The Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos, California

Look around and one is sure to find a student tethered to some technical device. School-aged children seemed to always be “connectied” through technology in almost any given situation. Realizing this, many schools and districts in America are marrying lessons and curriculum with technology. As this is becoming a common tool and approach for learning, one school is taking a decidedly different avenue regarding technology and tradition, and how these being used in student learning. To explore more on this story, School Spotlight takes us to the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos, California. (Click on clip below to see the story.)

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In traditional school-style, a child will graduate from one class up to the next grade with each passing year. However, at the Waldorf School, one teacher stays with the same students from kindergarten to eighth grade. According to the article, “It’s the Waldorf Way.”

All Waldorf teachers would agree that this style of teaching allows the teacher intimate knowledge of each child’s learning habits, strengths and weaknesses, therefore allowing better focus on those areas students need more help in. They also say that this style of learning helps them establish strong bonds with their students, alleviating the need for tests or grades. The article records one teacher as stating, “I know their strengths, I know their weaknesses. I know what will be hard for them and where they will shine. I’m their teacher with a capital ‘t.’” Perhaps this student-teacher bond is one reason that students, and school alike, are thriving with a nearly perfect graduation rate.

Source: www.warldorfpeninsula.org

One other such reason might also be the approach to technology used by the Waldorf School and its staff. Here, computers are used not at all in elementary grades, and sparingly by high school students. They are not anti-technology, but they do believe that it can interfere with student engagement. These teachers believe this enables good teachers to use their skills of good teaching to educate. Students of Waldorf echo that sentiment and become easily annoyed with their peers who cannot get “unplugged” to have a 30 minute one-on-one conversation, and instead are visiting social sites and using texts to converse.

A valid point made by one Waldorf senior student is that today’s gadgets are designed for ease of operation by anyone who attempts to use it, therefore they can figure out technology when the moment calls for it. According to the article, a former graduate of Waldorf, now a freshman in college, states “A Waldorf education gives you a foundation to say, ‘OK, I can put my phone in my bag. I can have a half-an-hour conversation with a person. I don’t need to be totally connected all the time.’ And that’s more valuable for making personal connections that will last longer than the next text you’re going to get.”

Source: www.waldorfpeninsula.org

She also shares her preference for taking notes in her classes by hand, and entering them into the computer afterward. It is a helpful tool in studying instead of an easy distraction in class (as she sees is the case with most students using computers to “take notes.” She says many of the screens display social sites, not notes.).

Parents of students enrolled in at Waldorf appreciate the affinity and core values their children develop for education. They see the foundation being formed and know that is what will stay will them. Computers are a tool to add to this success.

Of course, this is not to say this formula of breaking tradition and avoiding technology is the solution for all, but it has yielded fantastic results for the Waldorf School. Again, there is not going to be a one-size-fits-all answer for schools of a nation this vast and diverse. There might be schools who are extremely technology-driven, yielding fantastic results because of it. We are all different in how we learn, and we want to know some of those differences that are working for your school and communities. Use the box below to tell us what is working to make a difference in your educational system.

Humboldt Elementary in Dewey, Arizona

Immense amounts of pressure continue to build for schools throughout America. Achieving higher levels of performance from students and teachers alike is a sentiment that relentlessly rings in the ears of educators. Tests are added, funds and teachers are taken away, but the expectations for the answer to the equation remains unchanging … better performance, better students, better schools. Under the most ideal situation, educating students can be a daunting task. Mix in everything else our educational system is facing and the task seems downright undo-able. That is why State of the Re:Union’s School Spotlight takes delight in featuring a Bright Spot school, Humboldt Elementary in Dewey, Arizona. In great American fashion, the school, staff and educators have found a way to help their students achieve greatness. (To read the full article, click here.)

Source: readingworks.net

Within the past six years, Humboldt Elementary found itself at the threshold of being named one of Arizona’s “underperforming” schools, a title many schools have a hard time losing. However, determination helped those at Humboldt Elementary pull itself up by the bootstraps and begin its journey to become the highest performing school in Arizona, despite poverty levels and large class sizes.

According to Bright Spot, it was after a major initiative launched in 2005 that students’ reading scores shot up, assisting them to their current ranking. Humboldt’s Principal Cole Young attributes the school’s success “to highly trained teachers and support staff, as well as better use of student data and guided reading.”

