills. By increasing those opportunities, we can
save people time and money, create a better-trained workforce, and better
support our businesses.
“Innovative intermediaries, such as
CareerWise Colorado, are working between education and business to provide
youth apprenticeship opportunities in industries such as banking, finance,
health care, insurance and advanced manufacturing.
“Additionally, Pathways in Technology Early
College High School models (PTECH) provide students the opportunity to learn on
the job while in high school, earn an associate degree and be first in line for
those jobs following graduation.”[ii]
2. From “Education for Life – A Conversation with Dr.
Steven Levitt,” Commentary, National Governors Association, Nov. 19, 2024. [iii]
Gov. Polis spoke about his national initiative, “Let’s Get Ready: Educating All
Americans for Success.”
|
“The bottom line,
Governor Polis stated, is that students need to see a connection between
their studies and their future opportunities.” |
“Governor Polis cited
some of Colorado’s efforts to provide instruction more RELEVANT to career
opportunities, including high schools designed
as ‘career centers’ that
allow students to earn associate degrees or skill certificates concurrent with
their high school diplomas; the ability to earn stackable credentials students
can use to either go directly into a career after high school or to apply the
credentials to count toward a degree or certification.” (RELEVANT – my emphasis throughout.)
3. From “Pathways to Opportunity: A View From the National Governors Association and Colorado,” Public Policy Institute, Dec. 4, 2024. An interview with PPI’s Bruno Manno.[iv]
Manno also asked Gov. Polis about his initiative
with the NGA. Polis stressed “the need for metrics” to see if students are “ready
to succeed” when they graduate from high school.
“How many students,” Polis asked, “are graduating
with a meaningful credential that employers value – or work-based learning
experience, apprenticeships, on the job training? These are outcomes that we
want to find really good ways to have a metric for as well.”
Manno asked about the
Innovation Campus in the Cherry Creek School District. As Manno noted, students
travel from their high schools “to this one main campus several times a
week.”
Polis was eager to trumpet the “new wave of
innovation centers” in our state.
“Cherry
Creek is very exciting. We also have St. Vrain, a number of districts that are
doing this new model of [vocational education]. There’s a whole set new career
options ….” [for example, at Cherry Creek]: “aviation tech training, leading to
certification; healthcare related fields… you could become a nurse assistant;
you can get your phlebotomy certification right out of high school; you can
have a pathway to EMT training.”
[These are the] “new face of what career and
voc-tech looks like," Polis said. "Not only does it not have the same stigma … of 30 or 40 years
ago, but if anything, it has a premium. People want to participate in these things.
It’s the best part of the day, the most meaningful part of the day.”
Polis also spoke warmly about a recent visit to Thornton High School. “Cybersecurity
certificates right out of high school. Kids can earn $80,000 plus a year. They
are able to get that through their junior and senior year while they spend three
or four hours a day on this campus.”
More
on that interview in AV #281 - Gov. Polis and his national initiative
on education. Is this what we need? - Our K-12 schools have more essential
tasks in 2025 (January 2025)[v]
**
I apologize for any errors in my transcription of comments by Polis and Córdova.
Colorado Education Commissioner Susana
Córdova
Excerpts from an interview with Ryan Warner,
Colorado Public Radio, Feb. 5, 2025. 31 minutes. https://www.cpr.org/2025/02/05/interview-susanna-Córdova-colorado-commissioner-of-education/
(work – emphasis mine)
In this interview with Ryan Warner, Commissioner of Education Córdova celebrated what she recently witnessed in Holyoke.
|
Córdova's
support for career-technical programs is also well known. Her 2021 essay in
Education Week praised such efforts in both Denver and Dallas. "An
Untapped Path to Equity Runs Through Career-Technical Education," Feb.
17, 2021.[vi] |
She told Warner about a high school student there who had been able to earn his Commercial Driver License (CDL) from the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles. (More on the 300-plus certifications high school students can obtain in 2025-26, for academic credit, in Endnotes.[vii]) This high school senior now starts his day by trucking loads of corn to the ethanol plant; he then gets to high school by 11:30 for his classes.
Córdova recalled: "He was so excited to talk about what he’s doing.... He knows what he’s going to do as soon as he graduates from high school - because he’s doing it now.”
“More than just what’s in a book”
Warner noted that the Holyoke senior she
spoke about was not headed to college.
Córdova: “That’s right. And I think one of
the real recognitions that we’ve had in Colorado is that it’s so important to
tap into kids’ interests about what they want to do post-high school,” whether
that’s going to college or “going right into work.”
Warner asked Córdova if what she sees in
Holyoke is “replicable.” What trends does she see?
