Distinguisher   Categories

1

Learning In the Real World: LTIs

2

One Student At A Time: Personalization

3

Authentic Assessment

4

School Organization

5

Advisory Structure

6

School Culture

7

Leadership

8

Parent/Family Engagement  -  Adult Support

9

School College Partnership – College Preparation

10

Professional Development

Learning in the Real World

1

Distinguisher Description

The most important element of the education at a Big Picture School is that students learn in the real world. The main component of every student’s education is the LTI (Learning Through Internship). In this minimum 10-12 hour, two-day-a-week internship with a mentor, an expert in the field of the student’s interest, the students complete authentic projects (projects at internship sites that benefit the student and the mentor) with deep investigations. These projects are the main route to academic growth and investigation in the curriculum. These authentic projects are connected to the student’s interests and needs and are “real to” or meet the needs of the mentors.  Importantly, they are evaluated against professional standards of the workplace. Students have an LTI each year they are in school, unless in 12th grade their senior thesis project (the large, culminating independent real world project) encompasses the LTI.

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1.       LTIs as main focus of student work for 10-12 hours a week in two days
2.       Mentors who are experts in their respective fields
3.       Authentic projects at internships (as the main core of student work) which delve into academic investigations
4.       Senior thesis projects ( with senior thesis committees)
5.       LTI coordinator

1.   Advisor meetings with mentor/mentors (at least once a month)
2.   Experiential learning, trips
3.   Summer learning –school helps students find summer learning opportunities
4.   Service learning
5.   Mentor training/ mentor celebration
6.   Exposure to diversity of learning experiences

1) Study abroad
2) Speaking engagements
3) Speaking at conferences

Data Points:

One Student At A Time: Personalization

2

Distinguisher Description

Personalization expands beyond “academic” work and involves looking at a student holistically. Learning at a Big Picture School is not constrained by the school day or the school year.  Students are encouraged to pursue their interests and grow academically, and given credit for activities outside of the school day and the school year. A student’s education is personalized both in an academic component (a content and investigation focus) and process.

There are two essential academic components to Personalization.  The first, the Learning Plan, is the key to a vigorous, relevant education in a Big Picture School. The Learning Plan is created and updated each quarter (or trimester) with the learning team (the student, parent, advisor, and whenever possible, mentor) in a Learning Plan Meeting. The second academic component, the Big Picture Learning Goals, is essential to helping students achieve depth and quality in their learning.  The five learning goals incorporate aspects of traditional content areas while allowing for the personalization required in a one student at a time environment. Additionally, there are four sets of grade level goals (101-401) which help students to set goals in areas including literacy, leadership, and personal qualities. Overall, the focus and depth of investigation in the Big Picture Learning Goals based on the student’s individual interests, talents, and needs.

In looking at the process of a student’s education; the curriculum, learning environment, use of time during the school day, choice of workshops or college class, and the methods of meeting the learning goals. Students with IEPs follow the same process, personalized to their needs. In addition, personalization involves “doing what’s best for kids”, pushing and pulling at the right time, not dictating or punishing, but problem solving and mediating. Overall, advisor’s job is to know students well and provide the right measure of challenge and support for each student in each activity to promote growth.   Students are responsible to follow their interests and passions in the real world and in their project work.

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1. Individual Learning Plans created at the beginning of each quarter (or trimester) at a meeting of the students learning plan team.
2. A personalized Learning Plan focuses on individual students interests, passions, talents, and needs
3. Understanding and pursuit of BP Learning Goals
4. Big Picture grade level expectations (101, 201, 301, 401)
5. Students are responsible to follow their interests

1.    Personalized learning environment
2.    Independent work time
3.    Academic rigor
4.    Mediation
5.    Work with colleges to provide a choice of college classes for students
6.    One-on-one meetings with advisors
7.    Strong daily use of Supercalendar
8.    Summer Learning Plan

1) Summer Infusion, pre –training  For 9th Grade
2) Student-run workshops
3) Adult run workshops to meet interests or needs of students
4) Each student takes at least one college class before they graduate
5) After school activities

Data Points:

Authentic Assessment

3

Distinguisher Description

Learning at a Big Picture School is a process that is substantiated with quality products.  There are high expectations for each student at Big Picture Schools.  The criteria of assessment are individualized to the student and the real world standards of a project (as gauged by the mentor). The learning plan determines the individual standards to which the student is help accountable. This is informed by knowledge of the student’s strengths and weaknesses, the specific goal attempted, and expert opinions from the learning team (mentor, advisor, student and parent) about the what quality work means for that student in that project.