Through the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) teachers were trained to learn how to identify each students’ level of reading and learning. Each student is assessed within the first week of school where teachers and staff can pinpoint students in need of intervention and at what level. A system of reading programs is set in place and followed, allowing teachers to monitor individual progress.

Ask teachers and they will most likely say that this level of attention per student is very hard to manage, especially with an average class size of 30. But the highly-trained teachers and staff at Humboldt do not make allowances for this as an excuse. They are dedicated to helping each child succeed, regardless of circumstances. And so far, it has worked, and worked well.

Source: originsonline.org

In addition to their teachers, the students at Humboldt Elementary stay motivated with a number of tools and strategies: guided reading strategies, Reading Counts (a competitive reading leveled program), and a zealous principal who’ll stop at nothing to help keep students’ momentum going. “Principal Young offers abundant rewards such as shaving his head and subjecting himself to a dunking booth if students meet reading goals. This year, if Humboldt students reach [their goal], Principal Young promises to eat insects.”

With caring staff showing this level of dedication, it is no wonder that a school with every excuse to fail – poverty and all of the hardships accompanying it, and large class sizes to boot – is not only surviving, but thriving. Humboldt serves as a beacon of hope for all schools, but especially those that are underfunded and overworked; and, unfortunately, many schools seem to fall into that category. It is always a pleasure to find schools, administrators and staff who go the extra mile, and grin as they do so.

Is there a school in your community taking similar measures to ensure quality education for all students? Perhaps you’ve heard of a great program or organization working to assist schools and students overcome learning gaps and/or funding needs? Or ever more, maybe there is a special way your community school rallies to keep their students motivated. Whatever the case, of course we want to know. You can give us the scoop in the box below.

Lately I’ve been browsing the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading website, which has a feature called “Bright Spots,” a collection of local success stories about reading programs.

One of those bright spots is Morningside Elementary School in Brownsville, Texas. About 99 percent of the kids are Hispanic. About 99 percent are on the free or reduced-price lunch program (FARM). About 80 percent are Spanish speakers.

Students reading in Morningside Elementary's library

This is a demographic that typically haunts the less- than-excellent categories of statewide standardized performance tests. Not at Morningside. Quoting from the website:

“During exam time at Morningside Elementary, big posters appear with a simple message: 90%. ‘I expect everyone to get at least 90 percent on the test,’ says Principal Dolores Cisneros Emerson. Ambitious? Yes, but consider that 100 percent of Morningside third graders — virtually all from low-income families —were reading at grade level on the state assessment test last year, and 55 percent were commended for having no more than three questions wrong. Emerson expects excellence from Morningside students, no matter where they come from. Benchmarking, regrouping, individualized instruction, tutorials, and relentless optimism get results.”

“It’s true,” said Morningside Principal Delores Cisneros Emerson, when I asked her about the bright spot description. “We’re awesome. Let me tell you. We’re the best.”

The school uses the aforementioned benchmarking to determine individual strengths and weaknesses. Kids who are performing poorly are placed in smaller sized classes and meet with an “interventionist” to work on skills.

The school has regular tutorials, three days a week in the fall and spring, to help kids who are not doing well and kids who could be doing better with a little push. Ten times a year the school has tutorials on Saturdays to make sure the kids get enough time with the teachers.

“There are a lot of facets that contribute to students’ success on the campus,” said the principal. “One of them is the teachers really caring about the kids and doing everything possible to make sure they get what they need and treating each child as an individual. Second, the interventions with the kids who aren’t doing well and benchmarking the kids really often and seeing what skill they are lacking and working on that skill for those kids.”

Morningside Elementary student reading in the school's library in Brownville, TX

The third key to success, says the principal, is parents. “I have a very strong parental base,” she says. “They may not be here every day sewing or cutting or making copies, but they support the school. They send their kids to school. Last year I had an ADA (average daily attendance) of 97 percent. They are trying to survive themselves, but the best way they can support me is to make sure they get their kids to school.”

Research tends to bear this out. One of the critical barriers to performance by low income kids is poor attendance.  Attendance is one of the three critical areas the campaign is asking schools and communities to focus on as a way of upping reading performance. The others are school readiness and the summer reading gap, the fact that low income kids lose ground during the summer months if they are not reading regularly.

