[regional_school] Consortium Schools: An Authentic Model

From: Dan Drmacich <dandrmacich123@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Bolgen Vargas <bolgen.vargas@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Jose Cruz <countyleg@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Malik Evans <mightymalik@xxxxxxx>, Mary B Adams <maryb_adams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Melisza Campos <meliszacampos@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Van White <van.white@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Willa Powell <wpowell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Anthony Bottar <RegentBottar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Betty Rosa <RegentRosa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Charles Bendit <RegentBendit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Christine Cea <RegentCea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Geraldine Chapey <RegentChapey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Harry Phillips III <RegentPhillips@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, James Cottrell <RegentCottrell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, James Dawson <RegentDawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, James Jackson <RegentJackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, James Tallon <RegentTallon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Kathleen Cashin <RegentCashin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Lester Young <RegentYoung@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Merryl Tisch <RegentTisch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, NYS Regents Office <regentsoffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Regent Brown <regentbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Robert Bennett <RegentBennett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Roger Tilles <RegentTiles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Wade Norwood <regentnorwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 09:13:24 -0400

"Alternative High": Raising the Bar on Public EducationMonday, 07 July 2014
00:00By Eleanor J Bader <http://truth-out.org/author/itemlist/user/44970>,
Truthout | Report

<http://truth-out.org/news/item/24793-alternative-high-raising-the-bar-on-public-education?tmpl=component&print=1#>
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<http://truth-out.org/news/item/24793-alternative-high-raising-the-bar-on-public-education?tmpl=component&print=1#>

[image: Graduation cap](Image: Graduation cap
<http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-185446949/stock-photo-graduation-cap-over-the-book-with-blackboard-on-background-clipping-path-included.html?src=yTPFkGiC3ixeSEFQQhIbPA-1-14>
via
Shutterstock)Brittany, an 18-year-old senior at the Urban Academy
Laboratory High School in Manhattan, is sitting in a room with three
teachers and a scientist unaffiliated with the school. She looks and sounds
confident as she describes an aroma chemistry experiment that she recently
completed.

"I was interested in learning how the ratio of ethanol and water impacts
the scent, color and consistency of a frankincense extract," she begins.
She then explains her methods - the measurements, the movement of
substances from vial to vial, the evaporation and distillation processes.
This is followed by questions and it is quickly evident that Brittany
understands the scientific method. Her openness, poise and maturity are
impressive. "I got results I did not expect," she admits. She then zooms in
on a possible glitch. "I should have used purified or distilled water
rather than tap water since there may have been contaminants in the tap
water. Next time, I will know that."

After her presentation, the committee reviews her write-up of the
experiment - complete with numerous charts and graphs - and several
revisions are suggested. "You need to add the 'why,'" one teacher
recommends. "Is there some bigger meaning to your study? That is, beyond
just learning the subject, is this information important for other people?"

Brittany's hands move rapidly as she jots down her assessors' ideas and she
leaves the room as soon as the meeting is over. She then sits at a computer
and starts to input changes. But the typing does not suppress her joy: She
is grinning from ear to ear, visibly proud of her successful defense and
the critical reception it received.

Were you nervous? I ask. "No, I'm used to speaking in public and defending
my ideas," she says. "That was my sixth defense. I completed my math,
literature, creative arts, social studies and criticism defenses earlier."

Brittany has attended the publicly funded Urban Academy for two and a half
years, and will be enrolling in Bard College this fall. Her intended major?
"Maybe psychology. Or art. Or one of the sciences."

Like most of her peers at Urban Academy, Brittany transferred into the
school after a bad experience at a traditional high school and says that
despite a rigorous admission process - an in-person interview, an essay,
several diagnostic tests and a requirement that she sit in on several
classes to make sure that the school was a good fit - she is glad she made
the switch. "I started at a huge school in Brooklyn with 4,000 students,"
she says. "It was awful. Walking down the halls felt like being on the
street. I would see different people every day. I need teachers who know
me, know my name and are able to give me and my peers some personal
attention. I did not get that at my first school and dropped out." Moving
to Urban Academy made a huge difference, she continues, not only in
allowing her the freedom to decide what to research, but also in allowing
her to sidestep standardized tests in favor of alternative assessments.

These days, such an approach is extremely rare and flies in the face of
policies that favor rote memorization and near-constant standardized exams
to measure learning. Ann Cook, one of the founders of Urban Academy, has
long resisted one-size-fits-all assessments that have become dominant and,
along with her colleagues, has persuaded the New York State Board of
Regents to grant a variance to a group of New York State public high
schools that use rigorous performance-based assessments to replace four of
five high-stakes tests required for graduation. The New York Performance
Standards Consortium's approach favors inquiry-based teaching and learning,
depth over coverage, extensive professional development and the use of
external assessors. "We believe curriculum and instruction should drive
assessment and not the other way around," Cook told Truthout. "Our system
fosters a high degree of student engagement and produces work that the
students care about and take ownership of."

Avram Barlowe has taught history at the school since its founding nearly
three decades ago. "When we started out in the 1980s, we were just a
morning program, a laboratory school, and students from different high
schools in the five boroughs would come to us for a half day and then
return to their regular schools in the afternoon," he says. "Ultimately,
the place became so dynamic that it became an actual school, the Urban
Academy, in 1986." Barlowe says the school's founders understood that it
was not enough to create a challenging curriculum; an assessment system
also needed to be in place to protect the institution from criticism that
it was lax. Later, as other schools began to mimic the Urban Academy model,
faculty and administrators from these "alternative schools" formed the New
York Performance Standards Consortium <http://performanceassessment.org/>.
The consortium now includes nearly 50 schools.

