Kaler School undergoes ‘renewal’

SOUTH PORTLAND — There’s something new happening on South Kelsey Street in South Portland, and it’s kind of a big deal. So big, in fact, it’s prompted an unofficial name change at the neighborhood school there.

When K-5 students step off the bus this week and lug their backpacks through the main entrance, those who happen to look up will notice that the James Otis Kaler Elementary School is no more.

In its place is the James Otis Kaler Community School of Exploration and Inquiry, where a newly introduced form of learning will be utilized to combat low test scores and high absenteeism at the school. 

“We’ve trained a team of teachers in an alternative form of instruction known as Project-Based Learning that’s shown to engage students and improve critical-thinking skills,” said Superintendent Suzanne Godin.

That training, funded with $7,500 the district had remaining in American Renewal and Reinvestment Act money, was provided during three days in June by the nonprofit Buck Institute for Education in Novato, Calif.

Buck Institute trainer Charity Allen said project-based learning is not new. The institute has been pushing the method for almost 10 years.

“When we began to look more closely at what characterized the habits and practices of effective teachers, we began to form a cohesive methodology that we call project-based learning, and we created a model to replicate those practices in classrooms everywhere,” she said.

In essence, project-based learning encourages students to “learn by doing,” as opposed to the more typical method of rote memorization, in which students sit in neat rows and recite whatever the teacher tells them.

It works, said Kaler Principal Diane Lang, because of how the brain functions. People retain information by forming associations in the brain between disparate sensory experiences. Every time the brain takes in new information, synapses fire, creating pathways between that connect that bit of data to other bits stored nearby. Ever hear a song on the oldies station and suddenly find yourself recalling the smell of whatever perfume or cologne your prom date wore when that song was a hit? That’s the process at work.   

“We now know from brain research that when you are simply told something, as in traditional class instruction, you retain maybe 20 percent,” said Lang. “However, when you are actually doing and participating in something, you retain 80 percent.”

And while Godin is not yet prepared to call the “Kaler Renewal Project” a pilot for all South Portland elementary schools, she does say efforts are under way to make use of PBL models district-wide. The process is a big part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs being launched this year at the city’s two middle schools, using a $225,000 Power of Education grant from the National Semiconductor Foundation.

Project-based learning skills also will be utilized at all elementary schools, Godin said, just not with the same intensity as at Kaler.

“It really is a wonderful, hands-on learning process that engages students in real-world problem solving using 21^st-century skills,” said Godin.

So, what does that mean, exactly? Well, to a certain degree it means this: Kaler’s “renewal” was triggered in large part by recent testing and attendance scores.

According to the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) given each October in grades 3-6 to test retention of material from the previous school year, only about half of Kaler students are meeting standards, as defined by the Maine Learning Results and the No Child Left Behind Act.

“Great teaching and great learning was occurring,” said Lang, “but not at the level for which we know it could be happening for everyone.”

Those numbers may have been driven, in part, Lang said, by absenteeism. Last year, 44 percent of Kaler students missed seven or more school days, while 11 percent were absent at least 17 days.

Things got so bad that, last fall, Kaler was designated a Continuing Improvement Priority School (CIPS), for failing to meet “adequate yearly progress” toward federal education goals, which call for all students to meet standards by 2014. The status puts Kaler on a timetable to shape up, or else face punitive federal sanctions, such as the forced turnover of school administration.

However, staff knew which way testing data was trending. Last August, months before the designation was announced, a special committee began meeting to try and turn things around at Kaler, laying plans in semi-monthly session ever since. Those plans are being put into place starting this week.

“We were having success with a certain population of our students, but not all of them,” said Lang. “We knew we needed a different way of teaching in order to improve learning for all.”

“It’s exciting to see that we are going to do something different,” said first-grade teacher Jackie Elliott. “We know that something different has to happen, because what we are doing right now isn’t working, so it’s time to make a change.”

In fact, Elliott used to be a literacy specialist, but, as a member of the Kaler Renewal Committee, grew so enthused that the coming changes that she applied for and won appointment to the teaching position, just to be a part of the project.

“It really fits my philosophy of teaching, in terms of the idea that we are all very inquisitive,” said fifth-grade teacher Karen Riggs, now in her 17^th year. “This really teaches kids how to be problem solvers, because, instead of the teacher mapping everything out – this is what we are going to do and this is how we are going to do it – it starts out with the child asking the question, ‘What do we need to know to complete this project?’”

Riggs chafes at the idea – common among some parents and taxpayers – that project-based learning is “just making posters.” So does Lang.

