Before you begin reading about my ideas for creating a school, take a second to think: What is the purpose of a school?
Is the purpose of a school to transmit information from teacher to student? I think not. Information is a commodity. When I was a kid if someone asked me "Who were the major players in the Crimean War and what were the causes of that war?" I would have had to drive to the library, look through a card catalog, and search for several books or encyclopedias for answers. Kids today have seemingly limitless information at their fingertips. The smartphones that many kids have in their pockets give them almost instant access to information that once took hours and sometimes days to find.
Is the purpose of a school to prepare students for the workplace? That depends on your idea of what a workplace is. The 21st century workplace is drastically different to industrial workplace of the 20th and 19th centuries. Many students can not expect to find careers with high salaries with simply a high school diploma. Our best and brightest need to develop a range of skills to be competitive in the global economy.
Philosophy of School X:
The philosophy of School X can be broken into four main categories:
-Teacher Led, Student Driven School
-Inquiry Based Learning
-Strong Relationships
-Supported Teachers
Teacher Led, Student Driven School:
Teachers will design their curriculum aware of state standards, but not constrained by them. Students will drive projects that will help them develop 21st century skills such as collaboration, time management, creativity, and communication. Our students will delve deep into fewer topics rather than merely skimming the surface of too many topics. If you want an education that is a mile wide and an inch deep, then this school is not for you. Our school is a school built for deep, rich learning.
Inquiry Based Learning
Students will learn through a variety of techniques. Vital to learning will be the pursuit of knowledge through student inquiry. Teachers will guide students through the project cycle of examining high quality work, planning ahead, executing their plan, critiquing each other, and revising their work until they feel it is ready for public exhibition. Exhibitions can be anything from displays around school to performances, book publishing, to creating websites.
Strong Relationships
The teachers at School X are responsible for creating a classroom environment that allows all students to thrive. Since School X only has approximately 100 students per year group, students will get to know one another and their teachers well. The daily schedule is streamlined so that students will see one teacher for English and History, a different teacher for Math and Science, and then one additional teacher for their elective which changes each semester.
Supported Teachers
A supported teacher is a happy teacher and a happy teacher is a good teacher. Teachers will work hard to support one another to build a trusting, collegial teaching culture. Teachers will work meet before school three times per week for professional development meetings (PD). In PD meetings, teachers will work together to plan projects and build school culture. Teachers will also grow as educators by collaborating and working together the same way that students will. Teachers will work as critical friends, mentors, and collegial coaches with one another throughout the school year.
Student Mix + Neighborhood
The student body of a school should be representative of the surrounding area, and not just the immediate surrounding neighborhoods. In order to achieve a good mix of students, School X will do a weighted lottery each year to fill spots.
The following will be included (weighted) in the lottery:
-Zip Code
-Gender
-Parent Education Level
The following will not be included in the lottery:
-Ability Level
-Test Scores
-Teacher Recommendations
Zip Code Lottery - School X will employ an audited zip code lottery system to ensure that all students have an equal chance of attending my school. My goal would be to create a school with a wide range of family incomes and college completion rates. In order to do this, I would weight the school lottery so that students from low income earning families will have a slightly higher chance of earning a spot at my school. New Federal Education Department Guidelines in January allow charters to give more weight to low income zip codes in their school lotteries (Strauss, 2014).
Income Level vs College Completion Rate - According to a study done by postsecondary.org, 82% of students from the highest quartile of income will complete college by age 24 vs 8% of the lowest quartile (www.postsecondary.org/last12/2492top.pdf)
Zip Code Segregation - In the United States there are major differences in family income depending on your zip code. For example, the 92106 zip code (where HTH Point Loma is located) is in the 86% nationally for for college education and income. Four miles down the road, the 92113 zip code (Logan Heights) is in the 3% for the same metric (Washington Post website).
In order to obtain such a student mix, my school would have to be easily accessible by mass transportation. We will do our best to find warehouse space near the trolley in San Diego. One idea is for the Morena Boulevard area in San Diego would be a perfect spot for a school such as this one. A major plus for the school would be its proximity to mass transit and freeways. The Green Line stops not too far from the area. Additionally, The 44 and 105 bus lines go near this area. The location is also near the 5 and 8 freeways. To be clear, the warehouses that are near this location would not be in scary neighborhoods you might think of when you think of industrial parks. The school site is about ¾ mile from University of San Diego and about ½ mile from a YMCA which we would hopefully be able to work with to use some of their athletic space.
Hiring Process + Faculty
Sample Job Posting
School X is a hands on Project Based Learning public charter school in San Diego, CA. Parents and students choose School X because they know that students will be challenged to learn rigorous content while working collaboratively to build, create, design, and perform. Teachers at School X will work with one another to design projects that allow student creativity and structured choice for students to learn real world content. Teachers will be allowed to design a personalized curriculum that they feel will help students develop 21st century skills. Ideal teaching candidates understand that building a positive classroom culture is at the heart of School X.
The Hiring Process
The number one priority before opening a school is to find the right people. In my opinion, word of mouth and people you know are the best way to find people you can trust. Once I have exhausted friends of friends and colleagues, I would open the job search to edjoin and craigslist ad posts. San Diego also has Charter School hiring events where I will collect resumes and meet candidates in person.
1- Collect and review resumes
2- Call potential candidates for a brief phone interview
3- Bring in candidates for a short in person interview and tour of the school
4- Demo lesson and interviews with other staff members
Strauss, Valerie. (2014). Washington Post retrieved on February 19, 2014 from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/29/education-department-changes-charter-school-lottery-rules/