Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

CHAPTER 6: Commonly Asked Questions about Smart & Good High SchoolsHow does the Smart & Good High Schools model compareto other reform models?We think it’s both similar and different. Many of thethemes highlighted in reports such as Breaking Ranks II—collaborative leadership, small learning communities, personalizationof the learning environment, a rigorous curriculum,assessment—are ones you’ll find in Smart &Good High Schools.What’s different about Smart & Good High Schools, wethink, is its focus on character—and its definition of characteras including both performance character and moralcharacter. Most school reform models emphasize excellence,but say nothing about the role of performancecharacter in achieving excellence. Moreover, few reformmodels address moral character. No other model weknow uses character in the full sense—performance characterand moral character—as its main organizing theme.We argue that schools must make performance characterand moral character the cornerstones of schooling. Why?Because they’re the cornerstones of success in life.Performance character and moralcharacter must be the cornerstones ofschooling—because they are thecornerstones of success in life.We’re saying you can’t separate excellence and ethics. Wedon’t want to graduate kids who become mediocre teachers,incompetent surgeons, or sloppy mechanics. And wedon’t want to graduate kids who become crooked CEOs,steroid-popping athletes, or citizens who don’t vote. Weneed to give more than lip service to the integration ofexcellence and ethics. They have to be our twin touchstones,the lenses through which we see all our work.So do you see your model as an alternative to otherapproaches?More like a complement to them. The chemical companyBASF has a slogan that says, “We don’t make a lot of theproducts you use—we make a lot of the products you use,better.” This tagline describes the catalytic nature of theirproduct. Without BASF chemicals, many other productswouldn’t be as good as they now are. And without theother products, BASF chemicals wouldn’t be as valuableto so many customers.This is similar to our Smart & Good High Schools vision.We think it has the potential to make any school or anyclassroom better. For example, we think that strong mathpedagogy coupled with the Smart & Good High Schoolsvision will get more from students than strong math pedagogyalone—especially in struggling schools.The Smart & Good vision cancomplement other reform models.Why is that so? Because the message is received accordingto the disposition of the receiver. Your math message isn’tgoing to be received as well by students who are missingthe performance character qualities needed for math—diligence, perseverance, positive attitude, orderliness. Youmight have great math teaching methods but not have aclassroom culture in which kids push each other to dotheir best work. You might have great math methods butnot good classroom discipline. If classroom discipline anda culture of excellence are not established, the best mathpedagogy will be less than optimally effective.Whether you’re a Coalition of Essential Schools member,a Talent Development School, a First Things First school,or any of the other current reform models, you can alsobe a Smart & Good High School. You don’t have tochoose one over the other. However, we do believe thatour approach can strengthen the other approaches.What’s your feeling about advisories? Are they necessary?Advisories are one way to get to a goal—namely, schoolconnectedness. Research shows the importance of schoolconnectedness—close relationships between adults andstudents, and close relationships between students andeach other. When kids feel connected in these ways, theywork harder in school, are less likely to drop out, and areless likely to engage in a range of risky behaviors such assex, drugs, and drinking.Are advisories the only way to create connectedness?No. You can create connectedness through classroomsthat build community around excellence and ethics.You can create it by using the traditional “homeroomperiod” for advisory-type activities. You can achieve connectednessthrough extracurricular and co-curricularactivities, which the research shows often have a biggerimpact on a student’s performance and moral characterand long-range life outcomes than any academic experience.Do all advisories work? Not necessarily. We saw advisorieswhere, quite frankly, the structure didn’t appear to promotestrong connectedness or foster other importantgoals. Like any school structure or practice, advisories213Smart & Good High Schools