Educational Leadership - September 2009

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.