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College of Staten Island High school for International Studies
www.CSIInternationalHS.org
Background
This is a newly established high school, 3 years old with 300 students currently (max 430) on Staten Island, which is both empowered and thematic. Aimee Horowitz is the principal of the school. Chris Grohl [email protected] is the network leader for this and about 20 other schools. Jim McDermott and Alison Schaemer are other Assistant Directors.
An empowered High School. Idea is to provide maximum autonomy to the principal, which comes with greater degree of accountability. There are other 'partnership' models that have a higher degree of support and less autonomy. The commitment is made for two years. Schools form a network of empowered high schools.
A thematic high school. It is one of a series of schools which focus on international exchange and collaboration. The principal's vision is that all young people should grow in their global awareness. This is evident in the school as a strong sense of moral purpose, with students really engaged in global issues and their resolution. E.g., global warming, racism, understanding between faiths, etc. Within this context the students' learning within basic subjects such as English, Maths and Science have a purpose and a focus. Like all U.S. schools there is a strong imposed standardized testing regime (under NCLB) which detracts from the overall education direction, but which the school deals with by offering good basic skills development within a context that engages students.
New York Schools in general
Chancellor (overall director) for NY has 1400 schools, with 3 deputy chancellors, and over a million students. NY city was previously decentralized, with 32 separate school districts. The first re-structuring then led to 10 regions. The second re-structuring led to 3 support models for schools: Empowered, Partnership and one other (Directed?).
Each Empowered principal chooses a network leader from the Department of Education. Chris Grohl is the leader for a group of 20 empowered schools, including this one.
Celine Azoulay is the Borough Director for the Office of Instructional Technology in NY Department of Education, [email protected]. She has 253 schools in her region. She is assisting schools to implement and integrate ICT and learning, and considers CSIHSIS as one of the lighthouse schools in this regard.
Jim McDermott and Alison Schaemer are other Assistant Directors in the DOIT of NY DoE.
NYC school education ICT infrastructure
NYC education system has a global integrated database approach to knowledge management (ARIS), built on a system being custom-built for them by IBM, costing about $80m. We were surprised that they were not pursuing a SIF implementation, but recognized that the monolithic solution was being driven by the IT specialists. All of the RFPs for this are loaded and available on the NYC education department's website (http://schools.nyc.gov )
The City hosts an iSite web portal, which includes iCoach- portal for teacher and principal professional development and iLearn- a portal for students which includes scholastic programs and content. It utilizes Plato learning on an individual subscription model. Plato delivers a Learning Management System that comes already populated with content. (Schools under re-structuring might get grants to purchase.) They use 'Title 2D - Enhancing technology for learning' grants. They also have a network with a central internet gateway, but very few centrally hosted applications for schools apart from the portal. ARIS will move them to enterprise application systems to support school management, content management, collaboration, assessment and reporting.
There is no centralized warehouse for software, but they are looking to do something like that. There are a few discrete examples of centralized purchasing, like a city-wide MS Office license.
With empowerment and holding schools accountable for their decisions, purchasing power goes with the principal. An example was principal Horowitz getting hand-held response pads to get kids engaged. She phoned head office for suggestions and advice, but the purchasing decision was hers.
The value of being an International Studies high school
Principal Aimee Horowitz spoke to us of the value of an IS focus.
Bahrain: The school had an exchange with Bahrain, where first of all the students engaged with each other via blogging. Blogging broke down barriers, then when students visited from Bahrain could get to deeper issues.
China and Italy. Last year 2 students went to China, and 40 students to Italy. Italy was a strategic decision, as many of the families of the area have ties to Italy, and parents went on the trip too. When the principal found in her first year that many of the (freshman) students in Year 9 had not been to NY city off Staten Island in their lives, she was amazed. One Pakistani (Muslim) student went to China, and we saw part of the presentation she gave to her class and will give to parents. She was an eloquent and insightful advocate of the possibilities of global education.
Germany and Ecuador. This year exchange to Germany for 2 weeks, and 2 students to Ecuador for an exchange program. These trips are generally not paid for by grants, apart from the planning part. Europe trips funded through student payment and fundraising. Europe stayed in hotels. Homestay brings cost down. Goal is to get all students travel internationally.
France: Shortly the school is going to be hosting a French class and so is putting up materials for them on American History on the website, in forums and in the school newspaper. They pick up reporters for the paper through iEarn. (www.)
Using IT to get international studies going. The school is working on getting videoconferencing, but currently does not have it. They are doing podcasts, and got a grant to do this. Currently, students are working on podcasts about recent immigrants and those more settled to Staten Island. They are working to put together an international book with an overseas school. They have had a blog study with an Egyptian school where they analysed an Egyptian and an American novel together, and discussed it via blog.
International Insider newspaper. The school newspaper has overseas reporters from partner schools. Topics they write about include Darfour, global warming, local community issues. iEarn (an Australian initiative!) is also used. Students work to get an accreditation as a Daniel Perot (sp?) reporter. They have presented at Channel 7 teaching and learning conference, which goes through looking at how news around the world presents issues, and were able to evidence a much wider global awareness that schools without an IS focus.
