Last night, I watched the PBS Frontline program and saw “Fast Times at West Philly High.” It is a wonderful documentary about the teachers and students at this inner-city high school who entered an international competition to create a hybrid car. It follows them as they build their models, then take them to the competition. Theirs is the only team of high school students. All the others in the competition are adults, and many are professionals.
This is real reform, unlike the phony schemes to privatize public schools and hand them over to for-profit entrepreneurs. This is real curriculum, instruction, teaching and learning, where students are eagerly learning and applying what they learn. This is real teaching, where the teachers are fully invested in what they are teaching and respect their students as partners in the learning.
When people ask why it is so hard to motivate high school students to care about their work, tell them to watch this documentary. These students are highly motivated. They are learning the “soft skills” that employers say they want. They are learning self-discipline, teamwork, cooperation, initiative, responsibility, and hard work. They show up on time. They care. They are using computers. They are learning and practicing reading, math, science, technology and engineering.
The title of this post is ironic. I bet these same students would be turned off if the same amount of time was devoted to test prep for the next state exams.
Yet in this endeavor, they are all super stars.
And so are their teachers.
PS: A reader points out that the Chicago Board of Education recently killed the automotive tech program at Lane High School. Perhaps Mayor Rahm Emanuel or Board member Penny Pritzker might arrange a showing of “Fast Times at West Philly High” for the members of the Board.
I hope you’ve seen Dennis Littky’s Big Picture Learning => http://www.bigpicture.org/about-us/ ? Same type of hands-on program, extremely effective, funded by Gates..
We have recently learned that CPS has killed the well-regarded automotive class at the excellent Lane Tech h.s.
After viewing the program be sure to view the extras including “Catching Up With West Philly’s EVX Team” http://tinyurl.com/7n74dsf.
They reflect the grinding affects of poverty in the lives of several of these students which is the core of the problem of public education in low income areas. That the deformers seek to exploit the future of the youth in these areas for personal profit is a historic crime!
Here’s another example of “real reform” from my Title 1 PUBLIC SCHOOL:
We do agree that this kind of “hands-on” active learning can be very valuable for many students.
And these types of activities, lessons, units take place every day as organized, managed and created by our public school teachers. Let us give them the credit not the bloviating bureaucrats.
Linda, we agree on the importance of giving creative teachers credit for their work with students. Here is a newspaper column in which I try to give credit to some district & charter public school teachers for creative work:
http://hometownsource.com/2012/05/17/minnesotas-most-creative-educators-recognized-on-state-and-national-levels/
25-30 newspapers in Minnesota use the column each week. It reaches up to 700,000 people/week.
Any articles supporting the non-charter public school teachers?
Our charters here aren’t too big on the public thing except for the money.
I was a teacher at West Philadelphia HS and last night hosted a small screening for some former staff (one of whom is still involved in the EVX team). While the documentary was informative and a great view at how project-based learning can motivate, it did not fully demonstrate the trials and tribulations that affected its success.
One case in point: Samantha Wright didn’t attend school for almost an entire year due to lack of money to support a baby sitter for her younger sister. And now, according to PBS’s website, she is no longer in college due to medical issues with her mother.
These programs are only able to innovative and motivate so far. Without dealing with the underlying issue of poverty, even these programs will not succeed indefinitely.
You are absolutely right. It is the conceit of the current crop of reformers that a great teacher or a great school can overcome all obstacles and that poverty is “an excuse.” They are wrong.
Brian,
Unless you have explicit permission from the student you mentioned you might want to delete her name. Federal Education Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) might come into play here. Dangerous grounds.
Duane
Brain did not disclose anything that was not in the documentary or in the extra “Catching Up With West Philly’s EVX Team” http://tinyurl.com/7n74dsf
We had some earlier Frontline on a middle school tackling the high percentage of high school dropouts by interventions early on. Can’t recall the name but it was in New York. Anyway, as I watched I waited for mention of testing and how or if it mattered, and saw nothing. Perhaps it didn’t matter in the storyline that focused on simple things, like getting the student to attend! But I had to wonder…..
Linda, there are teachers cited in this column from three district public schools, and two charter public schools.
Great…just started reading it and will save in my reading list. Too bad our charters are giving legitimate charters (the public ones, in ALL ways) a bad name.
