Casco Bay High School
About the School
School Mission: At Casco Bay we challenge and support our students to become ready for college, career and citizenship through our 3R’s: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. "Get smart to do good."
Casco Bay High School is one of three public high schools in Portland, ME serving grades 9-12. Enrollment in Portland's high schools is done by a lottery after students rank their preferences.
Casco Bay is an EL (Expeditionary Learning) school. Learning Expeditions involve long-term, in-depth studies of a single topic that explore compelling social-justice questions, incorporate vital standards, involve fieldwork, and culminate in an authentic project, product or performance. The school's aim is for each student to "get smart to do good." Students are challenged to become college ready through the "3 R's" - rigor, relevance, and relationships.
Daily Schedule
About the School:
Casco Bay High School serves 375 students in the Portland School District in grades 9-12. The student population is 56% White, 28% Black, 7% Hispanic, 5% Asian, and 4% Multiracial. The school's population includes 16% ELL, 45% receiving free/reduced lunch, and 13% SWD.
Key Takeaways
Casco Bay is an Expeditionary Learning (EL) school. The schedule includes six classes, but students only have blocks 1-3 or 4-6 each day (alternating). The schedule also includes a daily Crew period, a weekly X-Block (student-run) and ACADs (Academic Support) for all students four times a week.
Staff members say that Crew is vital to what they do - it helps students to humanize each other and gives time to focus on social skills and community building.
Throughout the curriculum, students are able to focus on topics that interest them. They look for topics in “the intersection of what interests students and what the world needs.”
There’s a consistent focus on public speaking for students, between crew, academic classes, authentic learning opportunities, and student leadership.
In grades 9 and 10, teachers work as teams. The idea is to focus on students rather than the subject. All students typically take the same core classes during those years.
Standards-based grading is in place throughout the school. Students must reach proficiency in each standard assessed that term to pass the course for that quarter. The focus is on ongoing learning, revision, and improvement.
Each department has identified priority standards that they focus on, so that only 2-4 standards are assessed each term.
HOWLs (Habits of work and learning) are grades that accompany the school’s standards-based grading. HOWLs do not count in final grades, but students who have high enough HOWL grades are able to redo assessments so that they can meet all standards.
Detailed Summary
Ninth graders go on an expedition before the start of ninth grade. This gives them a chance to meet new people, start to develop compassion for other students, and explore their environment.
Crew is a huge part of the school. Crews at this school are single-grade, but each crew has another crew that it pairs with for events (9th & 12th, for example). Crew helps students to humanize each other and gives time to focus on students’ social skills. Each student’s crew advisor leads parent conferences for those students, collecting reports from academic teachers and guiding the student to talk with their parents about progress.
Each year’s activities are focused on a particular question:
9th grade: Who am I?
10th grade: How am I doing?
11th & 12th grade: What are my plans for the future?
In 11th grade, students take a public policy class. They are asked to research a policy that they want to change and present their findings to local experts.
Throughout the curriculum, students are able to focus on topics that interest them. They look for topics in “the intersection of what interests students and what the world needs.”
Student: “This is the first time I felt like I could be myself.”
There were opportunities to build interest based on the ways classes were structured. For example, in Spanish class, students learned about how difficult it is for Spanish speakers to get a job locally, and community members came in to speak about it (Lessons are developed to build interest and personal connections.)
There’s a noticeable level of trust between staff and students. Students are willing to take risks and staff members are there to support them.
There’s a consistent focus on public speaking for students, between crew, academic classes, authentic learning opportunities, and student leadership. Students say that this focus really helps them to become more confident and capable.
There are regular school meetings where all grades come together, which are run by students. There are other student-centered traditions, such as seniors putting college acceptances on board and singing “Movin’ on Up”.
There is no cafeteria. Students eat lunch wherever they want. Grades 11 and 12 can leave campus during lunch. The school also has a system for composting. Students express relief that they don’t have to deal with a noisy, full cafeteria.
The classrooms are named with countries, rather than numbers.
There is a faculty wellness fund, which allows faculty members to do activities together, like going out for pizza. Visits from other schools (like us) allow for contributions to this fund.
Staff meeting times are focused on teams, rather than departments. Particularly in grades 9 and 10, teachers work as teams. The idea is to focus on students rather than the subject.
Structures are in place to help both students and staff feel comfortable taking risks. The idea of assuming positive intentions is intentionally taught and practiced, both by students and staff.
Standards-based grading is in place throughout the school, and grades are given on a four-point scale. The focus is on ongoing learning, revision, and improvement. Students have multiple attempts to earn a grade of proficient (with varying levels of proficiency between 3 and 4). The school has also identified “priority standards” - only a few standards are assessed each quarter. Students must be proficient in all of that quarter’s standards to “pass” for the term, so there is no chance to avoid learning the standards identified as most important.
HOWLs (Habits of work and learning) are grades that accompany the school’s standards-based grading. Students earn HOWL grades based on class participation, homework completion, and other positive student behaviors. If a student doesn’t do well on an assessment, the only way to retake it is if they have a HOWL of 3 or better.
The school employs a “Make It Happen Coordinator” to assist with excursions, internships, summer jobs, etc.
Students have “X-block” once a week. These are courses designed by students, based on student interests.
All students have ACAD (academic support) four times per week. The class is not graded, but since all students have it at the same time, teachers can schedule workshops or extra help sessions.
The scheduling process includes very intentional grouping of students, since ninth and tenth graders generally have pretty set schedules. In math, all ninth grade students start in Geometry and diverge after that.