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Short School Profiles

Alaska

Anderson School is a rural PK-12 school which serves 63 students, including 21 percent minority students. Anderson has just completed its first year of implementing Expeditionary Learning, funded by a Comprehensive School Reform Grant. Located in Anderson, AK, just 70 miles North of Denali National Park in Alaska, the school uses its local environment to create expeditions that are both relevant to its students and beneficial to the community. For instance, in partnership with Denali National Park, Anderson students built framed, canvas-covered cabins. The students designed and constructed the cabins with materials provided by the park. At the end of the 2003-2004 school year, the students disassembled the cabins on their campus and reassembled them for use at one of the Park's field stations. In addition to the design and construction of the cabins, students spent several days at the Park studying its habitat, natural history, and geology.

These types of in-depth learning experiences have allowed students to become successful and motivated. A parent recently explained that the main benefits of the school are that "it is in a small community and there is a high level of personalized education." In addition, "most of the teachers are truly dedicated to the students." This positive learning environment has allowed Anderson to maintain one of the highest attendance rates in the district and a 100 percent graduation rate.

Anderson School Website

Cantwell School is a rural K-12 public school in Cantwell, AK with only 28 students, a quarter of whom are Native American. Expeditionary Learning was put into action at Cantwell last year with the use of federal CSR funding. Though still in the early stages of implementing Expeditionary Learning, Cantwell students have been enthusiastic about the transition. Whereas learning was once dependent solely on textbooks and lectures, students now have the opportunity to connect with their studies through expeditions.

In the 2003-2004 school year, students embarked on an expedition that involved articulating a wolf skeleton, with guidance from a community expert. This project included gutting, butchering, cooking, and cleaning the bones from the wolf, ultimately leading to the reconstruction of a museum quality skeleton. While this type of project would not work with all students in all environments, it demonstrates the ability of Expeditionary Learning to connect students to their local environments by allowing teachers to develop expeditions that are relevant to their students. Students have embraced this project with such vigor that many ask to stay after school to work on the project and now are able to consider issues, such as wolf control in Alaska, with both knowledge and perspective. Learning at Cantwell is not about creating passive students, but rather about developing students into active citizens.

Cantwell School Website

Tri-Valley School serves 199 pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade students in Healy, Alaska. In an effort to expand learning beyond the classroom, Tri-Valley began to implement Expeditionary Learning in 2003. Expeditions that are both project oriented and relevant to students' local environment have included: building cabins for Denali National Park, located only twelve miles from the school; a trip to the Native Yupik Village of Kasigluk in the Lower Kuskokwim area for a Native American literature class; and instruction on Japanese culture, culminating in a student trip to Japan in September 2004. These efforts, which have been in addition to remedial instruction when necessary, have led to significant progress in student achievement. Parents have been supportive to the changes in school structure, largely because of the strides Tri-Valley has made toward increasing student achievement. Tri-Valley has also managed to maintain one of the highest attendance rates in the district and a 100 percent graduation rate.

Tri-Valley School Website

Colorado

Founded in 1998 by a dedicated group of parents and teachers, The Odyssey School is a kindergarten through 8th grade public school of choice chartered by Denver Pubic Schools (DPS) to serve northeast Denver, Colorado. The charter is for 216 students. For the 2003-2004 school year, 40% of students were Black; 5%, Asian; 5%, Hispanic; 49%, White; and 1%, Native American. 26% of students qualify for the Free or Reduced Lunch program.

The Odyssey School is committed to providing a rich learning environment for students from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds -- students with a range of abilities, affinities, and strengths. Odyssey's only requirement for admission is family involvement. Odyssey is a dynamic Expeditionary Learning school dedicated to fostering every child's unique potential and spirit of adventure through exemplary standards of character, intellectual achievement, and social responsibility. The school believes that children learn best through personal, direct experience. Expeditionary Learning harnesses children's natural passion to learn and helps them develop the curiosity, knowledge, skills, and personal qualities they need for successful adulthood.

Gone are the ringing bells, rows of desks, and fill-in-the blank worksheets. For all or most of the day, students and teachers are engaged in challenging learning expeditions that explore a topic or theme in depth. Their studies call for intellectual inquiry, physical exploration, and community service. On a given day, their explorations may take them outside the school building to do environmental research, conduct interviews in local businesses, or carry out other fieldwork assignments. Each day provides opportunities for quiet reflection -- time for students to write in their journals, gather their thoughts, and reflect on what they have learned. Students work individually, in small groups, and as members of their "crew" or class. Together they learn to draw on the strengths of a whole class.

