Fulton Elementary's Proposal
PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO COMMON KNOWLEDGE: PITTSBURGH
FULTON ACADEMY OF GEOGRAPHIC & LIFE SCIENCES
Paula Howard, Principal
December 15, 1993
SUMMARY
Proposal team: Paula Howard, principal; Denise Yates, assistant
principal; Vonnie Holbrook, math specialist; Linda Rose, librarian; Faith
Baker, science specialist; Joe Bonner, cluster 3 teacher; Herb Bailey,
educational assistant; Barry Applbaum, parent; Jan Casson, parent; Celia
Brownell, parent.
This project proposes to: incorporate Internet resources into the
established interdisciplinary Geography and Life Sciences curriculum, with
particular emphasis on the "Passport to the World" thematic units; link
Fulton with McCleary Elementary School for "Electronic Field Trips" and
Westinghouse Science and Mathematics Program for "Student Scientists on
the Internet"; and link with Fulton's community partner, the Kingsley
Association. Initially, 19 teachers and 2 administrators will be involved,
as well as a number of parent volunteers. All students, grades K-5 will be
involved, but will use the Internet differently, in keeping with the
developmentally appropriate curriculum. Project planning will take place
during monthly ESEP meetings dedicated to this purpose. Training and
Internet exploration will occur during established teacher planning
periods on "Day 6" of each week. Training will be conducted by an on-site
staff expert, by selected parents with Internet expertise, and by CK:P.
Outcomes expected include changes in how children learn: in their
reasoning, problem-solving, and communication skills; in their
appreciation for diversity in the world's cultures; in their motivation
for learning fostered by hands-on, student-directed education; and in
their facility with today's technology. Pre and post-implementation
project evaluation will center on student work sampling.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
It is obvious to even the most casual observer that geography has
played a key role in shaping Pittsburgh's destiny. The area's rivers,
hills, and resources have dramatically affected its history and economic
development. It is important for students to understand the vital link
between geography and human development, not only of their region but also
of regions and peoples on our ever-shrinking planet. To function
competently and responsibly in the 21st century, our students must
understand the fundamental concepts of geography, beginning in the primary
grades. Increasingly, this also includes making competent use of the
technologies of contemporary culture, and understanding the changes
technology has introduced into all aspects of life. To meet this
challenge, the Pittsburgh school district established an interdisciplinary
geographic and life sciences special emphasis curriculum at Fulton
Academy. (Appendix I)
The major focus of the Fulton curriculum is an interdisciplinary
approach embedded in geography and life science themes. Key components of
the program include: 1) strong emphasis on "hands-on" activities within
thematic approaches to subjects; 2) a model for student inquiry based on
critical thinking strategies and the scientific method; 3) cooperative,
student-directed learning and the exchange of ideas interactively among
peer learners; 4) extensive involvement of community resources and
personnel; 5) emphasis on the holistic development of the child across the
seven areas of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial,
musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and interpersonal. The
teachers of Fulton Academy have been developing the interdisciplinary
program since its inception in 1987. This is an ongoing, cooperative
venture with teachers working in research teams to create new materials,
methods, and learning models. This approach is predicated on the argument
that learning must be an active and dynamic process and thus students
should not simply "parrot" information. Students are taught to reason
critically, creatively, and independently by helping them learn how to
plan, classify, hypothesize, analyze, synthesize, make decisions,
summarize, generalize, and communicate ideas. Geography and life sciences
provide the metacurriculum through which teachers can apply these
principles.
Integration of Internet resources into the curriculum can
facilitate the development of interdisciplinary units in geography and
science, provide student interaction with other students and materials
worldwide, and merge our model curriculum with today's technologies.
Internet access will give students a window onto the world, permitting a
greater variety of hands-on student-directed investigations, direct
communication with students and teachers around the globe, increased
access to new educational resources, acquisition of new reasoning and
communication skills, and greater motivation and enthusiasm for the
learning process.
We will evaluate the success of this enterprise by assessing the
breadth and depth of new options for student projects and research, growth
in student initiative, quality of student projects, and advances in
student reasoning, problem-solving, communication skills, and student
motivation.
THE CURRICULUM PROJECT
We are proposing to integrate Internet access into our existing
geography and life science interdisciplinary curriculum, thereby
qualitatively changing students' learning experiences while incorporating
contemporary technology into the active learning process. The activities
generated out of this integration will:
1. Permit students to make contacts with students and materials
from &/or about other regions of the world, providing concrete examples of
the diversity of peoples and cultures worldwide and a developmentally
appropriate means for learning about and accepting this diversity.
