Edutopia - September 2007 - (Page 28) C o o l Sc h o ol s Totemoff, a recent graduate of Tatitlek Community School, who recalls slacking off for a while and then realizing she had much work to do to graduate. “I remember crying, ‘I don’t want to do it no more!’ But it was my own progress. I was proud of all I got done.” The Chugach schools arrived at their approach by way of disaster. In the early 1990s, the district had reached a crisis; its students could barely read, and graduates routinely failed to hold hamlets: A villager might go seal hunting during the day and then watch American Idol via satellite TV that night. Eagles glide over the houses while hip-hop music booms from open windows. Over several years, Sampson and his colleagues repaired the schools’ relationship with the villages and shifted to the standardsbased system. In response to community concerns, they introduced standards in service learning; career development; personal, social, and health development; technology; and cul- 28 EDUTOPIA SEPTEMBER 2007 GRACE RUBENSTEIN (LEFT AND OPPOSITE); DOUGLAS PENN (RIGHT) Quality Time: Teacher Stephen Grajewski (above) reads a student’s story with Jacob and Ayeisha Kompkoff. Jordan Geffe (far right) set crab traps with teacher Jed Palmer for a science experiment. jobs or become productive members of their communities. The district had produced only a few college graduates in two decades. Alienation and mistrust divided the schools’ staff from the communities they served. Superintendent Robert Crumley, a teacher at the time, recalls that staff talked about standing on a “burning platform”—a foundation that could collapse at any moment. Roger Sampson, a new arrival from Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, embarked on a complete overhaul by enlisting the support and input of both staff and the district’s communities. Chugach serves 214 students. More than half are homeschooled, with district support; the others attend school in one of three communities carved out of the evergreens at the bases of mountains rising from Prince William Sound. In Whittier, a former U.S. Army port, most of the 182 residents live in a high-rise building across the street from the school. Residents typically work at the cannery, at the small boat harbor, or in industries such as railroad, shipping, and tourism. The villages of Tatitlek and Chenega Bay, with populations of about 100 and 50 respectively, are accessible only by boat or charter plane. People here—mostly members of the Native Alaskan Alutiiq tribe—get by largely on government and tribal subsidies and their traditional practices of hunting, fishing, and berry picking. A handful of residents work on the transAlaska oil pipeline in nearby Valdez. Native and mainstream American cultures collide in these two tural awareness (particularly about Alutiiq culture). All of these subjects are required in different quantities for graduation, as are conventional studies in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. Teachers may assess students’ skills through various means, including observation, projects, written work, performances, tests, and portfolios. In place of grades, students receive ratings of emerging, developing, proficient (the minimum required to pass), or advanced—a nomenclature alumna Teresa Totemoff likes because, “If you’re developCHUGACH VOICES ing, there’s always room for Watch a video of kids improvement.” singing Alutiiq songs and audio slide shows featuring Before the change, students the Palmers at felt school was disconnected from www.edutopia.org/chugachtheir real life, and the system as it school-district-reform stood obstructed teachers from assessing and providing for kids’ individual needs. “Common sense had been weeded out of education,” Crumley says, “so we tried to build a system that made common sense.” Sampson also trimmed back the administrative staff to help place more teachers in classrooms. There are now eight and a half teaching positions for the eighty-one students in Whittier, Tatitlek, and Chenega Bay. Principal Douglas Penn visits the sites regularly by charter plane. Starting with the transformation, the staff made it standard http://www.edutopia.org/chugach-school-district-reform
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