Credit: Courtesy of City Arts and Applied science High School

Principal Daniel Allen participates in graduation ceremonies at Urban center Arts and Technology Loftier School, which incorporates a "deeper learning" curriculum model.

Connie Matthiessen
July 17, 2014

When Destinee Brigham, a senior at Metropolis Arts and Technology Loftier School in San Francisco, presented her "College Success Portfolio" in front of a console of teachers and administrators this past spring, she was participating in a rite of passage every senior must become through to graduate.

In her 90-minute presentation Destinee discussed her assay of the volume "Things Fall Autonomously" past Chinua Achebe, a inquiry paper on abortion law, and her experience working at a charter elementary school. In the development and presentation of their Higher Success Portfolios, students similar Destinee demonstrate the "deeper learning" skills they'll need to succeed in college – and beyond.

Deeper learning is an education concept that'south received increasing attention in recent years; it's woven into the Common Core State Standards and is beingness implemented in a growing number of schools nationwide. In its simplest terms information technology means just what the name implies: learning that goes across rote memorization and the superficial mastery of facts to promote a deeper level of understanding. More specifically, deeper learning is an umbrella term for a fix of skills and knowledge that a growing number of experts argue is critical for success in college and careers in the 21st century. Deeper learning defines not just bookish skills, but social and emotional qualities that many educators believe are likewise essential for educational activity success – including self-awareness, perseverance and the ability to cooperate with others.

At City Arts and Tech, one of 3 high schools in the Bay Area-based Envision Schools charter network, deeper learning has been integrated into all aspects of the school curriculum.

Signs of deeper learning are everywhere in the schoolhouse, which is located in in a wing of the June Jordan School for Equity, an alternative public high schoolhouse in San Francisco's Excelsior District.

Classroom walls are inscribed with the Envision philosophy: "Know. Practice. Reverberate." A poster in the main office defines the word "perseverance" in assuming letters: Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

"The term 'leadership skills' resonates with students," said Bob Lenz, co-founder of the Envision Schools charter network. "So we were already there when educators began talking about deeper learning. People use unlike terms merely at that place is general agreement that these are skills that all schools should be helping students develop."

"The idea of deeper learning grew out of a general sense of disappointment in our education system," said school master Daniel Allen. "There was a sense that information technology's besides narrow, and that it isn't providing a cute and inspiring learning experience for students. Kids are beingness taught to 'do school' – non to develop equally engaged learners with a mastery of essential skills."

"You could go to about any school and notice a instructor who is using deeper learning techniques," Allen said. "These ideas take been effectually. But there are not many schools – like City Arts and Tech – where the entire school embodies deeper learning. People are but beginning to realize that this is a movement, and more and more educators are adopting this approach."

The Envision Schools were built on deeper learning concepts from the commencement, according to Envision co-founder Bob Lenz, although the charter network called the concepts "leadership skills" – thinking critically; communicating powerfully; completing projects effectively; and collaborating productively.

"The term 'leadership skills' resonates with students," Lenz said. "And then we were already there when educators began talking virtually deeper learning. People utilise different terms but there is general agreement that these are skills that all schools should exist helping students develop."

These skills are evident in City Arts and Tech's College Success Portfolio defense, when seniors stand earlier a panel of teachers and peers and analyze some of their all-time high schoolhouse work. During their portfolio presentations, students discuss three examples of their piece of work, chosen "artifacts," and present a research paper and a multimedia projection.

Seniors are expected to demonstrate comprehensive understanding of their material, identify connections betwixt the themes in their work, describe their sources, analyze their ain learning process, so reply to tough questions from the panel. The process is demanding – and it's the culmination of years of work. In fact, students start to prepare for their college success portfolio from their freshman yr and have a practise run at the end of 10th grade, when they must give a more limited "benchmark" defense.

The outside of the building prominently displays the name of the school on a large, dark gray wall.

Credit: Courtesy of Urban center Arts and Technology High Schoolhouse

The campus of City Arts and Technology Loftier Schoolhouse in San Francisco.

"I tin can't believe how far she'south come up," Destinee'southward female parent marveled, as she watched her girl carefully cheque her notes before her presentation began. "She was just a little girl and at present await at her up at that place, doing then well, just about to graduate. "

The concept of deeper learning has been heavily promoted for the past several years by the Menlo Park-based Walter and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which has contributed more $four one thousand thousand in grants to the Envision schools since 2010.

Barbara Chow, the foundation's director of education programs, contrasts classroom strategies "where the pupil is passive, and the school essentially opens upward a student's head and pours the information in" to those of deeper learning: schools where students take an active role in learning and are securely engaged with what they learn. "The goal is for the pupil to not only understand a topic, but to be able to apply it to unlike situations in school and in other areas of their lives," Chow said.

Does deeper learning work?