It’s not simply drawing a picture of “what I learned today,” she said. The whole idea, explains Lang, is that the project is the process, in which students are presented with a task and must pull in learning from all subject areas in order to complete the task at hand.

“We did projects before, but it always came last,” said Riggs. ”I’d develop a great unit, but it was only after all the learning was done that I’d say, ‘OK, now we are going to do this culminating project that brings everything together.’ Project-based learning flips that – the project is entered into first.”

Lang also stresses that, while the projects will be a big part of what Kaler students do each day, it does not replace the regular curriculum. There will still be regular blocks of reading and, most especially, math.

However, what makes the projects especially relevant to students is that they will produce their work for an “authentic audience.” Instead of simply presenting their work to a teacher, or other classmates, students will have to satisfy other stakeholders, whether it be younger grades, parent groups, or area businesses.

“That’s what really pulled me in,” said Elliott. “I was very excited about the collaboration that’s being encouraged with the community.”

For example, second-grade students this year will undertake a project called “Kaler Kapitalists.” At the beginning of the year, students will be presented with what Lang calls “the driving question” – in this case: “How can we, as entrepreneurs, create a good or service to meet a need in our Kaler community?”

Youngsters will then conduct field trips with their teachers to local businesses to interview the owners. That new experience of visiting some local business is expected to help cement what students learn how business works. Brainstorming ideas for the good or service they might launch help students learn how to work within groups, as they will when they grow up and get jobs, said Lang.

Students will then conduct a survey to test the actual need for it – a good chance to put math skills to use on something other than homework. Finally, communication skills – written, oral and visual, will come into play, when students have to justify their product idea by making a sales pitch to an audience of parents and local business owners.

“It’s that weaving of all of the experiences and connections that’s important, while also giving the child an active voice in their inquiry and pulling in the experts in the community in any given topic,” said Lang.

The bottom line: 58 percent of students in the Kaler neighborhood are classified as “economically disadvantaged,” meaning they qualify for free and reduced-price meals. There is a link, Lang said, to household finances and student test scores. The belief is that students from poor families often lack the varied experiences that help to create multiple levels and association in the young mind, setting the pathways to success in later life.

Project-based learning, said Lang, means Kaler will take an active part in creating experiences for students, and not merely throwing information at them to be memorized and regurgitated back at test time.

“There are plenty of schools out there that have 98 percent of their students economically disadvantages, and they’re doing great,” said Lang. “That’s what we want. We want to be a model school.”

A CLOSER LOOK

The percentage of Kaler Elementary students meeting or exceeding standards on the Maine Education Assessment (MEA) test (administered in the spring of 2008 and 2009 to grades 3-5) and the New England Common Assessment Program (given in October 2009 and 2010 to grades 3-6)

Reading    Math   % IEP*    %SES**

2008    59%      55%      22%       44%

2009    44%      57%      26%       51%

2009    51%      50%      27%       50%

2010    51%     49%        26%        58%     

*IEP: Individual Education Plan (e.g. Special Ed)

**SES: Economically Disadvantaged

(Economically Disadvantaged students are defined as those eligible for free and reduced-price meals. Kaler Elementary’s 58 percent is the highest in the district.)

Absenteeism: (2009-2010 school year)

Missed seven or more school days: 44 percent.

Missed 17 or more school days: 11 percent.

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Join the Learning Community

Below are the projects Kaler students will complete in the coming school year. If you have expertise in any content area and wish to participate, contact Principal Diane Lang at langdi@spsd.org.

Kindergarten: Traveling Butterfly

Students will study and then visually represent to family members the life cycle of the monarch butterfly through the visual and performing arts.

First Grade: Kaler is Cool with School Rules

Students will study school rules, presenting a video explanation to the entire school, as well as a picture book for kindergarten students.  

Second Grade: Kaler Kapitalists

Students will create a good or service for the Kaler community, conducting a survey to determine need and making a sales pitch to an audience of parents and local business owners.

Third Grade: Kaler Kartographers

Students will study the history, landmarks, businesses, services and opportunities of South Portland, creating brochures for the Chamber of Commerce to hand out to new families entering the community.

Fourth Grade: Where is Kaler School?

Students will study the history, economy, environment, politics and social aspects of Maine’s 16 counties, hosting 16 “county fairs” with each making a pitch to staff for a hypothetical relocation of Kaler Elementary.

Fifth Grade: Getting Our Game On

Students will use their study of simple machines to engineer games for younger students to play at recess.