“… the pathway work … is so exciting to see”
in larger districts like Cherry Creek and St. Vrain, but also in smaller
communities like Holyoke, Genoa-Hugo, Canon City, and Fremont…
“I think there’s this recognition in our
high schools that getting kids into school has to be about more than just
what’s in a book.”
Comment
Maybe this is the role of an education
commissioner in 2025. To highlight a community’s effort to provide training (getting
a CDL License, for example) to a student in a way that supports the local ethanol
plant.
Maybe I am off my rocker. But wouldn’t it be
nice to hear our leaders talk about “REAL LIFE” and “RELEVANT” experiences
students are having IN THEIR CLASSROOMS? To cheer what takes place—when done
well—in a science lab, a civics class, a literature discussion?
Or have we abandoned hope that K-12 education
can offer that kind of engagement?
Warner raised the issue of chronic absenteeism
- which circled back to engagement and work
But when she zeroed in on attendance in high school, she returned to the theme of what will engage our students. She
|
Does the Commissioner see a connection
between academic progress and being in school? From “Why Are Reading Scores Still
Falling on the Nation’s Report Card?” Tackling
absenteeism is a crucial step to ensuring that kids can make academic
progress, said Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the National Center for
Education Statistics, in a town hall on the [NAEP] results on Wednesday. "You
have to come to school to learn,” she said.[viii] |
Córdova: We need to “reintroduce this concept that it is important to be in
school in person every day,” which only adds to her belief that “we really have
to make it meaningful to them.”
Warner: “And maybe that doesn’t necessarily
mean literally being in school, but being in a scholastic setting, which
might be your work.”
Córdova: “Exactly.”
Comment
|
Cordova: “we
really have to make it meaningful.” See also Polis on career-tech as
“the most meaningful part of the day.” Teachers might take offense. Hasn’t it ALWAYS been our challenge and our goal to make school meaningful to students? COVID didn’t change this. Good teachers I know - and three cheers to them! - will stand on their heads if it helps to engage their students. |
· TO BE OR NOT TO BE - IN SCHOOL? Note the
mixed messages. We want you to be in school. But we know that as you move
through high school you find it is not engaging and hardly worth the time. So
let’s do all we can to get you OUT OF SCHOOL and INTO A WORKPLACE. And we’ll
call this “a scholastic setting.” (Like driving a truck?)
· That young fellow in Holyoke starts school at 11:30. Thus only 3 hours and 15 minutes of school.[ix] Holyoke is one of our 4-day school districts. It offers only 150 days of school. For this student, over the course of a school year, that would total less than 500 hours (150 days x 3.25 hours). A far cry from the 1,080 hours CDE touts. (See box.) Are we providing that 18-year-old all that is meant by “a high-quality K-12 education”? Doesn’t he deserve more than this? Don’t all our students?
Reduced Academic Calendar Information, Colorado Department of Education[x]
“C.R.S 22-32-109 (n) (l) … but in no event shall said schools be scheduled to have less than one thousand eighty hours of planned teacher-pupil instruction and teacher-pupil contact during the school year for secondary school pupils in high school, middle school, or junior high school…”
Both/and - striking the right balance
Warner touched on this concern. Having heard
Córdova stress the benefits of “tapping into student interests,” he asked about
the potential for students to be “driving things” too much, “and not enough of
reading, writing, arithmetic.”
Cordova responded: “I think it’s really
important we think about the both/and opportunities that we have in school.”
Later Warner asked it another way: “How are
you making sure the right balance is struck? How do you know you’re not going
too far in one direction?”
Córdova suggested our various assessments provide sufficient reassurance. “The single most common way that kids
|
SAT-
Gr. 11 |
2019 |
2019 |
2023 |
2024 |
2024 |
|
Score |
% Met Expectations |
Score |
|||
|
Holyoke – Reading/Writing |
494 |
58.5 |
44.4 |
36.8 |
462 |
|
Holyoke
- Math |
485 |
34.1 |
25 |
7.9 |
426 |
|
Holyoke
- TOTAL |
979 |
declines 91 points |
888 |
||
|
State
- TOTAL |
1001 |
declines 23 points |
978 |
||
demonstrate that they’re ready to graduate is through the SAT.” She noted that as all high school juniors take it, “we have a good sense of where we are.”
[Comment: And where, exactly, are we? Statewide, SAT scores decline. In Holyoke, we see a dramatic decline. I trust this would concern the Commissioner. A 2024 external report on Holyoke observed that secondary students showed ltitle "engagement" with their core classes.[xi] With this information, Warner could have pressed harder. Is this “striking the right balance”?]
