What's New at Expeditionary Learning
From the Denver Post: During his 30-minute newscast on October 29, 2008, Presidential Candidate Barack Obama praised Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts, a school he visited this past spring, for its 100% success rate at sending its seniors to four-year colleges. Click here to read the entire article.
From the Vail Daily: "Read through Sen. Barack Obama's education platform, and you'll see the influence of Michael Johnston," principal of Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts. "Johnston is one of Obama's education advisors, co-author of Obama's education platform and often speaks on Obama's behalf on education policy." Click here to read the entire article.
Expeditionary Learning (EL) has helped bring about big changes to World of Inquiry School 58 in Rochester, New York, and the area press is taking note. Both the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and www.rnews.com have run stories about the success of School 58, an EL school. For instance, in the 2006-2007 school year, 100 percent of its students passed state fourth-grade math and science exams. Rochester schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard is a great fan of EL, and called it a "phenomenal model."
So pleased is Rochester with EL that the principal of School 58, Elizabeth Mascitti-Miller, in partnership with EL, hopes to expand the school from k-6 grade to k-12 grade.
Read the news article here.
A news video on this story may be found by clicking here.
Rachel Romano, new principal of longtime EL middle school, Christa McAuliffe Regional Charter Public School in Framingham, Massachusetts, made news on September 11, 2008, having been at Ground Zero seven years ago. In her interview on Boston's Channel 5, Romano wanted to focus on the present and talk about McAuliffe.
Click here to see and hear the full story on The Boston Channel.
KC Community News staff writer Kurt Kloblen described what Expeditionary Learning is and how Red Bridge Elementary applies it in the classroom. Red Bridge is a second-year EL school based in Kansas City, Missouri. Red Bridge's principal, Danelle Marsden, praised the EL design for its emphasis on community and character building, as well as on academic achievement. Marsden said the "best moments" occur when parents tell her how absorbed their children are in learning expeditions and cannot stop talking about them. Click here to read the article.
Bonner Springs Chieftain reporter Nicole Kelley chose to write primarily about crew at Clark Middle School, also a second year EL school. The 20-minute crew classes, which usually number between 10 and 13 students, give teachers, administrators, and students the chance to interact on a daily basis. Not only does this allow students and educators to develop a good rapport, but it puts students together with other students they might not have known otherwise. Clark Middle School principal Steven Cook pointed out another important aspect of crew: it provides students with a place where they feel secure and can discuss any issues they may be dealing with. Click here to read the article.
The Syracuse Post-Standard, in its July 20th edition, reported the opening in September of an Expeditionary Learning middle school. Students and parents will be interviewed for the 80 spots the school has for the upcoming school year, which will go to 40 seventh graders and 40 eighth graders. The school, which will be named by its students, will be housed in the former McCarthy School building on South Salina Street, in Syracuse. A special feature will be the on-campus ropes course. Kevin Burns is the principal, and thrilled to have the opportunity to open a new school. Established by the Syracuse School District this spring with $1.5 million, it joins seven expeditionary learning schools in Upstate New York, and will cater to students who will benefit from the non-traditional school setting that an Expeditionary Learning school provides. To read the entire article, click here.
 Deborah Bond-Upson has been chosen as the new president and CEO of Expeditionary Learning Schools, effective July 1, 2008. Ms. Bond-Upson succeeds Greg Farrell, Expeditionary Learning's original president and CEO, who is retiring this summer.
Of her new affiliation, Ms. Bond-Upson said, "Expeditionary Learning is the best model I have found to equip schools and teachers to serve whole students. It is an honor and a challenge to join this rare and successful movement."
Ms. Bond-Upson will be based in EL's New York City headquarters, and she will relocate from Miami, FL, to the New York City area. Ms. Bond-Upson has been involved in various aspects of the field of education throughout her professional life. Currently she is CEO of Best Practice Networks, which works with teachers and districts to develop and exchange good teaching practices, and delivers GALAXY Classroom, an inquiry-based k-5 science program. She founded and was CEO of Teacher Universe, a teacher professional development program, was executive vice-president of Knowledge Universe, and had many positions over 24 years with Kaplan Education Centers.
Ms. Bond-Upson is a graduate of Swarthmore College and has a Master of Divinity degree form Starr King School, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA.
Read the Deborah Bond-Upson Press Release
BARACK OBAMA VISITS MESA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
 Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts (MESA) became the center of attention on Wednesday, May 28, when presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama paid a visit. He walked around the school escorted by students who told him about their learning expeditions on slavery and the Civil War.
Obama praised the three-year old MESA, saying, "I can't tell you how impressed I am with this school. I want to hold up this school as an example of what is possible in education." He credited MESA's teachers, saying, "If it weren't for this outstanding faculty and staff, we wouldn't see so much success here." Obama noted that each of MESA's 44 seniors has been accepted into a four-year college.