The Adventure Education Program at Odyssey continues to support learning expeditions and school/crew culture in a variety of ways throughout the school year. Every fall and spring students take part in camping trips that vary in length from two to five days, depending on grade level. They also participate in several full days of adventure activities throughout the school year - rock climbing, caving, cross-country skiing, etc.

The curriculum is designed around rigorous, purposeful, project-based learning expeditions tied to Colorado State Standards. Results on the 2003 Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) reading tests, Odyssey students performed from 12 to 38 percent better than average at every grade level, and has demonstrated significant improvement almost every year for the last three years. While the attendance rate for the district is 91 percent, Odyssey's attendance rate is 96 percent. Odyssey also has a significantly lower suspension rate, 3.5 percent compared to the district average of 9 percent.

The Odyssey School Website

Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning (RMSEL) in Denver, Colorado serves 330 students from grades kindergarten through twelve. RMSEL has been striving to adhere to its mission to develop and maintain a school that is a center of "expeditionary learning, educational research, and professional development," since it was founded in 1993. The years of hard work have been paying off for this school, which was featured as one of the magazine Fast Company's "Schools That Think" in April of 2000.

Students at RMSEL learn in an environment that promotes academic excellence, character development, diversity, adventure, health, and community service. This type of environment supports the learning that takes place in the form of multi-disciplinary, long-term expeditions. Expeditions allow RMSEL students to delve into one topic from every possible angle. When students learn about World War II, they don't just read about it in a textbook. Teachers use literature, memoirs, film, museum visits, science projects, visits to war memorials, writing, and interviews with individuals who had firsthand experience with the war to help students explore the events that took place. All of that hard work would not be complete without a culminating experience that allowed students to demonstrate their knowledge to others. After visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, one class felt inspired to create their own museum and memorial.

RMSEL, though distinct from what students and teachers from more traditional schools are used to, is satisfying to both. One twelve-year-old female student who transferred from a traditional public school remarked, "I can't recall what I learned in public school two years ago. It just wasn't interesting. This school makes it interesting." Teachers also exude satisfaction with the school environment. In a recent evaluation of the RMSEL completed by the Center for Research in Educational Policy, teachers at RMSEL expressed significantly more positive feelings about collaboration among teachers and about the overall school environment than teachers at matched comparison schools.

As an effect of creating such a positive learning environment, RMSEL students regularly score higher than the state average on required tests and produce high quality portfolios for passages from one grade to the next. These high levels of achievement are particularly noticeable in reading, at least partly due to Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound's strong literacy focus. A longitudinal study by the Denver public schools found that 72 percent of students who transferred to RMSEL improved their reading scores.

Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning Website

District of Columbia

Capital City Public Charter School for grades pre-K through 8 in Washington, D.C., opened its doors in 2000, as an Expeditionary Learning school, and has implemented the design using federal CSR funds. Its student body is primarily minority (46 percent African American and 23 percent Latino) and over half are on free and reduced lunch. As in all Expeditionary Learning schools, teaching and learning at Capital City are embedded in projects of real meaning. Last year Capital City's first graders designed a rooftop playground for their proposed new building. They built a true-to-life scale model, incorporating monkey barks, jungle gyms, and a reading area with flower boxes. They worked within space constraints and safety guidelines, polled fellow students for opinions, and presented the final model to the Board for approval. Capital City's test scores have risen over the period of its relationship with Expeditionary Learning so that it now ranks in the top third of District of Columbia Schools. Between the 2001-02 and 2002-03 school years, overall math scores at Capital City increased by 9.2 percent and overall reading scores increased by 3.6 percent. According to the School Performance Reports from the DC Public Charter School Board, Capital City was the only school that achieved all six measures related to academic progress and excellence on the SAT-9 tests in 2003. Teachers thrive in the school's environment, with its focus on professional development, leading to a 96 percent teacher retention rate.

Capital City Public Charter School Website

Idaho

Anser School, in Boise, Idaho, is named after the Latin word for goose, seeks to embody the supportive and collaborative characteristics of its namesake. The qualities that Anser teachers attempt to pass on to their 145 kindergarten through sixth grade students include learning capacity, social skills, individuality, stamina, and physical health. Based on the positive trends in student achievement over the school's four-year existence, Anser is succeeding. Anser students have maintained proficiency levels above the state average in reading, language arts, and math. In the spring of 2004, 100 percent of fourth grade students scored proficient in reading and language arts; and 95 percent scored proficient in math. This is especially meaningful since the State of Idaho uses fourth grade scores to determine how well students are performing on Idaho State standards.

