Every once in a while a book comes along that remakes US education. Or ought to.

The Power of Their Ideas by Deborah Meier is such a book. Basically it tells of her twenty years’ experience as a leader at Central Park East in East Harlem. CPE enrolled a typical, so-called “inner city” population (about 50% African American, about a third Hispanic, about 10% Anglo, mostly poor). Under her leadership, 90% of these students graduated and, of these, about 90% went on to college, this in a city where the average rate hovered around 50%. Dropout rate from grade seven to graduation was an incredible 5%. And all of this with the same budget, the same basic resources, the same number of faculty and staff as other secondary schools in the district.

Meier’s is a practical, down-to-earth account of how this reform was achieved. Her book is part personal memoir, part treatise on educational reform, part defense of public education, and part an open letter to parents and students. You’ll find the book readable, but provocative, and you’ll see why CPE has been imitated all across the country. She received a MacArthur “genius” award, and went on to become a national leader in progressive school reform. (CPE, after her departure about ten years ago, has gone in quite different directions, especially under the dubious influence of No Child Left Behind.)

You’ll have to read her book carefully to get all the details, but I have identified what I consider the five major factors contributing to the success at CPE.

First, an effective school must be a small community where all teachers and students know all the other teachers and students; they take care of each other. The Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS) had 450 students, divided into smaller working groups: 150 in 7th and 8th grade,150 in 9th and 10th grade, and 150 in what was called the Senior Institute. These were subdivided into working groups of 75 each who stayed together with the same teachers for two years. Instead of 150 students, an ordinary load for most US high-school teachers, at CPESS a teacher would see only about 40 students a day. You can imagine how this would facilitate communication, not only with and among students, but also involving families.

Second and third, the curriculum and the schedule were simplified. Most US secondary students go to seven or eight 45-minute classes each day, hardly a good learning environment, and certainly not good preparation for the working world. At CPESS, the day centered around two 2-hour blocks: humanities (English, history, art, etc.) and math/science. All students began the day with a foreign language course, taught generally by adjunct faculty; and all students ended the day with a 1-hour advisory block of fifteen students (a combination home room, tutorial, and study hall). The school, especially the well-equipped and well-staffed media center, remained open until 5:00 p.m. and on Saturday mornings.

One morning each week, students engaged in community service, not only developing their sense of citizenship but giving faculty several hours to prepare, reflect, and work with one another. Lunch periods were not the usual 20-minute grab bag, but a full hour, allowing students time for independent study and special projects and teachers additional time for preparation and collaboration. All staff, including administrators, social workers, specialists, and librarians were assigned an advisory session with fifteen students to follow over time (developing genuine, continuous connections with families). This simpler schedule provided clearer focus for students, more flexibility and collaboration for faculty, and open and effective communication, with one another and, especially, with families.

Fourth, learning culminated in portfolios, not objective tests. The Senior Institute was devoted to the preparation of fourteen such portfolios, required for graduation, spread out over two to three years, depending on the amount of time each student needed. These portfolios included math, science, literature, history, the arts, community service and apprenticeship, and autobiography; they were presented to a graduation committee for assessment, including faculty, citizens from the community, and at least one other student. Students in the Senior Institute sometimes extended their high-school enrollment by working part-time, taking off-campus courses, doing more independent study, and fulfilling graduation requirements at their own pace.

Fifth, and perhaps most important, all learning was related to the “real world,” to students’ own experiences, and to genuine thinking and decision-making, not just accumulating facts and regurgitating ideas presented by teachers. All courses—no matter the subject matter—and, indeed, all school activities centered around five “habits of mind.” Here’s is Meier’s description of them:

“We never quite write them out the exact same way, and over the years we’ve realized they are constantly evolving in their meaning. They are: the question of evidence, or ‘How do we know what we know?’; the question of viewpoint in all its multiplicity, or ‘Who’s speaking?’; the search for connections and patterns, or ‘What causes what?’; supposition, or ‘How might things have been different?’; and finally, why any of it matters, or ‘Who cares?’”

In order to develop these habits, traditional survey courses were avoided. Meier maintains, “To do this, we devote ourselves to covering less material, not more, and to developing standards that are no less tough...but sometimes different.... As [students] rush through a hundred years of history in less than a week, or cover complex new scientific ideas one after another, there’s not time to study conflicting evidence, read multiple viewpoints, detect the difference between false analogies and real ones, not to mention imagine how else it might have happened.” CPESS went for depth rather than coverage, thinking rather than rote memory.

Many of these strategies developed at CPESS have been promoted nationally by Ted Sizer and the Coalition for Essential Schools. They are now being promulgated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Deborah Meier has gone on to other roles and, now in her seventies, is still active in promoting genuine school reform. For her current webpage, check out
http://www.deborahmeier.com/