A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Description of the External Partners

Accelerated Schools. The Accelerated Schools program was founded by Dr. Henry Levin of Stanford University as a systematic approach to improve failing schools serving disadvantaged youth. Levin's theory was that remediation as a strategy had failed and that the key to improvement was to accelerate learning by challenging students in an enriched school environment.

The Accelerated Schools model was first implemented in elementary schools and had since expanded into middle schools. There were Accelerated Schools in many states, including Texas where 300 schools were participating. Assistance for Texas Accelerated Schools was provided by the Accelerated Schools staff at Stanford University and the Texas Accelerated Schools staff affiliated with the Texas A&M University School of Education.

A hallmark of Accelerated Schools was the inquiry method in which all faculty members in a school participated in committees or cadres to examine important questions developed by the faculty, administration, parents and students. The inquiry process involved reviewing the needs of the school using available information in a systematic way and developing a vision for the future unique to each school and its students. The Accelerated Schools model aimed to empower faculty, administrators, parents, and students to create a school vision that fit their circumstances and then be accountable for accomplishing that vision.

During the Accelerated Schools inquiry process, the Hollibrook faculty developed the idea of the ungraded continuum class, the bilingual program approach, and the strong emphasis on language development schoolwide. In later years, the Accelerated Schools process contributed to creation of a full-day kindergarten, hiring social workers in place of school counselors, creation of the Parent Center, and investing heavily in technology for the school.

Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT). Linda Vista school had an ACOT grant that supported instructional technology in the classroom. Linda Vista had four ACOT classrooms. The partnership provided professional development for teachers and equipment for the classrooms.

The staff development for teachers involved with ACOT was provided at a Teacher Development Center (TDC), a laboratory school with funding from Apple Computers, Inc., the National Alliance for Restructuring Education, and the National Science Foundation. Ten TDCs offered week-long practicum for participating ACOT teachers. Linda Vista was recently designated a TDC, which meant that Linda Vista teachers would train other National Alliance teachers to investigate new models of learning and integrate technology in the learning process. ACOT reflects the long-term commitment of Apple Computers to support the use of technology to improve schooling. ACOT provided equipment for Linda Vista classrooms including four Macintosh computers with CD-ROM drives, Powerbooks, scanners, televisions, VCRs, laserdisc players, and a Palmcorder.

Technical Education Research Corporation (TERC). With support from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs and Office for Educational Research and Improvement, TERC (a non-profit educational research firm located in Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Graham and Parks teachers collaboratively developed an approach to science education for students learning English that relied on instructional conversation for scientific sense-making. Graham and Parks and several others schools in the Boston area served as living laboratories for the development of the TERC's sense-making approach to learning science.

TERC had worked with Graham and Parks for six years in the Haitian Creole bilingual program. TERC studied what and how LEP students learned in an inquiry-based science classroom. In project classes, science was viewed as a way of knowing and thinking. Students were encouraged to determine what was studied and to decide which questions to explore within a given topic. The TERC staff developed extensive background material for the teachers and supplied materials for student projects. Teachers attended two-week summer programs and bi-weekly seminars with all the teachers in the Boston area working on TERC project science. In the seminars, teachers and TERC staff read scientific literature and analyzed classroom practice using videotapes, transcripts of lessons, and samples of student work. For example, they explored ways to generate more student talk and less teacher-dominated talk.

There was a close in-classroom working relationship between the TERC staff and the teachers in which TERC staff provided support and guidance to teachers as they worked through developing students' firsthand knowledge of an inquiry. Participating teachers received a $3,000 stipend annually. The two bilingual teachers in Graham and Parks' grades 5 through 8 classroom had been participating in the TERC project for two and a half years.

Susan Kovalik & Associates. Susan Kovalik, an educational consultant based in Washington State, and her firm of 50 consultants worked with individual schools, with districts, and with entire states to reform teaching and learning. Kovalik offered seminars as well as long-term coaching and assistance to schools. Kovalik required that all teachers at a school want to participate in her training before accepting the school for a coaching relationship.

The cornerstone of Kovalik's approach was the development of a brain-compatible learning environment. Kovalik argued that schools should design learning environments in ways that were compatible with what is known about how humans learn. She identified eight attributes of effective learning environments:¹

1. Absence of threat: Students feel physically and psychologically safe from harassment, put-downs or hostility from their peers or teachers.

2. Meaningful content: Curriculum is taken from real life, depends heavily on students' prior experience, is age appropriate, and promotes learning as its own reward.

3. Choices: Students are provided with different ways of knowing something.

4. Adequate time: Learning activities are scheduled to occur over a reasonable period of time to allow for student mastery.

