At One Schoolhouse, we recognize observances and holidays that center the voices and experiences of historically excluded peoples in the United States. Our goal is to lift up the words of others who share our commitment to learning, and to build for belonging. Check out our blog post to learn more about the reasons behind our acknowledgments and how we approach them. To learn more about these newsletters, read our blog post on how and why we acknowledge. Recognizing Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Learn about the history of AAPI Heritage Month: May marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which celebrates the histories of Americans hailing from across the Asian continent and from the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Learn why we celebrate AAPI heritage this month in an article from NPR. Recognize AAPI Heritage Month in your school and community: The Very Asian Foundation shines a light on Asian experiences and stories through advocacy and celebration. Inspired by a group of St. Louis students who asked for more AAPI books, The May Book Project brings curated book lists to expand representation and celebration of the AAPI experience in classrooms. Listen to AAPI Voices: As a part of Education Week’s Voices from the Field project, three AAPI Academic Leaders at independent schools reflect on the intersections of their work, and their identity. Hear from a department chair, a middle school director, and a class dean. Recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month
Learn about the history of Jewish American Heritage Month: Established in 2006, by President George W. Bush, Jewish American Heritage Month recognizes the rich history and contributions of Jewish Americans to the nation's social, cultural, and scientific landscape. Recognize Jewish American Heritage Month in your school: The National Endowment for the Humanities shares resources, primary sources, and teaching materials that explore topics including George Washington’s 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport; Jewish artists, musicians, and performers; and the history of Jewish immigration to the United States. Listen to Jewish American voices: Kirsten Fermaglich is a professor in the Department of History in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. She writes, “As we have witnessed an upsurge in American antisemitism for the past several years, from Charlottesville to Pittsburgh to Colleysville, Texas, studying American Jewish history feels more important than ever.”
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Academic Program at One Schoolhouse: Our Commitment to Excellence and Equity in Every Course4/23/2024 When you register a student for the Academic Program at One Schoolhouse, you expect them to have an experience that challenges them intellectually, develops their academic maturity, and gives them new insights on their world. So do we. That’s why we build learner-driven school year and summer courses that help students build academic maturity and global competency. Our courses deliver on that promise–last year, 97% of our students told us they were challenged by our courses, 90% reported they developed their academic maturity, and 90% said their Academic Program course expanded their worldview.
The Academic Program earns those scores because we’re intentional about our pedagogy, our courses, and our teaching. All our work is grounded in research about how students learn, which forms the basis of The Pedagogy of One Schoolhouse. From there, we set clear standards that each of our courses and teachers need to meet. We work with our teachers through coaching and feedback to ensure that everything we do for your students is up to your–and our–standards. Here’s how we do it: We dig deep into the research on how students learn best online, and how to nurture student-teacher connection in the online space. We’re learners, and we start by doing our homework. Informed by research, we’ve defined what good teaching looks like, and we make that our standard. The Pedagogy of the Academic Program at One Schoolhouse lays out our core tenets of teaching and learning: “At the Academic Program, we believe schooling should be organized around how students – each with their own unique identity – grow. This belief positions learning, rather than teaching, as the design driver of our courses and all their components.” The Pedagogy paper traces the ways this belief manifests in our course design: “Our teachers create scaffolded learning experiences that support and guide the student journey towards mastery and the acquisition of competencies, but it is students who drive learning forward through goal setting, planning, and meaningful reflection.” We do all this because intentionality is core to successful online teaching and learning. We articulate what we value most, and what we believe every student needs to succeed–and we ensure it’s built into every course we offer. Our Course Development Standards and Cycle are explicit about the practices that need to be standardized across all courses. If a practice is important enough to be a part of the Pedagogy paper, it’s important enough to be present in all our courses. Our standards aren’t optional–they are required for every teacher and every course. For example, we believe that reflection is essential to student-driven learning, so our standards explain how and when it should be used:
