Lost Hope

When I was a public school leader, I would get really excited when I came across an innovative learning organization, hoping that either my team or others could replicate the idea and scale it.

Philadelphia’s Building 21 would have been one of those learning organizations.

According to a recent article appearing in The 74,

“From the outside, Building 21 looks like a typical school in Philadelphia’s West Oak Lane neighborhood: four stories, brick, impersonal. Cops and metal detectors greet students each morning on the ground floor. Its classrooms are devoid of the high-tech hardware typically associated with cutting-edge schools.”

“But looks can be deceiving. Most weeks, this school sends students to work in high-rise offices, tech firms or a coding center it runs downtown.”

“In fact, the building’s past history as a neighborhood elementary school may be the only reminder of the big, comprehensive and often unsafe public high schools from which it’s often a refuge.”

“Offering a dizzying array of internships, college courses and dual enrollment opportunities, Building 21 challenges nearly all of the conventional wisdom about what an urban public high school should do.”

“Unlike most urban high schools, Building 21 is small: Enrollment is capped at 400 students, with classes of just 25 or fewer.”

“It operates under a complex set of teacher competencies that stress the importance of relationships. When conflicts arise, teachers must help resolve them quickly, interfering as little as possible as students work things out. The school was among the first in Philadelphia to introduce so-called restorative practices, an alternative to traditional – often harsh – school discipline. Instead of a lecture or suspension for misbehavior, students often find themselves deep in conversation about what happened, talking with teachers, counselors and classmates to get to the bottom of a conflict and resolve it. These practices, the school maintains, also teach problem-solving skills.”

“In operation for a decade, it also boasts something most Philadelphia schools don’t: a 94% graduation rate for the past two years. At last count, the district’s four-year graduation rate was 75.4%.”

“Nabeehah Parker, a 20-year veteran of the district, came to Building 21 in 2022 to run its partnership program. Her goal, she said, was to make it a place where students can have the same opportunities as students at selective schools.”

“To that end, the school offers a veritable revolving door of experts coming in to teach classes and students heading out for face-time with employers.”

“It features the kinds of risk-taking and experiences often reserved for students in elite schools. Yet it admits virtually anyone, with open-enrollment policies that match those of the city’s big neighborhood high schools.”

…

“The school’s open-admissions policy is a draw for many families, said Parker, the partnership coordinator. The opportunity for any student to attend, no matter their grades or behavioral record, is ‘something that parents are looking for.’”

“But it also means much of Building 21’s energy is spent getting students’ skills up to the level where they can reliably pursue their interests.”

“That often takes the form of individualizing assignments and basically personalizing student performance levels. In an English class, all students are writing about topics they’re interested in, but one student may be tasked with writing a cogent essay based on a reading, while another may write one that does more with the reading, incorporating specific details or answering complex questions.”

“What we’re tyring to find is that sweet spot where you’re not ignoring the truth of what ‘unfinished learning’ looks like in high school – and you want kids to find themselves and get engaged,’ said co-founder Laura Shubilla.”

“If some of that isn’t sexy or new, she shrugs it off. A lot of what works in education, including systemic differentiated instruction, simply isn’t. ‘I would say probably we’re more intentional than innovative.”

…

“The school offers four years of competency-based learning, in which mastering skills takes precedence over seat time. Since students progress at their own rate, each enjoys what amounts to an individualized education.”

“It turns the idea of grades on its head, offering students the opportunity to submit and re-submit work until it meets high standards. Assignments are graded on a 2- to 12-point scale. If a student hands in a writing assignment that’s adequate or only touches on a few competencies, it might earn an 8 or 9 or lower. If she wants to earn a 10 or 11, she can refer to a chart that lays out the skills associated with such a piece of writing: It must have a compelling hook and strong point of view, cite evidence and acknowledge other perspectives.”

“Earning a 10 or higher means it’s as good as something a college student – or at least a college-ready student – might produce.”

“’We did a lot of studying on what it takes to be successful in college and on a job,’ said co-founder Chip Linehan, ‘and we sort of backwards-mapped from there.’”

…

“Co-founders Shubilla and Linehan created Building 21 after meeting at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in 2011, where they studied with renowned scholar Richard Elmore.”

“Elmore pushed students to rethink everything. ‘His question was always, ‘Why does this thing called learning have to take place in this place called school?’ said Shubilla. If not, he would ask, what would you replace it with?”

“She and Linehan soon realized that they had similar answers: Both believed school should start with an ‘anchor learning site’ connected to opportunities elsewhere.”

“So they designed a school that both brings in experts from outside and gently pushes students into workplaces. Linehan likes to think of it as making the school ‘as permeable as possible.’”

…

“The school’s name is a sly nod to MIT’s fabled Building 20, which for 80 years served as coded shorthand for a center of innovation. After World War II, it became home to dozens of researchers and technologists, including MIT’s legendary Tech Model Railroad Club, widely seen as the first group of computer hackers.”

…

So why aren’t there more learning organizations like Building 21 in our traditional K-12 system? Lack of adult learning talent, bureaucratic constraints, absence of creativity, and the continual soft bigotry of low expectations might all play a part.

The fact is that our current K-12 system cannot, and therefore does not, create enough places like Building 21 for our kids. So, we are forced to live in a world where you and I read an article every now and then about a learning organization like Building 21 that innovates and creates great learning experiences for kids – small that it may be.

I supposed I should stop writing about places like Building 21, since our current traditional K-12 system is unable to build such learning places. But Building 21, and other places like it, are so promising. If only we had a system that could replicate and scale the idea.

Til tomorrow. SVB