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The High School of the Future
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  High schools are faced with the challenge of keeping up with a fast-changing world. But some educators in the Granite State are making measurable headway when it comes to improving performance and keeping the dropout rate low. We’ll look at what they’ve come up with and see how they’re applying their ideas to New Hampshire’s high schools. Guests
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I think a primary concern is first getting high school to the "present." With teachers having to prepare students for a world that is so quickly changing, it is important for parents and teachers to ensure that their children are getting the best education in terms of the integration of New Media technology and life skills. A blind eye is currently set on social media awareness, online video gaming addiction, obsessive texting, and youth culture's lack of face to face communication skills. A NY Times editorial recently claimed that the paper resume was out in five years, replaced by online searching. Half the teachers don't know what social media is... but their students are making mistakes that will effect them later in life. I recently gave a talk on the modernization of my classroom. The classroom is mostly paperless, strongly collaborative and student centered, and very rooted in reading and writing online through meaningful practice. An attendant posted some notes on my talk: http://www.danielharper.org/blog/?p=1425
The pendulum swings. Will we ever get it right? High Schools disintegrate subjects so as to present all material in an accountable and thorough way. Life integrates problems that require knowledge to solve. Presenting loads of material, one subject at a time is not conducive to remembering it, but integrating is not conducive to thoroughly addressing all of the grade level expectations.
I propose that teachers collaborate to arrange a combination of experiences, lectures, multi media resources to provide content. Then students have to prove that they have become proficient in the GLEs accross the curriculum. An integrated presentation could address proficiency in as many GLEs as a student could cram into it. While creating rich evaluations, students could use their face time with experts and other students to work on fleshing out their products.
However, you can bet that if all the GLEs are not covered and one board member's student doesn't get into Dartmouth or the school drops in its annual evaluation, it will be the teachers' necks on the line not the visionaries. Teachers take their responsibilities seriously. Resistance is partly due to viewing the visionaries as having incomplete thoughts. They appear to condemn what teachers do, and they will abandon teachers if the whole thing collapses. Teachers will be left holding the bag and be blamed for not getting it right, when the visionaries may not have calculated staffing needs, training, or the impulsivity of a typical teenager.
The first step would be to see to what extent subjects could be integrated, GLEs could be addressed across subjects with a few comprehensive evaluation tools, and expenses could not increase. Good Luck.
What was missing from today's thoughtful discussion was input from teachers, parents and students. The new high school in Bedford began implementing student competencies last year. Hearing from their teachers, students, and parents would have been valuable. What about the business community and colleges? Is there any research on the correlation of competences with school improvement? Would it have been better to pilot in a few schools rather than the whole state?
Have you considered contacting the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School based from Exeter? I am currently the Academic Support Specialist as well as an instructor for VLACS. We are a public online high school with all of our courses completely online and free to all NH students. Our instructors are all NH certified teachers. I believe that Fred Bramante is familiar with our school, but given the subject of today's Exchange, I thought you might want to contact either our CEO, Steve Kossakoski or our Chief Learning Officer, Gary Tirone about our school at 778-2500. Our students have a diversity of backgrounds--teen age moms, home schoolers, "drop-outs" who choose to complete their credits for a diploma, students traveling abroad who want to maintain their credits, as well as a majority who have created a "hybird" of traditional and online course options.