curiousgirl's playground

My friend Theodore King and I had the pleasure of meeting Chris Lehmann, principal of Science Leadership Academy (SLA), this past Wednesday morning. SLA is a new Philadelphia public school, which opened this past Fall 2006, focused on project-based learning and built on School 2.0 principles. SLA's five core values (inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation and reflection) are deeply emphasized across all its curriculum. Many thanks to Christian Long, CEO of DesignShare, for introducing me to Chris in the first place!

Chris graciously offered us a few moments of this time out of his busy schedule to discuss the making of his vision. In addition, Jon Amsterdam gave us a tour of the facilities. Below are some of the observations I made from the visit.

• Empower students! SLA loves each of its students as individuals. This is deeply reflected in its admissions process. Each interested candidate is evaluated separately based on academics, extracurriculars, interest in project-based learning, etc. and goes through a face-to-face interview process where students are assessed based on their presentation skills, interaction with the SLA community, etc. Consequently, admission is not biased to only students who are top academic performers. Instead, the admission process considers a breadth of very diverse, qualified candidates. For instance, if a student was not performing as well academically, he/she must justify their performance during the interview process and why they are interested in a place like SLA. Fit is what matters. While this approach may lead to a larger academic difference gap among classes (which may be more difficult for teachers from a teaching perspective), ultimately I think this process provides "balance" and the "right" mix of students. At the end of the day, you want to admit people who truly want to be there, and SLA's admission process does just that.
• Renovate traditional learning. SLA focuses on project-based learning with lots of interdisciplinary overlap across courses, so students can easily apply concepts learned in one subject to another. For instance, history teacher Mr. Matt Baird described the most recent project his students were working on. It was focused on the abolitionist period where students had to draft a letter in response to the Dred Scott decision. The students then use modern technology to create advertisements during that time period. In another project, they must research and collect stories on historic Philadelphia and later publish the material on a public website. This process allows the students to mix knowledge of history with other disciplines (arts, computers, etc.).
• Incorporate cutting-edge technology. Each SLA student has an Apple labtop. Classes run on open-source course management programs like Moodle, allowing students and teachers to more easily collaborate online via features such as virtual classrooms, gradebook, discussion forums, and file uploads. In addition, teachers can use blogs and wikis to communicate with students on a daily basis. Chris told us that they are now switching over to use Drupal. In particular, they are partnering with Bill Fitzgerald of OpenAcademic to build a standard for online collaborative learning for the new tech-savvy generation.
• Create a sense of community. Students actively participate in all activities from helping with the SLA admissions process (acting as "interviewers" and providing their own feedback on candidates) to making changes to open-source software (updating SLA website, upgrading features of programs, blogging). One example Chris mentioned was a student who had excellent academics (4.0) but was not admitted. When the parents asked why, Chris said that the student expressed arrogance in front of other SLA students during the interview process, saying that he was only applying to SLA as a "safety school." To me, this is an excellent way of assessing a candidate's "soft" qualities. After all, people do not reveal their "true" self during the formal interview process. Only by interacting with people in an array of environments and situations can you get a better understanding of what the person is actually like. By using this method of active student participation, SLA students gain a sense of responsibility for SLA and ownership of their work. They feel part of the SLA family. Even just walking around the school, Theodore and I saw the hard work of students proudly displayed on the multi-colored pastel walls (e.g. poster displaying complex carbon molecules in Chicken Nuggets and Mac & Cheese). Jon told us that the walls will soon be decorated with art murals. (This hit home for me. I actually replicated a famous painting for my elementary school in New Jersey. I'm hoping to visit my old school later this May. My principal, Mr. Mrozinski, told me that as long as he was still at the school (which he is), he'd make sure the picture was still on the wall. I wonder if it's still there ...)

Overall, the visit was very enjoyable and eye-opening. It's great to first hear Chris talk about his initial vision and then physically see, touch, and walk through it. I can't wait to see what SLA will be like a year from now.

View this Flickr set to see more images. I took some with my phone, but the quality isn't nearly as good!

technorati tags: science leadership academy, sla, philadelphia, chris lehmann, school 2.0, education