Students engaged in this process at Big Picture Schools are not assessed by tests and are not given grades.  They are evaluated by a process defined during the Learning Plan Meeting against standards that are individualized, clear, and vigorous. The assessments at a Big Picture School include public exhibitions (one per quarter or trimester) that track growth, progress, and quality work in the learning plan and academic depth in the Learning Goals), weekly check-in meetings with advisors, weekly journals, yearly presentation portfolios, and transcripts (to translate the information in a way colleges can understand).  Gateways for students’ progress are between 10th and 11th grade and at graduation. 

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

The combination and degree of:
1.       Quarterly exhibitions (or trimester)
2.       Portfolios (yearly and gateway)
3.       Narrative assessments (self and advisor) each quarter (or trimester)
4.       Real world standards for assessment guidelines
5.       Big Picture 101, 201, 301, 401

1. No grades; but the student’s work is documented by narratives, exhibitions, portfolios and is translated in a BP transcript.
2. Weekly individual check-ins (advisor and student)
3. Journal to reflect on learning at least 3 times per week
4. Gateway to Senior Institute (school wide focus)
5. Graduation readiness
6. Senior Institute autobiographies (75 to 100 pages for seniors as a graduation requirement).
7. Depth and quality of work
8. Student work is connected to learning goals.
9. Parents and mentors attend exhibitions

1.  Benchmarks for Gateway to Senior Institute.
2.  Using questions to build habits of mind.
3.  Frequent updates – “How’s ___ Doing?” form
4.  Mid-quarter check-ins or exhibitions.
5.  Graduation Readiness Advisory Board

Data Points:

School Organization

4

Distinguisher Description

Big Picture Schools use time, people, facilities/spade, and other resources in unique ways.

Big Picture Schools are organized around a culture of collaboration and communication that includes staff and school meetings, writing in the TGIF, scheduling school functions and events, and retreats. Each school is a small community of learning and is also part of a system of small schools in their locale and part of the network of Big Picture Schools. School facilities are small, personalized and are organized to facilitate the Big Picture programmatic design. This is reflected in the outside-in, inside-out design of the schools where real world learning occurs in the community and is also occurring in the schools.  The design necessitates an interdependence between the school and the community.

The organizing principle around Big Picture Schools is to educate one student at a time. In order to carry out our design each school is no more than 136 students, with no more than 17 students (1:15 is strongly recommended) in an advisory. Students work in one-on-one and small group learning environments around their interests and needs both in and outside of school doing authentic work.

A Big Picture School cannot exist in a vacuum outside of the community. The core of the students’ education is the LTI. As a result, the community plays an integral role in the educational success of the school.

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1.    Small school (no more than 136 in a building).
2.    School divided into small advisories (17 students maximum)
3.    Strong culture of communication
4.    Learning Through Internships in the community
5.    An intense degree of deep participation in and collaboration with the community and use of external resources

1.       Weekly staff meetings
2.       A written weekly reflection of staff (TGIF)
3.       Consistent retreats for professional development
4.       Community as resource to school
5.       School as resource to the community
6.       Service learning
7.       LTI Coordinator (at least part time in year 1 and full time after that)

1.       Advisories are 1:15 or less
2.       Build unique facilities
3.       Facilities which underscore BP programmatic design
4.       Opening facility to the community.
5.       Adult education
6.       School works with the community to be open 8-5 and provide ‘after school’ resources for students.
7.       Retreats one day per month.
8.       Shared use of facilities with community based organizations.
9.       School is open to be used by the community
10.   Office manager

Data Points:

Advisory Structure

5

Distinguisher Description

The advisory structure is the core organizational and relational structure of a Big Picture School. It is the heart and soul of the school and is often described as the “home” and “second family” by students. All BP schools have a small number of students (goal of 15) with one advisor for a minimum of two years (preferably four). 

The advisor’s role is to manage the student’s LTIs and individual, personalized Learning Plans. To do this, the advisor must get to know and build relationships with each student and his or her family well (this includes home visits and one-on-one meetings with each student). Though certified in one area, the advisor does not “teach” his or her subject area; rather he or she draws on many disciplines to meet the needs of each student, their projects, and the advisory activities.  It is the advisors job to help students explore and pursue the student’s identified interest(s) and develop deep projects within these interest areas. 

