21st Century
Scholars
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BETHPAGE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT
At Bethpage High
School, students build
an impressive portfolio
of mind-stretching
learning experiences—
and it all takes place
outside the regular
school day.
Terrence Clark
Students plant sea grass to protect
the dunes on a local beach.
Although Bethpage Union Free School District in suburban New York had a 99 percent graduation rate and a 98 percent Regents
Diploma rate, we were not satisfied. For
many years, teachers and administrators
in our 3,200-student district had talked
about the need to do more to prepare
our students to be critical thinkers and
problem solvers in the 21st century.
We were aware of the work of the
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
( www.21stcenturyskills.org), which
established a useful framework for
educators determined to go beyond No
Child Left Behind mandates. At the core
of the partnership’s framework is
content—a deep understanding of
math, science, history, literature, and
the arts. The framework then adds skills
that 21st century students need—global
awareness, financial literacy, health
awareness, information technology
skills, critical thinking, creativity, and a
strong work ethic.
Although we believed in the partnership’s core mission, we had to think
long and hard about how we could best
implement a program based on its principles. Our teachers had worked tirelessly and achieved tremendous success
in meeting the challenges of assessment-driven accountability. We were not
comfortable asking them to revamp
their curriculum to reflect themes that
were not emphasized by our state
education department.
As an alternative, we began to explore
the idea of extending the school day
with a program of voluntary after-school, evening, weekend, and vacation
