Presidio Hill School: What is a Progressive School?

A few months ago (October 5 – 6, 2007), the teachers at Presidio Hill School joined other progressive educators from around the country for the first national Progressive Schools Conference in more than a decade. You’ll be happy to note that we helped to host the event by sponsoring 15 progressive educators at the school for a lunch and tour. Many of the other area progressive schools were involved with the conference planning, including San Francisco School, Park Day School in Oakland, Blue Oak School in Napa, and several others. Two of our own teachers presented at the conference, talking about progressive practices and what they are up to in their classrooms.

As I have often said, progressive education is less about regurgitating rigid content standards (although content is very important as students mature) and more about creating habits of mind that make life-long learners successful. Progressive Education is also democracy in action.

Thinking about Presidio Hill School as not only the oldest progressive school in California, but also as one of the exemplars of progressive practices, I put together some questions that people ask me about our school. The questions serve as a starting point for this discussion.


What are the hallmarks of a truly progressive school?
Progressive schools value the social-emotional growth of students. Progressive Schools also value collaboration over competition, which is part of both democracy in action and our social activist heritage. Also, progressive schools promote depth over breadth in all content areas, which spurs student interests and helps students pave their own way into a particular subject or discipline. Additionally, many Progressive Schools either de-emphasize or just don’t give grades as a way to tell that a student is progressing. Written comments take the place of just having grades only.

Don’t many other schools do this?
Absolutely, comments and commenting is a hallmark of not just progressive schools but most independent schools in general. What’s unique about our school is that parents, teachers, and even students are in on the conversation. It’s not just a one-way monologue, but the whole community is engaged in the discussion. Comments serve as a way for teachers, parents, and students to understand what can be done to improve and how we all can work together to usher that improvement along.

Who decides what gets taught at PHS?
At many independent schools, the school decides. It is the school’s curriculum. It is what the school values.

At PHS, teachers have great autonomy on what is taught, what is added, and what is taken out. The school (in teams of educators) does “scope and sequence work” to determine what should be taught where and when in the curriculum. The school audits what we teach by having conversations around what students know and should know, and what skills they have or should have from teacher to teacher and year to year. Nearly all our teachers belong to national and local organizations where best practices (and even standards) are shared. Our teachers present what they know at conferences, workshops and staff meetings and learn from each other and from conferences, workshops and other means all the time. We don’t rely on textbook companies or the state to tell us what gets taught when.

In what other ways do teachers collaborate?
Teachers discuss students constantly. This is a very important point: teachers know more about students and their world—socially, emotionally, and academically—than at any other school that I have worked. I have worked in traditional schools, progressive schools, and alternative schools. Teachers also tend to know other students that aren’t in their classroom, too. The great thing about being the size that we are is that we get to know one another well.

Last question, my child really loves PHS, can I go to school here?
Absolutely. Many parents and adults involved with PHS report they get so much satisfaction from engaging the students they love with what they are learning. By attending the Corporation Meetings, Follies, driving on field trips, going to Dialogue Circles, volunteering at the auction, and many other kinds of endeavors gives parents and the adults in the community a progressive school education too.

REPRINTED FROM MY BIMONTHLY
FRIDAY LETTER 10-19-2007
(http://www.presidiohill.org/news/archives/from_the_director/)

Open Space: E-Portfolios

Nearly two weeks ago at the Progressive Educators' Network Conference in San Francisco held the Whitcomb Hotel (October 4 – 6, 2007), a group of educators came together in an “Open Space” dialogue to discuss portfolios in schools. Most of the folks that came to the open space session had some knowledge of portfolio assessment, yet the groups’ familiarity with using portfolios to assess students ran the gamut from “we use portfolios a lot” to “I’ve heard a bit about portfolio as an assessment tool and I’d like to learn more.”

This particular blog entry attempts to start the conversation about portfolios between those people who want to enter the dialogue in this “Open Source” community. By Open Source, we mean anyone is free to join in the conversation (in a respectful way of course). Eventually, we’ll talk about moving traditional class content into portfolios. Later, we’ll talk about e-portfolios (electronic portfolios) and give some ideas about how many of the people within this community can join in the discussion. Finally, we’ll distill some of the thinking that we at Presidio Hill School have been doing in thinking about portfolios, particularly e-Portfolios, with an eye on their further use in our classrooms and beyond.

To start, portfolios and even electronic portfolios are nothing new. Many schools have been using both kinds of portfolios in a way to help “authentically assess” what a particular child does on a specific project or within a given discipline. Some schools even attempt to capture a learner's work and reflection in a wholistic way across disciplines.

Perhaps we should begin by having some common terminology. I don’t mean to offend anyone or even talk down to people, but I want to make sure that I’m not assuming anything by using terms that could mean something very different for someone else. The “comment” section on this blog is a great way to correct or clarify any of the assumptions that I may make.

Let’s start with a definition of “portfolio.” A portfolio is a collection of work by an individual or group. The work can be used for purposes of securing a job (by showing a body of work), as a collection of learning samples, or can be seen as a keepsake for future observers. Oftentimes, portfolios show people’s best work or it shows how work has evolved over time. Portfolios are popular in the creative fields because to show someone work over time in a visual or auditory way (like song clips for a sound artist), is a good way to track progression.

Moving on to discuss the term “authentic assessment." Authentic Assessment is assessing students on what they actually know or want to know rather than on what someone else (a teacher, school, district, test company, state, or nation) wants that student to know. For instance, a student does a report on Caesar Chavez. The student, often in conference with the teacher, comes up with what s/he wants to know about the Chavez, and the student completes the project with the teacher as the guide. Assesment occurs all throughout the process with clear expectations (perhaps a rubric) and at the end with the actual product. Another definition of “authentic assessment” is that the person being assessesed calls in people from outside the school community to provide contextual feedback (i.e., a panel of evaluators, maybe the teacher is involved, maybe not)>

Many of the people at the PEN sessison talked about ways in which portfolios were used to either assess or to have students reflect upon their learning. Students reflecting on their learning is one of the most powerful ways that teachers can take students far beyond the moment in their learning and into the realm of connecting their thinking to some larger purpose. Some questions that students may have are: Why is this particular artifact (in the portfolio) relevant? Does the piece (that I’m reflecting on) show what I want it to show? Does it answer what the teacher/facilitator would like me to answer? Is this my best piece? Is it a piece that I’m proud of? Is it just one piece in the journey of the piece? How did I create the piece?

This last question is one that begins to get into metacognition, which is when students begin to reflect on how they came up with the processes involved in creation. Metacognition are the whys and hows of a particular assignment.

The next blog entry will focus on ways that traditional class content may be archived as well as using portfolios to assess student work and/or have students refelect on their thinking.