Anser's approach to education is based on the principles of Expeditionary Learning, with students learning through expeditions that are relevant to their communities and to them personally. For instance, the expedition "Idaho or Bust" in the 2003-2004 school year focused on Idaho history with an emphasis on westward movement and migration. The project culminated in an in-depth study of life on the Oregon Trail, including a five-mile simulation of life on the trail. Students created oral presentations about their experiences, with instruction on storytelling from Joy Steiner; and went on to share their presentations with other fourth grade classes in Idaho. The final product created out of this experience was a book called "Stories of the Trail," written, illustrated, and published by the students.

The educational experience at Anser closes with the Sixth Grade Year of Service, a yearlong community service project. Sixth graders use their knowledge of their communities and its needs to design and implement a project. These projects have included training a seeing-eye dog for the blind; raising $1,700 to send books to Kenya; volunteering at the Humane Society, Boys and Girls Club, and the Veteran's Home; making books and collecting stuffed animals for hospitalized children; and creating flower boxes for senior citizens.

The hands-on, community based approach to learning used at Anser would not be possible without family involvement and community partnerships. Over 85 percent of Anser families volunteer either directly with the students or with the school as a whole. In addition, during the 2003-2004 school year, 65 community members acted as field guides, mentors, and instructors either in the classroom or by participating in Anser's Community Based Curriculum Program.

Anser School Website

Pocatello Community Charter School, serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade, in Pocatello, ID, makes its presence beneficial to the whole community. Teachers at Pocatello have combined the typical elementary school curriculum with the active learning that is a part of the foundation of Expeditionary Learning. One eighth-grade student, in an interview for a news article, describes her experience at Pocatello by saying, "We go out and we have active learning." She goes on to explain, "Which is where we learn by actually doing it, instead of just learning out of a text book."

After completing its fifth year of operations, Pocatello has demonstrated its commitment to learning by doing what matters for its community. For instance, to meet Idaho's curriculum standards for math, fifth- and sixth-grade classes learned measurement, the metric system, and statistics to collect data on school waste. Their project, entitled "Waste Isn't Waste Units It's Wasted," entailed collecting garbage from every room of the school, measuring its volume, and sorting out the recyclable materials. After analyzing the data as a class, the students developed and implemented a recycling program for Pocatello, which was introduced to the school through displays and presentations. Since then, the school has managed to divert 30 percent of its trash from the local landfill through recycling.

A project from the 2003-2004 school year with local benefits was called "Benchmark Diversity: Uniting Ideas and Community Action." The goal of the project was to solidify the notions of education, literacy, and acceptance through a combination of academics and community service in part through the design and building of a bench for the community. In conjunction with volunteers from the community, ranging from community artists to a master mason, building teachers led the second- through seventh-graders in discussions about diversity, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and how to visually represent ideas. Students drew up their plans and used math and science to measure and calculate the distribution of the 6 by 6 tiles that would make up the bench. Scientific principles, such as the chemistry of clay, were learned in concurrence with painting the bench's tiles. The culmination of the project was the installation of the bench outside of city hall during a celebration of diversity.

It is through these types of projects that Pocatello students learn academics, but also the five core values of the school: a can-do attitude, respect for diversity, creative leadership, honesty and integrity, and personal responsibility.

Pocatello Community Charter School Website

Iowa

Bryant Elementary School, in Dubuque, IA, serves 313 students grades K - 6 and was one of Expeditionary Learning's earliest schools, adopting the program in 1992. The school is characterized by a strong culture of academic excellence, and a commitment to in-depth learning expeditions. This has helped Bryant's fourth grade students to consistently score higher than the district and state on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). From 2001 to 2003, ITBS scores ranked 88 percent of Bryant students proficient or higher in reading (67% for district, 75% for state) and 80 percent proficient in math (65% for district and 75% for state).

A fifth grade spring 2004 expedition focused on "Westward Expansion." Students reenacted the 1804 - 1806 journey of two famous explorers in a play titled, "The Adventures of Lewis and Clark." After the play, students got a true taste of pioneer life with a simulation of the westward expansion. The students were divided into wagon train groups which allowed them to participate in situations and events similar to those experienced by the pioneers who headed west during the 1800's. The students constructed journals in art class, and wrote in these, reflecting on their understanding of the experiences that the pioneers faced on the trail. The final project was a book about this time period which allowed each student to choose an area of interest to research more deeply.

Bryant Elementary School Website

Central Alternative High School serves 173 students in the ninth through twelfth grades who otherwise might have slipped through the cracks of their local school system in Dubuque, IA. Most Central students have chosen to attend Central after struggling in other school settings. About 50 percent of Central students receive free or reduced-price lunch and about 23 percent receive special education services.

