Page 6 - Priorities 2

A conversation with
Dr.
FRANK
CODY
Key to their vision of the future are high schools with:
• A conscious plan to assure every student at least one meaningful relationship with an adult who reallyknowsthatyoungster. Thisindividual most likely will be a teacher/advisor who would move with the student through his/her high school years.
• Small schools of 500 to 600 students. Alternatively, within large schools, small “clus- ters”or“houses” ofteachersandstudentswho can develop a community feeling by being together over four years. Teachers should handle no more than 90 students a day.
• Assignments that require students to think acrosssubjectboundaries. Morecomplexprob- lems, and more work that moves students away from simple pencil-paper answers. Time and flexibility for activities that do not fit inside a 50-minute class period or, necessarily, take place inside a classroom.
• Individual learning plans for everybody in edu- cation. Students will write them with their men- tor-advisors. Faculty, administrators and staff will write them as part of their career require- ments.
• A conscious plan to teach and model the values of a democratic society.
The Carnegie Commissioners are now working with the National Association of Secondary School Principals to provide regional meetings at which local educatorscandiscussthespecificsofthis report.Dr. Cody will be speaking this spring at communities in the Western region.
Think back to high school. Do you recall a special teacher who brought inspiration to the subject and self-confidence to the students? Now, do you also remember long, boring class “discus- sions” and the forgettable assignments that were probably never even read?
Most of us remember both
If Dr. Frank Cody has his way, high school stu- dents of the future will experience more of the former andnoneofthelatter. Schoolscandomorethanjust hope for magically inspirational teachers — they can set the stage for inspired learning, he believes. And he has the recent report of the prestigious Carnegie Commission behind him.
In some ways, Woodside Priory School is already a model for what Dr. Cody would prescribe. When he first arrived last summer, Dr. Cody commented on theuniquequalityofthe “learningcommunity”that he found — a small school with time for individual attention; awareness of social, moral and academic growth; and a vigorous approach to learning in which teachers strive to be participants, coaches and models.
As a member of the national Carnegie Commission on the Restructuring of the American High School, Dr. Cody found significant support for his ideas —- and not a few challenges to them — among the other 16 commission members. Coming from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives, this team of highly regarded educators met over a period of 20 months with the goal of isolating what is important in high school education and proposing changes that any school system — large or small, rich or poor — could consider in its quest for improve- ment. Dr. Cody is the only representative of the pri- vate school community.
In their report, which was issued with much media fanfare in February, the commissioners urge their colleagues in education to break with tradition. Let go of the megacampus with the single-subject, fif- ty-minute-period, memorize-and-repeat approach to school, they advise.
"Make the “learning communities” small- er and the intellec- tual challenges bigger, Carnegie commissioners advise their peers."
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