Is multi-age inquiry-based education too hard on teachers?

Carolina School for Inquiry made AYP this year, its fourth year of existence.  WOO-HOO!!!

Many new schools aren't judged for AYP (adequate yearly progress) until their fourth year because it takes at least that long for the effects of the new school to overcome the old schools.  In the case of CSI, a charter school, Richland School District One chose to be cautious and use AYP to keep track even in the first three years.

Not only did CSI make AYP, it is leading the district in many areas of testing on the statewide PASS test. 

This is important not only to CSI parents, teachers, and students, but to all advocates of excellent public education for all people.

This is what we heard from detractors, mostly in Columbia, but even from some blogger in Alaska:

• Inquiry is for white, middle-class children.  Other children don't learn because they aren't (fill-in-the-blank) culturally/genetically/mentally able to learn through inquiry.  They need tables, worksheets, and yelling teachers.  (How's that tably/worksheety/yelly thing workin' for ya?)
• Inquiry lets children do whatever they want and so they won't learn basic skills or achieve the standards or learn the essential boring stuff.
• Teachers aren't willing to work hard enough to properly implement inquiry.

This is what we see:

Carolina School for Inquiry has a diverse population of students.  It reflects the urban/rural, social, cultural, and ethnic makeup of Richland School District One. 

As a charter school, every child has a parent who decided to give multi-age, inquiry-based education a try, although not every parent is able to be in the school as often as they'd like (including me.)  Parents do make a difference in their child's education, but we can't blame the parent and move on.  As Victoria Dixon-Mokeba says, each child brings the best parents they have and if that's not such a great parent, that child still needs to learn.

Carolina School for Inquiry has some excellent, committed, professional teachers.  These teachers work longer and harder than many of their counterparts in traditional public or private schools.  They attend professional development courses to improve their knowledge and skills in both subject matter and in inquiry, multi-age, and differentiated education theory and practice.  They grade not with simple formulas and ABCs, but with a combination of kidwatching and written and oral evaluation. 

My son's report cards are always at least four pages long, and in them I can see that his teachers really know him as a learner.  We have been lucky to have teachers committed to multi-age inquiry since he began here in third grade.  I understand that not all teachers at the school have been willing to put this kind of time into the narrative report cards, and I feel sorry that their parents and students haven't experienced a well-honed narrative report card. 

In order for Inquiry to be done right, the teachers have to be committed.  They need to understand differentiated education and know how to implement it.  They need to have a carefully crafted plan.  Although Inquiry teachers are flexible, they can't fly by the seat of their pants.  Each child needs to have what is in effect an IEP, an individual education plan.  The teachers can't use pre-fab lesson plans, even if they have "worked" in traditional classrooms for 25 years.  At CSI, there are no children left behind.  The teachers can't say, "I've done all I can with that one, he's a lost cause."  Each child must learn to be the best learner he or she can be.  No excuses.  No "try" only "do."

A couple of teachers are complaining that multi-age, inquiry based education is too hard.  They can't say it doesn't work.  They don't say the kids don't learn.  They say that it is too hard.  They focus on multi-age, saying the class levels are too broad, but as we have said, if inquiry is done right, the developmental levels are not so important as in a traditional classroom.  We don't need "bluebirds" and "crows."

And as I've said, my son's teachers have all been committed to the best student learning, so I don't really understand what the other teachers' problems are.  But I do know that Carolina School for Inquiry is a school of choice and if it doesn't fit the need of a teacher, they should find a more traditional, easier school at which to teach.

There are thousands and thousands of committed, energetic, professional, child-loving teachers out there.  CSI only needs seven of them.

Congratulations to Victoria Dixon-Mokeba and the fine staff and faculty, to all of the students, and to all of the families and friends of CSI.  We are a success and now almost everyone knows it.

6th grade at CSI

This is the letter I sent to the Richland One Superintendent. I hope it helps. I talked to the counselor at the school Mark is zoned to, and she seems really cool. I know Mark would do well at Sanders Middle School, mostly because he'd get in the advanced classes. What about kids who won't be in advanced classes? Don't they deserve to be treated with respect, encouraged to explore, taught in the way they learn best? And I really really really hate Accelerated Reader. Really.

The letter:

Dear Dr. Mack,

As a parent and a strong supporter of excellent public education in South
Carolina, I am writing to support the implementation of a sixth grade at
Carolina School for Inquiry public charter school.

My son Mark has been a student at CSI since its inception when he started third
grade. Previously he had attended South Kilbourne elementary and Harmony
School, a multi-aged inquiry based private school. Although he had caring
teachers at both schools, neither of those school situations offered what
Carolina School for Inquiry has given him.