Cordova emphasized that “fundamentally school is about helping students from very young ages learn to read, to write, to do arithmetic, to learn about the world, to learn about civics – incredibly important – something we are deeply invested in, and deeply invested in improving.”
OK. But this was not her focus that day.
“And,” she continued, “it’s about what’s the purpose
behind those skills. If it’s just for a book, or just for a teacher, I think
we’re going to see more and more kids become disengaged. It’s when it’s
connected to the world that they want to live in, the work that
they’re interested in, that they become motivated to really apply those skills.”
Comment – an old teacher recalls a different purpose
At what age are we expecting students to be planning their careers? In 2nd grade? 5th grade? Since when did we decide this is how we engage kids? I know this had nothing to do with how I approached my 7th & 8th graders when teaching middle school here in Parker 20 years ago.
And yes, let’s discuss purpose. (Next month’s newsletter.) If we decide the purpose of high school is to prepare students for a job—perhaps for the day after they graduate—how will that fundamentally change the academic mission of those 9-12 years? I saw real value in teaching Shakespeare, Russian Literature, and Advanced Composition in high school. Is that all passé?
Córdova also spoke of how exciting it is
that some internships pay students. “So if kids have to work to support
families, how much better if they’re working connected to their school,
connected to their life goals, as opposed to getting a job in fast food or in
retail.”
Warner: “That’s really turning what I
understood of high school kind of on its head.”
Córdova. “We’re living in a very different
time today.”
Warner asked about the decline in reading scores.
He may
have thought he was changing the subject, but I see a connection. Córdova hailed
Colorado’s work on the READ Act for grades K-3, especially the Early Literacy
Grant.
But not a word in her response on reading beyond
3rd grade. No acknowledgement that thousands of middle and high
schools are not reading close to grade level. Not a word on how our secondary
schools have failed to address this problem. My 2024 reading report asked us to
recognize the reading crisis is a K-12 issue.[xi] As I see it, our state
leaders won’t address it.
Leading
to an inconvenient question—alluded to above. What if internships actually
hinder juniors and seniors from making significant progress – in reading, as well as in other academic subjects? What if all this evangelizing for work-based
opportunities is at cross-purposes with what many consider our primary goal: to increase student
achievement?
Warner noted the low percentage (roughly 50%) of Colorado high school graduates going on to college, compared to 62% nationally.[xii] Córdova’s answer circled back to work.
Córdova spoke of “why it’s so important to bring these experiences [students in the workplace, I assume] into high school.” She said: “One of our academic goals” (her term) is making sure high school students graduate with one of what we call the Big Three.” (Details in the Colorado Department of Education’s new Strategic Plan - Addendum A. The current version of the Strategic Plan, however, makes no mention of these as “academic goals.”)
1) 12 credits from higher education;
|
Cordova on industry credentials:
“What’s great about that - these are credentials that actually the
world of work has said, this person is ready to do this body of work [e.g. a
license in phlebotomy]. These are things where you have to be able to
demonstrate and show your readiness for the life that you want to move into
after you graduate from high school.” |
3) “that you have participated in a work-based experience,” she said, “that we know from the work that we do with the Department of Labor and higher education is a pathway to a livable wage.”
Cordova sees another benefit to all this: “You know if kids are working in industry experiences, they’re working with adults, they’re working in the world of work. So it’s a great way to demonstrate that kids are ready for what’s going to come after high school.” (Bold mine.)
NOTE: the above was Córdova’s answer to a question about our state’s low college-going
rate.
Remember when education
leaders addressed learning? Reminding us – teachers, parents, the
public – of a school’s principal goal, to help students learn? Explaining
efforts that enable more students to meet our expectations (see - or have we
forgotten them? - the Colorado Academic Standards) in reading, writing, math,
history, science, the arts, and more?
Since when did the two leaders in our state, given the largest bully pulpit to speak about K-12 education, make work and working so central to their message?
· As a former teacher and principal, Susana Córdova has credibility when speaking of what is possible IN OUR SCHOOLS. I hope she can find ways to feature the many worthy “REAL LIFE” and “RELEVANT” experiences for students that take place in Colorado classrooms.
· To a broader audience - policymakers, superintendents,
education advocacy groups, and the media: I hope you recognize such engagement can
and does take place in our schools. Part 3 offers several such examples, but
none from Colorado. To honor the passion and creativity of great teachers in our
state making this happen – how welcome that would be!
Part 2 - Today's
zeitgeist - examples: one district, one high school
|
In polls,
“fewer than half of students said their school earned an A or B grade on
making them excited to learn.” Education Week, July 12, 2023. |
Our Governor and Commissioner are not alone in supporting efforts to engage students by taking them OUT OF SCHOOL. Many district and school leaders make the same case. It is clearly part of the zeitgeist of today’s world.