Diane, this is great to see, thanks for writing about it.
On Wednesday afternoon, July 18th, Frontline had a live chat with some of the Hybrid X Team students and teachers. http://tinyurl.com/7he9egk
Student Azeem was asked:
“Azeem, what do you think about all of the testing schools do today?”
Azeem: I think testing is destroying public education and turning it into a mismanaged socially irresponsible business. I feel like it has a huge impact on students and a lot of us don’t feel connected to wanting caring about testing. You can’t scare a student into passing a test on a piece of paper and expect them to build a pathway to success. We need to put young people first ”
Earlier in the chat he gave a link to an interview where he gave this response:
Azeem Hill: From Hybrid X to Philly Pride
Interview with student Azeem Hill of the West Philly Hybrid X team
from Philadelphia Gay News
“PGN: How are the schools not serving students?
AH: I think they’re not keeping up with the way kids learn. As a young person, I have access to information and tools that you would normally get in school that I can now get for myself. A lot of us know what we want to do, and sometimes school seems like a barrier from getting out there and doing it. We’re anxious to start a career and the schools are focused on test scores so that they can get funding. Schools are under attack just to stay afloat, which is a political form of violence. Our schools should be a keystone of the community. We’re not concerned about standardized tests: We care about making schools a place young people want to be. That’s one of the many reason why schools don’t work for a lot of young people. Another thing is that people are much more interconnected on the Internet: You associate with people according to common interests instead of by race or economic status and, in school, they just seem to pile people together. I could rave on and on!
PGN: And what are some solutions?
AH: Start by giving young people decision-making power about what happens at the school. There’s too much top-down decision making. Young people feel a disconnect because they’re not part of the process and it creates a bad school environment.”
http://tinyurl.com/7fkckda
Diane – thanks so much for highlighting our show!!
Thank you for highlighting the successful journey of this attractive group of young people.
Simon,
There is so much negative stuff on television and in the movies about adolescents and their teachers and schools. What a delight to see an inspiring portrayal.
“a place young people want to be”
If only that were the mission…
It was really great to see this Frontline segment. Unfortuntely, as with Lane Tech, they recently eliminated the Automotive Tech program from my local high school as well. It seems the few remaining true career and technical education options are being pushed out in order to focus on college prep. Lane Tech is a high performing selective enrollment school, too, while mine is not, but they’re pushing the International Baccalaureate (IB) program here.
Not long ago, when I was coaching teachers in my district, preschool teachers could select from a handful of curricular options, two of which were project-based, Reggio Emilia (from Italy) and the North American version, Project Approach. Having implemented the latter in my own classroom and observed both curricula implemented in many other classes, I know how truly wonderful they are.
Unfortunately, both project-based curricular approaches are no longer options for preschool teachers. The person under whose watch they were eliminated worked closely with Arne Duncan, and also has the ear of Obama, so I have a lot of concerns about how things are going to be playing out across the country under the RTTT Early Learning Challenge and the yet to be created Common Core for ages 0 – 5.
The Philadelphia School Partnership, the organization funded by “philanthropists” promoting the privatization of 65 Philadelphia schools, has just announced it is considering turning the automotive academy into a charter. See:
Philadelphia School Partnership gives out $3.8 million in grants to four schools
Philadelphia Public School Notebook
http://thenotebook.org/blog/125017/philadelphia-school-partnership-gives-out-38-million-grants-four-schools
“Among the recipients is the Sustainability Workshop, a unique project-based program for seniors that split off from West Philadelphia High School’s automotive academy and was featured this week in a Frontline documentary. It is getting $175,000 “incubation” grant as it works to grow into a full-fledged high school.”
“The Sustainability Workshop has achieved national attention for its Hybrid X Team that has won competitions building fuel-efficient cars. Matt Riggan, one of the founders, said that it is still up in the air whether the school will be part of the District or a charter school.
As a project -driven, technology-oriented educational program, “we’re quite different from a lot of what’s going on in high school reform right now,” said Riggan, who is also on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. The PSP grant “will help us manage the transition from a small-scale pilot program to designing and building a full school.”
He said the goal is to research and identify schools that do this well around the country and “connect with other progressive educators in Philadelphia.”
Be sure to read the comments.