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You
are here: Imagine an independent middle school for girls where students beg not to be sent to recess because the science projects they are working on are too engaging. . . where half of the students are children of color. . . where children learn the same way they will work as adults, integrating research, writing, art, math and technology in an exciting stream of activity. Imagine a school where all children are truly welcomed, valued and reflected, regardless of background. Imagine a school that applies the latest brain research in its curriculum design. . . that gives away its curriculum to public schools and trains teachers throughout the region in anti-bias work and new learning paradigms. . . . Imagine a school that helps families support their daughters and speaks out for the needs of all middle school girls. Now imagine applying to it sight unseen, based on what you know, what you have read, and what you have learned from the founders. Can this kind of school really exist? Can it really be so dynamic and so different, and still meet all of the traditional standards? Welcome to Seattle Girls' School.
Seattle Girls' School opened this month in Seattle's Central District with 32 6th graders, 50% of whom are students of color, and 40% of whom receive need-based financial aid. Their orientation included writing and reading declarations of appreciation to those who had helped them to this starting point. After the girls had read their declarations, they raced vehicles their teams had designed and built through an obstacle course, as a metaphor for the upcoming year with its ups, downs, twists, turns and challenges. The only other catch to the race—their vehicles had to be powered by some means other than their bodies touching the ground. While not your typical middle school orientation, the mix of critical and creative thinking based around projects, which rely on all the students' skills and intuitions, is typical of Seattle Girls' School. The result? Parents reported their girls did not want to leave school at the end of the day!
From Vision to Reality, the Birth of a School
What began as an idea in the mid-90s began to take shape in 2000. The story behind the inception of SGS is not unique. A group of parents saw a need for another option for their daughters (and everyone else's) in Seattle. They researched and read, and talked to a wide variety of educators and community leaders about the possibility of a new school. They even approached the public school district, but were told it would be a number of years before that project could be considered (given what else they had in front of them). Lacking other options (Washington State does not permit charter schools), they did what they had to do. They created a Board of Trustees, and an Advisory Board of community leaders. They wrote a business plan, incorporated as a school (receiving nonprofit status), and began to look for educators who could make this vision a reality. Nearly a full year after beginning that process, the school is enrolling its inaugural class and has taken a shape like no other school independent school, a private school with a public school heart.
The Mission
The mission of Seattle Girls' School is to empower middle school girls to think critically and seek creative solutions to real world problems in a challenging academic environment that highlights math, science and technology, embraces diversity and promotes collaboration, integrated learning and respect for all. We are thrilled with the response we have received from families who are eager to join with the founders of Seattle Girls' School in the creation of a unique new educational institution in Seattle, a model of 21st century education as well as a school for 288 girls
The goal for students who graduate from SGS is that they will be critical and creative thinkers who have developed the strength of voice and self-assurance to handle any subsequent classroom environment or work situation. Each will be able to articulate her own learning style, to recognize teaching styles that do or do not complement it, and will know how to bridge the gap when those two styles diverge. Students will have mastered content areas that will permit them to participate in advanced placement high school courses without the need of additional summer work. They will be skilled in a variety of uses of technology, and adept at finding resources in areas where they lack specific knowledge. More important, students will recognize their rights and responsibilities within their communities (from family to global) and will have the skills, motivation, and experience to effect change.
Using an Integrated Curriculum
The purpose of education can no longer be simply to acquire a set amount of information because there is now too much knowledge to be "acquired." In the 21st century, the mastery of content must be married to the acquisition of the skills needed to acquire knowledge, as it is needed in a more complicated and integrated world. Integrated, project-based, active learning is the quintessential feature of this uniquely populated school. Integrated education replaces the acquisition of discrete, compartmentalized subject matter with an approach to learning that cuts across disciplines. It provides a process for developing skills and abilities required in the increasingly complex 21st century. Learning and teaching are viewed in a holistic way and reflect the real world, which is interactive and requires an iterative approach to problem solving.
Significant brain research supports the notion that learning is best accomplished when information is presented in meaningful connected patterns. The ability to make connections, to solve problems by examining multiple perspectives, and to incorporate information from different fields will be an essential ingredient for success in the future. At SGS, we believe an integrated curriculum best prepares students for life long learning. Add this to the research that concludes confidence is the variable most strongly correlated with achievement in subjects like math, and that the biggest drop for girls in self-esteem occurs during middle school, and you will see what a powerful effect a girls' middle school with an integrated curriculum will have on ability, motivation, and self-image.