The advisor also organizes the “advisory time” (the half-hour to hour-long meetings of the group) in the morning and the afternoon to meet the needs of the students.  He or she facilitates the group activities that are designed to expose students to new ideas and concepts, provide academic learning opportunities, create a group identity and group process, and build a sense of belonging and trust in school and the educational process.

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1. Small advisory group with multi-year relationship with one adult that has a strong identity and use for students.
2. Advisor is sole manager of each student’s learning team and facilitator of the learning plan.
3. Advisors focus on building relationships with individual students
4. Advisory time occurs twice daily (on non-LTI days), outside of student independent work.

For Advisory Group
1. Small class size
2. Multi-year relationship with students
3. Knowing families/ family home visits
4. Bonding trips/relationship building (group)
5. One on one time – building relationships with individual students
6. Advisories should be setup for maximum diversity of gender, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic background, etc.

For Advisory Time
7. Structured group activities that include academic explorations, critiques, teambuilding, creating group identity and process, etc.)
8. Focus on Respect and responsibility
9. Cross fertilization of ideas among kids
10.   Teach or train in Big Picture methods
11.   Use of BP materials
12.   Planning and use of individual work time and setting priorities

1.       Advisory ratio 1:15 or less
2.       Socratic Seminars
3.       Advisory critique of student work

Data Points:

School Culture

6

Distinguisher Description

School culture is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. One of the things that is striking about Big Picture Schools is the ease with students interact with adults. There is culture of trust, respect and equality between students and adults, as well among themselves. Students are encouraged to take leadership roles in the school and student voice is valued in decision making processes.

For the adults in Big Picture Schools, team work is a defining aspect of the culture.  Principals create regular opportunities for professional development and life-long learning.  Staff members also reflect regularly and share ideas through a weekly publication called TGIF.  Additionally, staff members meet regularly in a variety of configurations (whole staff, grade level, buddies, etc.).

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1.       Intense focus on school culture (an end in itself) and creating a strong community
2.       Students are comfortable with adults
3.       Staff deep trust in students and students trust in staff
4.       Adults – strong sense of teamwork
5.       Weekly written reflection for school (TGIF)

1.      New student orientation event
2.       Pick-Me-Ups
3.       Professional development/life-long learning
4.       Informal, friendly, welcoming feel
5.       Strong team collaboration
6.       The school develops its own rituals and celebrations
7.       School as a community
8.       Problem solving/mediation for typical “discipline” issues.
9.       Grade-level meetings
10.   Inter-grade & across grade student groupings
11.   Democratic governance – student voice, advisor voice
12.   Student leadership
13.   Culture of reflection and reflective practice
14.   Diversity recognized and celebrated
15.   Fun
16.   Expectations of: High attendance rate (in the mid to high 90’s), High graduation rate, high college acceptance rate, low dropout rate.

1.       Advisory ratio 1:15 or less
2.       Town Meetings
3.       International Night
4.       Family skills and talent night
5.       Advisor book groups

Data Points:

Leadership

7

Distinguisher Description

In Big Picture Schools, leadership is shared and spread between a strong, visionary principal and a dedicated, responsible team of advisors. The school is a collaborative community with clearly drawn lines for decision making.

Principal Leadership:
All BP principals, either TYBO or PRN at Met, will be trained by Big Picture staff through immersion. They are trained around BP principal leadership criteria as delineated in our materials through mentor/intern relationships with other Big Picture principals and coaches including: human relations and communication, moral courage, vision, flexibility and efficiency, life-long love of learning and leading, and public support. The principals participate in on-going year-round professional development by BP and are supported in the start-up years of operation by Big Picture. They are part of and actively participate in the Big Picture network of schools nationally and in their locale. Principals are both the BP cultural/ instructional leaders and the CEOs/entrepreneurs for their schools. They create and facilitate advisory boards. They are the liaisons to districts, Big Picture, and staff. Overall, the success of the whole school and the advisors in particular is the responsibility of the principal.

Advisor Leadership:
All advisors are trained by Big Picture-trained principals and supported, through the principal, with BP materials and coaching. Advisors take great responsibility in the day-to-day organization of the school, the successful managing of the school, successful implementation of the curriculum and generally the success of students in the school.  In addition to formal professional development, advisors learn from each other on a daily basis; they serve as mentors and leaders to one another.  Each year they talk about what they taught, passing down information from year to year. Much of the learning about how to be an advisor is done by interactions and the collegial relationship with other advisors which results as a collaboration and a passing on of knowledge

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1.       Principals trained by Big Picture with mentor/intern relationship
2.       Essential leadership qualities of distinguished principals.
3.       To a very intense degree, there is a uniquely powerful learning community among advisors.

