T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R C A P TA I N S O F I N D U S T RY
EDUCATION LEADERS
www.educationleaderstoday.com
TODAY
The Lewis Center for Educational Research
LAUNCH INTO LEARNING
Located on 150 acres of Mojave river wildlands, the Lewis Center is a charter school that grew out of an astronomical observatory and today serves as a model for schools across the country.
FEATURE | LEWIS CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
an education by Rachel Goldberg
T H E M AG A Z I N E F O R C A P TA I N S O F I N D U S T RY
EDUCATION LEADERS TODAY
Editor-in-Chief Todd Weaver Editor Diana Doyle Executive Editor Jonathan Mack Assistant Editor Joseph Orange Creative Director Emily Detoro Art Director Stephanie Hess Director of Advertising Julian Vu Production Coordinator Jason Rone Assistant Production Coordinator Elizabeth Macks Photography Editor Ian Palmer Video Director Susan Maybach Editorial Director Kate Darling Editorial Production Rachel Goldberg Copy Editor William Finch Assistant Copy Editor Amy Roberts Content Directors Brandon McBride (W), Aaron McGaskey (SW), Juan Orellana (Int’l), Mike Rodgers (Nation), Juan Stewart (NE) Vendor Relations Director Diana Stephens Vendor Relations Eric Miller, Steve Peters Advertising Sales Director Peter Jostens Advertising Sales Coordinator Patricia O’Brien Advertising Sales Moe Kazemi, David Levi, Steve Stone Publisher Steve Reed oZ WORLD MEDIA, LLC 1100 H Street NW Suite M Washington D.C. 20005 www.educationleaderstoday.com Education Leaders Today is a quarterly B2B trade journal that services the education industry in education news, charter school, high school, college prep, learning academies and new tecnhologies. CLT has a readership of 30,000 C-Level principals and headmasters within the education industry. We do not accept subscription requests from the general public, however an abbreviated version is available on our website.
2 Education Leaders Today
Educational reform isn’t rocket science, but for the Lewis Center for Educational Research, a charter school that grew out of an astronomical observatory it’s at least the inspiration. The school received its charter and took off in 1997, when Principal Rick Piercy convinced NASA to turn over a deep space radio antenna to teachers and students for educational use. That program has continued to grow and today serves as a model for schools across the country. “The schools operate our radio telescope from their classroom via the Internet through our mission control center to do real projects alongside real scientists with NASA and other groups,” said Piercy. “To date, we have trained teachers in schools in 37 states, 14 countries, and three U.S. territories.” They proved so effective that the Lewis Center took over a second antenna, which they used to track a NASA mission to the moon last year. The key to the Lewis Center’s success is in its focus on engaging children in science and math through hands-on experience. The NASA program is just one of the many learning opportunities for students in the field. Located on 150 acres of Mojave river wildlands, the campus itself is an outdoor laboratory where students can study ecology and wildlife. “Our students monitor water quality hand in hand with Mojave Water Agency scientists, and worked with U.S. Fish & Wildlife to raise endangered fish species,” Piercy said. “We also have Tortoise Terrace, where students can take care of rescued tortoises.” They also provide lessons in math, science and
LEWIS CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH | FEATURE
Summer 2010 3
FEATURE | LEWIS CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
1
4 Education Leaders Today
LEWIS CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH | FEATURE
history with activities like panning for gold and archaeological digs. The school’s partnerships with public and private organizations give students unique opportunities with benefits that reach the entire community. Other innovative programs include the K-16 Bridge project, which connects students with two- and fouryear colleges, and Lewis Learning, an online curriculum tool which allows teachers to track student progress. Neighboring school districts and schools in other parts of the country have begun to imitate the Lewis Center’s success. Piercy sees in the center a new direction for American public education. “Charter schools were created mainly to be an incubator for new ideas and a catalyst for that change,” Piercy said. “If legislators would look at quality programs that have demonstrated what good schools could do and how we did it, then they would be able to stand back and allow us to inject these new and interesting and vital solutions into other schools.” The effectiveness of these programs is measured by a nonprofit research partnership from the University of California, Riverside, that follows the school’s progress. They work closely with teachers and school board members to adjust the curriculum based on research findings. “Fundamentally, our education system is stuck in the industrial age, assembly line approach,” he said. “But children learn best when engaged with project-based, hands on learning. We’ve seen students who struggled at other schools really flourish with a hands-on approach.” He has replaced the “three R’s” of education with new terms that he says are more important in the 21st century- relevance, rigor and relationships. The school is moving toward implementing performance-based incentives to reward good teachers. And because it is a K-12 school with a limited number of students, teachers can watch their classes’ progress from kindergarten to graduation. “I think our students really feel wanted and accepted,” Piercy said. “I think they feel like they can make mistakes, they can try things educationally and not be ridiculed for it, and it creates a real atmosphere of respect that is vitally important.” At the Lewis Center, parents and students are invested in their education because they have chosen to attend, rather than being guided by an impersonal bureaucracy. “Their parents understand that they are the ones in control- that they have the ability to use their feet to vote, to leave our school,” Piercy said. “We have to engage parents and students in a way that creates a customer service-oriented educational institution.” And parents have made their preference Summer 2010 5
FEATURE | LEWIS CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
clear- with three campuses and a waitlist of over 2,600, the school has its kindergarten class filled before the students are a year old. Admission is completely free, and is determined randomly through a lottery. The proof of the value of the Lewis Center’s education can be found in the success of their alumni. “This last year was our 12th graduating class here, and 100 percent graduated. Out of 96 students, 91 had been accepted to two or four year institutions and the other five had been accepted into the military, and they earned a total of $1.275 million in scholarships,” Piercy said. “We’re seeing tremendous amounts of growth in our kids.” Piercy was a park ranger and police officer before he became a teacher. He began to develop the idea for the school while working as a kindergarten teacher in the 1980s, but it took years of hard work to turn his vision into a reality. When the school’s charter was finally approved in 1997, Piercy and a few colleagues quit their teaching jobs to devote time to a school that started with few resources. “We had no jobs and no students. We took a big risk and started our own business. It was a scary time, but we believed wholeheartedly that we could be successful,” Piercy said. The school has continued to grow and serve as an example of what Piercy hopes is the future of public education in the U.S. ELT 6 Education Leaders Today
LEWIS CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH | FEATURE
Summer 2010 7
T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R C A P TA I N S O F I N D U S T RY
EDUCATION LEADERS
www.educationleaderstoday.com
1100 H Street NW Suite M Washington D.C. 20005 info@educationleaderstoday.com www.ozworldmedia.com
TODAY