Central addresses its students varied needs by giving students access to what they require in order to be successful academically and personally. To determine what students need, Child Study Meetings take place weekly. These meetings allow social workers, psychologists, substance abuse specialists, juvenile court specialists, and teachers to discuss, evaluate, and develop interventions that promote student success and maximize parent and community involvement. Community involvement is an integral part of Central's approach to implementing one of Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound's main components, teaching through expeditions. For example, during the Tuskegee Airmen Research Project, an expedition integrating history and English into independent research about the accomplishments of the all-black 332nd Fighter Group during World War II, students hosted a public seminar to raise money for the restoration of one of the last remaining P-51C Mustangs, the type of plane the Tuskegee Airmen flew. Hundreds of community members and members of the Tuskegee Airmen attended this event, which raised $3,000. When being interviewed by the local paper, the Telegraph Herald, one Central student told the reporter "[Central students]... get the whole community involved or at least help our community out in some way every year. I feel we have accomplished more than any other school in the district."

Central Alternative High School Website

Maine

King Middle School in Portland, Maine, has been implementing the Expeditionary Learning comprehensive school reform model since 1993. Its student body is significantly more diverse and lower-income than statewide averages: 32 percent students of color, compared to one percent statewide, and 58 percent on free and reduced lunch, versus 31 percent statewide. King has been enriched in recent years by an influx of students from Portland's refugee resettlement community. King students speak 28 different languages and twenty five percent of the students are classified as English Language Learners. In the early 1990's, King students scored lower on the MEA when compared to state and district averages. Yet in each of the last three years, King's average scores on statewide assessment tests have exceeded statewide averages in all 7 subject areas.

In their spring 2004 expedition, "takin' care of business," the sixth grade class learned about the challenges and rewards of starting a small business, what it takes to make money, and what makes a business successful. They studied interest rates, percentages, checkbooks, and loan applications in math; they learned about economics in social studies and wrote business plans for language arts. All of the students formed their own partnerships, and brainstormed small businesses of their own to launch at the first fair of its kind, which was held in May for visiting 5th graders and members of the King community.

King Middle School Website

Massachusetts

Codman Academy, a charter school serving 80 ninth through eleventh grade students in Dorchester, Massachusetts, aims to put all of its students on a track towards upwards mobility through the Expeditionary Learning model. The student body at Codman Academy is made up largely of low-income minority students; with 67 percent African American, 17 percent Haitian American, 9 percent Latino, 4 percent Asian American, 2 percent Cape Verdeam, and 2 percent Caucasian. A full 83 percent of Codman Academy students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and 17 percent receive special education services.

Before attending Codman Academy, most students did not anticipate heading to college upon graduating from high school. In fact, most of the students were reading well below grade level in middle school. In a December 2003 article on Codman Academy in the New York Times, one junior told a reporter "I didn't care whether I could read or write or spell." That same student now has aspirations to attend Emerson College and become an actress.

The goals of this student and the many others at Codman Academy are realistic based on the rigorous college-preparatory curriculum to which they are exposed. With school hours of 9 to 5 on weekdays and 9 to noon on Saturdays, including one day a week engaging in field-work or visiting colleges, students have learned to set high expectations for themselves. The expectations of students and teachers are so high that students receive no credit for grades below a C-.

Codman Academy students have risen to the challenge. English Language Arts scores at Codman Academy exceed both the Boston Public School and the Massachusetts State average in percentage of students passing the test. Codman Academy scores also exceed Boston Public School's percentage of students scoring Advanced and Proficient on the test. On the math test, a slightly higher percentage of students at Codman Academy passed the test than the Boston Public School Average. Additionally, all ninth grade students showed improvement on the SAT-9 in as little as one year.

Strong and healthy minds are not the only focus at Codman Academy; principal Meg Campbell hopes that students develop strong and healthy bodies to match. Principal Campbell sees a link between epidemics of childhood obesity and academic failure among poor minority children and seeks to ameliorate both at Codman Academy. Students walk at least a mile every day and are given tennis instruction. They are fueled for their athletic and academic endeavors with healthy meals on site, including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Codman Academy Website

The Harbor School, an urban pilot middle school created by a group of community members and approved by the Boston Public Schools, began to implement the Expeditionary Learning model in 1997. The school's student body is 76 percent free and reduced lunch, 15 percent special education, and 90 percent students of color. A 2001 study by the Boston Center for Collaborative Education found that the Harbor School's composite results on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Achievement System (MCAS) ranked third highest among 27 comparable Boston Public middle schools and was the top scorer in social studies. More recently, in spring 2003 eighth-grade state math test results, the school had the highest percentage of students in the combined "advanced" and "proficient" categories, and the lowest percentage of students in the "failure" category, among the same group of 27 schools. Also in 2003, 7th-grade English test results placed the school in the top quarter of the 27 comparable schools. Additionally, The Harbor School had the highest attendance rate of all Boston Middle Schools in the 2003 school year.