2. Permit students immediate access to scientific data bases, to
other students who are using them, and potentially to the scientists
themselves who generate them, providing active learning experiences with
real data and science as it is practiced.
3. Permit students to create, initiate, and complete their own
geography and science projects, using resources and opportunities not
available via traditional sources such as local libraries and personal
resources, thereby enriching our active, student-directed approach to
learning.
4. Create new opportunities and new challenges for communication,
thereby both building on and enriching students' acquisition and use of
active problem-solving, reading, writing, and communicating skills.
5. Permit teacher contact with other teachers and school systems
developing similar thematic units, and sharing of ideas, materials, and
evaluations.
6. Permit teacher access to a wide variety of resources and
materials for preparing their thematic units, not otherwise available.
Specific examples in each of the major curriculum areas are
provided below. We also propose to include the Kingsley Association as a
site. The Kingsley Association is a non-profit community organization,
founded in 1893, serving the youth of East Liberty and surrounding areas,
with particular emphasis on disadvantaged children and families. Because
Fulton draws from an economically as well as racially diverse population,
by including the Kingsley Association we can guarantee access to both the
technology and the appropriate expertise outside of school hours for all
children and their families. The details of this school-community liaison
are also provided below. Finally, we propose to include our partner, the
Pittsburgh Zoo, where we currently have a classroom and computer on-site,
and where access to the Internet will provide expanded learning options.
Across the projects we plan to implement, the Internet will be put
to use in two primary ways: 1) link-ups with other Pittsburgh Public
Schools, among both teachers and students; 2) student and teacher access
to databases, listservers, libraries, and student bulletin boards via the
Internet.
PROJECT 1. ELECTRONIC FIELD TRIPS
As part of the Vision 21/Bank Street initiative (Appendix III),
Fulton and McCleary schools are developing joint thematic units. These
units include field trips to surrounding areas for hands-on learning, and
for integrating real world knowledge into classroom experiences. For
example, as part of an interdisciplinary unit on bread , students visit
local farms to gather wheat, local bakeries to observe commercial bread
baking, and design class projects that incorporate math and science
concepts in the baking and use of bread and bread products. As part of an
interdisciplinary unit on the city of Pittsburgh, students visit local
neighborhoods, historical sites, and other defining features and
attractions of the city.
We will use the Internet to establish on-line, real-time
communications among both teachers and students in the participating
schools (as a CK:P site, McCleary is already on the Internet). Teachers
will develop and plan thematic units communally, via email and access to
shared resources. These units will include specific plans for
communication among the students between the two schools. For example,
students will share across schools the results of their field trip
experiences and class projects. When the schools take trips to different
sites, students from each school will produce an "electronic field trip"
for students from the other school. These "electronic field trips" will
be done in real-time, so that students from one school can ask questions
on-line of students from the other school. Students who live in different
neighborhoods (the schools have different catchments) will also share
information with one another about the key geographic, demographic, and
cultural features and characteristics of their neighborhoods. They will
produce maps of neighborhoods and take "electronic field trips" to one
another's neighborhoods.
The current plan is to develop 3-4 such "electronic field trips"
for students in Clusters 1-3 (non-graded classrooms in traditional grades
K-3). Depending on the age of the students, field trips will be taken in
small groups or in whole-classroom groups (with a Datashow or LCD Panel).
Because our curriculum (and McCleary's) features flexible scheduling, and
does not adhere to 40-minute class periods, these experiences can be
easily integrated into the regular classroom activities and schedules.
PROJECT 2. STUDENT SCIENTISTS ON THE INTERNET
Because the Pittsburgh Zoo is our partner in education, we have
our own classroom and lab there. Westinghouse High School, a CK:P site,
has a similar arrangement with the zoo. In zoo trips, our students engage
in hands-on learning of particular topics related to thematic units. This
typically involves studying animals and habitats specific to a country or
region of the world. Internet access will permit our students to link
with Westinghouse students, using the high school students as
scientist-experts. Teachers from the two schools will plan units that are
complementary for their students, so that the expertise of the
Westinghouse students can be used by Fulton students. Fulton and
Westinghouse students will communicate on-line in real-time and by email,
with both students asking and answering key questions of one another.
PROJECT 3. GEOGRAPHY AND LIFE SCIENCES ON THE INTERNET
Access to the Internet will be used in specific ways to enrich and
expand the learning opportunities in Fulton's special emphases, as well as
to give students more options for hands-on, student-directed learning.