While critics lambaste consortium schools because they do not offer
sweeping survey classes - more traditional educators argue that the group's
more focused approach leads to major knowledge gaps in history, mathematics
and the sciences - Cook and Barlowe remain convinced that their approach
gives students the tools they need to be lifelong learners.

*Creating Rubrics for Assessing Student Mastery of Key Subject Areas*

Moreover, the group - now headed by Ann Cook - of principals and teachers
have a place to share information, discuss strategies for best practices
and develop new rubrics for assessing student proficiency.

"At Urban Academy and other consortium schools, regardless of the subject
areas students are studying, they needs to do original, analytic research
on something that is of interest to them," Barlowe explains. "For example,
I teach a year-long Civil War and Reconstruction class and students get
inspired to delve more deeply into some of the subjects we touch on. They
have done papers on who is responsible for ending legal slavery in the US;
how to assess John Brown as an historical figure; how to evaluate the
Emancipation Proclamation; and why slavery was finally ended. The material
we cover in class can factor into the final paper, but each student has to
do independent research. They have to support a viewpoint and critique
other arguments. They also have to do revisions. This paper is considered a
prerequisite for their social studies proficiency project."

It goes without saying that Urban Academy takes the idea of proficiency
seriously and the student handbook underscores the rigor that is expected:
"The proficiencies are projects - such as papers, exhibits, presentations
and experiments - that allow students to demonstrate their abilities to use
the skills they have developed in their courses. Proficiencies ensure that
Urban Academy graduates are well educated, and have achieved a depth of
academic experience during their high school career. They require
persistence as well as competence. These proficiencies all require work
over an extended period of time, sometimes a year or more. In addition,
students are required to document their progress every semester in the
following proficiency areas: Community Service, Urban Academy community
contribution, class participation and reading."

Ezra, 17, says that he spent a year writing an analytical paper about the
impact of setting on the characters in Dostoyevsky's *Crime and Punishment*,
something he enjoyed. But even better was his creative arts project.
"Everyone has to do an arts proficiency. Some people write a play or short
story or create a piece of art or take a series of photos. I made a
seven-minute narrative film, thanks to the school's in-house editing
software, about a high school boy whose girlfriend is cheating on him with
his best friend."

Ezra's interest in filmmaking got a huge jump-start, he adds, thanks to an
internship at a nonprofit education organization called Downtown Community
Television <http://www.dctvny.org/>; all Urban Academy students are
required to volunteer in hospitals, nursing homes, galleries, museums or
community agencies one half day per week. "While I was at DCTV, I worked on
a documentary about people who are forced into homelessness by poverty
compared to people who are part of the freegan movement and basically
choose to be homeless," he says. "It was a great experience. I now hope to
study film when I get to Wesleyan University in the fall."

This happy ending, he adds, might not have happened had he stayed in his
original high school. "I started at this really big, impersonal high
school. For the first three weeks, my teachers didn't know my name. I
started to cut classes and developed some really bad habits because no one
seemed to care if I was there or not. Plus, the work was monotonous. Now I
know my teachers, and they know me. At my first school, everyone was
treated as if they were exactly the same."

Both Ezra and Brittany credit the individualized attention they're received
at Urban Academy for getting them back on track. And they're not anomalies.
In fact, schools that are part of the New York Performance Standards
Consortium report a 9.9 percent dropout rate, compared to a citywide
average of 19.3 percent. What's more, it's worth noting that students at
these schools excel despite poverty and language and developmental deficits
<http://www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-methods-tips/11105-basics-of-title-1-funds/>;
60.7 percent of the students enrolled in consortium schools qualify for
free lunches, nearly 10 percent are English language learners and 12
percent are in need of special services due to disability.

*More Than 90 Percent of Graduates Will Attend College*

That said, more than 90 percent of consortium students opt to continue
their education - and most finish. At Urban Academy, a bulletin board
offers scholarship information and lists the colleges that have accepted
this year's graduating seniors: Bard, Columbia, Drew, Earlham, Eugene Lang,
Goucher, Hampshire, Lehman, Oberlin, the State University of New York and
Wesleyan - this, despite ongoing financial worries that continually
undermine the school's ability to plan programs and events. It's an
impressive roster, homage to both the tenacious students who attend the
school and the 15 teachers and one administrator who have mentored them.

Renowned teacher and scholar Henry Giroux has said that
<http://truth-out.org/truthout.org/opinion/item/9865/beyond-the-politics-of-the-big-lie-the-education-deficit-and-the-new-authoritarianism>
"critical
educators, in concert with concerned citizens, need to raise the bar so as
to demand modes of education in which teachers are knowledgeable and
reflexive, function as agents of civic education, and create pedagogies
that are provocative and illuminating in their ability to get students to
come to terms with their own power as individuals and social agents."

Schools in the New York Performance Standards Consortium, like the Urban
Academy, have done this in spades, and students who attend these
often-small programs know that they are lucky to have been admitted. "The
teachers at Urban Academy are always willing to help you and you never feel
as if you are completely on your own," says Brittany, the graduating
senior. "They make the classes interesting and fun. My constitutional law
class went to DC to see the Supreme Court discuss a case about Miranda
rights. It was really amazing."

[regional_school] Consortium Schools: An Authentic Model

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