Stories of Possibility highlights schools and educational programs that promote high quality and socially just learning.
Learning Beyond the Classroom
by
Karen Hunter Quartz
ECHS students are engaged in a rigorous college-prep curriculum that extends learning beyond the classroom walls and into the local community.
Karen Hunter Quartz reports on the successes of a charter high school that focuses on environmental service learning.
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Alison Suffet resonates with Margaret Mead’s celebrated observation: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” In 1999, working as a teacher activist at Leuzinger High School, Suffet organized a grassroots group of parents, teachers, students, and community members to change the world in Lawndale — a predominately working community in southwestern Los Angeles. By the fall of 2001, the group had taken their first big step—opening the doors of Environmental Charter High School (ECHS) to 100 ninth graders. A new cohort joined them this past fall and by 2005 the school will reach its capacity of 400 students.
ECHS students are engaged in a rigorous college-prep curriculum that extends learning beyond the classroom walls and into the local community. Their unique academic program focuses on “environmental service learning—a teaching strategy that links classroom instruction with meaningful, hands on service to the community.” As one student explained: “We don’t just sit and read textbooks and answer worksheets. We go outside in our community and we try to change things in our community for the better. We go on cool field trips, have cool classes, and very supportive teachers. Teachers here won’t wait until you fail. They try to help you become a quality person.”
In a community traditionally underserved by their public schools, ECHS is a breath of fresh air where, as one student put it, “teachers encourage the students and give them the strength to want to learn.”
Unfortunately, this level of engagement and personal attention is rare in urban schools, despite the efforts of many hard-working and well-meaning educators. Nearly a third of 9th graders who enter Lawndale's other two high schools, for instance, fail their freshman year. Most of these students drop out. In a community traditionally underserved by their public schools, ECHS is a breath of fresh air where, as one student put it, “teachers encourage the students and give them the strength to want to learn.”
Developing an innovative vision and educational philosophy defines only part of ECHS’s struggle to create a small school. Suffet has had to be extraordinarily creative in finding space for her students. Last year, school opened in the classroom wing of Lawndale Christian Church. This year, students attended the first few weeks of school in shifts—waiting for construction to be completed in their new satellite campus around the corner. Originally built by the Shriners in 1924 and used by Roy Rogers as a practice studio and dance hall, the new campus has been redesigned with environmental principles in mind. The walls are painted soothing greens and blues, the space is open and light, and students have a place to hang out. Suffet also has her eye on a lot adjacent to the church where she hopes to expand with a third campus. Interestingly, though, when asked where a visitor might see the heart of their school, students’ responses were less about space than people. “This school doesn’t need a building to run it,” remarked one young woman, “the heart of the school runs off of the people in it.” A young man elaborates: “The heart of ECHS is the unity that the students have with each other. When we first came here we were not close because we didn’t know each other but now even if no one admits it, we love each other. We make the school run. We also look out for everyone, even ones we don’t get along with. We are a big family.”
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Karen Hunter Quartz is the assistant director of research for UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, & Access and a regular contributor to Teaching to Change LA.
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