Aliyya Swaby Photo
Exploring 3-D design at Elm City.
A New Haven middle school “school of the future” won’t get a planned full expansion next year, as administrators try to straighten out some of kinks in the model.
The Elm City College Prep board voted to halt a planned expansion of the experimental educational model, called “Greenfield,” in its middle school next year.
The vote came after Achievement First charter network CEO Dacia Toll updated all board members of the successes and challenges of the new model Wednesday night at a meeting on Dixwell Avenue. Achievement First operates the school.
This year, Elm City College Prep tried out the Greenfield model in kindergarten at 407 James St. and in fifth and sixth grades in a newly leased building at 495 Blake St. The model, designed by the company that developed Apple’s computer mouse, gives students more autonomy of their learning and incorporates real-world learning into academic learning.
Next year, the board voted, the fifth and sixth grades will move out of the Blake Street building and into the elementary school building on James Street. And the Greenfield model will expand to second through fourth grades. That will be a smooth transition since some aspects are already being piloted in third and fourth grades, Toll said.
Now Elm City College Prep Middle School is split into two, with Greenfield students at Blake Street and “classic” seventh and eighth grades at Elm City College Prep Middle School on Dixwell Avenue. Greenfield will not expand to the seventh and eighth grades, Toll said. At least not yet.
Administrators hit a few bumps in the road rolling out the model in fifth and sixth grades. Elm City College Prep Middle School Principal Robert Hawke explained some of these difficulties at the last board meeting in November.
A plan for two-week career “expeditions” in fifth and sixth grades fell through. And administrators scaled back to a three-day indoor series of arts and culture workshops instead.
The main problem is that leaders were “so focused on the new,” they forgot to build on existing foundational elements of teaching and learning, Toll said. The new educational experiments “are not a replacement for having common expectations and new staff who are skilled at basic classroom management.”
Teachers received two days “sort of” for training on school culture, compared to the week-long process at other schools in the charter network, she said.
Some of the new aspects worked well, especially in kindergarten.
Kindergartners are enjoying the regular “goal team” and “dream team” meetings that promote their social-emotional learning and prompt parent engagement, Toll said. They are also learning how to direct their own learning in specific time blocks during the day.
And middle school students are using online playlists in humanities and science to direct their own learning and master content, she said.
But middle school students were not ready for large group self-directed learning, instead needing to work in smaller groups with more support, she said.
5 PM’s Too Late
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Toll presents Greenfield data to the board.
Most of the teachers in the middle school were new to the profession and needed more support than planned for, she said. The length of the school day — which ends at 5 p.m. — is too long for both students and teachers.
“The original school day til 5 o’ clock? Mistake,” Toll said.
The plan to pursue a K‑6 Greenfield school on James Street will benefit students and teachers, allowing the elementary school to work under one design so administrators can strengthen it over time, she said.
“I still deeply believe in this, but it takes a while,” Toll said.
The Elm City College Prep board voted unanimously to expand Greenfield K‑6 next year in the James Street building.
"The main problem is that leaders were 'so focused on the new,' they forgot to build on existing foundational elements of teaching and learning, Toll said. The new educational experiments 'are not a replacement for having...new staff who are skilled at basic classroom management.'''
Wait, what?
1) Greenfield is almost all new staff. When a problem is described as pertaining to "new staff," this is selective use of language & indeed pertains to "most staff."
2) The teaching competency is so low that new staff (i.e. most staff) haven't acquired "basic" classroom management skills?
3) And, as I recall from the February 2015 BOE meetings, this is the brilliant model that NHPS schools and teachers are supposed to learn so much from? This is the charter system that protested all of New Haven's "failing" public schools on The Green not too long ago?
I'm almost impressed by the cavalier language Dacia uses to describe the gap between the education she promised families and what was actually delivered. "Bumps in the road," doesn't seem to cover it & doesn't convey much remorse for the false promises made to families.
Rather than spending $$ on rallies on The Green, highly paid consultants from California, etc. AF could've easily taken a walk around NHPS and learned one or two things that are obvious to most educators. One thing that AF/Greenfield could stand to learn is that teaching is not a series of technical skills that can be taught in a 2 week timespan. Teacher experience & longevity are cornerstones of healthy schools. If frequent staff turnover & inexperience are embedded into your school model, then your model is careless and degrades the importance of relationships between teachers and students.
AF's false sense of superiority has backfired, but don't you worry, all of the CEOs and consultants will be just fine. They will retreat back into their money, vast carelessness, or whatever caused them to dabble in New Haven's schools in the first place.