During the three years of the partnership with EMU, one faculty member has served on the FHS school improvement team. Two school improvement goals have been established by FHS. These goals are to improve communication skills (reading, writing and speaking) and to improve respect for self and others. The main innovations resulting from these efforts are:
- The Design and Implementation of Interdisciplinary Programs
- Block Scheduling
- School-to-Work Programs
All three innovations have helped students meet the school improvement goals.
Design and Implementation of Interdisciplinary Programs
LINK refers to several innovative interdisciplinary team-teaching programs at FHS. Subjects that have been connected by teams of teachers are tenth-grade American History and American Literature. The Journalism classes and Publication and Process classes are also taught together so students can write articles and print them with desktop publishing.
For juniors and seniors, there is another interesting LINK option--Physics, Calculus, Principles of Engineering, and Technology. In this interdisciplinary program, teams of three or four students are given engineering projects to complete. For example, some students must design a storage facility to withstand certain weather conditions. At the end of the semester, student teams present their projects using Power Point presentation software.
Another interdisciplinary program, Pursuing, Applying, Connecting, Thinking (PACT) ties ninth-grade Math, Earth Science, History, and English classes together. Students applied all of these disciplines in the projects they completed as part of their train trip to Chicago last spring.
This fall, Farmington High School switched to a block schedule called the “alternating 8 block.” This innovative schedule allows students to take an additional class per semester. The result is that FHS graduation requirements have been raised and are now higher than any other school in the district. Because of the extra demands of seven classes per semester instead of the usual six, the break in between the 84-minute block-scheduled classes was extended to 10 minutes. The longer breaks create a less rushed atmosphere in the busy high school. Longer class periods allow teachers to provide more in-depth instruction, include authentic hands-on projects, and use a variety of assessment techniques. Typically, schools with block scheduling report fewer discipline problems, improved attendance, and increased student learning.
Twice a week students have Student Managed Academic Resource Time (SMART). SMART is an 84-minute period when students take responsibility for managing their own time. Students must spend 75% of their SMART time doing constructive work (yet another graduation requirement). "Our studies show that about 50% of students depend on SMART for extra help in a discipline," said John Barrett, Assistant Principal of FHS. Some teachers use SMART time to review for tests. A FHS student may use SMART time as a type of tutorial or to explore other interests.
Barrett indicated that it is very labor-intensive to make SMART meet everyone's needs. For example, a new Master SMART schedule is printed each week listing what each teacher's class will be doing at that time, and whether it is a tutorial or an enrichment class. Teachers try to make SMART time interesting and productive by offering classes like: the Stock Market Game; Self-Defense for Women; Candlelight Poetry Reading; and a Science Fiction Reading Club. To connect students with life outside school walls, FHS brings in members of the community. Students have had the chance to meet a heart transplant recipient, a representative from the Better Business Bureau, Russian teachers visiting the US., and a member of the US. Olympic team. They have attended performances by the Wayne State University theater group and the Harlem Dance Theater. Sessions of the 47th District Court were held on-site during SMART time. In addition to a constantly changing array of electives, students can also attend meetings of school clubs. All school assemblies take place during SMART, so no instructional minutes are lost elsewhere.
School counselors benefit from SMART time by meeting with students. The administration will occasionally use this time to meet with target student groups, for example, students who have failed two or more classes. Then they can begin to investigate reasons why these students are not successful and find ways to resolve their problems. One idea that surfaced in such a session was to offer classes on study skills.
Another innovative project undertaken with the help of EMU staff involved the relationship between real-life work experience and school work. Professor Marvin Pasch of the Department of Teacher Education and former Consociate School Facilitator, helped design and evaluate the effects of two projects that explored the idea of bringing the world of work into the middle school and high school curriculum. One project focused on community understanding and acceptance of the idea; the other actually put teachers into week-long work internships. These real-life work experiences helped teachers see the connections between their course content and the workplace. The knowledge teachers gained in these internships was translated into classroom activities and school field trips. Dr. Pasch’s expertise in the area of school-to-work connections was helpful in fulfilling the promise of both projects.