Expeditionary Learning: Radical Reform
Speaking of radical High School reform, thanks to a friend of mine I was recently introduced to Expeditionary Learning. Of course, I thought 'Wow, that's neat. Must be really really new.' See, I've been hearing about integrated learning and skills-based learning for years, but Expeditionary Learning had somehow not made it onto my radar.
Boy, was I wrong.
It turns out that Expeditionary learning grew out of the ingenious minds at Harvard. The base for it was the Outward Bound program, which is an outdoor education program like nothing else out there. In our high school we had a seven day canoeing Outward Bound adventure near Florida City; it was probably one of the most valuable experiences I had at the time. Children and adults leave these expeditions feeling more self-assured, aware suddenly that they are capable physically and mentally of things they had never thought they could do. I highly encourage you to look it up:
As I was saying before I became sidetracked, Expeditionary Learning came out of this great program. The first proposal for this different way of running schools was written in 1991! So it is in no way new. I felt truly shocked that I hadn't heard of it before.
Almost twenty years from the date of that first proposal, it sounds like this particular method of learning is having impressive results. On their website, they list 10 High Schools that had 100% graduation rates last year out of the 47 in their system. And they have any number of data with outstanding results for their schools against national averages and local district averages. They also work with schools at every level, though we are only focusing on high school in this blog.
It seems that they are involved in helping to create Charter Schools, turning around failing schools with the school board's permission, and helping to create new public schools in chool districts. I'm sure they've had their share of failures with some schools and they probably had a few skinned knees along the way, but after twenty years and endorsements from both the President and the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation, as well as winning lots of awards, I'd say they probably have it together.
So...what is it? Sounds great right? But what does it mean? This was a much harder question to answer. Expeditionary Learning seems a combination of integrated learning curriculums and project-based learning, but including a real world component in the mix. They go out and create art that is hosted in local galleries. They learn about prejudice and immigration by meeting real immigrants and speaking with them. They do fieldwork.
I still feel like I haven't grasped the whole of their endeavor, but I'm piecing together more. In terms of the school support, it sounds great. They perform yearly teacher professional development, really help with the creation of the school and its curriculum, and seem to be very hands-on in general, which is impressive. They also have teacher resources on their website with best-practices and professional development course catalogs, and information about a fund for teachers to take summer sabbaticals.
Overall, I am extremely impressed with the information I've found so far. If you want to do your own digging, the website is:
