NECC 2009 - Washington DC - Session Three - Tuesday Afternoon - Making 21st Century High Schools

Making 21st Century High Schools

Book: Teaching the Digital Generation - No more Cookie Cutter High Schools
Frank S. Kelly - doing the presentation
Ted McCain
Ian Jukes
c. 2008 Corwin Press

Frank is an architect and teacher

21st Century High Schools

17 Principals:

1. Start by looking at kids and learning
2. Learning must prepare students for a world of constant change (Moore's law!)
3. Learning must focus on 21st Century thinking skills
4. Learning must include 21st Century information fluency skills
5. Learning must reflect the new digital reality - Instructional context does not match
6. Learning must be interdisciplinary
7. Learning must be shaped for the individual - one size does not fit all
8. Learning must engage 21st Century digital kids
9. Learning must be connected to the outside world
10. Learning opportunities should be available 24/7/365
11. Time should be flexible, not learning
12. Students should assume responsibility for their own learning
13. Every student should have a close working relationship with at least one adult in the school
14. Students should have their own personal workspace
15. Assessment must encompass both knowledge skills and higher ordered thinking skills
16. Every student must be prepared to pursue post secondary studies
17. The configuration of high school spaces must be highly flexible

**Major components: Technology, time architecture, costs and instruction are a complex cycle that all must work together to be successful

Industrial age high schools or the "platoon school" was a concept conceived in 1908 to produce one raw material - Today's high schools are not much different.

Little interdisciplinary - very departmentalized, time - not learning - is still the measure of school.

How do we fix this problem? The problem that the industrial age high school is now deeply flawed.

10 models for 21st Century High Schools - all models assume ubiquitous technology and flexible schedules

Academies School - small learning communities related to real world subjects with few or no extra curricular activities - Wunsche Senior High School, Spring ISD near Houston

Instructional centers