Our Course Development Standards also ensure that our values are present in and integral to every course we offer. We believe that learning should be inclusive, identity-affirming, and equity-centered. These, too, are part of our baseline expectations. We expect each Academic Program course to present “multiple foundations and perspectives from people of color when explaining historical origins, frameworks for analysis, and contemporary events and includes diverse authorship,” and we expect teachers to be able to provide evidence the standard has been met. We’re explicit about our baseline expectations for teachers, and we make professional growth part of those expectations. The Academic Program developed our own rubric for teacher competencies because we wanted to be clear about our expectations, equitable in our evaluations, and explicit about professional growth. We have high standards for our teachers, so we provide a high level of support, coaching, and feedback to support our teachers in meeting those standards. Our rubric describes two levels of performance: Baseline Effectiveness and Exemplary Implementation, which provides growth opportunities for both new and experienced teachers.For example, our first teacher competency is “Teacher is self-aware and builds an authentic relationship that empowers each student as a cornerstone of the learning experience.” A baseline expectation here is that the teacher “knows students’ goals and learner profiles and actively works to support growth through regular contact with and feedback to students.” For teachers who strive for Exemplary Implementation, we offer a goal: to “anticipate learner challenges and proactively engage students to strategize and trouble-shoot.” At the Academic Program, we’re committed to continuous improvement–for ourselves as well as our teachers. We’re confident that by staying at the forefront of educational research and best practices, we'll continue to empower our students to achieve academic excellence, develop global competencies, and become lifelong learners who are prepared to thrive in a changing world. When the College Board announced the new AP® Precalculus course, our Academic Program staff took a close look at the course materials. We polled our consortium schools to find out where AP® Precalculus might fit into their math sequence, and what their thoughts were about offering the course on their own campus. Taking all the data into account, the Academic Program felt confident AP® Precalculus could be an important part of our Summer session. Here’s our thinking, and why we’re excited to be one of the first providers offering AP® Precalculus.
The pandemic has a long tail. Students entering 12th grade in Fall 2024 were in 8th grade at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current cohort of high school students had their middle school learning upended–in exactly the years when students make the shift to more complex mathematical concepts. Which leads to the problem that... Access to Calculus is determined as early as sixth grade. In traditional math sequences, students typically complete Algebra I in eighth grade to prepare for senior year Calculus. This pathway, common in independent schools, usually splits Algebra I concepts between seventh and eighth grades, meaning sixth graders are sorted into either Algebra I or pre-Algebra tracks. Remember, our current high school students were in early middle school at the peak of the pandemic, struggling with crisis distance learning, or experiencing pandemic-related trauma – both of which impacted students’ ability to learn. In other words, our current high school students were tracked at the moment when they were most challenged, and more than a few of them were likely tracked out of classes where they could have succeeded in less complex times. At the same time, if ninth grade is an entry point, you may well be admitting students who never had access to Algebra I in middle school–nationally, only 24% of eighth grade students take Algebra I. Equitable high school programs want to make sure every student has a road to Calculus, because... Students need AP® Calculus, or its equivalent, to be considered for highly selective colleges and universities. As applicant pools swell, highly selective undergraduate programs are looking for ways to cut down on the number of applicants they consider seriously. Traditionally, SAT scores did some of that work. As many selective colleges and universities have continued with test-optional policies post-pandemic, that’s no longer a universal marker. At many schools, an AP® Calculus course (or its equivalent) has become an unofficial requirement. This presents a problem to students who have the potential to succeed in Calculus but aren’t on schedule to take it in high school. If they try to switch tracks, there's a gap between what they know and what they need to succeed in the higher track. Summer AP® Precalculus in the Academic Program solves this problem because... The Summer AP® Precalculus course makes it possible for students to complete a full year of course content in the summer and move up into the track for AP® Calculus (or its equivalent). AP® Precalculus covers the topics students need for college-level Calculus courses like AP® Calculus AB and AP® Calculus BC. When students complete this course in the Summer Academic Program at One Schoolhouse, they’ll be able to bridge the gap. This ensures that students who have the potential for success in Calculus aren’t held back by the challenges of learning during the pandemic. It also levels the playing field for students who never had access to Algebra I in middle school. By enrolling in AP® Precalculus, these students complete four years of math courses before they begin twelfth grade, ready to enroll in AP® Calculus or its equivalent. Finally, we’re offering AP® Precalculus because we’re confident our students will be well-prepared for the AP® Exam. Students will continue to practice their Precalculus skills throughout the academic year in their AP® Calculus course. They’ll also maintain access to online support and exam prep materials through the national AP® Exam date in May 2025. Learn more about AP® Precalculus in the Summer Academic Program at One Schoolhouse. We’re marking the start of Arab-American Heritage Month by talking about the importance of recognizing and celebrating the richness and diversity of the Arab-American experience–this month and all through the year. At One Schoolhouse, we recognize observances and holidays that center the voices and experiences of historically excluded peoples in the United States. Our goal is to lift up the words of others who share our commitment to learning, and to build for belonging. To learn more about these newsletters, read our blog post on how and why we acknowledge.