The Harbor School's academic expectations also go beyond other Boston Middle Schools by requiring all 8th grade students to complete a graduation portfolio and to defend this portfolio before a panel of educators and community members and by requiring that students get at least a "C" in order to pass a class.

Learning expeditions at the Harbor School utilize the diversity of our community and the many assets of our urban environment to make learning real and relevant for our students. Expeditions such as our 6th grade Harbor Islands expedition and our Survival expedition integrate development of students' academic skills with purposeful work on team-building and character development. Personalization is also key to the Harbor School's success, with smaller class sizes and regular advisory groups, all students develop a real understanding of the saying "We are crew, not passengers!"

The Harbor School Website

Minnesota

Schoolcraft Learning Community, a K-8 charter school starting its fourth year in Bemidji, Minnesota, has used CSR funding to partner with Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound. Schoolcraft's demographics mirror those of the local district: 12 per cent of its students are classified as special education, and 38 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch. But in three years of testing on the Minnesota state test, Schoolcraft's 8th graders have scored the same or higher on reading, math, and writing than their local and state counterparts. Parental surveys administered at the end of the second year of Schoolcraft's existence showed 98 percent parental satisfaction with the school. It's not just the academics that make Schoolcraft successful. The students are respectful towards one another, and towards adults, even when they're out of the building doing research or projects in the field. Elderly people have come over to compliment them on their behavior. Bus drivers love taking them places.

Schoolcraft Learning Community Website

New Mexico

Roots and Wings Community School (RWCS), in El Prado, New Mexico, lies at the edge of the Sangre de Cristo mountains just north of Taos, New Mexico. Implementing the Expeditionary Learning model from the start, Roots and Wings opened its doors in 2001 and currently serves 21 students in grades 6-8. The school's mission is to nurture and prepare young people in a highly personalized, "hands-on" learning environment so that each student may become a self-confident, competent, respectful and contributing member of our society. Major intent is put toward intellectual development, practical skill-building, affective learning, character formation, and community membership.

The New Mexico Department of Education has heaped praise on the school, noting, "The school staff are commended for the development of a rigorous, integrated, hands-on curriculum that aligns with the State Board's content standards and for providing unique opportunities for students to apply the knowledge and skills that they have learned to real situation. Parent surveys conducted by an outside evaluator indicate that the parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the educational program." State test scores from 2002 and 2003 show sixth grade students scoring higher than both the district and state in almost every subject, in some cases by more than 25%.

We brought back the knowledge we gained at the Expeditionary Learning summit on endangered species to create a learning expedition with the theme of journeying and exploration. In the classroom, students undertook journeys of the imagination as they researched the transoceanic voyages of 21 explorers from the Renaissance period and countries impacted by them. In addition, the students undertook a voyage of their own, rolling up their sleeves to plan every aspect of their own week-long river journey through the canyons of the San Juan River in Southeast Utah. The expedition culminated in the production of a CD-ROM with over 400 different components.

Students complained, laughed, cried, wanted to quit, worked together, pushed themselves and achieved results far beyond their self-perceived limits. I believe that this student-created CD is one of the most impressive products of its kind ever created by middle-schoolers in the United States. When finishing their work, our students felt an incredible sense of satisfaction, a deep happiness and sense of self-worth. We would never have been able to do this project without the professional development we got from Expeditionary Learning. We may have had the motivation, but not the skills we needed. The summit was the ideal learning environment

Roots and Wings Community School Website

New York

Genesee Community Charter School. As a K-5 charter school in Rochester, NY that adopted Expeditionary Learning before even opening, Genesee Community Charter School was able to embed Expeditionary Learning principles into its core practices from the beginning. Expeditionary Learning, with its focus on active learning and fieldwork, was a natural choice as a school model for Genesee. The school uses the rich social and natural history of the Rochester region to teach fundamentals such as science, history, language arts, and math in a way that is relevant to the students. Situated on the campus of the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC), students have access to the collections, exhibitions, and expert staff. On occasion students have even been able to contribute their valuable knowledge to the RMSC by designing exhibits and training to be docents. Students at Genesee are constantly engaging with their local history, not just studying it.

Atypical for their age, the young students at Genesee can articulate what topics they are exploring and why they are important. When a group of fourth grade students gives a tour, as a part of the school's student tour program, they describe each class's current expedition and compare it to their own experience with that topic and at that grade level. These memories come easily, as the school itself is adorned with student work past and present. This work isn't just displayed on a bulletin board for a brief time either. It is placed in locations of importance and framed or bound as appropriate. For instance, in the library, which contains a changing array of books and videos to reflect the topics being studied in each class, one can find professionally bound books on the history of the Genesee River or field guides to local geologic destinations; all created by students during expeditions.

Students at Genesee have internalized the principles of Expeditionary Learning and are conversant in its core practices. When giving a tour of the school, students easily name design principles and describe how they manifest themselves at Genesee. A wall of colored houses isn't described in terms of art class. Instead, the students explain how the process of designing and drawing houses reflects the design principles of "having wonderful ideas" and "solitude and reflection." Peeking into a class in session prompts students to explain the meaning behind the grouped arrangement of tables. The students describe the groups as physically representing their role as "crew, not passengers."

Genesee's approach to learning has contributed to academic success for its student population, which is 45 percent white, 40 percent African American, and 15 percent Hispanic, Asian, and Native American. In a district requesting gains in test scores, Genesee has complied. Seventy-four percent of Genesee fourth graders passed the most recent state tests. The overall passing rate in the district is 42.4 percent. The school has become so successful in such a short period of time that New York State recognized it with a $150,000 grant to spread its teaching practices to other Monroe County schools.

Genesee Community Charter School Website

World of Inquiry. Coming up on its third year as an Expeditionary Learning school, World of Inquiry School in Rochester, NY underwent a dramatic shift in school culture. Once just a school, teachers and students now consider World of Inquiry to be a "collaborative community." Teachers meet weekly for an hour-long faculty meeting, despite only being compensated by the district for one monthly meeting. This time is spent discussing the development and improvement of expeditions, as well as successes and challenges in the classroom. Additionally, each teacher at World of Inquiry has attended a literacy institute offered by Expeditionary Learning and regularly participates in collegial circles focused on literacy, in order to maintain constant improvement in their practices.

Learning at World of Inquiry School does not just happen in the classroom. Even though expeditions are a new practice for World of Inquiry teachers, they have already found ways to guide their students through investigations by combining literature, fieldwork, adventure, and service. For instance, when studying the concept of "homes," the kindergarten class engaged in fieldwork by visiting an almost completed Habitat for Humanity home and then designed and built a playhouse in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity. The playhouse was ultimately raffled off to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

In response to these new teaching methods, students at World of Inquiry are thriving. With the highest attendance rate in the city of Rochester and a low suspension rate, students are able to focus on learning. As a result, World of Inquiry students rank third in their district on the state math test and first in social studies.

A school community cannot be formed or sustained through academics alone. The whole school participates in a weekly morning meeting, with a different class hosting the meeting each week. On a daily basis, the whole school recites their "Model Citizen Crew Pledge," adapted from the principles of Expeditionary Learning.

The World of Inquiry School community extends beyond school walls as well. Parents are encouraged to visit the school, and over 95% of them do visit for student conferences. Family members of all ages also turn out in droves at semi-annual exhibitions where students present the final products from the various components of their expeditions. Other community members will also get to see World of Inquiry from the student perspective as the school implements a student tour guide program. This program will build on the success of a similar program at another local Expeditionary Learning School, Genesee Community Charter School.

World of Inquiry Website

School without Walls in Rochester, NY, one of the oldest alternative high schools in the country, has recently adopted Expeditionary Learning principles, beginning in the 2003-2004 school year. As a 33-year old veteran of the school reform movement, School Without Walls has been emphasizing critical thinking and responsible citizenship, while honoring a variety of learning styles for decades. Students graduate by exhibition, demonstrating their mastery of skills through portfolios, project presentations, and oral defenses in front of knowledgeable community members.

It is a testament to the value of Expeditionary Learning that a school with one of the district's highest attendance rates and lowest suspension rates and with one of the district's highest SAT averages would adopt it. Eighty-five percent of School Without Walls graduates have gone on to college, giving the school a high success rate with "at-risk-of-failure students." Even so, the school had to adapt to remain that successful. The core practices of Expeditionary Learning--learning expeditions, active pedagogy, culture and character, leadership and school improvement, and structures--are complements rather than changes to the already successful formula at School Without Walls.

School without Walls Website

North Carolina

Evergreen Community Charter School (ECCS) serves 350 students from kindergarten through eighth grades in Asheville, North Carolina. In only five short years since opening, ECCS was named one of North Carolina's Schools of Distinction, based on its 2003 test scores, almost all of which were above the state average.

The academic excellence at ECCS is made possible through the "academically challenging, developmentally appropriate, experiential, holistic, child-centered education" students receive there. As an Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound School, ECCS takes an educational approach that uses hands-on, project-based instruction. Students engage in projects utilizing all that Asheville has to offer from the natural environment to the support of parents and elders from the community.