Another key to success: “I know where the kids come from,” she said. “I know what their future is if they don’t become educated.”

She grew up in Brownsville, a city of about 175,000, across the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Mexico and attended local public schools, a local university and a local graduate school. She learned her management skills from another dedicated educator, Ernestina Treviño, who recently retired as principal of A.S. Putegnat Elementary, another school with mostly Hipsanic low income kids that has shown excellent results in the performance tests.

The National Civic League's All-American City Awards

“She would always try to think what she could do more for those kids to succeed,” she said. When she got her own school, she was determined to duplicate her mentor’s performance. When she came to the school, it had not made the AYP (average yearly progress) benchmark under the “No School Left Behind” law. Her first year, it made the AYP but just missed being classified as exemplary. “The second year, we became exemplary and we have been exemplary ever since.”

We used to run an awards program for outstanding educators, and I interviewed a number of the honorees. How to describe? “Dedicated,” doesn’t quite get it, “energetic,” yes, “confident,” that would be an understatement. I’m talking teachers and principals who work in low income, high crime parts of our cities and seem to have no problem mobilizing kids, parents, teachers, community and business people—any and everybody—to buck the expectations and statistics. It’s like what the NASA guy says in the movie, Apollo 13. For these people, failure really isn’t an option.

Does this remind you of a school you know? Tell us about it. We love to learn about communities and schools coming together to help their children achieve success.

Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

For this week’s School Spotlight, we at State of the Re:Union are saluting an organizational initiative being implemented into public education. The Citizen Schools is a network that began providing programs dedicated to assisting public middle school students in the Massachusetts area, but has since expanded its initiative’s reach.

Erik Schwarz created this organization after realizing that American students spend 80 percent of their waking hours outside school walls and yet only two percent of public funding supports out-of-school programs. Citizen Schools was founded to transform after-school programs from an afterthought into a powerful element of authentic, large-scale education reform. The organization’s program for low-income middle school students includes hands-on learning, discovery, teamwork and fun — in school buildings, led by professional educators and staffed by volunteer Citizen Teachers. Citizen Schools is a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, recognizing “the most innovative and sustainable approaches to resolving the world’s most urgent social issues.”

When searching for more on this program, visiting the programs site provides and excellent description of what the call to action is: Citizen Schools was founded “to transform after-school programs from an afterthought into a powerful element of authentic, large-scale education reform. The organization’s program for low-income middle school students includes hands-on learning, discovery, teamwork and fun — in school buildings, led by professional educators and staffed by volunteer Citizen Teachers.”

This apprenticeship program gives children a chance to partake in hands-on projects that show students the relevance of school in everyday lives. They learn the math in used in cooking, the discipline it takes to rehearse a dance routine, and the science involved in recycling.

Source: The Bostonian Longhorn

Through the support of program sponsors, Citizen Teachers instruct 10-week apprenticeships. During this time, students work side-by-side with these experts and explore new professions, gain new and innovative skills, and create something for their community. When this 10-week period is up, the students participate in a “WOW!” event (an event aptly named after the verbal reactions from all who witness the incredible job performed by students). During the “WOW!” event, students are given the opportunity to turn the tables and put their apprenticeship into practice through teaching adults on the subjects they have learned.

The Citizen Teachers are going a step further in their apprenticeship efforts and are continuing to volunteer into the school year. These volunteers want to help create classroom learning that can actually be applied to real life scenarios. As an example, some attorneys from a local firm will teach a course on the business side of sports called “Buying the Celtics.” Another topic will teach students about developing online marketing campaigns for a real corporation, and yet another course will allow students to learn JavaScript programming with Google engineers. Needless to say, doing this will help reinforce relevance in the school day, bolster new interests, and strengthen motivation for students.

This fledgling program has already gained notoriety in communities it serves, evidenced by a laundry list of accomplishments. The following bullet points addresses some of the achievements found on the Website. This information reflects successful effectuation of the program by 2010′s end:

• Citizen Schools’ network has grown from a one pilot site serving 63 students to a seven-state network with 37 sites serving 4,500 students.
• In 2009, external evaluation results conducted by Policy Studies Associates demonstrate that Citizen Schools is effective in engaging at-risk middle-school students and building a bridge to high school. For the cohort of Citizen Schools students whose graduation status is available, 75% graduated from high school in 4 years, compared to 58% for the district overall.
• In 2009, Citizen Schools played a large role in encouraging Congress to pass the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. In addition, Citizen Schools worked closely with the office of the late Senator Kennedy on legislation introduced this past summer to expand the learning day and involve community partners in that effort.