Approximately half of the current teachers wish to incorporate Internet
resources into the current curriculum. These include six self-contained
homeroom teachers in grades 1-3; four whole language teachers in grades 4
and 5; math, science, and geography teachers; art, music, and library
specialists, and two Chapter 1 teachers. Rather than proposing a single
curriculum project, Fulton will incorporate specific Internet resources
into selected aspects of the current curriculum, as follows:
A. DAILY NEWS. Each morning a different group of children
briefly report local, national, and international news, as well as sports
and weather, to the whole school via intercom. Using the White House Line
on Internet, we will also be able to report first hand answers from the
President to child-generated questions about the news. In particular, we
plan to concentrate on answers to ecological concerns and issues.
B. DAY 6. Day 6 is a major component of Fulton's restructured
curriculum (Appendix II). The project will be implemented most intensively
on Day 6 in three particular ways:
1. Teacher planning: Teachers will use data bases, libraries,
and teacher bulletin boards to research and develop more effective and
authentic interdisciplinary units during Day 6 planning period. These
resources would include: Kidsphere; Zoo Links; CIA World Fact Book; Global
Electronic Library; Green Peace; relevant Teacher Bulletin Boards like
EDNET and askERIC.
2. Peer Experts (grades 4 & 5; eventually grade 3): Children
develop a semester-long interdisciplinary research project which they work
on during Day 6 Each child becomes an "expert" in her particular subject
area, to which other children feed information and from which other
children can get answers to their questions. Students will be encouraged
to find other experts on the Internet, children and adults, with whom to
share both factual information and information about relevant Internet
resources. Resources would include: CIA World Fact Book; Global
Electronic Library; General Science Resources; Databases; Bullitin Boards.
3. Passport to the World (all grades): Each year children study
the literature, language, holidays, dress, art, music/dance, games, food,
animals, plants, and geography of several different countries at
developmentally appropriate levels and into this is woven subject matter
and skills related to reading and language arts, math, science, geography,
art, music, and gym. Throughout, student-initiated questions are
emphasized, and in 4th and 5th grades group research projects are
conducted to address these questions. The Board of Visitors from the
Multicultural Division, in a recent site visit, noted that it is critical
to have the most up-to-date information about other countries in this
curriculum. The Internet will address this issue, by permitting direct
access to the most timely library resources and data bases, and, most
important, by permitting direct access to the most timely library
resources and data bases and by permitting direct communication with the
teachers and students in other schools around the globe. For example, in
math classes numeration systems will be compared with those of the
relevant country by asking other children about what they are learning in
their math classes. Students will communicate with other children
one-to-one, as a group or via the teacher, depending on the age of the
student, the kind of project and the subject matter. Each time children
make Internet contact with a classroom from the contries they are
studying, their "passport" will be stamped. In library and reading, both
the folklore and contemporary children's literature will be studied by
talking with other children about their fairy tales, their favorite books
and authors, the stories told by parents and teachers and so forth.
Children will also write letters to international penpals and share
original writing with children from other countries. Particularly since
this curriculum places such heavy emphasis on literature, and since there
is often very little work available on folklore or on contemporary
literature of other countries, conversations about authentic literature
from other countries will change the quality of information available, the
way children learn about others, and the value children place on reading
and literature as it emerges as a common bond with children from all over
the world. In science, students will ask the children in the relevant
country directly about their plants, animals, habitats, ecology and
endangered species. They will be able to compare the constellations seen
at night in different seasons and from different parts of the world. They
will study the foods and food preparation of other countries by asking
children directly about these things. They will share recipes, make meals
and share reactions. Appropriate support for graphics will permit students
to share information in formal scientific/mathematical formats as well as
by the written word. In geography, students will plan travel to other
countries by communicating with children from the relevant country about
the major geographic features, sights, modes of transportation and
economies. "Electronic travel" will also be integrated into the math
curriculum of 4th and 5th graders as they are given a budget on which to
travel, and will obtain information about costs of hotels and
transportation, location of sights and travel distances through email
conversations with other classrooms. Likewise, they can share this
information about their own country with the cildren from the countries
they study. In art, children's own artwork will be shared (using
scanners), and art styles and traditions of other countries will be shared
via the Internet. While it is possible to download art works from Internet
museum resources for this purpose (and teachers will no doubt use this
resource), the preference here is for student initiated questions and
products to be communicated with other students, to make art real and to
tie it directly to the children of other cultures. In music, students will
have direct access to the children's music of the relevant country (using
scanners). For example, this year the music teacher could not find
Egyptian music. Next year, the students themselves will be able to inquire
about the songs sung by children from other countries. In gym, students
will learn about the sports, dances and games of other countries,
particularly those preferred by different ages of children.
