Fairdale High School is a public institution located in Fairdale, Kentucky, a rural setting near Louisville. The school serves 1,200 students representing a majority of Caucasian descent (75%) and a minority of African-American ethnicity (25%). About 60% of students participate in the free-lunch program. The school features a Public Safety Academy and employs 12 mathematics and 12 vocational education teachers. The academy is an Advanced National Demonstration Integration site with the Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB) High Schools that Work program.
In 1986, student academic performance at Fairdale High School (FHS) was at a low point, suffering a high dropout rate and low attendance. As a result of the school's location in an economically depressed region, education was given a lower priority by many in the community. The program coordinator recalled that the school was "taking the kids that nobody else would take." The first-year principal certainly had her work cut out for her. However, she was a visionary with a deep commitment to the students, and she invited the faculty to simply find "better ways of doing things." To involve all major stakeholders in a schoolwide collaborative effort, she initiated a participatory management committee consisting of faculty, parents, and community representatives. Seeking further guidance in implementing schoolwide reform, the school joined the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) shortly thereafter. From the Coalition, the school was made aware of the philosophical underpinnings that would guide and inform the management committee's actions from then on. As a result, the school gained many training opportunities, including the privilege of attending the Coalition's Integrated Curriculum Institute and numerous state, regional and national training seminars and institutes dealing with integration of academic/vocational education, authentic assessment practices, restructuring, and other related issues. Over time, FHS faculty's high participation rates in these activities, the quality of their contributions, and the resultant gains in expertise afforded even greater opportunities for subsequent involvement as presenters. Presently, some FHS teachers have become National School Reform faculty and many serve as nationwide consultants.
Fairdale had already enacted many requirements of the Kentucky Education Reform Act when the act was passed in 1990. Portfolios had been instituted for assessment purposes along with school-based participatory management and academic standards. Writing portfolios, for instance, had been in use for approximately two years before required by law. Further, while the reform act also addressed school-based decision making, the law required inclusion of three teachers, two parents and the principal as chairperson. At Fairdale, the school-based decision making committee had already grown to a total of 26 members, including eight parents, eight teachers, two (nonparent) community members, four students, one classified staff representative, an ex-officio member of the University of Louisville faculty, and the principal (who was never the chairperson). Other changes already in place included heterogeneous class groupings, elimination of remedial or honors courses (honors credits can be earned in any course), authentic assessment including writing and math portfolios, and student and teacher networking with other restructuring high schools. The reform act, nevertheless, legitimized the school's restructuring efforts and helped further develop what was already accomplished or in the works.
The 1991-1992 academic year, when the district began to restructure vocational education and convert to the magnet career academy system, marked another pivotal period in the school's integration efforts. Since almost 40% of all public safety workers in the county lived in the school's attendance area, it was decided that this site would become a public safety academy. Becoming the Public Safety Magnet School necessitated a unified approach between the vocational and academic faculties. The school held a number of faculty meetings, although at first the program coordinator noted that academic/vocational teachers were divided. At first, the school was basically split in two worlds, academic and vocational, and "even the students were seen as different and did not attend the same school functions." To mend fences, the vocational and academic buildings were merged, so that all classes would be held in both buildings. Students are now bused the short distance between the two buildings, especially in winter, to maintain a mixture of all students in both buildings. This strategy facilitated the promotion of same educational goals, high expectations, and a combination of work-based learning for all students.
Since the 1989-1990 academic year, the school has been a Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) site member. SREB has been instrumental in providing funding as well as a wealth of opportunities in integration and restructuring efforts. Through SREB, Fairdale was awarded a grant to integrate technical and academic subjects. However, instead of implementing the more common practice of pairing two teachers in specific areas, FHS decided that the entire faculty would be the team and would, therefore, have an incentive to work on integrated projects. FHS features a flexible schedule for students, advanced learning opportunities with local colleges, internships for all public safety seniors, and integrated academic/technical subjects. Because of the quality of these restructuring efforts, the school has received national recognition.