The Citizen School network is creating a vested interest in the communities who are fortunate enough to have this program. Through getting professionals involved with students, a symbiotic relationship is formed. When community leaders and members volunteer to teach their skills, they receive a bird’s eye view of exactly what our youth are experiencing in education and supplementing areas that are vitally important to the success of these students. The children are able to conceptualize and truly understand (something that is not really done until most people are in their late teens) why continuing education is important.

There are so many efforts and initiatives across the country that are striving to achieve these results. While this prototype might not be ideal for all students, it certainly proves that there are solutions out there. We just need to keep trying until we find what works. Everyday, people are becoming more involved in finding what works for their community. Would this work for yours? If so, is there anything that might need to be amended in the program’s setup? Do you know what, if any, initiatives are being implemented in your area schools to assist students and teachers? There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but it gives me a sense of hope to know that this important issue is making its way to the forefront of some great minds in America. Does this include you?

Yes, Americans continue to lament over the current state of our economics and the trend of “trimming the fat” perpetuates the monetary diet that is leaving our schools and communities emaciated and hungry for a solution. SOTRU’s Abundant Community contributor, John McKnight, uncovers the resolve of one Chicago community in helping to eradicate this problem. In this SOTRU Monday edition, we learn how it takes a village to educate a child.

Source: Shen

Throughout the United States, local school districts are cutting back on teachers and curriculum while increasing class size.  With our current economy, it doesn’t appear that this trend will soon be reversed.

This grim prospect depends upon whether we have the novel belief that it takes a school to educate a child. Historically, the primary source of education was the knowledge and wisdom of the villagers. However, as the power of schooling grew, the neighborhood knowledge got devalued and unused. And so it is that local people often feel cornered as schooling recedes.

Supposing, on the other hand, that we looked again at the neighborhood knowledge. What would we find?

In one African-American, working-class neighborhood in Chicago, they’re finding out what their neighbors believe they know well enough to teach the local young people. When they interviewed 19 adults living on 3 blocks, they found that they were prepared to teach 37 different topics. Here they are:

Mathematics | Black history | World history | Geography | Etiquette | Gardening|Cooking  | Painting | Parenting | How to have faith | Sheet metal work|Plumbing | Carpentry | Skating  Real estate/business | Reading comprehension | Sewing | Typing | Reading | Knitting | Computer technology | Real estate | Good neighboring | First aid | Self-esteem | Life styles for youth Marketing | Strategic planning | Physical fitness | Basic accounting | Reading a credit report | Banking | Diction | Grammar | English | Public speaking | Journalism for beginners

The work ahead is to revive our neighborhood capacity to be responsible to, and for, our young people. The initial steps are simple. Find out what your neighbors are willing to teach. See which of these topics the local young people would like to learn. And then, make the connection.

Together, these new connections are the beginning of creating a village that raises a child, and a community that really cares about its young people.

Is this a good solution to an ongoing problem? Do you think this is one way to supplement what your community schools are lacking? If so, what unique skill set/s do you have to offer that might benefit the children in your community? We at SOTRU want to hear from you. To find out more on this neighborhood initiative, email John at JLMABCD@aol.com.

John McKnight

John McKnight is an expert on communities. An Ohio native who currently lives near Chicago, he has spent decades organizing communities and researching them, primarily in the Windy City itself. In the course of his career, he mobilized neighborhoods during the civil rights movement, wrote several books about community development, created a center for urban affairs at Northwestern University, and even taught the current President a thing or two about advocacy. (Yes, it’s true: way back when, a young and eager Barack Obama interned at McKnight’s training program for community organizers in southeast Chicago). If that’s not enough, he recently co-authored a book called “The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.”

State of the Re:Union will be featuring pieces from John McKnight and Peter Block of Abundant Community every other Monday.