He has blossomed as a learner and as a responsible citizen in a school with a
diverse population and an atmosphere of kindness & respect. Nowhere
else would Mark be able to interact with children of such diverse ethnic,
cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds and be able to learn not only the
designated curriculum but what it means to be a responsible individual and
member of society.


As a board member and frequent visitor to the school, I have seen other children
blossom as well. Carolina School for Inquiry has shown the nay-sayers who
claimed that Inquiry can only be used to teach middle-class children that they
are wrong. Most children learn better when they are respected and expected
to respect others, and when they see themselves as scientists, historians,
readers, writers, and citizens and not as observers.


I want this learning to continue, and I know that Carolina School for Inquiry
can serve a 6th grade population as well as it has the K-5 students.
Please give us the chance to show you and all other people who care about
quality education how well Inquiry can work on the 6th grade level.


Sincerely,

Katharine Duffy Thomas
Parent
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Carolina School for Inquiry

Brave New World

CSI has elected a new board. This is the third board elected by parents, faculty, and staff. The first board was elected by the charter committee.

Charter schools, like new nations, require great leadership, and the nature of that leadership is different at each stage.

Stage 1 is the inception, the revolution. A group of people, in our case parents and educators, decide they want a better place for their children to learn. They decide that this better way is so good, they want to share it with all children. They want to help improve not just the education of their own children, but all public education.

Once the idea is defined, it has to be nurtured into a plan. Someone must write the charter, which will describe the brilliant idea in a way that can be implemented and evaluated. The charter also includes the boring business part of education that most people in public schools don't have to think about. Buildings, food for children, insurance, access, funding.

The leaders have to sell this great idea to the Department of Education, to the local school district, and to parents who will be willing to send their kids to this new place.

And so a great charter school needs leaders who are visionary, charismatic, business-minded, persuasive, and trustworthy.

Stage 2: the first few years.

The school is new, but it is a school. Some new ideas will shine, others will fail. Because it is a charter school, ideas can be easily monitored, evaluated, and adjusted (within the bounds of the charter). Students & their parents will come. Some will love it. Some will hate it. New people will come and they will need to be acclimated. Teachers will have to learn a new way of teaching, an new way of thinking of themselves as teachers. They will have to see themselves as active decision makers in the class and in the school and not as employees who follow rules and fill out forms. (They will still have to follow rules and fill out forms, this isn't Utopia.) The teachers are leaders in a charter school.

The Leader, who is the principal or lead teacher or director, has to wear a lot of hats. She is the educational leader & curriculum leader as in any public school. She is also a business manager, a marketer, a personnel director, a lobbyist, and many many more things.

The Board of Directors is adjusting to governance over management. They have hired a manager, and it is to be hoped, she is managing. The board has to anticipate situations & set goals in order to determine what policies should be established. Policies are guidelines that help you deal with difficult situations. They are like the rules of death and a funeral --- it's already there so you can know what to do without thinking about it at a time when it's hard to think. This job is tedious, not nearly as much fun as building the actual school. Even though there are other policy manuals to crib from, it's still like reinventing a very boring wheel.

The Board leaders move out of the spotlight, but are still extremely important. They are watchdogs, cheerleaders, visionaries, business leaders, marketers, fundraisers, and policy makers. They make sure that the charter is followed, that finances are sound, that the future is solid, and most importantly: that children are learning.

I think that board members are acrobats balancing on a line of over-involvement in the management of the school by interfering with the manager, and under-involvement by trusting the manager too much and not overseeing the business of the school. Others don't agree.

Stage 2, the first few years of the school's operation, is a time of testing boundaries, trying on roles and figuring out what works and what doesn't work. The leaders need to be flexible, resolved, and ego-less. This is not an easy time.

Stage 3, which I believe Carolina School for Inquiry is entering, is more settled, although not stagnant. I have not been there yet, but I am hoping it is a time where we can concentrate on sharing our strength with other public schools. I'd like for us to show the state that an inquiry curriculum, an atmosphere of respect, & nurturing of family involvement can benefit all children. The children, the teachers, and the families at CSI are special, but they are not different. I'd like to spread the word.

So I see the board leadership continuing to oversee the sound fiscal policies & strong curriculum, while branching out into marketing & fundraising, so that we can let others know the good things that are happening at CSI. Stable, but not stagnant.

Since the beginning, CSI has had great leaders with the skills needed at each stage. The visionaries and the business minded have come forward. Some are still here and some have moved on. Everyone has left CSI a little stronger, a little wiser, and a little better. And for that and all of the great people who have converged in this time and space, I am grateful.