Two examples:
1.) Excerpts from “Student engagement,
RELEVANCE should be Colorado’s benchmark for school funding — including
learning outside classroom walls,” The Colorado Sun (March 10, 2021) [xiii]
Karen Quanbeck, then the
Superintendent of Clear Creek Schools, wrote this opinion piece, in part to
support SB21-106,
“Concerning Successful High School Transitions.” (Bold is mine)
“The
traditional high school model is not meeting all of our students’ needs. Rather
than ask students to sit in classes for eight hours a day, we should expand
learning opportunities to build authentic and engaging experiences that will
help them thrive after high school.
“Shifting
the culture in our schools from compliance-driven learning to meaningful,
career-connected learning with student ownership is the key to making
our education system more RELEVANT.
“Rather
than thinking about seat time as a cost driver, we should consider student
engagement and educational RELEVANCE as the benchmark for school
funding. Student learning outside the classroom walls through
internships, job shadowing, and work-based learning complements and reinforces
the RELEVANCE of classroom learning and better prepares students for
opportunities and careers after high school.
|
To repeat a point made earlier about Holyoke: Clear Creek also offers only 150 days of school.[xiv] Similar to the short school year in 120 Colorado districts. And now we're cheering even fewer full days in school? |
“Opening
doors for students to engage with community and business leaders to pursue
their passions will lead to incredible exploration and outcomes for students
and build local talent pipelines for our businesses….
“We can get caught up in the bureaucratic challenges and not consider big changes, but bringing the conversation back to students refocuses the discussion — on opportunities and RELEVANCE, and why we care about these changes and increasing options for students.”
· Karen Quanbeck is now Vice
President of Field Services at the Colorado Education Initiative.
· SB 160 passed and was
signed into law on June 11, 2021.[xv]
· Colorado Succeeds advocated for
SB 106 (see below). Its positive report on the implementation of SB 106 is available
at this Endnote.[xvi]
|
Note the language used by Colorado Succeeds
in advocating for SB 106. “Introducing the Bill that’s Reimagining High School” (Feb. 25, 2021) [xvii] "Now is the for Coloradans to reimagine the high school experience. Through the Successful High School Transitions bill (SB21-106) … Colorado Succeeds and partners are working to make high school more engaging and RELEVANT for students and connect more of them to high quality pathways to career and other postsecondary opportunities, while laying the groundwork for a strong, local talent pool for Colorado’s businesses." |
2.) Excerpts from “Nederland Middle/Senior High to offer outdoor career classes,” The Daily Camera, 2021. (Bold mine)
“Nederland students soon will have class options that include rock climbing, snow science, wilderness ethics and backcountry navigation. Nederland Middle/Senior is moving to a career and technical education model for its high school…”
Principal Rick Elerton said, “We want to bring RELEVANCE back to the classroom. You take what you learn and apply it outside of school.”
The article states: “School leadership decided on a career and technical education focus as the best option to reverse a trend of declining enrollment and better serve students.”
As his teachers imagined what the program could become, Elerton said: “They’re not bound by a traditional classroom where they stay in the classroom, teach, test and grade. They can transform these programs into their vision of education for the kids. That’s what’s going to make them truly special.”
Beyond Colorado - Our high school model “doesn’t relate to most kids’ futures”
These two examples reflect the beliefs of many
educators. They see hope in “rethinking high school” in ways that get students
out of the classroom. Of course we hear these themes beyond Colorado, too. Last
summer Colorado Public Radio did an in-depth look at chronic absenteeism: “Colorado
has the fifth highest rate of students who miss a lot of school.”[xviii] A rate of 31% in 2023.
The national average: 25%.
Stanford University economist Thomas Dee
helped gather the data. CPR’s text included this:
“Is what students are
learning RELEVANT to their lives?”
Dee said it’s problematic
that the vast majority of high schools are based on a model of comprehensive
college preparation that doesn’t relate to most kids’ futures. He said about 80
percent of kids will graduate high school, just half those will go on to
college and just a fraction will graduate with a bachelor’s degree within four
years.
“So, we've organized most high schools to
serve a large minority of students in some sense,” he said.
Dee and other researchers see “enormous
promise” in high-quality, rigorous career and technical education models for
improving attendance and reducing dropout rates.
Part 3 - What good schools do to engage
high school students – ON CAMPUS!
Students are asking urgent questions about … the
climate, the government, AI, and life.*
Can the classroom be the place to explore such topics?
