As a former teacher and now school leader, I know nothing is worse than missing the mark with your students. It is both disillusioning and frustrating to know that you are failing to provide them with the necessary tools to drive their own learning.
It was this realization that convinced me that something needed to change. We needed to do high school differently.
In 2017, the staff and I examined the model and curriculum of our alternative public high school to try to understand why a significant number of our students were failing to graduate or to engage in further learning afterward.
We discovered that it wasn’t necessarily the students who were failing, but rather the model that was failing the students. Our students were actually asking for more rigorous and relevant lessons.
We chose to listen, and we provided project-based, real-world learning that mattered to them. As a result, they became immersed in “figuring out” rather than “finding out” the answers to questions. The latter approach sometimes alienates learners in traditional courses.
I believe there are lessons from our high school in southeastern Massachusetts that could be useful across the U.S., where too many high school students are simply “getting across the finish line” to graduation.
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Our transformation involved designing and opening a different alternative school model, one that centers instruction on experiential, project-based units built on real-world scenarios. Known as TLEs, or transformative learning experiences, these units ground students in the question of “why this matters” for their learning, so engagement happens naturally. They challenge students to think critically and shift their perspectives about issues and dilemmas in their own lives and communities.
With the support of our technical partner, the nonprofit Springpoint, our school now offers 25 TLE units; students particularly love one called “Does College Make Cents?” in which they use math to evaluate what type of postsecondary learning might best support their future goals.
Students who never imagined themselves graduating from high school said they had gained a far clearer image of a path forward, backed by their own research. Many decided that a two- or four-year college was indeed the most prudent and accessible path for them.
Others discovered technical apprenticeships that supported their talents and interests. It was both affirming and powerful to hear students articulate how their school experiences changed their belief systems.
In our eighth year of using this curriculum, we can say with confidence that this is not only a different way to do high school, it is a meaningful and relevant way that better serves all students and particularly reengages students who had previously been off-track.
Our internal data supports that belief. Our attendance rose from 50 percent to 85 percent, and our graduation rate increased from 60 to 84 percent. In a student focus group, our newly engaged students raved about their relationships with their teachers and credited their learning experiences with providing purpose and helping them reimagine and alter their trajectories for the future. They told us they love learning again, just like they did when they were in elementary school.
Data collected by Springpoint from all its partner schools is helping us reimagine our work; it shows that 92 percent of students make connections between what they learn in TLEs and their lives.
When students are offered more choice in how they are learning and more opportunities to showcase critical thinking in the classroom, transformation happens.
As part of this approach, we look for teachers who want to uplift student voices, and who see their roles as facilitators of rich academic discourse.
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Transformative learning experiences help rewrite the narrative in the classroom and convey to students that lifelong learning is the goal. Transforming the learning experience works best with a technical partner working alongside teachers to help prepare lessons and build momentum early on in the process.
If we, as school leaders and policymakers, want to adopt policies that will have a lasting impact on our students, we need to place students at the center of that policy shift. The work we put in front of our students conveys our beliefs about them.
Give students an opportunity that honors their abilities and helps them reach their fullest potential and postsecondary goals. Provide them with a curriculum that empowers, uplifts and transforms them, and build frameworks that support freedom in the classroom to explore locally and engage critically.
Again: Too many high school students in our country are simply “getting across the finish line” to graduation. Transformative learning experiences challenge our students to see graduation as the “starting line” and ignite their passions and interests for future learning and meaningful careers.
Here’s my advice: Start small, incubate success and orchestrate larger-scale change through transformative learning experiences. I’ve seen this work in Massachusetts; I believe it can work everywhere.
Janet Schweizer is the director of Evolve Academy in Fall River, Massachusetts.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
This story about project-based learning was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.
