THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602270125
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
THREE NORFOLK schools have become learning labs for school districts across the country as part of a national education reform movement to improve America's schools.
Since September, educators and government officials from Memphis, Seattle, Philadelphia, California, North Carolina and Florida have visited the schools - Norview High, Rosemont Middle and Tanners Creek Elementary - to see how they have transformed their academic and social climate under ATLAS.
ATLAS stands for Authentic Teaching, Learning and Assessment for all Students. The goal is to teach for meaning and ``deep understanding,'' said Rachel ``Ricki'' Hightower, who oversees the three schools in her job as a director of school governance in Norfolk.
Under ATLAS, the schools have become more nurturing and give parents and students more of a voice in how the schools are run, increasing their stake in the schools' success, participants say.
``The teachers and students are more of a family,'' said Tommy Smigiel, 17, a Norview senior.
Now in their fourth year of ATLAS, the schools have moved to the next stage: For the next two years, they'll be sharing what they've learned to benefit others.
Theodore R. Sizer, a Brown University education professor and one of the education gurus behind ATLAS, toured the schools last week in his first visit in two years.
``People were just talking about things two years ago, and now they're showing us things,'' said Sizer. ``There clearly has been a visible change.''
Sizer said the three schools are making a ``major contribution'' to school reform and are ``being watched closely'' because the changes they've made hold great promise.
The ATLAS project is one of 11 groups nationwide that in 1992 launched reform plans to improve student performance after getting money from the New American Schools Corp., a business group formed by former President Bush to develop ``break the mold'' schools.
The effort began as part of America 2000, later changed by the Clinton Administration to GOALS 2000, which outlines eight national goals for a ``world-class'' education, including high expectations for students, more parental involvement and safe, drug-free schools.
Students at the ATLAS schools learn common essential skills and ``habits,'' such as working with others and studying and researching. That creates a link, or a ``pathway'' between the schools that students have to build on as they advance through each school level.
``The kids are taught consistently what's expected at all levels,'' said parent Esther Covan, who has a great nephew at Tanners Creek and a daughter at Norview High. ``They're motivated, they're being taught to be respectful and reliable and responsible, and they're taught great habits of study.''
An ATLAS centerpiece is the ``exhibition,'' an intensive research project that resurrects an old idea in the education field - that students must show what they know.
Students are required to complete an exhibition project in the fifth, eighth and 11th grades. It pushes students to do research and writing on a topic, and they also have to orally defend their work before a panel of adult judges, including teachers and administrators.
Currently, the exhibitions account for up to 25 percent of a student's final grade. Eventually, they could be tied to graduation or advancement to the next grade level.
``It's a very old process that was widely used 250 to 300 years ago,'' Sizer said. ``You stayed in school until the teacher decided you were ready to exhibit your understanding. . . . It seems to me that was much more sensible than just counting up the hours you'd spent in a classroom.''
Students say their classes have become more relevant.
``In English class, if we read a play or a book, we might act it out and dissect a poem and figure out another way of learning about it,'' said Jamie Krenek, 17, a Norview senior.
The curriculum is built around ``essential questions,'' which are broad and open-ended and don't have a correct answer. Instead, they are designed to spark critical thinking and problem-solving.
Mike DeAngelo, the liaison between the ATLAS group and the schools, said the point is to get students more engaged in their learning instead of just sitting and listening to a teacher's lecture.
A history lesson on the U.S. Constitution's amendments, for example, may start with this question: Should we have gun control? A discussion of social history may begin like this: What is American culture and exactly whose culture is it?
``Kids have opinions and can get excited about that, and the teachers can build on it,'' DeAngelo said. ``The next step is, `How do you defend that?' It's the questions that are really going to get kids engaged.''
Norfolk's Hightower said she expects to see an improvement on standardized test scores beginning this year, but that's just a spinoff of the changes and not an end goal of the project.
``It will be because their knowledge base has increased and not because you're focusing on test-taking skills,'' Hightower said. ``Rather than focusing on lower-level skills, you see teachers asking for how and why and evaluate and compare.''
Vickie Pearce, ATLAS coordinator for Norfolk schools, said the reform effort has provided the focus to raise academic standards and expectations.
``I think what we're doing here is just good, sound teaching,'' Pearce said. ``It's not a gimmick. It's good, sound educational logic.'' ILLUSTRATION: File photo by JIM WALKER
Theodore R. Sizer, a Brown University education professor and one of
the education gurus behind ATLAS, says the three Norfolk schools are
making a ``major contribution'' to school reform and are ``being
watched closely'' because the changes they've made hold great
promise.
by CNB