C. Inter-campus communication and planning. Fulton is the only
dual-campus elementary school (K-3 at Hampton campus; 4-5 at Jancey
campus). Teacher research teams that cut across the two campuses can
brainstorm, plan, share information and develop curriculum materials by
email.
PROJECT 4: INTERNET LINKS WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS
The Kingsley Association offers a wide variety of educational
opportunities to the community's youth, of all ages. Kingsley and Fulton
have collaborated on numerous school-community projects over the six years
of their partnership. Kingsley currently has a small computer laboratory
which is used with children and families in various educational formats.
The before and afterschool program brings Kingsley staff to Fulton daily.
Linking Kingsley to Fulton electronically would permit additional access
for children and families in a supervised and supportive environment. The
goal is to make Internet resources available to all, and not just to the
affluent. Kingsley staff will also assist in training Fulton teachers and
parent volunteers in basic computer literacy.
EVALUATION PLAN
Specific outcomes expected for students:
1. Increase in student-initiated learning because easily
accessible resources will encourage and reward student questions and
creative problem solving.
2. Higher quality of student projects, because of greater breadth
and depth of the information students can integrate to address particular
questions.
3. Growth in reasoning, problem-solving, and communication skills
as students have to consider what resources to use, how to access them,
how to apply them to the problem at hand, how to communicate to other
users and to their own classmates the aims and outcomes of their projects.
4. Increased student motivation and enthusiasm for the learning
process as students take charge of their own learning by using network
resources to answer their own questions.
Evaluation of student outcomes:
1. Baseline for student-initiated questions/projects will be
established between February and June, 1994; comparison will be made to
the period between February and June, 1995. Teachers will record the
number, variety, and quality of student-initiated project ideas during a
"brainstorming" session specifically structured for this evaluation.
2. A portfolio sampling of projects from each participating
classroom will be made between Feb and June, 1994, and again in the same
period in 1995. Qualitative comparisons will be made between the projects
generated in the two time periods. Teachers will also record, for these
actual projects, how many and which aspects of them were teacher-initiated
vs. student-initiated.
3. A portfolio sampling of each student's progress in reasoning,
problem-solving, and communication will be made over the period from
classroom implementation to the end of the school year. This could also be
used to compare the quality of 3rd graders' skills in 1994
(pre-implementation) with the quality of 3rd graders' skills in 1995
(post-implementation) because work sampling is already in place at Fulton
for grades K-3. (Appendix II)
4. Teachers will rate students' motivation and enthusiasm in the
classroom generally, and when working with Internet-supported projects
specifically. These will be compared. Students in 3rd through 5th grades
will also do self-ratings. Students and teachers will also complete
ratings in 1994 (pre-implementation) to be compared to 1995
(post-implementation) ratings.
Specific outcomes expected for teachers:
1. Greater access to relevant, developmentally appropriate
materials for student-initiated projects. For example, recently when
students wanted to know what kinds of foods children in Egypt eat, no
materials were available at a level and form that was accessible and
interesting to young students. By having access to other libraries,
graphic resources, or optimally, to be able to "talk" to a classroom in
Egypt, teachers will be better able to encourage age-appropriate discovery
learning.
2. Access to a variety of resources not now available to teachers
in any form will permit the development of richer thematic units.
3. Communication with other teachers, both within the Pittsburgh
network and nationwide or worldwide, will permit the creative and
collaborative generation of new materials or curriculum delivery
mechanisms by sharing ideas and knowledge.
Evaluations of teachers: Teachers will evaluate their access to and
satisfaction with resources for developing age-appropriate, challenging,
interesting thematic units, their ability to communicate with other
teachers around new ideas and materials and their satisfaction with those
communications, their satisfaction with the level of student initiative
and involvement in the learning process and their satisfaction with
quality of the products generated by students. These evaluations will be
conducted in 1994 (pre-implementation) and again in 1995
(post-implementation). Evaluation timeline: Evaluation procedures will be
developed and first used during February to June 1994 in conjunction with
the general planning and implementation for the Common Knowledge project.
Evaluations will occur again one year later, during 1995, after the
project has been in place for the better part of a school year.
