In a parting shot, the New York City Department of Education announced the launch of a “school without walls,” in collaboration with Microsoft. There would be no physical brick-and-mortar school. Microsoft would arrange internships for students.
Questions:
Who will teach the students such subjects as biology, chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry, and calculus?
Will they learn history or read literature?
Will the students be used to run errands and get coffee?
Will they be unpaid workers?
Will they be office-boys/girls?
What will they learn in high-tech offices and who will teach them?
Will they get in the way of the people who have deadlines?
Will they take tests?
Will their internships prepare them for college or careers?
In the 1930s, there were similar proposals based on what was understood to be the Soviet model of “socially useful labor,” the idea being to send teens into farms and factories instead of classrooms.
Whose children will attend this “school”?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How is this radically different from something like City As School, a place that has served many kids very well? OK, granted CAS has a building, but it seem like a very similar concept. Is it the right model for every kid, or even a lot of kids? Probably not, but what’s wrong with trying this out?
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Microsoft gets free employee training and labor at taxpayer’s expense by calling it public education. What a deal.
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I have a question: will the supervisors at Microsoft be required to adhere to the mandated IEP and 504 plans of the students, and keep documentation?
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Internships are a great way to give our children access to the working world, but not to the exclusion of all other educational opportunities. It’s great for those seniors who have completed their requirements (if correctly placed in a possible field related to their career choice), but not for the rest of their high school semesters.
And the high school experience should be more than academics (see Disney’s High School Musical). Home Coming, Football and Basketball games, School Plays/Musicals, School Dances and Prom, etc. make it a special time in a teen’s life.
Why do we want to take all the good stuff away and replace it with more homework or an unpaid job?
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No Need for Philosophy… I’m learning how to kiss ass! Just what every corporate reformer wants…
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Ms. Ravitch – greetings from your hometown of Houston – I am curious – which high school is your alma mater? I teach at Reagan High School in the heights.
I completely agree that this Microsoft-sponsored “school without walls” must be approached very critically, with a lot of questions, and a great deal of skepticism. But what has changed since the 1930’s is the development of personal, mobile computing and the internet. This can and should be a game-changer in education, with proper, thoughtful input and involvement of teachers. I think we should be careful not to cut off conversation with stakeholders who can and do provide the technology that can make our jobs easier, more effective, and even create ways to end-run around the high stakes testing regimes.
Essentially, I want Microsoft’s money, expertise, and technology, so that I can use it to teach my students more effectively and connect to their plugged-in, computer savvy millenial minds. I just don’t want Microsoft’s pedagogy or school design.
So I want to be open and in conversation, but I don’t want to be completely at antagonistic odds with that industry.
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Mark Johnson,
I graduated from San Jacinto High School in 1956. It no longer exists. The building is now Houston Community College. My junior high school–Albert Sidney Johnston–is also gone. Before that, Sutton Elementary in 5-6; and Montrose Elementary from K-5. Montrose is now the Houston High School of Performing Arts. Not sure whether Sutton survived.
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That is kind of sad that all your schools are no more! Sutton is still there, though.
One of the reasons I love teaching at Reagan is the history and tradition of being a century old school in a renovated historic building.
It’s one of the intangibles you lose with a school “without walls”. I think students actually like a place with walls – a home away from home (often broken homes), where they form memories and friendships and community. Just today I had a student come back to visit me, and tearfully hug me. I am glad she knows where to find me. Within actual walls.
Kids want to belong somewhere, they want to feel safe, and they want to feel wanted. These are things we fail to make happen when we stress endless depersonalized tests, go virtual, or kick them out into industry.
Keep up the good work!
H-town teachers wish you the best.
Mark Johnson
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Thanks, Zmark. The pseudo-reformers don’t know the word “community.”
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The proposal is an interesting one and should not dismissed out of hand. However, it seems rushed — a last chance for the departing Bloomberg Administration to push it. To have such a school open in the fall of 2014 with little information as to core subjects, teachers, internship details and screened v. unscreened status — has a haphazard quality. For us parents who will have to go through the high school selection process — complex, to say the least, in NYC — we would need more information.
However, there is something tantalizing about this idea. Some children learn better by doing and if tech is their passion, this could work for them. I would want to be assured that the core classes would be taught — Math, Science, ELA, Social Studies, Foreign Language — and I’m not sure who and how these subjects will be taught.
If the internships are well-crafted, they can be invaluable. Learning coding with a Microsoft Engineer may not be much different than learning bowing technique by a member of a professional chamber music quartet. With tech, cutting-edge is important and who would be more cutting-edge than a person working for a top high-tech company?
The proposal also discusses a six-year associates’ degree, but gives little discussion. Dr. Ravitch, do you know anything about that idea?
This proposal reminds me of the time when vocational high school dotted the landscape, with the goal of targeting students to specific job (or as we say today, skill sets).
Best
Mark
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There’s long been a brick-and-mortar City as School—why not support them? Orlook at the Big Picture MET school model?
The idea that adolescents don’t need steady caring human relationships!!!
For more information see website: http://www.deborahmeier.com
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