|
|
9486 in the collection
Miami Magnet School Gets It Done
Ohanian Comment: There are lessons to be learned from this magnet school, but some of them aren't the ones the reporter thinks they are. But there are other practices mentioned that are well worth considering. And I don't mean uncertified teachers. The main lesson is, of course, that students will do wonderful things when they get the chance to study something that interests them. It just doesn't seem like that difficult a concept.
Exiled for a week from her bohemian magnet school in the Miami Design District, this is how a mainstream high school felt to 18-year-old Elisa Sperling:
``I felt like I was in jail.''
Sperling and her nearly 500 classmates at Design and Architecture Senior High were diverted to their neighborhood schools last week amid fears of chaotic protests during the free-trade summit downtown. Many said it was like leaving an artist colony for a factory.
Experiences accepted by most high-schoolers as typical -- off-limits hallways, shouting security guards, ID cards -- were jarring to DASH students accustomed to an intimate, laid-back community.
''Here you can be whatever you want, and people just accept you,'' said Sperling, a senior.
The school is one of a few high-performing, art-centered magnets in the Miami-Dade County school district and the only Miami-Dade school named in a recent statewide report of educational best practices.
Though DASH students are selected primarily for their talent and commitment to the visual arts, their standardized test scores are among the highest in Florida. More than 90 percent go on to four-year colleges, and last year's graduates collected a whopping $5.2 million in scholarships.
''There isn't a student here that isn't driven,'' said principal Stacey Mancuso, who -- like all DASH administrators -- also teaches classes.
The best-practices report, released earlier this month by the nonpartisan Council for Educational Change in Davie, attributes DASH's success to three main philosophies:
• Education by Design, the school's guiding principle of integrating reading, math and history with specialized classes and internships in architecture, fashion, computer graphics and other arts.
Web-design classes, for example, produce Internet sites for numerous nonprofit groups on behalf of Apple Computers in exchange for donations of cutting-edge equipment.
• Community partnerships, led by a 36-member advisory board of design professionals that helps direct curriculum, advise teachers and mentor students.
In one recent case, a member of the board suggested that DASH combine its architecture and interior design programs because they have become such integrated industries.
• Content-area expertise, meaning the school passionately promotes internships, offers dual-enrollment classes taught by local college faculty and hires adjunct faculty with background in art and design rather than education.
The fashion class, for example, is taught by a Miami Dade College professor who also works in the industry. The film class is taught by a Connecticut movie maker who had never been a teacher before he was hired in 2000.
''The combination of high academic standards and exceptional design curriculum allows DASH students to compete for scholarships for the country's finest colleges and universities,'' the report concluded.
Art classes at DASH tend to move beyond the New Age stereotype of ''art for art's sake,'' with a strong emphasis on industry and practicality. When fashion teacher André Milman critiqued the medieval-inspired clothing lines drawn by his students, he spent as much energy asking students about marketing and production size as fabric and dress styles.
MARKET LESSON
''There are laws of design and market just like laws of gravity,'' he explained to one student, who scoffed that mass-market fashion was poison to creativity. ``Just because you don't like gravity doesn't mean you can jump off the 15th floor and fly.''
Whether their designs are meant for runway models or Wal-Mart shoppers, he said, they have to be part of a business plan.
The best-practices report cited that nexus of industry and art as one of DASH's major successes, especially at a school where roughly 40 percent of students whose low income qualifies them for free or reduced-price lunches.
''These students can and are learning,'' said Linda Goudy, the report's research director.
A FEW DOUBTS
But some observers, from education experts to DASH students, wondered whether the ''best practices'' of DASH can be easily reproduced on a large scale across the fourth largest school district in the country.
''I've been uncertain about the council and Annenberg'' Challenge, the council's predecessor, said Linda Blanton, dean of Florida International University's School of Education. ``They try so hard to find the answers, but the answers aren't that easy to find.''
The report does not address two bedrock factors that Blanton and others said breed success at DASH and other über high schools such as New World School of the Arts and the Maritime and Science Technology -- low enrollment and highly motivated students.
Not all students have straight-A report cards or unblemished records, but they are motivated and interested enough in their own education to seek out a magnet program, follow through on applications and commute to a school far from home.
MANY APPLICANTS
Top magnet schools receive far more applicants than they can admit; DASH welcomed 110 freshmen out of 538 applicants this year.
In practice, those students are more likely to show up for class, complete assignments and participate in projects and discussions.
''People choose to be here, so the motivation's always going to be different,'' said Chanel Drummond, a 17-year-old DASH senior from Carol City.
A magnet's unconventional focus may inspire students bored by typical curriculums, Blanton said, but the idea offers no remedy for the swarms of teenagers who are simply apathetic about school.
''In many cases, we don't acknowledge how difficult it is to deal with students who aren't motivated,'' Blanton said.
Mancuso, who teaches a class in three-dimensional design and sculpture when not overseeing 30 teachers and 20 staffers, said the school's small size is one of its most important attributes. That was not mentioned in the best-practices report.
PERSONAL TOUCH
''We can be nurturing and know the hows and why of every student,'' said Mancuso, who has worked at Edison and Southwest senior highs, which each enroll thousands of students. ``It means so much to have that student-teacher interplay on a constant basis.''
The community is so intimate that there are no school ID cards.
''We know who everybody is,'' Mancuso said.
But a district of more than 100,000 high school students will probably never be able to accommodate them all in such small-school settings. Money is tight and construction slow in Miami-Dade, part of the reason that its average senior high has six times as many students as DASH.
Goudy acknowledged that the report was not designed to give in-depth answers to the question of how to replicate success of schools like DASH.
She said a new council study starting in February expects to fill that gap by picking 10 to 12 schools and visiting them every two to four weeks through the end of the semester.
''We want to figure out next not only what's working but how it's working,'' Goudy said. ``What does a principal do on a daily basis to manifest the leadership abilities with parents, students, teachers and business partners? What obstacles did the principal have to overcome?''
— Matthew I. Pinzur
DASH magnet school ahead of the class
Miami Herald
2003-11-30
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/7377281.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
|