Examples from science, civics, the arts, and English
1. Civics – the Constitution
2.
Science – climate change
3. Arts – music, interdisciplinary class
4. English – reading and writing (AI) and inspiration from “prison
literature”
* “Colorado students say they want more
solutions-oriented climate education now before it’s too late,” Jenny Brundin,
Colorado Public Radio, Nov. 7, 2023 - https://www.cpr.org/2023/11/07/colorado-students-want-climate-solutions-education/
* “STUDENT VOICE: My generation knows less about civics than my parents’ generation did, yet we need it more than ever,” by Robert Gilbert, Nov. 26, 2024. https://hechingerreport.org/student-voice-my-generation-knows-less-about-civics-than-my-parents-generation-did-yet-we-need-it-more-than-ever/
*
“Students Want to Learn More About AI. Schools Aren’t Keeping Up,” by Lauraine Langreo, Education
Week, Nov. 10, 2023. https://www.edweek.org/technology/students-want-to-learn-more-about-ai-schools-arent-keeping-up/2023/11
1. Civics – U.S. Constitution
Deerfield Academy
(Deerfield, MA)
“High engagement”
From remarks to the community by the Head of School, Dr. John Austin (October 2023).
Deerfield Magazine, “Opportunities for Excellence,” Fall 2023
Austin
spoke of a new “high engagement” model in place, “where teachers connect deeply
and broadly with students across multiple dimensions of school life.”
He affirmed
his commitment “to providing opportunities and structures for dialogue and
inquiry at Deerfield,” and offered this example.
“A few weeks ago … each student received their
own pocket Constitution of the United States. Over the course of the year, we
will stage a series of conversations, talks, dialogues, and performances about
the history of the Constitution…. At a School Meeting in September, two
students, one playing James Madison and one playing Thomas Jefferson, debated,
in full costume, the merits of the provision for amending the Constitution,
calling historical figures as witnesses in support of their arguments. Those
figures included students playing the roles of civil rights activist Wong Kim
Ark, suffragist Alice Paul, journalist Neil Sheehan, and Martin Luther King Jr.
“This year of conversation around the
Constitution will culminate in the spring with our third Deerfield Forum, which
will consider the question of whether or not it is time to hold a second
constitutional convention and subsequently alter our governing
structures.”
Emma Willard School –
class: Comparative Government and Politics
Excerpts from “Engaging
the World,” Signature, The Magazine of Emma Willard School, Fall/Winter
2024.
History Department Chair Katie Duglin introduced a new
course last fall.
“A good portion of the Comparative
Government and Politics course centers around case studies of nine countries,
including fully developed democracies, developing democracies, and
authoritarian regimes. The Plan includes the political institutions, political
history, and various political, economic, and social challenges of the United
Kingdom, India, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Russia, China, and Iran.
Duglin says: “My goal is to give students
the opportunity to hone their critical thinking, communication, and discussion
skills and their engagement with civics—I’m trying to help them move to the
next level, whether that be in college or as an active member and participant
in civic society.”
“I’m trying to make the material RELEVANT to
students and give them some ownership in their learning … so they able to have
some creativity with it and be able to take it in directions that interest them
while still making sure they are learning the core components of the material.”
2. Science – climate change
Emma Willard School
(Troy, NY)
Science, the environment, and “real-world concerns” – “students
just lit up”
From “Time to Innovate
- Curriculum Innovation Projects Transform Teaching and Learning at
Emma,” by Melissa Mason, Signature – The Magazine of Emma
Willard, Fall/Winter 2024.
Kathy
Mroczka, high school science teacher at Emma Willard School in Troy, N.Y.,
sought “to transform the 9th-grade physics curriculum by adding
problems to each unit that would connect students to real-world concerns. She
called it Beyond Science.”
Mason tells
us of one of Mroczka’s early assignments: read and reflect on an article, “Is
Sustainable Trash-Burning a Load of Rubbish?” Mroczka asked students to focus
on a quote from Moncia Wilson: “Burning toxic garbage does not magically
eliminate it. All you’re doing is converting a landfill in the sky and allowing
companies to bring the evidence of how much toxic stuff they’re creating.”
The class
discussed the passage and offered a variety of responses.
|
“What inspired me as a kid was learning about
how the world worked and seeing the connection between theory and the actual
practical application. So what I’ve found is whenever we did small pieces
similar to the Beyond Science problems, students just lit up.” Kathy Mroczka |
According to Mason:
“Students
then inspected a diagram of a waste conversion plant….
“Finally, they watched a
video of how such a plant operated, noting the positive tone of the explanation
and the information. They ended with a list of questions on their mind, not the
least of which was, ‘What happens to the byproducts of this process?’”