Role of the Principal
1.       The principal has two distinct and important roles: outside the school and inside the school.
2.       Outside the school, the principal is the visible spokesperson for the school, the fundraiser, the political and community networker.
3.       Inside the school, the principal is the manager of a team of advisors, an instructional leader.
4.       Principal organizes, plans, and runs consistent staff development at school – staff meetings and retreats
5.       Principal supervises staff and provides regular feedback.
6.       Yearly evaluations of staff (based on the staffs learning plans).
7.       Principal drives the creation and implementation of school learning plan.
8.       Principal creates and facilitates advisory board.

Role of the Advisor
1.       Advisors share school responsibilities with principal
2.       Advisors mentor other advisors by passing down information formally and informally

1.       Seeking mentors outside of our network
2.       Principals each have a learning plan

Data Points:

Parent/
Family Engagement
Adult Support

8

Distinguisher Description

Parents and families are an essential element of a Big Picture School from start up through everyday operation. They feel welcome and valued at a Big Picture school.

Families are engaged around each one of their children by participating in Learning Plan meetings and exhibitions. Families are resources at these meetings for knowledge about their children as well as supporting school community by suggesting mentoring possibilities and using their assets in ways that support the school. They play an active role in the school community that includes political issues, social gatherings, and supporting new parents and students. They serve on committees and/or the governing board. A conscious effort is made to educate parents to play a proactive role in the school life of their children through high school and on to college.

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1.       To a very intense degree, families are educated and asked to play an active role in the school life of their children. 
2.       To a very intense degree, Parental voice is encouraged and sought out.
3.       Families attend and participate in Learning Plan meetings and exhibitions each quarter (or trimester)

1. Interview and contract with parents and families
2. Minimum of 8 visits to school
3. Families are educated to play a proactive role in the college process
4. Families play important and proactive role to garner and show political and community support for the school

1.       A governing body for parents’ participation.
2.       Families participate as resources for: PMU, international night, family skills and talent night, transportation and chaperoning duties.
3.       Parents testify to the legislature and school board about the school

Data Points:

School-College Partnership/ College Prep

9

Distinguisher Description

Big Picture Schools show deep faith in all students and work to make college an opportunity for all of their students in order to provide options for them in life. They plan backwards to maximize these opportunities: challenging individual learning plans, visits to colleges, educating families about the process, and building relationships with local colleges.

All students must take college entrance exams and apply to college or post-secondary school programs. In addition, Big Picture schools continue to follow and support their students even when they become alumni. Big Picture schools require and help students to create post-high school plans.

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1.       All students in the school take the college entrance exam
2.       All students apply to college

1.       College applications (at least three per student)
2.       College Portfolio
3.       Resume
4.       College Essays
5.       Alternative transcript
6.       Continue relationships with alumni
7.       Each student has a post high school plan
8.       College visits
9.       Family involvement
10.   College counselor (part time or full time depending on the number of BP schools in your area)
11.   Building relationships with local colleges

1) College fair
2) Financial aid night
3) Transition support

Data Points:

Professional Development

10

Distinguisher Description

Professional development for advisors is done at each and every school by principals, other staff at the school and by BP staff and coaches at staff meetings and retreats. Professional development is on-going both at the school and within the Big Picture network. Advisors participate in all BP professional development activities including our annual Big Bang conference, our TV workshops, and other Big Picture events at their locale.

Note: We are working on how to disseminate best practices coming from any BP school but have not arrived at the way to do this yet. Our current idea is that all new practices get reviewed by a team composed of people from all BP schools once a year. We could also use BPO to support this type of work.

Required Elements

Recommended Elements

Distinguishers

Essential Elements

1.       To a very intense degree, formal professional development for advisors provided by principals, school staff, consultants, and BP staff.
2.       Regularly scheduled retreats

1.       Create a culture of reading
2.       Speaking at and attending conferences.
3.       Strong emphasis on teaming and collaboration of advisors
4.       Summer training and continued training for advisors.

1) Staff looks for mentors to learn from outside of the school
2) Principals network to talk through issues.
3) Summer Infusion for students

Data Points: