The one benefit of that dismal ranking was that it later qualified Pittsfield for a $1 million federal School Improvement Grant (SIG). The following year, Pittsfield's high school was rated one of the state’s lowest-performing, based on students’ standardized test scores. Student-centered learning in Pittsfield-located in the Suncook Valley about 40 minutes north of Manchester-began to take shape in 2008, when the district asked for community input on ways to improve local schools and found overwhelming support for more personalized approaches. As a result, advocates of student-centered learning say it provides superior preparation for both college and career.Īs senior Ryan Marquis put it, “I had to switch from ‘Here’s your study guide and here’s your answer sheet’ to ‘How do you want to learn the content, and how can we support you?’” And they are expected to develop the kind of critical thinking skills-not just rote knowledge-required for "real world" success. And the Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) program allows students to earn credit for workplace experiences that reinforce their academic studies, such as interning at a dentist’s office or the local radio station.Īll of this means students are shouldering more responsibility for their own learning. Family engagement is considered a key part of each student’s progress. Additional online classes allow students to further challenge themselves and earn college credit. Teachers meet at regular intervals to review how closely their instruction is aligning with the competencies they use an online database to continually track individual student growth. Students are graded on a scale of 1 to 4-with 2.5 considered “proficient”-and those numbers are converted into letter grades for their transcripts. The traditional grading system has been replaced with a matrix of “competencies,” detailing the skills and knowledge students are expected to master in each class. “This is so much better.”Īt Pittsfield, student-led discussions, small-group work, and individual projects dominate. “There used to be a lot more of teachers talking at you. But test scores are just one indicator, and based on multiple other measures, including higher graduation and college-going rates, Freeman feels confident that student-centered learning is moving Pittsfield in the right direction. Student performance on statewide assessments has long been uneven, and teachers and administrators know there is still significant work to be done. Pittsfield’s superintendent, John Freeman, is among the first to acknowledge that adopting student-centered learning was a bold move. The long-term plan is to eventually add it to the nearby elementary school. Student-centered learning is fully in place in the high school, and elements of it are being phased in at the middle-school level.
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Fifty-six percent of them qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Pittsfield, a former mill town, has about 4,500 predominately white residents, and the Middle High School serves about 260 residents. The goal: a stronger connection between academic learning and the kind of real-world experience that advocates say can translate into postsecondary success. “This is so much better.”Įducators, researchers, and policymakers at the state and national level are keeping close tabs on Pittsfield, which has become an incubator for a critical experiment in school reform. When the teacher was done with the topic that was it,” said Noah Manteau, a senior this year at Pittsfield. “There used to be a lot more of teachers talking at you-it didn’t matter if you were ready to move on. Welcome to student-centered learning at Pittsfield, a grade 7–12 campus in its third year of an innovative approach to education. Otherwise, she stayed out of the way and let the discussion take shape. When she noticed the conversation being dominated by a couple of voices, she politely suggested someone else chime in. Sitting off to the side, Wellington took rapid notes. “He lived alone in the woods and didn’t want to pay taxes,” another student shots back. “Do you think Thoreau really was about ‘every man for himself?'” asked one 16-year-old boy. In an 11th-grade English class at Pittsfield Middle High School in rural New Hampshire, Jenny Wellington’s students were gathered in a circle debating Henry David Thoreau’s positions on personal responsibility.
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