In future sessions students would explore their
questions, now connected to what they were learning from their next assignment,
where each member would study a similar energy plant.
3. The
Arts
Deerfield Academy –
music – “It’s a question of building whole humans.”
Excerpts from Deerfield
Magazine, “Dr. Michael Pfitzer - Behind the Podium,” by Daniella Vollinger –
Fall 2024.
Dr. Pfitzer believes arts education is
essential to preparing students for the future. The internet age and impending
AI age have increased our general unease about where we’re going, but what is
becoming clearer is our need to hold fast to the things that do make us human
(in the best sense).
“There’s a lot of temptation to fall into
isolated activities that might not develop that emotional expression and
connectedness,” says Dr. Pfitzer, maintaining that adolescents need to develop
ways of understanding and channeling their emotions and engaging with the world
in constructive ways, not just hiding behind screens and internalizing
unprocessed emotions, or acting them out online in unhealthy ways.
“I think that the role of music for building
complete people is critical—music and art are critical—because we take the
material, and we bring it in and learn how to participate in it with our bodies
actively,” says Dr. Pfitzer, who often pauses at the end of a piece the
students are singing to ask them to examine and share what they felt.
“All of our music, theatre, dance, and visual
arts classes here at Deerfield are designed to get students to be in touch with
their own feelings, emotions, and expression. It’s a question of building
whole humans, which, if I could pick the most important thing that a
school could do in 2024, it would not necessarily be amazing achievement in
math or science or history or music, but just building complete humans, and I
think we’re an important part of that.”
[Dr. Pfitzer] seeks the students’ active participation
in finding material that they find RELEVANT.… “Coming up with new creative
ideas for our students based on their passions and interests is motivating,” he
says.
[Kabir Sheth, one of his
students, class of ’25, commented on Dr. Pfitzer:]
“He organizes concerts around
themes that we can relate to …. He understands that we’re a high school
choir—we’re kids, and we want to have fun, and he makes sure that we’re having
fun while developing us as musicians.”
Emma
Willard School – class: Arts in the Renaissance
From
Signature, Fall/Winter 2024
Gift from Sally Kingenstein Markel (class of ’84) to the Alice Dodge Wallace Center for the Performing Arts
“The arts have long been a fixture of the Emma
Willard experience and with time have become interwoven with the traditions
shared across generations of alumnae. Reflecting on her own time at Emma, Sally
credits the arts with playing a transformational role in her education…
“I took this amazing class called ’Arts in the
Renaissance’ and I remember Russell Locke taught the music portion, exposing us
to all of this incredible music from that era. And there was an art history
component and also literature. So this showed me how you could take a deep dive
into an academic subject through the lens of the arts, and that was just
transformative for me.”
Sally
majored in arts history at Tulane.
Of her gift towards the new concert hall, she
said: “In creating this space, we are saying to students, ‘We believe you’re
worthy of this,’ and that the arts should be a major focus of their educational
experience.”
4. English –
reading and writing (AI) and inspiration from “prison literature”
Teaching writing in high school – in a world of Artificial Intelligence
From Deerfield Academy
Excerpt from “What ChatGPT Means for How We
Teach Writing,” by Dr. Anne Bruder, Dean of Academic Affairs, Deerfield
Academy, Education Week, Jan. 4, 2023.
“… to guide our students toward the skills that will enable lives
of meaning and purpose….”
ChatGPT
has arrived at my school and is threatening to send my colleagues into early
retirement. This new artificial intelligence tool has leapt from Twitter
timelines and New York Times headlines into my school’s
classrooms in mere weeks. As an academic dean, I have been inundated with fears
about the new technology from teachers in every discipline….
|
“when the world seemed to
shift under their feet” |
|
Like Deerfield Academy, Mount
Holyoke College is also located in Emily Dickinson’s neighborhood. While this
example comes from higher education, it speaks well to my theme of RELEVANCE. “My Mount
Holyoke College students brought me joy every Tuesday afternoon, and they
challenged me in ways that happily complicated my understanding. I am
grateful for those moments when Dickinson’s words grabbed my students on a
personal level. At times they were stunned into silence or deeply unsettled
when the world suddenly seemed to shift under their feet. Watching them
grapple with Dickinson’s genius reminded me of what is at the heart of
literature, and teaching.” From Martha Ackman’s These Fevered
Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson (W.W. Norton
& Co., 2020). |
While
rendered with new urgency, their questions aren’t all that different from the
ones students have been asking with increasing fervency in the last several
decades as technology and finance have displaced the
humanities’ pride of place in the firmament of liberal learning. My answer then
and now has remained quite simple: Education is the place where, if we
are lucky, we can train our minds to be worthy companions for the rest of our
lives. Reading and writing critically and creatively remain at the core of that
project. When we harness those skills, we become more than just better
thinkers. We find that the loneliness of being human is
soothed…. (Bold mine)
I
imagine that ChatGPT will, whether I like it or not, quickly become a place on
the map where my students stop for a time and look around. I won’t tell them
that it is as dangerous as quicksand or as insurmountable as Everest. Instead,
I’ll ask them to train their critical gaze on ChatGPT’s ready answers and
decide which ones merit more investigation, as I have been doing. As always, I
will ask them to forge ahead to new and different places so that the path they
eventually lay down in writing will be theirs alone.
So, what
will I be telling faculty now that ChatGPT arrived? Now is the time for us
teachers to do some thoughtful wandering of our own. In each discipline, we
must determine what it means to guide our students toward the skills that
will enable lives of meaning and purpose….
Inspiration and guidance from great literature
Dr.
Anika Prather, Assistant Professor and coordinator of Elementary Education at
Catholic University, founder and executive director of The Living Water
School
In February, Dr.
Anika Prather spoke to a gathering of 300 educators at the annual Colorado Core Knowledge Network
Conference, held at the Liberty Common School in Fort Collins.
Her theme was the power of
literature to inspire and support us in difficult times.
She gave examples of individuals imprisoned or exiled who were lifted up and given hope by the words of writers from the
past. She told the story of Boethius (locked away in 523), who turned to Greek
philosophy to sustain him. Boethius completed The Consolation of Philosophy in
524, just before he was executed.
|
Then she opened up a book of poems |
She showed us how Dante Alighieri, exiled from Florence, turned to Virgil to accompany and guide him - "through hell" - in The Divine Comedy (pub. 1321).
(A story with any RELEVANCE today? 1) See sidebar, from Bob Dylan. 2) Juniors and seniors at the Emma Willard School, where I taught, loved Marcia Easterling’s semester course on Dante.)
Prather then spoke of figures our high
school students recognize—Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. (Like most
English and history teachers, I taught works from both.) After Prather showed
us the “darkness” these two African-American leaders endured when in prison, she
captured the hope both found in returning to or discovering ancient religious
literature and philosophy.
Having taught “Letter from Birmingham Jail,”
I was most familiar with her account of King’s nine days in that “dark place.”
He was forbidden to have any reading material while "behind bars." How, then, could
he have produced that famous letter, full of references to the writers and
works that had been so influential to him: Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and
Socrates?[xix]
Prather spoke of King’s years of study; they
had created that reservoir of knowledge. No books were needed.
In this way, these men “visited” King in
his jail cell in his darker hours. Other writers did too. King’s “Letter” quotes
from the Old and New Testament; he quotes too from Martin Luther, John Bunyan, Thomas
Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. Their words inform his reasons for taking a
stand. Their words, it might be said, were part of who Martin Luther King, Jr.
had become. Hard to say he was entirely alone, then, as he wrote one of the most
important essays in American history.
And she made a similar point about Malcolm
X, in his own “dark place” during his six years in prison. He became a prolific
reader in that time, which led to a new faith in Islam and a new purpose for
his life, leading him to become a central figure in the civils right movement.
Prather was speaking to K-12 educators, many
teaching in the dozens of Core Knowledge-affiliated schools in Colorado. These schools ask their students to engage with essential texts and challenging literature. Prather was suggesting
that what was true for Boethius, Dante, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Malcolm X,
can be true for our young readers too.
An inspiring message for teachers. To believe that one day such readings will prove a blessing for our students. To believe that in helping our students read and reflect on rich material, we can nourish their soul.
**
Addendum A
From the Colorado Department of Education’s latest draft of its Strategic Plan
"Starting with the anticipated year of graduation of 2029, 100% of graduates will have achieved at least one of the following:
1) Earned a quality, in-demand non-degree credential
2) Earned 12 college credits that count toward a postsecondary credential
3) Participated in one high-quality work-based learning (WBL) opportunity (from Learning Through Work and Learning at Work sections of the Work-based Learning Continuum)"
https://www.cde.state.co.us/communications/strategicplan2025-2028
[i] Colorado Succeeds, https://coloradosucceeds.org/policy/introducing-the-bill-thats-reimagining-high-school/
[iv] “Pathways
to Opportunity: A View From the National Governors Association and Colorado,” Gov.
Polis interviewed by Bruno Mano, Public Policy Institute, Dec. 4, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlF2EGcRIAk.
