It is clear that we have
embarked on something
meaningful for students.
activities that would challenge students
and engage them in expanded learning
opportunities. The result—the Bethpage
21st Century Scholars’ Program—is
now embarking on its second school
year. We have been overwhelmed at the
creativity and enthusiasm of teachers,
the response of students, and the
support of parents.
Preparing to Launch the Program
Program planning began with a team of
dedicated teachers and administrators
who met periodically for six months.
This organizing team established seven
categories of 21st century competencies
under which activities would be organized: communication, information technology, global awareness, financial
literacy, health literacy, career awareness/
self-directed skills, and community
service. Within these categories, we
wanted to offer activities that would
give all secondary school students the
Students attend a
political debate
beteen Karl Rove
and James
Carville at Radio
City Music Hall in
New York City.
opportunity to join in, find their
passions, and expand their minds.
On the next staff development day,
the team gave a presentation to the
whole faculty about the challenges
facing this generation of students. We
spoke briefly about Thomas Friedman’s
The World Is Flat (Farrar, Strauss, and
Giroux, 2005) and Daniel Pink’s A
Whole New Mind (Riverhead, 2006). We
talked about the changing nature of
technology and the challenges of a
global marketplace. We introduced the
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
framework and discussed our district’s
strengths and weaknesses as measured
by the framework’s components. And
we outlined our idea, still in its infancy,
of offering students the opportunity to
create an electronic portfolio documenting educational experiences.
Students would engage in these experiences mostly after school, on weekends,
and during vacations.
During the second half of the staff
development day, as the high school
departments met together, teachers
brainstormed activities and projects that
would fit into the seven categories. We
encouraged the teachers to dream.
There was a burst of creativity! Great
conversations took place immediately:
“Why not hold a philosophy slam?” “Do
you think we could take students on a
tour of the United Nations headquarters?” “How about giving students credit
for listening to or viewing college-level
lectures on i Tunes or Second Life?” “I
know some students who would love a
news discussion group.” By the end of
our first day, teachers had suggested
more than 230 activities.
During the summer, the organizing
team met once a week to refine the
program offerings. We decided that
students would create an electronic
portfolio of artifacts—written pieces,
performances, artwork, multimedia
projects, presentations, and so on—as
evidence of their participation in
various activities. We developed
simple, generic rubrics for the different
types of artifacts, which the teacher in
charge of each activity would use to
determine whether a student’s work
was acceptable.
We also brought students into the
conversation. A student representative
came to the summer committee meetings and was enthusiastic about the