At Lexington Park Elementary School in a small town in southern Maryland, 10-year-old Jamal rises to speak. “The chair recognizes the delegate from Ridge School,” says the chair, a student from the local high school.
“I'd like to speak in favor of House Bill R130,” Jamal begins. “This bill would tell farmers they couldn't use fertilizer on land that is within 200 feet of the Chesapeake Bay. Fertilizer goes into the bay and causes pollution and kills fish. Farmers can still grow a lot of crops even if they don't plant close to water, and we all will have a better life if we can stop pollution in the bay. I yield to questions.”
A hand goes up. The chair recognizes a delegate from Carver School. “How does fertilizer harm the bay?” she asks. Jamal explains how the fertilizer supplies nutrients to algae, and when too much algae grows it deprives oysters, crabs, clams, and other larger creatures of oxygen.
A delegate from Green Holly School offers another viewpoint: “I'm a farmer,” says 11-year-old Maria. “I can hardly pay all my bills as it is, and I've got three kids to feed. I'll go broke if I can't fertilize my whole field!”
The debate on the bill goes on for more than an hour. Student delegates who are playing the role of commercial crabbers and others who have plied the bay for centuries describe how their way of life is disappearing as catches decline due to pollution. Business owners tell how pollution ruins the local economy. Finally, the committee amends the bill to prohibit all but the most impoverished farmers from planting near waterways. The bill passes and goes to the full House of Delegates for a vote.
What is happening at Lexington Park and three other schools in St. Mary's County, Maryland, is a revolution in elementary education. These schools are experimenting with Roots and Wings, a collaborative project of the county school system, the state education department, and The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The pilot project is one of nine “break-the-mold” school restructuring designs being funded by the New American Schools Development Corporation, a private group formed under the Bush administration to solicit business investment in new forms of schools.
- To guarantee that every child, regardless of family background or disability, will successfully complete elementary school, achieving the highest standards in basic skills such as reading and writing, as well as in mathematics, science, history, and geography (the roots).
- To engage students in activities that enable them to apply everything they learn so they can see the usefulness and interconnectedness of knowledge (the wings).
The reading, tutoring, and special education approaches are adapted from Success for All, a national program that combines prevention, research-based curriculums and instruction, and family support at elementary schools in areas with high rates of poverty. Success for All is currently being implemented in 57 school districts in 20 states, including Maryland. To this base we are adding science, social studies, and mathematics for a comprehensive alternative to traditional elementary school curriculums.
Integrating Learning In WorldLab
The debate in the “House of Delegates” illustrates one of Roots and Wings' most distinctive and innovative elements: an integrated approach to science, social studies, writing, and other subject areas known as WorldLab. In this 90-minute daily exercise, students play the role of historical figures or people in various occupations, thereby becoming active participants in the scientific discoveries and historical events they study. These simulations not only draw upon the entire content of grades 1–6 science and social studies programs, but also integrate reading, writing, mathematics, and fine arts skills with WorldLab topics.
WorldLab grew out of our conviction that basic skills are essential, but they are not enough for children today. Students must also be able to creatively solve problems, understand their own learning processes, and connect knowledge from different disciplines. To build these higher-order skills, Roots and Wings provides daily opportunities for children to work collaboratively to solve simulated and real-life problems using everything they've learned in class.
Students have been studying the Chesapeake Bay in preparation for a model state legislature, in which they will write, propose, and debate many bills relating to cleaning up the waters of the continent's largest estuary. The bay, as rich a source of science lessons as it is of Atlantic blue crabs, is an ideal subject. The students are learning about causes of pollution, watersheds, tides, the rain cycle, and the life cycle of aquatic plants and animals. The unit also provides an opportunity to integrate lessons on government and politics, economics, and geography.
In other WorldLab units, students play the role of inventors, delegates to the Constitutional Convention, advisors to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, 15th century explorers, and so on. In these simulations they work in small, cooperative groups to investigate science and social studies topics. They read books and articles; write broadsides, letters, and proposals; and use fine arts, music, and computer, video, and other technology to prepare newspapers and multimedia reports.
Applying Lessons to Real Life
One problem of traditional elementary schooling is that the content is not immediately useful to young students. It is entirely possible to be a happy and successful 10-year-old with no knowledge whatsoever of the American Revolution, or the rain cycle, or how to add fractions, or how to write a persuasive letter. Students may work to please their teachers or parents or to get a good grade, or they may be interested in some aspects of the subjects they are studying. But motivation, curiosity, and insight are certain to be much greater when they need information or skills to solve problems that have meaning to them. Simulations provide an ideal opportunity to make information immediately relevant.
In a well-designed simulation, students fully identify with the roles they take on. For example, 11-year-old Maria is an elected representative to the Maryland House of Delegates. She also is a farmer with serious responsibilities: three children, a mortgage, food bills, and taxes. As a real-life kid, Maria cares about the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. However, as an elected delegate and a farmer, she cares about it from a particular perspective. To participate intelligently in the debates, she needs a basic understanding of government, laws, and the economic impact of the bay. She also needs to know how erosion and eutrophication occur, how sea life is dependent on oxygen and tides, and many other topics. Maria has written impassioned letters to support her views, she has read books on the Chesapeake Bay, and she has used math to figure her expenses. The Bay Unit is not only an interdisciplinary thematic unit, but, because of the simulations, it is also an opportunity to integrate knowledge and skills and make them useful.
