Below is the text from the Executive Summary from this report. The complete report can be downloaded from the bottom of this page.
Building a Foundation for Change:
Place-based Education at an Urban Middle School
An Evaluation of Project CO-SEED
at the Henry Dearborn Middle School
in partnership with the Appalachian Mountain Club
2003-2006
Prepared for:
Antioch New England Institute
& the Place-based Education
Evaluation Collaborative (PEEC)
Prepared by:
Michael Duffin
& Program Evaluation and Educational Research
(PEER) Associates, Inc.
April 19, 2007
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Project CO-SEED’s primary purpose is to help schools and communities work together to simultaneously strengthen academic achievement, community vitality, and environmental quality. CO-SEED* is a project of Antioch New England Institute of Antioch University New England in Keene, NH, and has been implemented at twelve sites since 1998. The project works with a given site for three or more years, providing a range of services, including: funding for a half time staff person from a local community organization; funding for mini-grants; facilitation of a community visioning event; facilitation of a steering committee; and professional development for school staff.
The subject of this report is CO-SEED’s work at the Henry Dearborn Middle School (often referred to as “The Dearborn” or simply “Dearborn”) in the city of Roxbury, MA, a densely populated area just south of Boston proper. CO-SEED’s official tenure there lasted from September 2003 through July 2006, and additional funding was secured to extend work through the 2006-2007 school year. Each year CO-SEED conducts extensive program evaluations, and all reports are made available on the web at www.peecworks.org/PEEC/PEEC_Reports/. As part of this year’s evaluation, I spoke with Dearborn staff, partners, and students about their work with CO-SEED over the last three years. The complete
list of interview, survey, and document data reviewed for this report is summarized in Table D3 in the Appendix.
The format for presenting my evaluation findings is a narrative portrait. Portraiture** is a particular type of qualitative research method that intentionally blends the aesthetics of narrative artistry with the rigor of empirical research. It is an attempt to paint a picture with words that captures the essence of the subject, much like a painter tries to do when painting a person. This approach freely admits, even emphasizes, the subjective nature of the relationship between researcher and subject. This allowed me to usefully capitalize on the relationships I have developed during evaluation interviews at The Dearborn over the last three years.
This report on the Dearborn site will be folded into a larger report that summarizes quantitative and qualitative evaluation findings for four different CO-SEED sites (including The Dearborn), all of which wrapped up their first three years with CO-SEED in the 2005-2006 school year.
This is a story about the ways that a place-based education program has contributed to the possibility of a major transformation of an urban middle school. The main themes of this narrative portrait of the Dearborn Middle School are:
· Projects that promote student leadership and initiative have been particularly successful.
· Reaching out to and establishing active dialogue with the surrounding community, including parents, has been an important and growing source of strength and energy for positive change. This dynamic was exemplified during a Vision to Action Forum entitled “Dearborn Reborn CommUnity Weekend.”
· Place-based education practices do not appear to have been systematically incorporated into the culture of the teaching staff.
· Evidence of student behavior change and community improvement are showing up sooner and stronger than changes in educator practice. It often occurs in the reverse sequence at other CO-SEED sites.
· The Dearborn is in the midst of serious dialogue about future direction, identity, and core structure of the school. CO-SEED’s presence is supporting that conversation in multiple, important ways. The ultimate outcome of these discussions remains to be seen. The task is daunting, but hopes are high.
· Recommendations in the epilogue focus on building on successes with students and community, and setting realistic expectations for the next phase of change.
* The word “CO-SEED” stands for COmmunity-School Environmental EDucation.
** See Lawrence-Lightfoot, S., & Davis, J. H. (1997). The art and science of portraiture. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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