Aliyya Swaby Photo
Three months into an experiment in how to build the school of the future, New Haven’s Achievement First charter network is using real-life experience to work out some of the kinks.
The experiment, called the “Greenfield” model and put together in conjunction with the designer of the computer mouse, is taking place on Blake Street in the fifth and sixth grades of Elm City College Prep Middle School. The school is giving kids more autonomy over their learning and incorporating real-world experience into academic classes as part of a plan by AF to build a K‑8 “school of the future.”
It was originally planned as a joint venture with New Haven’s Board of Education; AF set off on its own with Greenfield after public opposition killed the joint venture. Elm City College Prep Middle School fifth and sixth graders moved from the main 794 Dixwell Ave. building to pilot the model in a separate space on Blake Street.
So far teachers and students are enjoying the small-group learning but feeling exhausted by the almost 10-hour school days, reported Robert Hawke (pictured at top), one of the middle school’s principals. Administrators had to nix a planned two-week career “expedition” earlier this fall, when the organizers fell through. And the school has an $80,000 surplus, because it ended up hiring many brand-new teachers with lower salaries than more experienced staff would get.
Hawke offered that update on the school’s progress at the most recent meeting of the Elm City College Prep charter-school board.
He told the board he will continue to tweak the model to respond to feedback from school community members to make sure it is sustainable long-term. (Click here to see the Greenfield dry run last spring.)
AF had initially sought last winter to open a separate Greenfield school funded by a financial partnership with New Haven Public Schools. With the help of the inventor of the computer mouse, AF had designed an experimental K‑8 “school of the future,” featuring longer days, small-group instruction, daily blocks of “self-directed learning,” and two-week career expeditions interspersed alternating with eight weeks of classes.
After months of heated debate about whether the partnership would benefit or harm the district, Superintendent Garth Harries and the Board of Education decided to table the deal.
By that time, AF had already leased part of a building at 495 Blake St. and hired staff to work in the proposed new school, called Elm City Imagine.
Instead of canning the entire project, AF decided to pilot the Greenfield model in grades K, 5 and 6 this year — with the older grades learning at the Blake Street building and the kindergarteners still at Elm City College Prep Elementary School.
Now Elm City College Prep Middle School is split into two, with Greenfield students at Blake Street and “classic” learners at Elm City College Prep Middle School on Dixwell Avenue. Next academic year, both will run a version of Greenfield at Dixwell.
Hawke told board members Wednesday that students are doing well transitioning to the new model over on Blake Street. The enrichment programs — including dance and STEM — are strong, and students seem extremely happy throughout the school day. Formerly an AF principal-in-residence, Hawke has also been an academic dean coaching math, humanities and science teachers for two and a half years.
“One kid said, ‘I feel like I can be my full self this year,’ which tells me we’re doing some things right,” Hawke said.
AF
Proposed schedule for the canned Elm City Imagine school.
The Greenfield model incorporates two-week “expeditions,” allowing students to get experience with specific careers or non-academic activities. Students were going to go camping earlier this school year, Hawke said, but the plan fell through when trusted “external partners” did not show up. He felt it would be safer instead to can the trip.
The next expedition will start smaller with one week of “solid programming.” Half a day will focus on academics,the other half on the expedition. The two-week plan would also allow extra time for professional development for teachers, but that is not likely for now.
Schools leaders “can’t rely on academic benchmarks used in the past” because the curriculum is different, Hawke said.
Using national interim assessments, school leaders found most of their students had made academic progress in the first quarter. But with 15 new initiatives, Hawke said, it’s difficult to tell which are helpful and which are unnecessary to learning.
“Kids spend a lot of time doing meaningful work” and get some feedback for it, Hawke said. School staff are working to increase the amount of feedback students get outside of the classroom, he said.
One challenge is that students are not always on task, with as many as 40 percent of students unfocused on their activities at any given moment, he said. In certain teachers’ classrooms, that number is much closer to 0, with “every student doing what they need to be doing.”
The longer school day might be a difficult adjustment for both students and teachers at Blake Street.
Hawke said he worries about being able to keep teachers next year, since many report feeling the strain of a day that starts at 7:15 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. — an hour later than other AF-New Haven schools and at least two hours later than the typical district school day.
“The length is a barrier to them feeling like they can do it for a long time,” he said. “We have got to find a way for our best people to stay.”
Many teachers in the 5th and 6th grades are new to the profession, “partly by design” to decrease staff costs in the budget, Hawke said. Because of lower salary costs capturing about $80,000, Elm City Middle Greenfield likely will have a “significant surplus,” according to the executive summary of school finances presented at the meeting.
But first-year teachers are not usually as effective as seasoned ones.
Aliyya Swaby Photo
“It’s not to say they’re not trying,” Hawke said. “Kids are learning a lot. But I don’t think that is the part of the model we want to double down on next year.”
The Greenfield model calls for designated periods of small-group learning, which is also more manageable for new teachers. But Hawke said he would consider “increasing the group size a little, from six in some places, so we can have more experienced teachers with our kids.”
Teachers are receiving a lot of support and professional development, Hawke said, including weekly professional development and instructional coaching. Some experienced teachers are coaching newer ones.
Next year, Hawke plans to hire two academic deans to join the existing two “community deans,” responsible for increasing student and teacher support in the building while facilitating parent communication and events.
During informal surveys of teachers, he asked what would make them feel more inclined to stay on. They told him fewer hours would be a good start.
Board member Laura Saverin pointed out that the initial Greenfield design had teachers work in two shifts to staff the longer day.
Hawke said it was more likely the day would be shortened for everyone. “If you expect a 25 or 35 year old to work a number of hours, it’s probably a reasonable amount for children,” he said.
One parent (pictured) at the meeting, who declined to give her name, said her daughter is “getting used to the structure” of the Greenfield model, especially after attending a Montessori school. She is having trouble with the fast transition times between class periods and the “pressure to wrap up and move at a faster pace,” the parent said. That pressure could be hard on any middle schooler, no matter their background, she said. “It’s a tough age.”
She said she was “concerned” about teacher retention at the school. “I’m sure they want to stay,” she said. She suggested the principal “invest in human capital” by doing something special for teachers at least every quarter.
New board member Genevive Walker, also director of programs at nonprofit ConnCAT, suggested Hawke administer a “climate survey” to formally record what staff and students are enjoying and disliking about the school model.
Chris Friedline, principal of the “classic” Elm City middle school, said his budget is taking a hit because he’s using the opposite staffing model. Many teachers at the Dixwell facility are experienced and paid more money, so administrators are operating on a “very tight budget” in order to keep expenses low.
Teachers miss the “camaraderie” that comes from being in one facility, since the middle school is split between Dixwell and Blake this year, Friedline said. He is working on ensuring teachers stay on board.