Reinventing high school
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Stacy Teicher Khadaroo Staff writer
| MANCHESTER, N.H.
Two-dozen high school students are gathered around a large work table as manufacturing teacher Dan Cassidy holds out boxes of metal bars and gears. The students choose among the parts to build model bicycles. 鈥淲hat else are we going to use today? Let me hear some vocab here,鈥� he says. When a student shouts out 鈥渃hains,鈥� he nudges them until they recall another term for it: 鈥渓inkage.鈥�
This isn鈥檛 a manufacturing class. It鈥檚 actually a combined geometry and physical science class. While clusters of students work at stations assembling miniature two-wheelers, others rotate through a lesson on the computer and reason through a problem about parallel triangles the old-fashioned way 鈥� with paper and pencil. Mr. Cassidy and co-teacher Athanasia Robinson, whose specialty is math, circulate and check on everyone鈥檚 progress.
鈥淚 have a really hard time just sitting in a class and focusing on a teacher and writing notes,鈥� says sophomore Hope Nichols as she and a purple-haired classmate bolt together a bike. 鈥淏ut here, everything is hands-on ... or I can kind of teach myself, which I really prefer.鈥�
Students rarely see textbooks here at the Manchester School of Technology High School (MST-HS), a low-slung utilitarian building a few miles from the river where high-tech businesses occupy former textile mills. In most classes, they don鈥檛 get standard letter grades. They don鈥檛 automatically move on to the next level at the end of the school year, but instead advance once they have mastered the material. Students buttress their classroom learning with real-world experiences 鈥� such as building a house or working as a chef 鈥� to help prepare for future careers.
Welcome to what, in some ways, may be a prototype of the high school of tomorrow. Here, vocational education meets cutting-edge academic innovation.
At the core of the school鈥檚 curriculum is a wide variety of career pathways students can choose from 鈥� ranging from nursing to policing. The four-year public institution itself is embedded within a career and technical education center that has long served juniors and seniors from other high schools who come to take work-related courses.
While the focus on career development here is stronger than at most high schools, MST-HS is symbolic of efforts across the United States to make education more relevant and engage students with new approaches.听
In an age of struggling public schools and rising global competition, education officials are searching for ways to break out of the pervasive industrial-age school structures 鈥� think 45-minute class periods, rote lecture-style teaching, and age-based grade levels. Some schools now wrap learning around community projects. Others have students create portfolios and do internships. Still others incorporate students into decisionmaking for how the school or classroom will operate.
Some of the boldest experimentation is going on in New Hampshire. The state has become a leader in the 鈥渃ompetency-based鈥� education movement 鈥� in which success is less about 鈥渟eat time鈥� in a classroom or passing traditional tests and more about students showing they can apply skills and knowledge to complex challenges.听
Nationally, 鈥渢here is a lot of interest in delivering education in new, more-flexible ways that address students鈥� differing needs, differing learning styles, and the differing paces at which they acquire knowledge,鈥� says Thomas Toch, director of FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown鈥檚 McCourt School of Public Policy in Washington. 鈥淣ew Hampshire鈥檚 commitment to the competency model is ... seen as a thoughtful and cutting-edge effort, though not one without its challenges.鈥�
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Initiatives are popping up across the state. One district, in Rochester, N.H., has become a pioneer in allowing even the youngest students to make choices about how they are learning. Rochester and eight other districts are also part of a first-in-the-nation pilot project in which achievement is measured by performance on tasks created by teams of teachers, rather than on standardized tests. MST-HS has become its own showcase of innovation, created with students like Hope in mind, students who might not flourish in a traditional high school but enjoy learning math and other skills with the help of sprockets and spokes.
New Hampshire鈥檚 quiet education revolution, if it proves successful, could inspire a dramatically different future for American schools.
Tessa Arrigo sits at a drafting board, her pink polished nails gently turning a compass to bisect an angle. She swivels on her stool to consult a computer for a self-paced series of 26 exercises in instrument drafting.