Building Bridges
Students at the SGS Open House made towers out of cards and bridges out of licorice whips and straws. They walked into a room on a Sunday afternoon expecting a long lecture about another school, only to be quickly dismissed to a different room and divided into small teams with girls they had never met before to design and build a project that had to sustain a wind (from a hairdryer) and meet certain design criteria. When the specifications were given out, the clock started and the teams were off and running planning and debating their designs before beginning the critical building phase. When time was up, parents and eager onlookers were brought in to view the final projects, hear each girl speak about her work, and watch nervously as the wind test proceeded. The joyous noise that emanated as the students built their projects, and then tested them, was exactly the kind of joyous noise that true immersion in learning can and should produce. Recess? Even if we had offered them a break, they probably would not have taken it because it would have meant stopping work on their projects. Even when time was called, there were groups who continued to tape and connect while they listened to other presentations.
Bridging Gaps
SGS is an independent school by necessity, not by choice. Charging tuition for most schools automatically dictates who can and cannot apply. SGS founders and Board recognized this traditional socioeconomic gap and set a goal for supporting 30% of its student body with need-based financial aid. But even that was only the beginning. The financial aid process can be cumbersome, even intimidating to families who have never been through it before. For those families for whom English is not their first language, the system can feel intentionally impossible. For students whose families may never have considered an independent school an option before for socioeconomic reasons, the system had to be changed from the start. If independent schools are really going to be another option, then they must be attainable. If they are going to prepare children for the 21st century world, then they must also reflect that diversity of perspective within their walls. The answer must be to create a different kind of independent school, designed for the 21st century.
Social Entrepreneurship
With the help of community partners, SGS set out to do a series of small, after school meetings at local youth tutoring centers. Marja Brandon, Head of SGS, spoke before the Minority Executive Directors Coalition in efforts to reach into communities who may not otherwise have considered applying to an independent school. SGS ran Seattle's first financial aid workshop for interested families, and invited the Director of Admissions of Lakeside School to join in presenting that evening. All of these efforts will yield a first year class of students at SGS like no other at any independent school, and yet even these efforts were only the beginning. To really reach families who might otherwise be overlooked, the system needs to change and evolve further. For many families, issues still remain around any tuition, disclosing financial information, different languages, and transportation. Clearly, there remains much work yet to do. In the true spirit of social entrepreneurship, the founders of SGS are innovators who are attempting to pioneer a new solution to this problem. They possess the entrepreneurial creativity and determination to pursue this vision until it becomes a reality.
The Community and The Classroom Merge
Finally to use integrated curriculum to its best advantage, students need real projects to work on. They need projects that matter to them, and therefore to the greater society as well. Students, and girls especially, feel empowered by knowing work they are doing is for a reason and not arbitrary or disconnected. Service learning is not a new idea, but is typically only a component within a larger curriculum, reduced to a number of "required hours" which students must complete by a deadline. Students at SGS will target their projects at real-world problem solving in the community in which they are working. They will develop partnerships with local arts organizations, businesses, and social service agencies. Their work will take them into hospitals, city building departments, biotech companies, and other schools. They will be mentored and be mentors. The will develop problem solving skills and methods for self-assessment, which will begin by serving their own needs and later be applied to serving the needs of others. They will become global citizens by first becoming active local citizens.
A School for Tomorrow, Today
Now opened, Seattle Girls' School will take girls and give them the opportunity to build, create, engineer, paint, sing, write, dance and design their dreams. In return, Seattle will get young leaders who see their future in terms of all of their choices, who see obstacles as temporary detours not stopping points, who see problems as challenges, and recognize that great ideas can come from anyone regardless of race, gender, appearance, religion, family configuration, orientation, or country of origin. SGS may only be one small school that is attempting this kind of change, but its success will not be measured on the size of the school, but the size and the effect of the change.
For 20 years, Marja Brandon has dedicated herself to teaching and working with young people and their families. Having graduated from Wellesley College, and then Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Marja has spent years as a teacher, administrator, and consultant at other independent schools. Marja has developed an energetic, engaging style that puts and emphasis on respecting students and valuing the powerful connection between student-centered learning, high expectations, and self-esteem.
In 1993, Marja became Head of the Exploration Intermediate Program. Under her leadership the Exploration Intermediate Program at Wellesley College became world's largest academic enrichment program for middle school students from across the country and around the world. As Head, Marja was able to shape and refine a program she had helped to create ten years earlier. Students were able to take challenging courses in a variety of subjects like anatomy, engineering, dance, arts, creative writing, and politics all using original and cutting-edge curricula. Under her leadership, the Program grew from 50 to over 1300 students annually, and gained national and international recognition as a leader in using academic enrichment as a way of helping middle school students to realize their potential as learners, thinkers and individuals.
She is now very excited to be leaving her home base in the Northeast to devote her tireless energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to young people to the challenge of establishing the Seattle Girls' School.
Copyright January 2002 New Horizons for Learning, all rights reserved.
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