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Knowing Students and Trusting Them to Do Well

Type: Example from Schools Author(s): Kathleen Cushman Source: Performance. #27. Dec. 1995.

The Crefield School
8836 Crefeld Street
Philadelphia, PA 19118
(215) 242-5545

Michael Patron, Headmaster
62 students grades 7-12, 12 staff
Private school

A frustrating past counts less than one's future at this small school where students undertake a lean and deep integrated curriculum in a climate of unanxious expectation.

It's no accident that the Crefeld School in Philadelphia feels so much like someone's home, with the intimate nooks and crannies, stairways and sitting rooms of this one-time family estate converted to serve fewer than a hundred students in grades seven through twelve. The commitment to individual learning here has created a place that is as much family as school, and virtually every expectation for students reflects a mix of high hopes and trust.

Since it began in 1970 as a small alternative school in a well-off section of the city, Crefeld has gone through several crises of identity and leadership. But the last several years have seen it narrow and deepen its purpose and methods, guided by Essential School principles and by the compelling needs of its students.

"Most of our kids have been somehow left in the dust by traditional systems," says headmaster Michael Patron, who estimates that 85 percent of Crefeld students "learn differently" from the norm. Over a quarter have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder; four out of five bring failing grades from previous schools. "Sometimes they're just following a different drummer," Patron says. "But their emotional problems are usually school-related."

At Crefeld they encounter a new system that puts less emphasis on convention and more on coming to understanding in whatever ways work best for a particular student. The same teacher-adviser provides academic and personal guidance throughout each student's career, helping with everything from coursework to college plans. Class size averages eight students. And though students must do considerable reading, writing, and thinking here, Crefeld organizes curriculum simply, to be as responsive as possible to a student's individual needs.

Intensive semester-long courses in Humanities and Sciences, integrated across several disciplines, spiral through content areas in consecutive years (so that all students take, for example, American Studies in the same year). Math, Spanish, arts, and elective courses take up the afternoon; and everyone gives two hours a week of service to the community.

Yet much of this work gets done in an informal, almost home-like manner at Crefeld. 'If I can't deal with something I can get up and walk around the building, calm down and get focused," says senior Tony Angelo. "The teachers treat you more as an adult - more freedom, but more responsibility too.' An advanced calculus student, Tony tutors algebra daily to a Crefeld midddle-schooler who is ahead of her class, and twice a week he and six schoolmates travel to the central city to help younger kids with math.

Graduation by Perfomance

The school keeps track of student progress in equally individual ways. In portfolios each year, students must assemble examples of literary analysis, research, and writing, and show proficiency in an expressive form other than written English prose (such as visual art or computer programming). They reflect in writing on their own lives, goals, and learning styles. And they conduct a formal scientific study of a topic that concerns the community, then present a report or proposal to an agency with power to effect change on the issue. A student qualifies for graduation when he or she presents a portfolio of exhibitions demonstrating mastery in each of these categories, and passes a dozen or so tests of competency the school devised. (See sidebar, page 2.)

Within this pragmatic yet flexible structure, students seem to take new interest in their work. "I get to learn at a pace which I can do well, a method of learning that better suits my needs," one student reflected in writing. "If I learned everything they taught me at [my previous school] yes, I would learn more. But here I understand much more."

One senior describes with pride his research project on the Pennsylvania Dutch healer known as Mountain Mary. A local history enthusiast, he is severely dyslexic, but Crefeld's less lock-step style works well for him, he says. "If trust and relationships come first, then I can learn in my own style," he says.

"This place is full of passion," says classmate Dana Witengier, an aspiring actress who spends every afternoon at the Philadelphia Youth Theater. "In history we're really thinking about stuff, and then you go do something else and think about it more. Even when you're not in school your head's in it."

Another 17-year-old girl, ticking off a succession of behavioral low points in her past few years, smiles serenely as she describes the difference Crefeld made for her. "The teachers are on the kids' side," she says. "How you learn is individual; they're teaching me about myself. So I've grown more open - I can be involved, form opinions, be a leader in the class. I'm amazed how much I've changed."

Turning Toward Success

Crefeld's approach reflects Theodore Sizer's Essential School principle of "unanxious expectation," and a dramatic rise in student achievement results. Of those who enter Crefeld as chronic truants, 90 percent show up here every day. Of those who arrive with failing grades, 90 percent make grades of C and above. Only one in ten students does not stay to graduate, and only 2 percent drop out.

Classes are so small that rates of college attendance vary considerably, but 90 percent of the 1996 seniors plan to pursue their studies, and their average SAT score is 1080. Crefeld graduates have gone on to places as various as Brown, Penn, Clark, Hofstra, Boston University, the University of Maine, Hampshire College, and Berkeley School of Music.

But even this impressive data fails to convey the flavor of this school - warm, familial, even its air of slight disorder conveying a quirky intelligence. "Crefeld saved my life," one student wrote. 'I've finally found a place where I can learn and be happy." Another observed, "It's a place to find yourself, be an individual, learn without lectures ... and spread your wings." From newly strong students who once hated school, these are strong words, backed up by academic performance and by their newfound confidence.

Some Things Crefeld Seniors Must Know and Do

As well as compiling a graduation portfolio, Crefeld seniors must pass (with a 90 percent rating by a faculty team) more than a dozen competency exams the school has designed to assure essential competence (not comprehensive knowledge) in areas ranging from math and science to foreign language. Some tests are written and some oral; some allow the use of notes. The format and content of these exams are openly know, though specific details vary from year to year. Some examples:

• World Geography and Countries. Choose two countries on which to become an expert ( including the United States; no more than one per continent). Be prepared to answer questions about the country's geography, history, culture, and government. You will have an oral exam of about 20 questions; you may use your own notes but not outside sources to answer.
• American Government and Constitution. Be prepared to answer ten specific questions about our government and the rights of citizens, based on information contained in the Constitution. You will have a fifteen-minute written exam on which you may use a copy of the Constitution.
• Scientific Article Analysis. You will be asked to read an assigned scientific research article and write an analysis of the experimental method used by the researchers in the article. No notes may be used.
• Argumentative Essay. You will be asked to write an argumentative essay on an assigned question which requires minimal factual knowledge (e.g., Should the drinking age be lowered to 18? Should women be drafted?
• Home Medical Care. You only have room in your medicine cabinet for ten items. Decide the ten most important items to include and why. In an oral presentation, you will be given three scenarios of home health care emergencies to apply your first aid knowledge using the supplies you have chosen for your medicine cabinet.
• Drugs and Substance Abuse. What ten facts about drug education should every high school graduate know before he or she graduates? Be prepared to defend your answer orally.
• Sex Education. What ten facts about sex education (reproduction, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases) should every high school graduate know before he or she graduates? Be prepared to defend your answer orally.
• Nutrition and Dietary Analysis. Keep a journal of what you eat for a week and do a nutritional analysis of it. Make recommendations on how to improve it; provide information on calories, protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Your answers will be written.

This resource last updated: May 14, 2002

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