March/April 2000

With the help of an innovative program, King Middle School became an award-winner

By Andreae Downs

In 1987, when Mike McCarthy became the principal of the King Middle School in Portland, Maine, he knew the school was in a slump. "This was a school no one would want to go to," says McCarthy. The traditional teaching methods weren't helping the urban school's 600 students very much. The diverse student body scored poorly on state tests. In 1992, McCarthy proposed that the school adopt what was then a brand-new reform model: Expedition ary Learning Outward Bound (ELOB). Figuring there was nothing to lose, the staff approved the decision.

Based on the team-building approach of Outward Bound, the adventure-and-service-based educational program, ELOB encourages students to view learning as a mission that requires teamwork, commitment to the community, and an ability to solve real-world problems. Learning expeditions involve long-term explorations of single themes, such as civil rights or local ecology, that engage students in multidisciplinary projects, fieldwork, and community service. Students are asked to reflect on and critique their own work and that of others. All of this is meant to make learning relevant, to answer the question often heard by bored or frustrated students: What's the point?

Teachers design fun and challenging learning expeditions that will also prepare students to meet state and district standards. In addition, ELOB schools invite members of their communities to help define standards for students. A carpenter or a banker might visit to talk about what skills are needed for those jobs. Students also venture into the community to do fieldwork. To accommodate the expeditions, which last six to eight weeks, the school gives teachers flexible schedules so there is time to go to the shore for exploration one day, do library research the next, and do more traditional class work on other days. Tracking, or grouping students by ability, is eliminated, and students stay with a teacher or a team of teachers for more than one year (i.e., multiyear looping).

The school has been scaling new peaks ever since. King is a richly diverse school. Its students speak 26 languages; 22 percent come from new immigrant or refugee families; 60 percent qualify for free lunch. Stereotypes might suggest that such a school would not perform as well as wealthier, suburban schools on standardized tests. But in the past few years, King's scores on the Maine Educational Assessment have risen to above average, even as the assessment itself has been made more difficult.

Team spirit is evident among King's faculty now. McCarthy was named the national "Principal of the Year" in 1997; he won the state award in both 1996 and 1997. According to the Portland Press Herald, McCarthy was recognized for "his willingness to take risks to help students, his ability to anticipate and solve problems, and his success in improving the school's learning environment." McCarthy modestly points back to his staff, saying he has just helped his faculty apply the principles of ELOB to the fullest.

Professional development plays a key role in the ELOB model. At King, a "school improvement team" pulls together the academic and teaching skills information that teachers say they need. For instance, they create rubrics that teachers can use to assess their own lesson plans according to state standards and the faculty's own teaching goals. The team provides mentoring and moderates discussion about teaching strategies, too.

In addition, the staff participates in expeditions of its own as a way to foster teamwork and enthusiasm. They have gone together on an Outward Bound wilderness survival program on Hurricane Island, which McCarthy says helped teachers to stop viewing professional development as something to be endured.

The staff takes part in a school review annually, and ELOB sends in other teachers and principals for a "peer review" of each school every four years or so. With each cycle of assessment, the staff looks at what they have done and sets goals for the next years' improvement. This kind of continuous reflection and improvement allows staff to be responsive to new standards, to raise standards as children's performance improves, and to react quickly to any difficulties encountered in new programs or expeditions. What comes across clearly is staff excitement about kids and what they can do when challenged. "We have high expectations for all students," McCarthy says.

Students also display their achievements in public presentations. Community and family members attend final exhibitions of student work, review student portfolios, and contribute to the process of assessment. Meg Campbell, executive director of ELOB, says that public performance or presentation is an integral part of the Expeditionary Learning design. Expeditions, which are chosen by teachers based on the state or district standards, are to be purposeful, have a service component, and have a real audience, she says.

In addition, every student has to demonstrate what he or she has learned in a "published" form such as a book or model. One year, students studied an aquarium proposal for the city, building their own models and explaining them. "Their jury was actual architects," McCarthy says. Later, 16 students worked with the city selection committee and critiqued the architects' plans. "If they hated something, they said so right away," says McCarthy, adding that their insights drew praise from the professionals as incisive and honest.

McCarthy proudly displays some of the students' work in his office. They include a guide to shore life of Casco Bay and a collection of immigration stories -all biographies of students. They are just some of the real-world achievements of King Middle School's students.