Production of the paper is done all through the internet. Newsletter published both on paper and online. Students in other countries who are reporting can print it out from the net. Students who are in other countries can share with CSI students using iEarn. Each page features a different aspect of teenage culture. Digital documentary is also produced, and published on the school's website. Uses both the school's (secure) forum and open-source. (Requires just a name and a password to get onto the school's site.) Blogspot.com is the common one they use. Blogger another. They don't use WordPress.
Community education Students also educate the parents at night, working to break down stereotypes towards minorities and overseas. Students often come from homes where racism and sexism are tolerated. The school does a lot of front-loading with 9th graders using Academic Voice, Community Voice and Student Voice. Here, they learn what tolerance and respect sound like. In dealing with something like a student using racial slurs, the student will say get a requirement to present in class on the origins of the word, and what its intended and unintended consequences might be. In 3 years there has been no physical violence at the school. Lots of the school is organized in things that support a global focus, like a model United Nations. In math created a website, and produced a textbook with solutions for overseas students. If you talk about say human trafficking, global perspectives can be brought to bear on it.
Employment of staff The principal selects her staff; top criteria is the fit with the culture and the other teachers. Students and teachers on the panel. The applicant is asked to teach a model lesson in the classroom.
Aimee is looking to see if s/he can be an 'adviser': (a homeroom teacher, class patron, tutor in Australia.) Being an adviser is not a class, but not a free period. There is a considerable curriculum of community awareness building that occurs within it. Can the applicant build community in the homeroom?
Scholarship in the discipline is important. If the applicant is not up to speed on technology, the principal would require evidence of willingness to learn. Evidence, not just good answers.
There is no process of performance pay for staff - recognition of achievement by a letter or other validation is what is used.
The staff read the book Our first year: the students are watching together as a staff. Students are good judges of our performance. If a teacher doesn't fit in they won't stay. The principal's role isn't to solve the problems for the people who bring them to it. She will help staff solve the problem of their dealing with a new out-of-sync staff member by advising them on how to have a conversation on a difficult topic.
Teaching time is specified in the contract, by week. Teachers get paid if working in school holidays.
This year Aimee learned how to create a wiki, and now has a staff wiki. It enables communications, meaning that they can collaborate without having to have a meeting.
Use of ICT in the school:
The school has mobile laptop carts. Some students have their own, and this year a process for allowing them to be brought to school has been worked out. LCD projectors, overhead projectors, TVs, some desktops are available for use throughout the school. Every student has a USB memory stick, which is a main means of their preserving their work. Students can stay after or before school and do work. They will come into the principal's office to use her printer…! The focus (seen in the document Profile of the CSIHSIS Graduate) is that the graduate needs to be literate for the 21st century. The Profile was developed collaboratively with students, and part of the reporting process is the student's annotating the graduate profile so they know what these things look like and sound like, then brainstorming what things would help in taking them to the profile. Students use podcasts, youtube videos, CDs etc to present.
There is a lot of use of technology in Chinese and Japanese language classes.
Advantages of being a small school.
Schools in NYC are 400-4000. Students like being part of a small school when they can be known and cared for. NY's big push is to start small schools with a rigorous education for all students where they can be known. If a school is not meeting its goals, then it may be closed down. Four out of the 20 in this network are currently not meeting goals, and will be on development programs to help them. When a school is closed, typically a few smaller schools will be opened in the following few years, supporting the smaller-schools model.
Relationships off-campus:
Kiwanas, a Key club, and links with other business. Principal-for-a-day program. All seniors have to do an internship, so the business links are important. The school gets business leaders to talk with students on why international studies are important in getting a job.
The impact of the Federal policy of No Child Left Behind:
NCLB makes you look at every student, and look at their performance and report to Federal DoE. However, in many schools there is too much focus on standardized testing. The school hasn't been able to minimize the impact of testing, but doesn't teach to the test. If there is good teaching of test-taking skills, and good teaching generally, the tests will be ok. Some schools do Regents Review tests for 4 weeks in May just as a practice. CSIHSIS doesn't. The important thing is to develop academic rigour. For example, some students haven't come up against re-writing before. They are surprised when they have a piece of work reviewed by peers, then have to re-write it. Aimee the principal is beginning to wonder about the value of homework or grades, and discusses issues such as this on her blog which is shared with parents.
Key learnings
• Small schools and small class sizes with long hours for teachers seemed to be working well.
• Purpose driven curriculum (International focus) leads to engagement.
• We were surprised that they are not going down a SIF path in their systems integration and delivery of KMS.
• The fact that a principal can choose from three options for the empowerment/accountability balance seems a good way to allow for different styles of principalship.
• We were surprised that they are not using www.takingITglobal.org , because of fear of cost.
• How can we tap into this school as a means of both direct exchange, and networking with a whole group of schools, will be an issue to pursue.
• The remarkable thing about this school is that ICT is so deeply embedded, it's nearly invisible. Just used all the time, with learning as the focus. A real reflection of how the net generation work.
• This is an exciting, down-to-earth, 21st century school.
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