[v] Another View #281 - https://anotherviewphj.blogspot.com/2025/01/
[vi]
Susans Córdova, Education Week, https://www.edweek.org/leaders/teaching-learning/an-untapped-path-to-equity-runs-through-career-technical-education/2021/02
[vii] I spoke with Principal Angela Powell
at Holyoke High School. She explained how the school uses the state’s Career Development Incentive Program
(CDIP). It enables many of her students to obtain certifications, such as a Commercial
Drivers License, that receive academic credit. Powell told me the instructors for
classes like the CDL are certified through Northeastern Junior College. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A1HERm6uQag8BqXUxRFDqKBVloXnKvUp1EfA4bRJIMY/edit?gid=0#gid=0
The
Holyoke School District has also benefited from the Innovative Learning Opportunities
Pilot Program (ILOP). Powell said this has provided more flexibility on assessing
“seat time,” one reason, it appears, internships can make up a large portion of
a student's school day. (See section 2 for more on the legislation that created
ILOP - SB21-106.)
[viii] “Why are Reading Scores Still Falling on the Nation’s Report Card?,” by Sarah Schwartz, Education Week, https://www.edweek.org/leadership/why-are-reading-scores-still-falling-on-the-nations-report-card/2025/01
[ix] Bell schedule for Holyoke
Junior/Senior High – 2024-25 - https://www.hcosd.org/page/holyoke-jr-sr-high-school
Period
5 – 11:43-12:33 - 50 min
Lunch
Period
6 1:17-2:08 51 min
Period
7 2:12-3:03 51 min
Period 8 3:07-
3:50 43 min
TOTAL 195 minutes
[x]
“Reduced Academic Calendar
Information,” Colorado Department of Education, https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeedserv/reducedacademiccalendar
[xi] S-CAP System Support Review: Holyoke School District (March 2024): "Delta: At the secondary level, students in our focus group could not expound on the benefits of instruction and what they were learning outside of their CTE classes and internships. They valued those programs significantly, but we got very little feedback on their core classes, even when they were asked about them directly. This makes us wonder about a lack of engagement in those courses." https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Wye4qh7Nvt0AlM9xxUNhsELUYEkyeGYkst2qEVyF4Q/edit?tab=t.0
[xii] “After the READ Act
– Beyond third grade, how well do our students read?” Another View -
https://anotherviewphj.blogspot.com/2024/02/
[xiii] 50% is supported by a statement
from Colorado Department of Higher Education: “Just under 50% of high school graduates attended an
institution of higher education in the fall after graduation,” said Dr. Angie
Paccione, executive director of CDHE. May 2023,
https://cdhe.colorado.gov/news-article/colorado-college-going-rates-continue-to-decline-but-at-a-slower-rate.
62% is close to the latest figures from the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 10, 2024: “61.4
percent of recent high school graduates enrolled in college in October 2023.”
[xiv] The Colorado Sun, March 10,
2021, https://coloradosun.com/2021/03/10/high-school-transitions-opinion/
[xv] Clear Creek School District, 2024-2025
Family Calendar, https://cchs.ccsdre1.org/family-calendar
[xvi]
SB21-106 - BILL
PASSED SIGNED INTO LAW -
Concerning Successful High School
Transitions
Concerning measures to improve successful transitions from
high school to post-high school training, and, in connection therewith, making
an appropriation.
Session:
2021 Regular Session
Subject:
Education & School Finance (Pre & K-12)
Bill Summary
The act amends the high school innovative
learning pilot program (ILOP) that authorizes school districts, district
charter schools, and institute charter schools (local education providers) to
count as full-time students high school students participating in innovative
learning opportunities regardless of whether they meet the number of
teacher-pupil instruction and contact hours for full-time enrollment. The act
allows a school of a school district to participate in an ILOP with a district
or independently and requires all applicants to demonstrate how their
innovative learning plan disproportionately benefits underserved students.
[xvii] “Path4Ward: Postsecondary Pathways
Innovations with a Learner-Centered Approach,” Colorado Succeeds, https://coloradosucceeds.org/resource/path4ward-postsecondary-pathways-innovations-with-a-learner-centered-approach/
Also, from the Colorado Department of Higher Education, Path4Ward, “ The Path4Ward Program, established by SB21-106, is a pilot program…,” https://cdhe.colorado.gov/students/preparing-for-college/path4ward
[xvix] “Colorado has the fifth highest rate of
students who miss a lot of school. Districts rally to improve but need help,” by
Jenny Brundin, Colorado Public Radio, Aug. 15, 2024, https://www.cpr.org/2024/08/15/colorado-chronic-absenteeism-crisis/