PLANNING PROCESS
1. A team of 4 teachers and 1 computer specialist will lead the planning
and implementation (includes Librarian (Rose), Science teacher, K-3
(Baker), Math teacher, 4-5 (Holbrook), and Cluster 3 teacher, (Bonner);
see Personnel section for details). A total of 19 teachers plus the
Principal and Assistant Principal will participate in the initial training
and implementation. The ultimate goal is to include all teachers, but
this proposal is addressed only to those who can, and want to make the
commitment now. 2. Monthly ESEP meeting will be dedicated to teacher
trainin. Day 6 teacher planning period will permit additional training as
well as small-group exploration of the Internet. 3. Timeline:
-February: Participating teachers get on-line; train Network Team
on gophers, email, bulletin boards. In addition to CK:P support, training
will be supported by Mr. Bailey (staff expert who teaches
telecommunications at University of Pittsburgh), and three parent
volunteers who have backgrounds in using the Internet and working
relationships with staff and administration.
-March: Network Team trains other participating teachers,
administrators and Kingsley staff. Begin using network for email,
communicating with CK:P staff, other members of the network,
McCleary/Westinghouse.
-April: Continue to explore resources on the Internet; identify
specific classroom resources, bulletin boards and listservers relevant to
curriculum; establish countries with Internet resources and connections
(to plan which countries will be best for "electronic travel"); begin
planning with McCleary, Westinghouse for "Electronic Field Trips" (Project
1) and "Student Scientists on the Internet" (Project 2) and begin teaching
Grade 5 to use email.
-May: Report to whole faculty the results of the Internet
explorations; decide which countries to travel to electronically; break
into small teams to organize information/curriculum packets for each
country; develop a timeline and a mechanism for training parent
volunteers, based on own training experiences (successes, barriers,
failures); continue planning with McCleary, Westinghouse.
-Summer: 1) eight-day workshop with Vision-21 along with McCleary
and four other elementary schools (yet to be identified); planning for
"electronic field trips" completed (Project 1). 2) CK:P workshop.
3)Teachers use email to continue curriculum planning for fall. This will
supplement on-site meetings during the summer and will permit teachers to
participate around vacation times and other jobs.
IMPLEMENTATION SCENARIO
September-October: Students begin to log-on and to use email with
each other, between Fulton campuses and with Kingsley, McCleary and
Westinghouse.
November-December: Use White House Link and other news resources
to incorporate into Daily News; go on first "Electronic field trip" with
McCleary; prepare and present demonstration for parents, at school and at
Kingsley.
January-February: Begin "Student Scientist" projects with
Westinghouse; establish global classroom links for "Passport to the World"
projects; start accessing library resources and data bases; train parents,
at school and at Kingsley; establish regular hours for child/family access
to Kingsley systems.
March-May: Complete various projects; plan culminating
demonstration for parents.
PERSONNEL
The following personnel will be involved in the planning, implementation
and evaluation of the project. While all will be involved, specific roles
and responsibilities will be designated as part of the planning process:
Herb Bailey, educational assistant
Faith Baker, science specialist, ITL
A. Bandini, whole language teacher 1-4
C. Berdnik, geography teacher 4-5
J. Bonner, cluster 3 teacher
J. Brindle, art K-5 C. Brown, whole language teacher 4-4
Y. Caldwell, learning support teacher
V. Fisher, cluster 1 teacher
C. Gitchell, cluster 3 teacher
C. Hatok, whole language teacher 4-5
Y. Holbrook, math specialist, ITL
P. Howard, principal
F. Kocher, music K-5
R. Lane, cluster 2 teacher
E. Madden, chapter 1
Y. Nelson, whole language teacher 5, ITL
L. Rose, librarian
T. Sullivan, cluster 2 teacher
M. Toubo, cluster 3 teacher
D. Yates, assistant principal
TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE
Existing equipment that may be of use includes three Apple IIgs, one Mac,
one PC286, three dot matrix printers, one LCD panel and two 12oo bps
modems. Implementation of the project would forsee two terminals in each
of the 23 classrooms, two terminals in each library and a terminal in each
main office, and two terminals at the Kingsley remote site. Each of these
rooms should have a dot matrix printer. Additional hardware requirements
include two laser printers, two color printers, two color scanners, two
LCD panels and two modems. Specific design architecture would require
expert assistance, especially in consideration of Fulton's two campus
arrangement. Hewlett Packard Corporation has made a commitment to accept
Fulton into its Employee Product Gift Program. This program has HP
contributing 75% of hardware list price to a maximum of $20000 list.
Fulton is also in the process of applying for an HP Community Grant.
Acceptance into the CK:P program will enable Fulton to qualify for HP's
national grant program
APPENDIX I
SCHOOL PROFILE:
Fulton Academy of Geographic and Life Sciences
Paula E. Howard, principal
Denise Yates, assistant principal
Hampton Campus
Jancey Campus
5799 Hampton Street
1802 Jancey Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
665-4590
665-4995
Mary Anderson,secretary
Andrea Neal, secretary
Jame Smith, custodian
Zora Jones, custodian
15 homerooms,
library,gym,art room,
exploratorium/resource
center
8 homerooms, library, gym,
art room, music room,
resource center
Student population: 637 total, 402 at Hampton Campus, 235 at Jancey Campus
Staff size: 27 teachers at Hampton Campus, 15 at Jancey Campus, 4 travel
between buildings.
Teachers with email addresses: F.Baker, Y.Holbrook, L.Rose, H.Bailey,
J.Bonner, D.Yates, P.Howard.
Philosophy: Fulton Academy of Geographic and Life Sciences will advance
the holistic, producing a high level of performance through the seven
areas of intelligence as described by Howard Gardner and David Feldman:
Linguistic; Logical-mathematical; bodily Kinesthetic; Intrapersonal;
Interpersonal. We will achieve this purpose through an interdisciplinary
program with an emphasis on geography and the life sciences. The Fulton
community is an extended learning community which includes students,
families, faculty, staff, business, industry and others. Fulton seeks to
provide a stimulating learning environment for children, a challenging
atmosphere for educators and an interactive and cooperative relationship
with families and the community.
Program: The major focus of the Fulton curriculum is an interdisciplinary
approach to teaching reading, writing, listening and thinking skills in a
geography/life science context. Key components of the program include:
* The teaching of geography and life science with strong emphasis on
"hands-on" activities and the utilization of a thematic approach to the
subject.
* Extensive involvement of community resources and personnel
* Field experiences
* A model for student inquiry based on the scientific
method and critical thinking strategies
APPENDIX II
DAY 6: Day 6 was developed to meet the individual intelligence of each
student and to provide a forum devoted exclusively to the thematic units.
In Fulton's restructured curriculum, class periods are not limited to 40
minutes and the school week has six days. Day 6 occurs every sixth day of
school, meaning Monday could be Day 1,2,3,4,5 or 6, on a rotating basis.
Day 6 allows for one hour common planning of all teachers for research and
thematic development. It allows for one hour of club time, one hour of
instructional seminar devoted exclusively to prethematic research
development (conferencing with mentors) and two hours of thematic research
and project development. Research and projects are continued during total
language, geography and science classes during days 1 through 5.
Work Sampling: Work sampling is an alternative assesment system used in
six pilot schools in the Pittsburgh School District. It consists of
developmental checklists for each age and grade level. A portfolio of
student work, with materials selected by both teacher and student, is used
to show progress over time in five learning domains. Narritive summary
reports are provided to parents rather than traditional grades.
Clusters: Each child's education is important and each child is unique,
yet in traditional age groupings all children are taught as if they were
all at the same developmental stage. With this factor in mind, some
children fall behind and others become bored with school. In clusters or
multi-age groupings, however, teachers meet each child at his or her own
level. Multiple teaching modes are utilized as are varying educational
challenges. In multi-age groupings both children and teachers accept that
there are numerous levels of achievement in the same class. Children are
never embarrassed or penalized for developing at a different level than
their peers. The cluster concept has been instituted at Fulton's Hampton
campus. Cluster 1 includes ages 3-5, Cluster 2 ages 5-7 and Cluster 3 ages
6-9
APPENDIX III
Bank Street/Vision21: Bank Street College of Education in collaboration
with the Pittsburgh Public Schools has developed VISION 21, a three year
project which will bring together the forces of reform-curriculum,
assessment and change management-as part of a bold plan to restructure a
city school system. The project will: coordinate the start of the
Pittsburgh Public Schools Strategic Plan for comprehensive restructuring;
create models for effective school restructuring and research at six
elementary school sites; and provide the professional development needed
to build the capacity of the school system to successfully implement a
restructuring program in each of the city's schools. This project is a
cornerstone of the effort to make school restructuing in Pittsburgh a
reality.
Fulton Academy and McCleary Elementary were selected as the first project
sites and will serve as model schools for other elementary sites to be
added in the future. The project is currently in place at Fulton and is
funded through June 1997.