Social discussion of CS in K-12

["Israel, Maya" <misrael AT illinois.edu>]

I went to the presentation as well (in the evening). I got a similar impression to Martin’s. They definitely presented an anti-public school vibe (masked as anti “traditional schools”), but did so from the perspective of the flexibility that private schools offer as compared to “traditional schools”. They are right that traditional schools are not flexible in terms of credit requirements, the school schedules, etc. This is definitely a barrier to innovation in public schools although I don’t have any suggestions to address this issue. 

They presented an appealing model that focuses on students’ interests, collaboration, and flexibility. Their reading materials mentioned that they are not necessarily going to hire certified teachers, but they didn’t mention this in the presentation. The reading materials said that people with physics background, for example, will have deeper content knowledge than people with education backgrounds. In most cases, however, there is literature to support the fact that pedagogical content knowledge is as important as deep content expertise, so I was a bit troubled by this issue. 

I left the meeting both intrigued and moderately skeptical about the school. I have questions such as what is their selection process going to be? Will they be FULLY inclusive to students with disabilities? Will they have sufficient scholarships to make this an option to students without the financial capacity to pay for private school? Will they have adequate resources to support academically diverse learners? How are they going to balance high school requirements with the level of flexibility they described? Etc. 

Well, those are my thoughts.

Maya

Maya Israel, Ph.D.
Department of Special Education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

276B Education Building
1310 South 6th Street
Champaign, IL 61820
misrael AT illinois.edu 
http://education.illinois.edu/sped/people/misrael

From: <ctrl-shift-bounces+misrael=illinois.edu AT lists.mste.illinois.edu> on behalf of George Reese <reese AT illinois.edu>
Date: Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 2:52 PM
To: "ctrl-shift AT lists.mste.illinois.edu" <ctrl-shift AT lists.mste.illinois.edu>
Subject: [Ctrl-Shift] FW: Academy high

Shifters,

During my brief few minutes at the Academy High presentation, I spied Martin Wolske and asked him to share his notes with me later.

He did.
With his permission, I am now sharing those with the group.

 

George

 

 

From: Wolske, Martin B
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 1:15 PM
To: Reese, George Clifford
Subject: Academy high

 

Here's a few quick notes from the meeting. I'd be happy to debrief more-maybe next ctrl-shift?  

 

Experiential, project-based learning, portfolio-based assessment pedagogy. students pursuing their passion for life. 

 

Mostly positive time, although certainly negative toward traditional schools (nut targeted towards public schools directly). They tapped into fear that student may not get into Stanford because they look like 1700 other students. Noted history of an educational model taken from the Prussian army that has informed traditional schools, something inadequate fur the 21st century. 

 

Tapping into idea that academy high will transform education for all students in Champaign Urbana. Pedagogical model that interconnects different core classes with each other and the real world. Also includes modules designed by students at the start of a semester, as well as a collaboratively for independent study, research, internships, and a capstone project. 

 

Nothing radically new to those of us in ctrl-shift. Indeed, the model is quite intriguing. Questions that come to mind:

* Must reform like this come from the outside through such a private school? 

How do we level the policy playing field for public schools by opening up opportunities for such experiments within public schools? 

* What are we truly teaching by taking students out of the public system while trying to teach collaboration and civic engagement? 

* Do we need such an alternative school to teach an alternative model of school so that they can change legislation and policies, and become next gen teachers and administrators? 

 

Questions from audience focused on schedules and other such details, how to teach students to be cosmopolitan, how long consultants will be available to bring in their expertise (Champaign high school teacher if high achieving students asked this-insinuated innovation requires such consultant support), how students will be selected (not decided yet, but wanting students who want to learn-individual interview what are the questions student is asking), tuition and location (expect to have that set in the next 3 months), might it be too early to have students specialize via student-driven modules, what will be in it for the community (want collaboration with public schools, workshops for teachers open to all, learning competitions, advisory board including area public educators and other youth orgs to overcome separation in the area, internships with groups all over stress), ...

 

Left at 1:15 so missed last questions from the audience. 

 

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device