An open, inclusive, and highly focused environment is conducive to integration efforts. This environment is supported by flexible professional development activities designed with direct input from faculty. A creative scheduling format allows students to select courses and teachers to choose teaching slots, a format that appears conducive both to teacher-enhanced collaboration and to student motivation.
Integration Formats
Fairdale's levels of integration encompass a schoolwide approach through a magnet school format. Vocational and academic courses are aligned into a thematic program featuring an occupation (i.e., public safety). Integration is facilitated by three collaborative learning communities in 9th and 10th grades, in which 5-7 teachers on each team provide students with personalized assistance regarding scheduling, instruction, and integrated learning opportunities. Mathematics team teaching is also prominent at FHS. Working in pairs, teams of teachers integrate mathematics with science and occupational contexts. For instance, one team of two teachers representing math and science developed integrated activities as a result of their participation in the CES Mathematics/Science Fellows program. The science instructor described this work, highly popular with the students:
[In science] we go through the chemical reactions involved in photography. In geometry students go through proportions and ratios and so forth. It is truly integrated. There are days when [the math teacher] teaches and I just sit tight. The students really start to see that this isn't just a chemistry or math class anymore.
Other projects require multidisciplinary teacher collaboration. "The Curious Death of Zachary Taylor," an integrated unit designed in the context of law enforcement, requires students to participate in re-enacting the trial following the death of Zachary Taylor. Students take different roles in six preparation teams, including chemistry, geometry, data analysis, prosecuting, biography, and legal defense. Other students participate in trial team roles including jury, prosecution, defense, reporters, chemical experts, data experts, geometrical experts, and cartoonists. Students apply mathematics and geometry to examine evidence, recreate the scene of the crime, and analyze evidence. Five teachers, representing English, social studies, science, math, and law enforcement, collaborate on this project. Other collaborative work focuses on problems including design and construction of public safety facilities. Through these problems students are required to plan, design, draw blueprints, and build a scale-model version of their proposed building. Geometry concepts are embedded in all phases of the project.
Professional Development
While some schools are struggling to catch up, FHS has six years of experience with many of the requirements of the Reform Act. Because of this headstart, the school has been able to devote more time to developing and refining professional development activities. Early on, strategies included sending different mixed groups of teachers to conferences, meetings, and presentations to introduce integration concepts to teachers who were not into integration. The academy coordinator remarked that "it was against our principles to spend this money only on one group of teachers or one team, so we took a mixture. Always a mixture." Also, every spring, staff meet and produce a transformation plan. This action plan stems directly from a needs assessment based on student's scores and other data. Professional development activities also stem from this plan, ensuring logical, coherent, site-based training for faculty in integration practices, authentic instruction, curriculum development, teamwork, and other relevant issues and implementation practices. University of Louisville students are also a part of these efforts. They participate in this professional development plan focusing on integration and pedagogical practices aligned with school reform. In an agreement with the University's School of Education, pre-student teaching classes are held at FHS. The content of these classes is common to area schools, but FHS is used as a vehicle of study. In addition to studying specific situations at Fairdale, students are required to perform 30 hours of work outside of class time. At FHS these students teach, rather than observe. University students also are responsible for much of the time consuming work that needs to be done implement a plan. For instance, when the idea of block scheduling came up, university students collected models and interviewed other schools to find the most appropriate format for Fairdale.
Scheduling
Flexible and creative scheduling is a critical piece in integration arrangements. Arena scheduling allows students to select courses and, in most cases, teachers can select teaching slots as well. Several scheduling models were examined and debated until everybody agreed on a consensus-driven negotiated schedule, which the academy coordinator described as the most complex option:
We left Mondays and Fridays with a traditional schedule to honor those people who didn't want to change. And then Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays we run 80-minute blocks to honor the people who did want to change. And what came out of this is that [now] everybody loves the blocks. Some now want to simplify the schedule by going to blocks every day.
