RERC's speaker series: Tiffany from Evergreen (March 22nd, 2009)

March 22, 2009 David’s House

Attending: Ben, Monique, David, Amber, Malcolm, Gabriel and Deanna

Absent: Nicole

Today:

I. Guest Speaker: Tiffany, who went to Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington

II. Deanna's presentation on Central Park East Secondary School

Today we looked at Central Park East Secondary School in Harlem,  New York. This was a small alternative school in the public system that Deborah Meier founded in 1985.

Central Park East Secondary School had a graduation rate of 90% compared to the city average of 55%. Of those graduates, between 85% and 95% went on to post-secondary education.

Central Park East was unique in the public system for a number of reasons, especially for its size, type of assessment and community involvement. Central Park East had 550 students from grade 7 to 12 compared to the New York average of 1000 at that time. The pedagogical approach emphasized group work, critical thinking and teachers did not use standard board curriculum. The staff and administration were against standardized testing. Testing was infrequent and students were assessed on their ability to complete portfolios in 14 different subject areas, with 7 related to compulsory subjects of Math, Science and Technology, History, Literature, Ethics and Social Issues, Media. Community involvement was very important at Central Park East with students working a minimum of 3 hours a week in a wide range of community service activities.

A Hundred Times More Rewarding: Learning by Doing, Not Memorizing

One student's review on the benefits of project-based learning.

by Alexis Carrero

http://www.edutopia.org/hundred-times-more-rewarding

What came to us during our discussion about Central Park East is that this is really a story about the arc of sustainability. How does an alternative school stay true to its vision and remain effective under the pressures of a public system? The Central Park East Secondary School that operates today has strayed far from the practices that led the Clinton Administration to name it as one of the five model urban high schools in 1997.

Meier documented her story and experience at Central Park East Secondary School in The Power of their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem (1995) . Her other books include, Will Standards Save Public Education? (2000); In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization (2002); with Ted and Nancy Sizer, Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools (2004); and co-edited with George Wood, Many Children Left Behind (2004), all published by Beacon Press.

Fredrick Wiseman made a documentary about Central Park East Secondary School in 1994 called High School II. It was viewed as "a study in social mobility." This was a follow-up to his 1968 documentary High School that was viewed as "scenes of rigid authoritarianism."