Allen believes that the success of his school's graduates and those of other Envision schools show that this arroyo is working. Four out of five City Arts and Tech students are Latino or African-American, and come from low-income families where college-going rates have historically been depression. But in 2013, 90 percent of City Arts and Tech graduates were accepted to two- or four-yr colleges – 73 percent to four-year colleges. This yr 100 percent were accustomed to college, and 78 percent were accepted to four-year colleges.

Researchers at the Stanford Centre for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) found that in 2011-12 Latino and African-American students at Metropolis Arts and Tech completed their form requirements (known every bit A-M requirements) for California public universities at far college rates then the statewide average. Ane hundred pct of African-American students and 82 percent of Latino students completed the A-G requirements – compared to 28 percent and 29 percent respectively statewide.

City Arts and Tech students besides persist in their college studies, co-ordinate to the Stanford research, which showed that 85 percentage of college-jump students from the school'southward class of 2009 stayed in college for at least four years, for example. Nationally, 65 percent of all students and 47 pct of Hispanic students graduate from higher or are still enrolled after six years.

"The Higher Success Portfolio is wonderful college prep," said Daniel Allen, master of City Arts and Technology Loftier School. "Our students get to acquire and practice perseverance in a place where they are supported and encouraged. What yous don't desire is kids of colour, kids whose parents didn't become to college, to get there and discover that they don't have the skills to go far. "

Eddy Poot, who graduated in the bound, is going to UC Santa Cruz to written report bioengineering. His parents didn't go to college, while his older siblings attended customs higher.

"I do feel ready for college," he says, pointing to skills that he learned at City Arts and Technology, including public speaking – and almost chiefly its emphasis on critical thinking skills. "It's important to look beyond the obvious," he said.

It'due south impossible to say how much the school'southward emphasis on "deeper learning" has contributed to the higher college-going and success rates of its students. Only Allen believes the school's arroyo, particularly the College Success Portfolio, gives students the skills and, perhaps as important, the conviction they need to succeed in college.

"The College Success Portfolio is wonderful higher prep," he said. "Our students get to learn and do perseverance in a place where they are supported and encouraged. What you don't want is kids of color, kids whose parents didn't become to college, to go there and discover that they don't accept the skills to make information technology. "

A close bond between student and teacher is also "an essential element of deeper learning," Allen said. "If there is anything that sets this schoolhouse apart information technology's the quality of the relationships betwixt teachers and students. This is what keeps students engaged."

Learning how to learn

Another central dimension is the emphasis on learning how to acquire – which ways that students are constantly asked to reverberate on their own academic process and progress. Throughout their four years at City Arts and Tech, students are taught increasingly rigorous written report, enquiry and communication skills, which are reinforced in frequent meetings between students and their bookish advisors.

Every bit part of their College Success Portfolio defense, students are required to reflect on what they've learned, what they would have done differently and how they'll apply that experience to futurity work. During Destinee'south portfolio defence, for example, she identified her own areas of bookish growth. Her writing had become stronger, she observed, and she likewise had made more of an endeavour to participate in class.

Destinee said that she works hard when she is interested in a item topic, but struggles when she finds a subject boring. When it came time for questions, City Arts and Tech main Allen asked her what she planned to do in college when a course or assignment didn't hold her interest. "I'll just suck it upwards," Destinee responded, with a shrug. Allen pressed her to become deeper. "It's easy to say y'all'll suck it up, but what does that mean, exactly? What volition you do when you find yourself in that situation?"

Destinee held his gaze and didn't answer for a moment. Then she responded with a plan for dealing with what she sees as her biggest challenge: procrastination. When she puts projects off, they go harder to tackle. "I'g going to starting time assignments as soon as I get them, and non look for the last minute."

When Destinee had finished her presentation and answered all the console's questions, panel members left the room to confer. In Destinee'southward case, the panel had disappointing news. They had many positive things to say near her presentation. They commented on her confidence,  the competence of her defense and her overall growth as a student. But they concluded that she hadn't demonstrated proficiency in two areas of her defence, and and then she hadn't passed. Destinee listened in silence, and and so gathered her things quickly and left for habitation.

"She was disappointed and angry," Allen said afterward. "I couldn't get her to look at me for a couple of days. It was a learning experience for her: What do y'all practice when your best isn't skilful plenty? You have to push yourself that much further, and she did; she worked with her counselor and stock-still the areas that weren't working."

Six days subsequently her initial presentation, Destinee dedicated her portfolio over again, and this fourth dimension she passed. Adjacent fall, she'll head off to Santa Monica College, and Allen believes she'southward ready – not just because she meets basic academic requirements, but because of the deeper and less tangible skills she learned along the way. "Every schoolhouse emphasizes grades and test scores and academic requirements, and we practice that too," Allen said. "But we also promote an academic identity. For our students, we hope that school isn't just what they do, it'southward who they are."

Connie Matthiessen is a freelance author and editor who lives in San Francisco.

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