Simulations can also give students an emotional investment in the material they are studying. For example, in a two-month unit called Rebellion to Union, principals sent 5th graders notes announcing taxes on certain activities, such as using the pencil sharpeners. Predictably, the 10-year-olds were quick to grasp the unfairness of the levy. They assembled their class governments, wrote notes of protest, and decided to boycott the pencil sharpeners. Some time later they were informed that they would be taxed on their use of desks. They promptly shoved the desks into the hall and sat on the classroom floor. For their part, the principals stuck to the historical plot line: they dissolved the class governments, whereupon the students “seceded” from the schools, justifying their actions with a Declaration of Independence.
Although they knew this was only a simulation, the students were emotionally involved. They wrote letters, picketed their principals' offices, and took great pleasure in defying their authority. When they ultimately read the various drafts of the real Declaration of Independence, they were able to identify not only with the framers' words and logic but with their emotions as well. They had, after all, wrestled with similar questions, fears, and uncertainties. Later, they played the parts of delegates to the Constitutional Convention and debated positions appropriate to the states and occupations they represented. These children will never forget the American Revolution or Constitutional Convention. Everything they learned in the unit was relevant and important to them.
Building a Firm Foundation
In addition to basic reading and writing instruction, Roots and Wings intervenes early with supportive classroom and family activities.
MathWings. In our mathematics program, students work in cooperative groups to discover and apply the powerful ideas of mathematics. MathWings, which is keyed to National Council for Teachers of Mathematics standards, balances problem-solving skills and concept development in order to make mathematics come to life. To help the children solve complex problems, teachers make extensive use of calculators, computers, and manipulatives, as well as a host of shared hands-on activities and frequent performance assessments. The goal in math, as in other areas, is to make the subject more than a series of abstract exercises.
Literacy. Integrated reading and writing programs are used in grades 1–5. The students work together in planning, drafting, and revising compositions. The 1st grade program, Reading Roots, is an adaptation of the Success for All beginning reading program, which has been successfully used in more than 100 schools across the country. It integrates phonics and meaning-centered reading to make sure every child is able to read. This program is active and exciting, with teachers supplementing the stories they read with puppet shows, songs, sound and letter games, and opportunities for students to read together.
In the Reading Wings program used in grades 2–5, students are involved in structured peer activities that provide constant opportunities for active learning and immediate feedback. They are placed in cooperative learning groups, where they read to one another and work together to find the main elements of stories. They learn to support one another's reading and to challenge one another to explain and justify their understanding of the material.
Tutoring. For 1st graders who are struggling with beginning reading and are in danger of falling behind, Chapter 1 or special education funds are used to provide one-to-one tutoring. The idea is to employ the most intensive and effective intervention known to bring these children up to expectations quickly.
Early learning. Part of the roots of Roots and Wings is to ensure that all students arrive in 1st grade with good language and pre-reading skills, as well as strong self-esteem, good health, and other prerequisites for success. For children 3 years old and younger, Roots and Wings offers family literacy programs. For preschoolers and kindergartners, we provide various pre-literacy activities, including research-based curriculums focusing on integrated themes, storytelling and retelling, and many opportunities for oral expression.
Neverstreaming.For children at risk, Roots and Wings stresses preventive services and early intervention—a strategy known as neverstreaming, which is our primary approach to special education and to the federal Chapter 1 funding program for disadvantaged students. Teachers, principals, parents, and community agencies work in a coordinated, comprehensive, and relentless way to see that children receive whatever they need to become competent and confident learners. Our goal is to help most children succeed in mainstream classes and thereby minimize the need for long-term remedial or special education services.
Extended day. To further supplement regular classroom work, an after-school program is offered to all children. Here they may benefit from tutoring, special education, or Chapter 1 services, and a variety of art, music, sports, and computer programs.
Family support and integrated services. A family support team at each Roots and Wings School works to increase parent participation in the school and to improve student attendance and adjustment to classes. The team also coordinates family health, mental health, and social services; and health suites in each school are available for both student and family use. The family support teams also draw upon an extensive partnership with the local Navy base and area businesses. Volunteers from these two sectors work in the schools as tutors, mentors, and activity leaders.
Indicators of Success
There are many early indicators of program outcomes in Roots and Wings. First, the overall reading performance of participating students has improved substantially, and learning disabilities requiring special education have been significantly reduced. This should not be surprising: evaluations of Success for All programs in seven districts around the United States have found similar outcomes (Slavin et al. 1994).
Our Success for All program at The Johns Hopkins University (the parent program of Roots and Wings) also demonstrated that we can help nearly every child succeed in the elementary grades (Slavin et al. 1992, 1994; Madden et al. 1993). Other Maryland schools participating in the program have begun to see improved scores in social studies, science, math, writing, and reading on a statewide performance-based test, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. These outcomes are particularly important because the Maryland test is the kind of state-of-the-art performance-based assessment that many states are moving toward in their accountability testing programs. And it is the kind of test the federal government is promoting through the recent Goals 2000 legislation and the reauthorization of the Chapter 1/Title I accountability program. As both states and the federal government begin emphasizing new forms of performance assessment, school districts will almost certainly be looking for comprehensive, proven models of reform keyed to these changes.
Clearly, in the next stage of school reform, we must have effective, replicable designs for total school restructuring, designs that can be adapted to a wide range of circumstances and needs. Roots and Wings provides one practical vision of what elementary schools can be like if we decide to give every child the academic grounding and the thinking skills, creativity, and broad world view we now expect only of our most gifted children.