Institutional Climate and Support
The academy coordinator summarized the school climate at FHS: "All of our meetings are open. Any opportunity for travel is thrown out there; the budget is open; nothing about the money is secret." The Critical Friends group, also trained through the CES, exemplifies this climate. Thirty-eight teachers from all areas participate voluntarily in peer reflection. One of these activities is a tuning session in which a diverse group of teachers (10-12) use a protocol to critique a teacher's work. Teachers from different content areas become aware of, and contribute indirectly to, what is happening in other content areas throughout the school.
Collaboration between experienced and novice teachers is a major factor in the perseverance and success of the school's efforts. "One of the greatest benefits of [this open climate] is that we know that there are cycles, and we know that there are stages, and we know that it takes time to get something accomplished," noted the academy coordinator. Under these conditions dialogue can turn into an empowering process:
Teaching is such a polite profession that there are no norms for civil discourse. We have had faculty meetings where some were sobbing and others had stormed out, but yet we always come back together. We would question top-down directives and we would talk and argue, until the ideas became everybody's ideas.
This method is effective in large part because philosophically, the teachers know they are arguing for change, for a better school, and--first and foremost--for the benefit of the student. These exchanges have empowered participants and have been critical to local integration efforts. The present school administration, although different from that which started the restructuring process, has nurtured this approach and continues to encourage teachers to integrate learning and to seek student success.
Prior to restructuring efforts, the school had five academic tracks and traditional teaching delivered by lecture. All low-level math courses were eliminated when staff accepted the premise that all students should have same expectations and educational goals. However, integrating mathematics with other disciplines proved difficult. Through participation on the CES Math/Science Fellows program, teachers were trained on effective integration practices and faculty sparked an interest in the problem-based approach that is now common in the school.
Through this coalition participation, teachers have gained exposure to local, state, and national groups who advocate the NCTM Standards. A math teacher believes that all of the mathematics department favors use of the NCTM Standards, so "the math department is a real cohesive group which seems to have common values and philosophies for teaching." The teachers' cohesiveness may be a result of the fact that many of the teachers and new hires have graduated from the University of Louisville. Their teacher education curriculum included the theory and practical use of the NCTM Standards. Their common philosophical background seems to fit in quite well with the integrated thinking of the school. "I was a junior in college when the standards came out," another math teacher recalled. "[The NCTM Standards] were our textbook. Our professor made us get it and we tore that book apart." Thus, University of Louisville graduates come to FHS ready to integrate the NCTM Standards into the classroom lessons and pedagogical practices they develop.
Fairdale High School's emphasis on problem solving and communication is a major factor in their successful implementation of the NCTM Standards. Everyone in the math department helped develop a new curriculum, which incorporated the NCTM Standards and the Kentucky learner expectations. The new curriculum emphasizes communication and problem-solving skills through small- or large-group discussions. Normally, students are given an assignment describing a problem and required (whenever appropriate) to measure and collect data. For a lesson on statistics, for example, students are required to determine independent and dependent variables, draw a scatter plot, analyze and explain data characteristics, plot the data using a calculator, and explain line of best fit. Through these activities students research, exercise critical thinking and communication skills, and engage in problem-solving activities typical of a discovery approach to learning.
Alternative assessment strategies involve portfolios, rubrics, and observations of students' work. Math portfolios have been in use for about four years, allowing students to show their work using writing and multiple representations to describe their solutions. By observing how students work, teachers also learn about instructional practices that may need further refinement such as when students struggle to get involved or do not understand what they are supposed to do. Rubrics are widely used to assess what students are thinking about math and how they go about solving problems. Typical rubrics focus on critical thinking, communication/presentation, and interpersonal skills based on four categories of assessment ranging from novice (basic understanding) to distinguished (exceeding expectations).