Today I want to share my
thoughts on the Academy’s academic program. At the SEEL Academy there are no
specific course requirements, though the school and each student must complete
the proscribed number of years of a particular discipline (Science, Math, Phys
Ed…). It will be up to each student, in concert with their guidance counselor
and teacher/adviser, to make sure that they are taking classes that will meet
college expectations. For those students not interested in college, they
are free to take any classes they want within each department.
In terms of hiring, what kind of teachers will staff the SEEL Academy? Since
the HSPA does not test students in areas other than Math and Language Arts, I’m
really not that concerned about teachers meeting the plethora of onerous
Cumulative Progress Indicators delineated in the Core Curriculum Content
Standards. If the State does in fact begin to introduce subject area tests, it
will be up to the teachers in each department to make sure that SEEL’s
curriculum tangentially aligns with the State’s CCCS.
In the formative stages of
the Academy’s academic program, focus groups will be set up for each department’s
staff- though other teachers are free to join in- to brainstorm a list of the
content (and skills) that they believe each student MUST know as a prerequisite
for graduation. Though this work will include skills, the foundation for the
Academy’s skills requirement will be the Core Curriculum being pushed today in
the national debate.
So who will be teaching? The
first hiring requirement is that the prospective teacher must have a degree in
discipline other than education, so yes in fact most if not all teachers will
have a “specialized degree.” Education courses could be taken as part of a
minor or taken for enrichment once they begin teaching. I will deal with
professional development and support in a later blog. Our Science Department
will have a Biology teacher, a Physics teacher, and a Chemistry teacher. There
may be an engineer, an astronomer, a botanist, a geologist, an
environmentalist, or most any other type of subject specialist. The Social Studies
Department may include an historian, an economist, a pre-law student, a
political scientist, or maybe a sociologist. The Physical Education and Health Department
may include a nurse, a physical therapist, or a kinesiologist. You get the picture.
These teachers will be free
to design their own semester courses. It is my contention that by hiring
individuals with knowledge and passion in a particular area of study and
expertise, that the resulting courses will “be” an expression of that knowledge
and passion, which are two of the 5 metrics we use to develop and evaluate effective
teachers. With proper clinical supervision, these classes will be lively,
rigorous forums for true learning.
A smart teacher, one that is
determined to engage his or her audience, will design the course in such a way
that student interests are also integrated into the curriculum, whether through
the required coursework or through activities and assessments that empower
students to pursue these personal interests.
I may be overly optimistic about the impact that this intellectual freedom will have on student achievement, but one thing I do know is that whatever is being done today is not working in our urban schools. Intellectual freedom, increased accountability and empowerment are the hallmarks of curriculum development at the SEEL Academy. We will draw on the knowledge and passion of our educators, and hopefully we will see our students demonstrating the same.
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