5. Enriched environment: Students are exposed to a variety of firsthand resources, books, a reference library, and "being there" experiences.

6. Collaboration: Students work together in group learning activities.

7. Immediate feedback: Teachers provide students with an assessment of their performance in learning tasks.

8. Mastery/application: Students gain sufficient skill over a subject area that they can demonstrate mastery in the skill rather than superficial understanding.

Involvement with Kovalik began with several day-long in-service seminars. This intensive work was followed by a Kovalik consultant coaching teachers over a long-term period. Kovalik coaches assisted teachers in developing thematic units and creating a brain-compatible learning environment.

Despite the fact that Kovalik's theories and approaches were not specifically designed for LEP students, Hanshaw Middle School teachers and administrators reported that they were effective with minority and LEP students.

San Francisco Project 2061. Project 2061 was an endeavor sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Launched in 1985, Project 2061 was designed to transform K-12 science, mathematics, and technology education to ensure science literacy for all high school graduates. The mission of the project was to increase science literacy for all students who would live to see the return of Haley's Comet in 2061. A team of over 300 scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and historians participated in defining learning goals (including knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes) for science literacy as outlined in Science for All Americans. Educators collaborated with Project 2061 in specifying likely steps along the way in progressing toward these 12th grade understandings and habits of mind--by the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12. Focusing on the understanding and interconnection of concepts, rather than memorization of discrete facts, these specifications appear in Benchmarks for Science Literacy.

In the fall of 1989, San Francisco Unified School District became one of six national sites participating in Project 2061; curriculum models developed as a result of the Project were intended to be tools for reforming K-12 science, mathematics, and technology education. A task force of 20 teachers and curriculum directors from elementary, middle and high schools prepared the original district plan for 2061. (Three of the five middle school teachers on the district task force were from Horace Mann Middle School.) A curriculum model was developed and teams of teachers began to implement the model in four schools beginning in 1991.

The San Francisco 2061 curriculum model was based on interdisciplinary, project-based learning experiences called "Challenges." Teams of teachers at each school designed "learning challenges" that integrate natural sciences, mathematics, and technology as well as social sciences and humanities. Heterogeneous groups of students were challenged to address environmental or social issues of local or global scope within a given period of time using a constructivist approach. The model included an assessment component that was designed to measure students' ability to construct and apply knowledge, not reproduce it. The assessment tools included portfolios of student work, substantive dialogue with peers and teachers, and cooperative performance.

District-level support for teachers at participating schools focused on designing learning challenges and assessing their impact on student learning. While it was not explicitly developed for LEP students, the inclusiveness built into 2061, and the heterogeneous grouping practices, resulted in meaningful LEP student participation.

UTEP--School of Education. Through a variety of projects, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), School of Education was actively involved in El Paso schools. As a result, Both Wiggs Middle School and Del Norte Heights Elementary School benefited from collaborative relationships with the University.

Support for Wiggs took many forms, ranging from in-class coaching to professional development activities to the provision of costly equipment. Wiggs teachers and administrators received on-going assistance from University staff on the implementation of the "middle school concept." UTEP faculty also helped Wiggs staff develop a proposal for an on-site health clinic. Through a School of Education technology grant from NSF, Wiggs teachers were trained in instructional uses of technology. Twelve teachers at Wiggs received training from UTEP on computer hardware and software and on how to design lessons using the computer. The grant provided each participating teacher with three Macintosh LC III computers with CD-ROM drives, an LCD panel, a scanner, and two printers for their classroom. UTEP also linked student teachers with Wiggs teachers to help the teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. The School of Education also led an a community-wide effort called the El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence which was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, as well as by funds from private foundations. Through the El Paso Collaborative, Wiggs teachers participated in a Mathematics Institute to help restructure the school's mathematics curriculum. Teachers who participated in the off-site professional development activities returned to Wiggs to train their fellow teachers.

When Del Norte staff decided to target mathematics for their professional development activities, they hired a mathematics professor from UTEP to provide teacher in-services. The focus was on using manipulatives and critical thinking skills as they introduced algebraic concepts. This relationship eventually led to a partnership between Del Norte and the School of Education in which student teachers who had been trained by the mathematics professor did their student teaching at Del Norte and worked with teachers to further support their mathematics program.

¹ Kovalik, Susan J. and Karen D. Olsen. Kids Eye View of Science: A Teacher's Handbook for Implementing an Integrated thematic Approach to Teaching Science, K-6 . Kent, WA., 1994.
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[6. The Role of External Partners (part 1)]

[7. The District Role in Support of Reform]