College graduations are physically and emotionally draining. The days are long – packed with official ceremonies, lists of names read slowly in alphabetical order, and dress shoes filing one by one across the stage. Relatives come to visit, nobody gets enough sleep, and there’s still so much packing to do. To top it all off, you receive a single piece of paper, your diploma, and suddenly everything seems to change. The academic bubble bursts and it’s time to leave the friends who have become like family.

A few days ago I graduated from Northwestern University, and yesterday I said goodbye to one of my best friends. The moments before he left were ordinary: we met another friend at a café; we talked about the GRE exam, subletters and summer jobs; we drove home and listened to pop songs on the radio. Then we hugged and said we’d see each other soon, and I knew we would, but I still had to fight tears as I turned to walk away.

Hours later I sat in my bedroom, resisting a cliché temptation to play Vitamin C’s graduation song as I tried to determine why these goodbyes are so hard for me, even when I know they’re not forever. I’m not sad about losing my friends because I know I won’t – we’ll make an effort to visit each other soon, wherever we end up. I’m sad about losing something greater – the community we created here at Northwestern – because we’ll never again live in the same place at once. We won’t be able to hop in the car for a weekend road trip to Michigan, head to a café for coffee, or go to someone’s apartment for a late night game of cards.

As a student I always considered college in terms of exams and GPA, but lately I’ve been thinking about it much more in terms of community. In many ways, college was the first time I really learned what a community is and why it’s so important. I grew up in a great neighborhood when I was younger, but my parents and family members were my main support network. At Northwestern I had an opportunity to live with people who were my age, had similar interests and were going through many of the same challenges. Away from my family and home, I made friends and expanded my support network – creating a new family and a new home for myself, which is what I think community means.

Northwestern’s commencement speaker this year was Stephen Colbert, an alumni and TV sensation who entertained us with stories about his own time at Northwestern. In between jokes, he slipped in a serious message about community that I found quite compelling. He spoke about his move to Chicago and the beginning of his improv career with Second City.

“Now, there are very few rules to improvisation, but one of the things I was taught early on is that you are not the most important person in the scene. Everybody else is. And if they are the most important people in the scene, you will naturally pay attention to them and serve them. But the good news is you’re in the scene, too, so hopefully to them you’re the most important person, and they will serve you. No one is leading. You’re all following the follower, serving the servant. You cannot win improv.

And life is an improvisation. You have no idea what’s going to happen next and you are mostly just making things up as you go along. And like improv, you cannot win your life – even when it might look like you’re winning. I have my own show, which I love doing, full of very talented people ready to serve me. And it’s great. But at my best, I am serving them just as hard, and together we serve a common idea – in this case the character Stephen Colbert, who it’s clear isn’t interested in serving anyone. And a sure sign that things are going well is when no one can really remember whose idea was whose, or who should get credit for what jokes (though naturally I get credit for all of them).

But if we should serve others, and together serve some common goal or idea – for any one, what is that idea and who are those people? In my experience, you will truly serve only what you love, because as the prophet says, service is love made visible. If you love friends, you will serve your friends. If you love community, you will serve your community. If you love money, you will serve money. And if you love only yourself, you will serve only yourself, and you will have only yourself. So no more winning. Instead, try to love others and serve others, and hopefully find those who love and serve you in return.”

These past few months, I’ve been consumed with worry about finding a job and being successful in “the real world.” But now that graduation is over, as I scour the job postings and start my applications, I can only think about my friends. I’m worried about moving to a new city by myself and trying to build another support network, worried about starting over from scratch.  I still want to be successful, sure, but more than that I want to live with a close group of friends. As Colbert recommends, I want to love and serve others, to find others who love me in return.

So for now I sit in a mostly empty room and imagine moving away. I forbid myself from playing Vitamin C’s graduation song but can’t help looking through old photo albums of my friends. And I wonder why I never realize until the very end just how important a person or place has been to my life. Why is it always the night before moving day, amidst packed boxes and blank walls, that I suddenly understand what it means to have a home? Why is it in the ordinary moments before goodbye, driving in the car with pop songs on the radio, that I feel how wonderful it is to have a friend?

As a college student I became part of a community, and as a college graduate I know I’ll miss that community dearly. As I move forward into the real world I’ll try to keep my friends close, and I can only hope that I’ll remember to appreciate how much they mean to me while we’re still together.