During the 2003-2004 school year, ECCS seventh graders undertook a comprehensive exploration of the Blue Ridge Eco-system called "Blue Ridge 2020." The students read Steven Nash's "Blue Ridge 2020: An Owner's Manual," which is far more complex than a typical seventh grade science text. The difficult words were used for vocabulary building and the book was supplemented with lighter reading, like "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss. After building a foundation through reading, the students conducted fieldwork at Blue Ridge, where they learned to identify native and invasive species.

During the "Cold Water Aquaculture" project, ECCS seventh graders created lessons on aquatic food webs for elementary students. Then, in partnership with the fifth grade, the seventh graders raised brook trout in tanks at the school and conducted water quality tests of local streams to determine where it was safe to release the trout. This experience helped the students to understand the ecological complexities of their locale and to determine how they might impact their environment for better or for worse. While reflecting on the project, one seventh grader described brook trout's role as an indicator species saying, "For example, if you see brook trout in a stream, you can be pretty sure that stream and its surrounding area is pretty healthy. If we don't start trying to improve our ecosystem, then brook trout might just disappear altogether."

In the 2004-2005 school year, students will build on their knowledge from the "Cold Water Aquaculture" project while focusing on community education projects regarding the importance of water quality for the livelihood of the Blue Ridge Eco-system.

A seventh grade student described her experience at Evergreen by posting on the national school database, greatschools.net: "I have gone to Evergreen since I was in 3rd grade. I am currently in 7th grade attending school there. This school provides a good education for almost any kid who goes there. The administration takes their time to make sure that each student understands more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. They care about more than that. I would recommend this school to anyone who was scouting for a good school."

Evergreen Community Charter School Website

Oregon

Illinois Valley High School in Cave Junction, Oregon, with 75 percent of its student body on free and reduced lunch, has partnered with Expeditionary Learning since 2002 and has received CSR funding. Since that time, the percentage of 10th-grade students meeting or exceeding state standards has increased from 42 to 51 percent in reading, from 32 to 41 percent in math, and from 64 to 78 percent in writing.

Illinois Valley's community service activities include an ArtShare project, in which 10th-12th graders make regular visits to a local senior center, where they do portraits of the residents and help them with their own painting and drawing. This class also provides assistance in art to elementary school students in the same school district.

Illinois Valley High School Website

Pennsylvania

Russell Byers Charter School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania serves 320 students from pre-kindergarten through 5th grade. In 2004, their standardized test scores in reading were much higher the test scores of students in the Philadelphia School District.

Results of the 2004 TerraNova reading tests - required by the Philadelphia School District every spring - show that Russell Byers students are outperforming students in the School District of Philadelphia in grades 1 - 4. At every grade level, the percentage of Russell Byers students who scored at or above the national average (the 50th percentile or higher) was significantly higher than Philadelphia School District students - with the 1st graders scoring an impressive 25% higher than 1st graders in the School District!

Through learning expeditions, students go beyond the classroom in their quest for knowledge. In the fall, the 5th Graders began their learning expedition Stepping Into History, a study of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, by going on a two-day camping trip to the Ockanickon Scout Reservation in Pipersville, PA. Their research also took them on an urban odyssey to places once visited by the two explorers, including the Shippen/Wistar House, the American Philosophical Society, the Academy of Natural Sciences and Bartram's Garden.

The 2nd Graders studied the founding of America through their expedition How Do We Get Our Voices Heard. Their teacher reported that Thomas Jefferson has become their new hero! On Election Day, their fieldwork led them to the polls where they learned that the number one reason for voting among the 30 voters surveyed was because "it's important". The students decided what issue they wish to raise in public and what steps they must take to have their voices heard - a challenge at any age!

Russell Byers Charter School Website

Wisconsin

The Academy of Learning and Leadership (ALL) came into being in 2003 and is completing its third year as a City of Milwaukee authorized, independent, charter school. ALL serves 241 African American, urban, low-income children from two years old through eighth grade in the Lindsey Heights neighborhood of central Milwaukee. It is attached to the LaVarnway Boys and Girls Club, which partners with ALL to provide full day and evening services to students and their families. ALL is a caring, cohesive community that challenges children and adults to stretch themselves to their full potential.

ALL is an active community of learners and leaders using Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound as the framework. Challenging learning expeditions have been designed using the research-based standards of Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) and incorporating adventure, service, and character development. ALLŐs comprehensive Professional Development Model supports teachers as they become competent facilitators of active pedagogy, creating quality learning environments both in and out of the classroom.

Each student strives toward the values of the Ideal Graduate; these are centered on becoming a Conscious Learner, Confident Leader, Effective Communicator, Powerful Problem Solver, Communal Person, and Caring Self. Individual Learning Plans, Portfolios, and Student-led Conferences are at the heart of ALL's learning model. Teachers loop through two grades with their students to extend the power of the strong, positive relationships they develop with their children. This quality relational and communal aspect of the Academy that supports effective, active pedagogy driving enhanced student learning.

Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Elementary School (AV-W) serves 599 pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students from the rural towns of Arbor Vitae and Woodruff, Wisconsin. AV-W is a Title 1 school with about one quarter of its student body receiving free or reduced price lunch. Since implementing Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound with the help of a Comprehensive School Reform grant, AV-W has supported its students in high academic achievement.

In the past 6 years, test scores at AV-W on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE) have risen dramatically. The WKCE, a part of the Wisconsin Student Assessment System, tests fourth, eighth, and tenth grade students in five core subjects: reading, language arts, math, science, and social studies. As illustrated in tables 1 and 2, AV-W students' scores rose in all five subjects in both fourth and eighth grades, the only grades tested at the school. AV-W students now score higher than the state average in all subjects.

Table 1.
Percentage of 4th Grade Students Scoring Advanced or Proficient on the WKCE

Table 2.
Percentage of 8th Grade Students Scoring Advanced or Proficient on the WKCE

Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Elementary School Website

Reuther Central High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is an alternative education environment which hosts 600 students, with 28 percent minority students and 29 percent on free or reduced-price lunch. Reuther houses five different programs with a school-within-a-school concept. Each school targets students with specific educational needs, and the Expeditionary Learning component is the largest of all with 176 students. In a few short years, the Expeditionary Learning high school has grown into a community that has staff committed to co-teaching, instructional collaborative planning, and regular staff and leadership meetings. The school has developed a strong culture among students and faculty through the use of "Crew"--an advisory period where students focus on literacy skill practice, journaling, physical activity, portfolio development, and service projects. One such service project was the recent Crew Penny Drive. The objective was to raise money for a battered women and children's center in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There were rules: pennies count for positive points and any silver coin or bill counted as negative points. There was strategy: collect as many pennies for your own crew jug and put silver or bills into other crews' jugs. There was collaboration and competition: crew vs. crew to earn the most points. There was service: a check presentation to Womyn's and Children's Horizons. The students raised $480 for someone other than themselves.

Parents call the school "wonderful," and appreciate the individual attention given to students. "If your child is falling behind," one mother noted, "the teachers contact you right away so that you can get them back on track."

Reuther Central High School Website

Winnequah Middle School in Monona, Wisconsin, has been serving sixth through eighth grade students using the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (ELOB) model since receiving a Comprehensive School Reform grant in 1999. At that time, the principal described the school as one of the worst in the district. Winnequah has been steadily improving since then, even receiving honorable mention in the 2001 Chase School Change Awards, honoring schools nationwide for implementing significant change to improve educational opportunities for students. In 2002, Winnequah received honorable mention for the American Association of School Administrators "Leadership for Learning" award, which recognizes schools that have created programs that have significantly improved student achievement.

Since Winnequah's adoption of ELOB in 1999, the percentage of eighth grade students scoring proficient or advanced on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam has risen in the subjects of reading, language arts, math, science, and social studies. On the 2003 exams, Winnequah students scored higher than the state average in all subjects. Winnequah students are also well represented in local academic contests. In the 2004 Math League Contest sponsored by Beloit College, Winnequah sixth and eighth graders placed first for their regions. Winnequah seventh graders placed fourth out of the 147 schools in their region. In the 2004 Dane County Yahara Writing Contest, Winnequah students won in first place in three different categories: poetry, short story, and editorial.

School culture is thriving as well. Suspensions dropped significantly between 1998 and 2001. Parent participation has grown dramatically, as shown through an increase in attendance at Open House from 30 to 68 percent since implementing ELOB. Teachers also participate in professional development in droves, over 90 percent of them feeling satisfied with it.

As an Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound School, Winnequah students learn through expeditions. The twenty-eight learning expeditions designed by Winnequah teachers since 1999 are based upon the Wisconsin Academic Standards adopted by Monona Grove School Board and whenever possible, incorporate fieldwork and service to the community. Examples of these expeditions include developing brochures about homelessness and hunger that were displayed at the state capital, creating field guides to the trees at Winnequah state park, and designing and funding the installation of a salt-water aquarium at the Monona Public Library.

Winnequah expeditions have led to several prestigious awards for students. A prairie restoration service project performed by seventh grade students culminated in the presentation of the 2001 Youth Stewardship Award from the Dane County Heritage Foundation. In 2003, Winnequah received an honorable mention in At&T's Champions of the Environment Award for working to restore native lagoon plants. Also, in May of 2004, Winnequah seventh graders received one of five finalist awards from the United Way for an extensive study of local homelessness, which involved the creating clay bowls, auctioning them, and donating the proceeds to a local nonprofit transitional housing program.

Winnequah Middle School Website