The School of Education Collaborates with Two of Boston's Most Underperforming Schools

Last fall, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino charged five area universities with assisting ten public schools that are struggling to reach the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act. In his program, “Step UP,” Boston University, Boston College, Harvard University, Tufts University, and Northeastern University are working together to improve academics at these schools.

Boston University is paired with the William M. Trotter Elementary School and Boston English High School. Instructor Susan Dougherty is the liaison between the School of Education and the Trotter, which sits on the Roxbury/Dorchester line, in the Grove Hall neighborhood. She began her work by listening, to determine how BU might best serve the school. “We’re trying to follow the lead of the school,” Dougherty says, “and find out what their needs are and see how we can fit with their goals.”

Two projects for the Trotter were put quickly into place last spring. In the first, a five-week pilot program, five SED undergraduates served as reading and writing tutors. Each was paired with a focal child, devoting one-on-one time to that student.

Second, BU hosted a math-and-science day in May for 70 Trotter fifth-grade students. Curriculum and Teaching Professor Carole Greenes spearheaded the activities, which included a Jeopardy-style quiz show, a card game called Crypto in which students solved math problems, and a long-jump contest where participants used their distances to perform statistical analysis. As for science, the children studied real termites with Professor Don DeRosa, clinical assistant professor of curriculum and teaching. Finally, they had lunch at Warren Towers.

“The kids loved it,” says Greenes. “It was a wonderful way to introduce the children to the University.”

Last spring, BU also hosted a Moving Up ceremony for Trotter fifth graders, and John McCarthy, director of BU’s Institute for Athletic Coach Education, and his students facilitated field day at the school.

This fall, the Elementary Educators Club donated school supplies to the Trotter after a drive at the School of Education. In addition, Professor Eileen C. Sullivan of the Physical Education program brought her graduate students to the Trotter and English High for lessons — including fitness activities and presentations on sports injuries and nutrition.

Developing an interest in college
Ruth Shane, coordinator of University relations with the Boston Public Schools, says, “These children are [often] from families with limited exposure to higher education.” However, their parents have “aspirations for their children to accomplish bigger and better things. Exposure to the University as early as elementary school can begin to build in the children an interest in college.”

Shane is also the liaison to English High, located in Jamaica Plain. The goal here is to improve MCAS scores, but along the way the teens should start thinking of themselves as “college material,” Shane says.

To that end, she has enlisted the aid of a cross-section of BU faculty. McCarthy is helping the school’s coaches reach athletes in academic trouble. Eileen C. Sullivan, Clinical Assistant Professorof Education in Physical Education, is working with teachers to update their health and physical education content and planning to introduce heart rate monitors and pedometer lessons. The School of Social Work has initiated conversations to determine how best to provide support for students who need assistance with personal and school issues. Professor and Chairman of Physics Bennett Goldberg has signed on to help math and science teachers devise effective lesson plans. “My role,” says Shane, “is to listen and make connections.”

Dean ad interim Charles Glenn has long believed that a university should pitch in for its city’s schools. From 1970 to 1991, Glenn was director of urban education and equity efforts for the Massachusetts Department of Education. His interest in the program is partially personal as well: “My own children all went through Boston schools,” he says. “In fact, my two older children attended the Trotter for their elementary education.”
He stresses, though, that the program will also benefit the University and its students, providing training for the aspiring teachers of SED. “Service learning [is] a requirement for all of our students at SED,” Glenn says. “We think that’s a fundamental part of education. We will have students working in dozens of schools and community agencies this coming year, of which the Trotter and English High will be two. It’s part of a broader initiative, a broader understanding of education.”

“We are fulfilling the legacy of the University as an urban university,” says Shane. BU students should know “the real city—not just the tourist and commercial parts [but] the neighborhoods and the citizens.” That kind of full engagement “certainly makes for a livelier and more complex experience.”

For everyone, it’s an exciting opportunity to make a difference in the community and future of BU. After all, Greenes says, “These are my future students here at the University, so I want to make sure they do well in their elementary school, middle school, and high school programs. Then, [when] they become our students, we’ll have the best of the best.”

Unique collaborative program in ecology underway with selected Boston elementary schools, including Step UP Partner Trotter
“Tree and Me: Explorations in Ecology” program is underway in five Boston Public Elementary schools including Boston Step UP partner William Monroe Trotter School of Dorchester. Designed in response to a generous multi-year gift from Henry Meyer, a long-time donor to Boston University’s educational outreach in the Chelsea Public Schools, this curriculum enhancement program seeks to build quality ongoing nature experiences for Boston school children.

During this past summer, eight elementary teachers from five Boston Schools — William Monroe Trotter of Dorchester, Luis Agassiz of Jamaica Plain, John D. Philbrick of Roslindale, Joseph P. Manning of Jamaica Plain, and Thomas Gardner of Allston — participated in an intensive workshop at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, a partner with Boston University School of Education (SED) in the project. The teachers became familiar with the Arboretum grounds, including many of the magnificent tree specimens, and directly experienced many of the activities and knowledge of the “Tree and Me” plan.

A centerpiece of the program is the ecology explorations students will do directly at the Arboretum at least three times during the school year. As part of the interactive visits, the children will develop journals based upon a tree that each “adopts” and becomes particularly knowledgeable about. Investigations of soil, sunpower (photosynthesis), leaves, water transport, and connections to climate change are embedded back in the classroom experience between the field visits. Many of the lessons build upon the highly successful National Science Foundation-supported Microcosmos program of the School of Education Science Education Department during the 1990s. Much of the content strength comes not only from the Boston Public Schools Science Department and its content standards but from the recent book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. Louv discusses thoroughly how the education of our children and even adults is suffering due to what is being called today’s harmful “nature-deficit disorder.”

Eventually, this pilot year implementation will see the development of a “Tree and Me” web site, wherein the children can upload the best of their journal productions, and teachers can share ideas and findings. This web site will also foster a link to the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the northwest Amazon (Ecuador). The facility, operated by the University of San Francisco of Quito in collaboration with Boston University, will feature a remote camera that will allow students to directly peer via the Internet into the tropical rainforest.

“The Arboretum is a treasure chest of opportunities to experience all that nature has to offer,” said Science Teacher Brenda Richardson of the William Monroe Trotter School. “When Boston University’s Dr. Zook walked us [teachers] down to the pond to collect some water samples, he slipped off his sandals with a big smile on his face and walked ever so affectionately to the muddiest section of the pond — and in he went! His enthusiasm was infectious. He beckoned us to share this experience with him and the living organisms. I did eventually get a water sample myself and enjoyed every minute it. I can't wait for my students to share the same experiences.”

Initiated by SED Science Education Director and Biologist Douglas Zook, the “Tree and Me” program is under the project coordination of Newton elementary teacher Jennifer Reese, a former MAT science education graduate. She oversees the team of Dean Martin, Gardner School Elementary teacher; Nancy Sableski, Education Coordinator of the Arnold Arboretum; and, Richard Shulhof, Director of the Arnold
Arboretum.

Read about the Boston University/Chelsea Partnership, the only example of a private university accepting responsibility for the day-to-day management of a public school system