Prosser Career Academy - The Snowball Experience

Adam and I visited the Prosser Career Academy with its principal, Ken Hunter.  After being introduced to the leadership team, students talked us through the Snowball programme that has been running at Prosser for several years.

The snowball is essentially a two day activity which seeks to develop leadership and team building skills whilst developing students understanding of drug, alcohol and social problems.   A typical snowball would involve students staying over night at Prosser while the Snowball activities are taking place.   Students are assigned to be a member of a group for the two days, members of whom the students do not know well.  Throughout the course of the programme, groups engage in many team building activities led by 'student staff'.  Furhtermore, there is a motivation speaker on the first evening, and the student staff perform plays depicting challenging events or issues which groups then discuss.

The students we spoke to at Prosser were extremely positive about the Snowball experience and really enjoyed ebing student staff.  Students also felt that they got to know scholl staff better throughout the two days which led to more of a community atmosphere in school after the Snowball.  I asked the students to describe the Snowball in three words and I have created a wordle to illustrate what they said:

KIPP School

KIPP Ascend Charter School in West Chicago is a middle school for students in 5th to 8th grade. A charter school is essentially the equivalent of a British Academy whereby schools retain more control in runing the school and work with a private partner in order to fund and the school.  In this case KIPP (the Knowledge is Power Programme, a nation wide organisation established by two former Teach for America teachers) are the private partner.

On June 1st, I met Amy Pouba (left), the Principal for 5th and 6th grade and the Chicago KIPP School and she explained how the KIPP model works in practice and why is has become well known beyond the education sector as an extremely successful model (e.g. Outliers, Gladwell).  The following are some of the areas I found most interesting and potentially transferable to my school:

• Language.  From the day children start at a KIPP school, positive language is used regarding several areas but in particular about effort and working with others.  Students in the school all wore the same t-shirts with slogans such as "no excuses, no shortcuts", similar messages were on wall displays and used by all teachers in the school.  Such consistent language is key in the students' approach to successful learning.  Teacher language is support by the annual KIPP summit at which KIPP teachers network and share good practice.  The language and apporach of parents also support students which is enabled through a home commitment agreement.
• Positive psychology.  The KIPP school in Chicago embraced approaches to developing positive psychology in order to supplement students' positive approach to learning.  Amy was influenced in particular by learned optimism and Martin Seligman's The Optimistic Child.  Such approaches are not only used to support learning but social relationships, conflict management and emotional management.  In fact, all 5th grade 'Kippsters' take part in a conflict resolution programme which has reduced the number of fights in the school dramatically.
• Time.  All kippsters are expected to be in school at 7.25am every day and typically have classes until 5 each day.  There is an evident beleif that all should be able to get into college and in order to do so successfully, there are no shortcuts so students are expected to spend a longer day in school and complete homework once they get home.

Witney M. Young Magnet High School

Witney Young is one of the best public (state) high school's in the whole of Chicago and is famously the alma mater of Michelle Obama.   The high school is led by the inspirational leader Dr Joyce Kenner (second from left in the photo) who has been the school's principal for the last 15 years.  Adam (left), Ken Hunter (right) and I (second from right) were fortunate enouchg to visit to Witney Young on June 1st and the day began with an introduction to Dr Kenner and her leadership team who were all comitted and progressive leaders, keen to develop this outstanding school even further.  We learnt so much at Witney Young but the following were particular highlights:

• Community Service.  It is a requirement of high school graduation and college (university) entry to have spent at least 40 hours throughout high school serving the wider community.  This requirement is embraced at Witney Young, with many students exceeding the 40 hour limit.  The leadership team strongly believe in its essential role in developing 'the whole child' and such service develops students' characters and leadership skills in particular. 
• A Differentiated Curriculum.  Witney Young provides a differentiated curriculum throughout the high school which enables all students to achieve their potential.  For example, they allow entry for 7th and 8th graders (entry is usually from 9th grade onward) who perform well in an entrance exam.  However, it is unusal for students to graduate and go to college early.  Instead, the school offers 26 Advanced Programme (AP) courses which are essentially credited college courses which students can opt to study.  At presnet, 74% of Witney Young's students will take at least one AP course.
• Excellent Support.  Students are extremely well supported in all areas of the curriculum and in pastoral areas.  From a curriculum perspective, there is a commitment to developing students as learners and a facility to enable any student to establish their own clubs.  Sport is an outstanding area in this school and students are offered amazing facilities and importantly lots of acces to them; the school is typically open 18 hours a day from Monday to Friday and open all day at weekends.  From a pastoral perspective, there is a well established and successful freshman (first year) mentor programme led by sophomore (second year) students.  Furthermore, student progress is available to parents electronically throught the school's web portal, a facility rare in Chicago's public schools.

Growth Mindsets

One aspect of Chicago schools I am keen to learn more about is about the mindset of students; are they ambitious?  Do they believe they can succeed?  Teachers at Dame Alice Owen's School are currently investigating the ideas arising from Carol Dweck's Mindset: The new psychology of success, with a view to integrating them into our school's culture.  Dweck is a social psychologist at Stanford University whose extensive research has enabled her to develop convincingly the idea that success arises from effort rather than talent.  I will be interested to see how pervasive this attitude is generally amongst students in Chicago schools but also whether there are cultural norms of the education system that may further enable this attitude to develop.

Going to America

Adam and I are flying to Chicago on May 29th 2010 in order to visit secondary state (public) schools.  We have been kindly invited by Ken Hunter, Principal of Chicago's Prosser Academy.  In addtion to Prosser, we will be visiting Hanson Park, Jorge Prieto, Whitney Young and Notre Dame. We are also excited at the prospect of visiting a KIPP school which staff at Dame Alice Owen's have recently been reading about in Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers'.