The History of Arab-American Heritage Month: The campaign for a national recognition of Arab-American heritage began in 2017. In 2021, National Arab American Heritage Month was first proclaimed by President Biden in 2021. In 2023, the month was also recognized by 47 state governors. Observe Arab-American Heritage Month at your school: Visit PBS’s Arab-American Heritage Month resources to share stories from across the Arab-American experience. Their articles and resources include subjects like one mother’s experience in the Syrian conflict, Somali poetry, and Jinn, mystical beings from Islamic beliefs and Arabic mythology. Listen to Arab-American Voices: Linda Sayed is an assistant professor of comparative cultures and politics at Michigan State University, where she is also a core faculty member of the Muslim Studies Program. She writes, “Growing up Arab and Muslim in the U.S. was to live by omission… To be Arab and Muslim in a post-9/11 world is to exist under a microscope… As a scholar of the Middle East, I push for change by rewriting the story.” As students complete their course selections for the next school year, they’re imagining the perfect schedule. Every year, academic advisors hear students say, “I just wish we had this course.” Educators know every school’s course catalog is limited, and no one school can be all things to all students. Things get even more complicated when it’s time to build an actual schedule that has to meet a host of logistical demands like classroom availability, crossover teachers, part-time employees, and enrollment numbers.
Every educator who builds their school’s schedule wants to meet all their students’ requests. Every experienced schedule builder knows that’s just not possible. Given these challenges, how can Academic Leaders make sure they're providing the best and most flexible schedule to match students' interests and needs? When your school partners with the Academic Program at One Schoolhouse, you don’t have to be limited by teaching loads, section sizes that are too large or too small, or two single-section courses meeting at the same time. Instead, you can provide the flexibility and the full range of courses that individual students need by offering online asynchronous courses. Asynchronous work allows students to have a personalized experience that aligns to their learning preferences. One student can watch a video to learn a new concept, while another reads a selection from a textbook. And asynchronous assignments don’t have to be self-paced or solitary. Shared weekly due dates ensure that although students complete assignments at the time that works for them, they’re mastering the same content that their classmates are learning. As a result, students have regular opportunities for collaboration and conversation, like writing skits to practice vocabulary and grammar in language courses, or collecting data for a social psychology experiment. Our courses are designed and built by a faculty of experienced independent school teachers who are experts in their fields. (94% of them hold advanced degrees!) We help them to become exceptional online instructors by training them to build online connections with students, effective online communication, and technological acumen. When schools use online asynchronous courses strategically, they’re not limited by classroom space, staffing, or singleton sections. It becomes possible for a student to take two courses that meet at the same time, and financially sustainable for a school to offer an advanced math course for just three students. When students pick next year’s courses, they dream big, but the reality of scheduling makes compromise seem inevitable. It doesn’t have to be that way. As you prepare for the upcoming academic year, discover the possibilities available through a partnership with One Schoolhouse's Academic Program. You can expand your course catalog and make your schedule more flexible–all while allowing students to enroll in even more courses that help them achieve their goals and ignite their passion. |
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May 2024
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