MESA is one of 13 new small schools ELS has helped to open with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. An additional 12 schools will open over the next four years. The Foundation's high school initiative has as its goal preparing all students for college.
Many news organizations reported on the visit. Links to some of the stories appear below.
Photos: AP
The students at two Expeditionary Learning schools were newsmakers recently -- in the Baltimore Sun (May 14, 2008), and in the Kenosha News in Kenosha, WI (May 29, 2008).
Gregory Kane, of the Baltimore Sun, wrote a laudatory column about the learning expedition that students at Doris M. Johnson High School in Baltimore undertook. Entitled "Collision: People and Events that Shaped the Vietnam Era in Maryland," King detailed the contribution of each of the 13 students who took part. To read the entire article, click here.
Bill Guida, of the Kenosha News, penned an in-depth article about enterprising ninth-graders at Harborside Academy, who came together with students from nearby Carthage College to see if they could control flooding at Hawthorn Hollow Nature Sanctuary and Arboretum. Though years separated the two groups of students, they worked side-by-side, planting native prairie plants in an area continually flooded. To read the entire article, click here.
The good works of Tapestry Charter High School students in Buffalo, New York, were featured on Channel 4 WIVB on April 1. Students at the school wanted to help their community by ridding it of eyesore properties. Two students were chosen to participate in the "enrichment intensive," after doing "really well" in their core subjects, according to the School's Art teacher. The students teamed up with Buffalo Re-Use to gut a dilapidated house on Seneca Street and recycle the materials inside. The building will then be refurbished. Before this, Tapestry students spruced up the neighborhood by painting murals on vacant homes. Click here to read the article.
EL Teachers are Winners!
Hats Off to the 45 ELS teachers who received cash awards totaling $154,000 from the Fund for Teachers for projects in the summer of 2008. In all, 25 of 70 ELS proposals were funded, with 16 awards going to individuals and nine to teams. ELS has a vibrant partnership with FFT; FFT treats our national network as a partner school district and, in return, ELS helps with design of the FFT program. ELS teachers use these summer fellowships to build expertise and gain primary source materials for Learning Expeditions and projects. Proposals this year reflected the great imagination of ELS teachers, and included travel to Norway to study "Friluftsliv," a mind/body ethic connected to outdoor activity, researching peace-building efforts in Israel and Palestine, holocaust research in Germany, a dinosaur dig in Montana, and an inquiry-based high school physics class.
EL teachers, is there a project you would like to do but don't have the resources? Visit DonorsChoose.org to see how you can use the power of the web to raise the money. DonorsChoose.org posts requests from public school teachers across the U.S. to fund student projects, classroom activities, fieldwork, technology, books, etc. On-line donors choose the classroom idea they want to support, all or in part, from proposals sent in by teachers. Several EL teachers have submitted projects; King Middle School in Portland, Maine sent requests for 12 projects, five of which were funded for a total of $2,335. Thanks to DonorsChoose.org, King received a color printer, a floor-to-ceiling computer screen and books. For details, visit www.DonorsChoose.org.
ELS in the News! Prescott eNews reports on The Sound of Silence at Prescott Prescott Mile High Middle School.
Civano Charter School in Tucson, AZ was crowned the greenest elementary school in the nation in a segment featured on the Ellen Show. The school was awarded a $50,000 prize, while students were each awarded an iPod. The school plans to use the funding as seed money for a long planned addition that will include a multipurpose room/kitchen. Click here to watch the video on the Ellen Show.
The school district of Bonner Springs, KS is in the news as it implements Expeditionary Learning at the elementary and middle school levels.
ELS in the News! NPR News reports on A district where no two schools are alike and ELS is front and center.
ELS in the News! ABC News reports on the Kurt Hahn School and on Polaris Charter Academy.
View news clips about the opening day of Polaris Charter Academy in Chicago, Illinois from NBC News and Fox News.
Read about EL Schools in A Passion for Learning by Diane Demee-Benoit, published in Edutopia.
A Night in the Global Village -- At Heifer International's Global Village, in Perryville, Arkansas, Colorado middle school students experience firsthand the living conditions typical of developing countries.
The journal Edutopia recently published the following piece on a Expeditionary Learning School: Memoirs, River Journeys, and Life Without Bathing. The piece, subtitled "Expeditionary learning puts the focus on student investigations -- and a Kansas City district embraces it" was written by Laura Scholes. The original article is on the Edutopia website.
Suzanne Gregg, Educational Director at ANSER in Boise, was interviewed on Boise State Radio on a program called New Horizons in Education - June 2nd. The program is available (audio) by clicking here. Look for the June 2nd broadcast.
Read about the Russell Byers Charter School in "Heart of the City", an article in the most recent issue of the American School Board Journal.
Both King Middle School in Portland Maine and Decatur Discovery Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana are featured in news articles. Read all about it!
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