The sophomore is part of Design Communication, the 鈥渃ool鈥� career pathway that enticed her to try this school. She鈥檚 considering a future in biomedical engineering. The classroom 鈥� a sleek studio with state-of-the-art equipment and a creativity-inducing vibe 鈥� was designed by teacher and architect Stephen Koziatek. It has a lounge area for brainstorming and critiques, and shelves suspended from the ceiling to display models made with 3-D printers.听
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 feel like school,鈥� Tessa says. 鈥淚 hated coming to school in middle school.... But I actually enjoy coming to this school because it鈥檚 self-paced. I don鈥檛 feel stressed out too much because I have time to get things done.鈥澨�
She opens her portfolio to a drawing of her mermaid chair. She has a beach-themed bedroom and recently dreamed up the scallop-backed seat for her industrial design project. First she had to research all the components that go into building a chair. Then she had to draw it from various angles and create an advertisement to sell it.
Mr. Koziatek (鈥淢r. K,鈥� to the students) keeps up with what鈥檚 new in design so they鈥檒l be well prepared, whether they go to work as a drafter, head to community college for a CAD (computer-aided design) certificate, or opt for a six-year master鈥檚 in architecture.听
Each career program at MST-HS has an advisory board that includes professionals and partners from local businesses and colleges. They ensure the curriculum keeps up with changes in the field, and they set up internships for students and allow them to shadow professionals. Koziatek hears from students who have gone on to college that 鈥渢hey鈥檙e the ones that are, in some cases, showing the other kids how to do things.鈥澨�
The high-tech and academically demanding nature of some of the career programs at MST-HS often surprises people in the community, who remember its roots as a vocational school in the 1980s. 鈥淭hey really have that stereotype ... that it鈥檚 for kids that can鈥檛 make it academically, so here all they do is work with their hands,鈥� Koziatek says.听
Education policy makers understand that the world of work has changed, and that for long-term success, some college-level education is going to be required for most people to earn a living wage. show that 鈥渢here are multiple pathways to it,鈥� says Shaun Dougherty, a professor at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education.听
Many students are attracted to MST-HS鈥檚 motto: 鈥淎s fast as you want, as slow as you need.鈥澨�
The academic grading system at the school is 1 through 4, with students progressing along the scale from fall to summer, or until they reach Level 3, which means they鈥檝e demonstrated competency in all the key elements of a course. Reaching Level 4 means they鈥檝e gone above and beyond.
鈥淎t a normal school, you could skate by and get a C,鈥� says junior Tyler Burke. 鈥淏ut here ... instead of doing a paper just 鈥檆ause I had to do it, I have to be able to know it and give the teacher an example of it. Now I know stuff really well,鈥� he says during manufacturing class, above the din of a student grinding metal.听
During open houses, teachers tell prospective students they have to be self-motivated. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 part of the model: There鈥檚 a lot of freedom,鈥� says English and humanities teacher Jillian Corey. But students also have to take ownership of their learning. 鈥淲ith first-year students, we spend a lot of time initiating them, breaking down old ways of thinking,鈥� she says. Barely passing 鈥渄oes not exist here.... That blows their mind.鈥�
Another challenge: Too many of the students take the mantra 鈥渁s long as you need鈥� too literally in completing their work. So school principal Karen Hannigan Machado says the staff has been working to build into courses more self-direction, perseverance, and planning 鈥� traits often included in lists of 鈥�21st-century skills鈥� that employers seek.
Like many high schools in New Hampshire, this one is working toward having students move on to new classes or alternative learning opportunities as soon as they鈥檝e mastered the coursework. It鈥檚 not an easy transformation, but it鈥檚 already happening in the side-by-side, self-paced math classrooms run by Amanda Egan and Callan Cardin. In the middle of a 100-minute block, a girl walks up to Ms. Cardin and hands in her final test for a geometry unit. The teacher immediately pulls out the materials to get the student started on the next section.听
In Ms. Egan鈥檚 room, freshman Matthew Peterson works on his final unit for Algebra I, erasing mistakes as he talks through a graphing problem with a student teacher. 鈥淚鈥檓 just about done,鈥� Matthew says, wearing a T-shirt plastered with images of cash, of the math course.听
He expects to be ready to move to Geometry the following week, with two months still to go in the school year. 鈥淚鈥檓 already ahead, rather than having to slow down and wait,鈥� he says. Matthew has some incentive: Finishing Geometry is a prerequisite for starting the popular Game Design program.
The day before, freshman John Thornton had fulfilled his promise to finish Algebra I before April vacation. 鈥淚 walked right into the Geometry classroom and asked for a full unit and started doing it as soon as I got home,鈥� he says. He finished six out of eight papers for the new unit that very night.
Not everyone is so self-motivated. To help students not fall too far behind, teachers often work with them to set goals, and Egan even offers small prizes for meeting them. The students say they don鈥檛 need rewards, but, Egan says, 鈥渋t helps. They鈥檙e still kids.鈥�
Out of 30 students in Egan鈥檚 Algebra I class, 29 are on track to either complete it this year or take 鈥渟ummer recovery鈥� courses rather than having to come back in the fall. That鈥檚 a big improvement over last year, when she and Cardin first started the self-paced approach.听
She also tracks how her students compare with similar students nationwide. Ninth- and 10th-graders perform in line with the national norm for math, she says, but 11th-graders surpass it. She thinks that鈥檚 because they are able to apply the skills they built up in the first two years.
The self-paced approach addresses a problem many teachers around the nation face. Advanced students often feel stunted because they have to sit through the basic instruction that many of the others in class need. 鈥淏ut with the self-paced program, we cater to every type of student,鈥� says Cardin. 鈥淚 just love it.鈥�
Teens gravitate to MST-HS for a variety of reasons. Some like the small setting. Some are self-proclaimed geeks or students who have been bullied in other schools and feel more comfortable here, Ms. Machado says.
Of the 325 full-time students, about 25 percent require accommodations because of disabilities or medical issues. The school, which started in 2012, hopes to expand, because it usually has a wait list of at least 50 students after all the seats are filled through a lottery. Another 437 students come part time from 鈥渇eeder鈥� high schools in Manchester and beyond.
While competency-based education offers the potential for improving educational equity by tailoring learning to students鈥� individual needs, it also comes with risks. One is what happens if slower students never catch up. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e not able to give [struggling students] effective support, and the others take off, then we are exacerbating achievement gaps, hurting the kids that this model is designed to help,鈥� says Mr. Toch of FutureEd.听
But Cardin says she has witnessed students who would be trapped in low-level classes in a traditional high school come here and surpass expectations. She points to one boy who took a year and a half to finish Algebra I, so he came into her Geometry class well into the school year. 鈥淣ow he鈥檚 ahead of almost everyone else in the class,鈥� she says, because he took advantage of custom-fit resources and instruction.
Not everyone is excelling academically, though. On the SAT exam, 21 percent of MST-HS 11th-graders scored proficient or above in math in 2015-16, compared with 28 percent in Manchester and 40 percent statewide. Scores for reading showed similar gaps, but such disparities often reflect demographic differences 鈥� and at this school, in particular, many students struggle with traditional testing. Yet the dropout rate here is very low 鈥� less than 3 percent.听
Perhaps most unusual about the school is the inventive nature of the instruction. It requires flexibility and adventurousness on the part of both students and teachers.听
鈥淣inety-nine percent of the time, when we have a successful lesson, it鈥檚 because we didn鈥檛 pull it out of a textbook,鈥� says Ms. Robinson of the geometry and physical science class.
The mingling of academics with real-world problems can lead to unexpected moments of discovery. Kevin McDonnell, who teaches Green Technology, recalls when his students were concerned about too much algae in the big blue tubs where they keep fish for a project that combines hydroponics and aquaculture. In science, they had just learned about freshwater plankton and realized the organisms could eat the algae. Problem solved.听
鈥淭hat was amazing,鈥� Mr. McDonnell says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檙e hoping to go for, building-wide 鈥� their ability to make that connection....鈥�
Sitting on couches in the Game Design classroom, four teenage boys rank the traits of characters they are creating, such as charisma and stamina, when Jonathan Richard declares: 鈥淭his class taught me English!鈥澨�
His friends agree, saying they recently watched an anime film that helped them understand story arc and other concepts their English teacher has offered up in different contexts. 鈥淚t was deep,鈥� Jonathan says.听
In Game Design, 鈥渋f they don鈥檛 know how to break down a story and write good concepts, then they鈥檙e in trouble,鈥� says teacher Ryan Frasca.
Over in the Algebra I class, Egan sends two students, Nayshalee Rodriguez and Conor Flanagan, on a mission to check three ramps in the school to see if they are in compliance with the ADA (which they鈥檒l learn later is the Americans with Disabilities Act). She suggests they borrow a tape measure from the manufacturing teacher, and then they鈥檙e on their own.
They struggle at first, not sure exactly how to measure the height and length of the ramp and translate that into the 鈥渞ise over run鈥� formula for slope. It鈥檚 the kind of exploration that Egan says will motivate real learning. When they come back with their first round of 鈥渃razy measurements,鈥� she gives them just enough guidance that they feel confident to try again, and eventually they can show that the ramps do indeed comply.
When the four-year high school first opened, both teachers and students found the adjustment to competency-based grading awkward. Machado, as principal, was given a shoestring budget and only three months of planning time to open the school. But some of the early graduates now see the benefits of having to be self-starters, even if they didn鈥檛 then.
Trevor Harrington says he didn鈥檛 care about learning until his time at MST-HS. 鈥淣ow, two semesters into college, I鈥檓 almost an entirely A student,鈥� says the 2016 graduate who attends Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 because the teachers, although they were not always perfect ... taught in a way that made us appreciate the education.鈥�
Several of his fellow graduates agree. One of them used college credits earned senior year to jump-start her university education. Another says he can work in great restaurants to help pay for college, because of the culinary program he took 鈥� but exploring that in high school also saved him from investing more time and money in a career he decided he didn鈥檛 want after all.
Teachers, too, have thrived with the experimentation. 鈥淚鈥檝e grown far more as a professional than I honestly feel that I would have in a traditional kind of school setting,鈥� says Ms. Corey.
Despite all the innovation going on in schools across the country, most classrooms remain fairly traditional in their approach to learning. Perhaps as a result, only 38 percent of public school students in one national survey said most or all of their classes challenged them to their full potential. To bring into classrooms on a large scale would require a 鈥渟eismic shift鈥� that could take generations, says Jal Mehta, a professor at Harvard鈥檚 Graduate School of Education, in a report published by Jobs for the Future.
New Hampshire has a head start. High schools here have been shifting into competency-based education since 2005, and some districts have voluntarily transformed all their grade levels to the new approach.
Challenges remain. One is explaining the new way of grading to parents 鈥� and college admissions counselors. For those who go straight to a college program aligned with what they studied at MST-HS, that鈥檚 not usually a problem.听
But generally there will be a transition period, Toch says, in which some colleges may be skeptical of competency-based transcripts. The traditional high school credit represents a standardized measure of time spent in the classroom, even though it may not equate to actual learning. It鈥檚 a currency colleges understand, he says. Mr. Harrington had to explain his grades to an admissions officer at SNHU.
鈥淭hank God they had individualized comments鈥� by teachers on the transcript, he says. But having seen his teachers learn as they go, he鈥檚 better able to adapt to new situations. 鈥淐ollege is a lot like this school,鈥� Harrington says. 鈥淓very year is different.鈥澨�
This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.
