All I remember from the first day of my new school was the nerves. At my former job, I knew the story I wanted to tell. The storyboard of my classroom-the themes, characters, and settings-was always intentional. Even the unanticipated conflicts were folded into my narrative as learning moments.
At the start of the 2016 school year, I took a leap of faith and left the classroom to become a resource teacher and instructional coach at Stuart Academy in Louisville, Kentucky. As I observed the setting, administration, staff, and students, I found many blessings. They included the following:
And yet, with all of these resources, my school had a significant number of students who were not successful and were, in many ways, underserved. By December, I had a crisis. Never before had I personally felt so defeated with my own students, and never before had I seen so many solutions attempted with so little apparent student gains. In that moment of crisis, I went to Dr. Deborah Powers, the School Redesign Coordinator of JCPS. We spoke at length about the problems, why they were occurring, and how to fix them.
Through research, we discovered a staggeringly impactful set of statistics. My school has the 10th highest homelessness rate in Jefferson County Public Schools, the 6th highest rate of transience for middle schools in Jefferson County, and the worst year-to-year return rate for middle schools in Jefferson County. To further understand what drives our work, check out this chart. All of these numbers add up to tell one story: far too many students in Stuart Academy do not have a true, stable home.
With this in mind, I asked myself two essential questions:
From those questions, the ZONE Academy was born. The ZONE Academy, or the Zealous Opportunities for Novel Experiences Academy, set to open next year, will be a small academy of students, no larger than 20 students. All participating students, because of research stating the need to be more intentional, will have some combination of the following characteristics:
The academy structure will also realign preexisting resources at school to create more of a "home" environment at school, while also intensifying the intentional identification and utilization of community resources. The academy will implement developmentally appropriate practices that focus on 21st-century skills with an emphasis on inquiry and project-based learning to increase student engagement. And, most importantly, it will draw on the successes of the medical and social work fields regarding a case management approach.
It is that last component, the case management approach, that is the most innovative and where the biggest dividends will be paid. An unfortunate narrative in public education is that of ratios. In a school of about 650, one support staff member cannot maximize his impact. That is a ratio of 650:1. But if a small group of students is identified and intentionally approached through a strategic reallocation of time and resources, the ratio becomes much closer to 1:1 because specific issues are addressed. The idea is that the academy would only be 50% academic, while the remaining 50% would be dedicated to a non-cognitive, case-management approach to socio-emotional supports for students affected by trauma. Going again with the theme of case management, not only will we would have supports for academics, willingness to learn, course recovery, and extension (already in place at the school), but also supports for students affected by trauma as well.
As of writing this, the systems thinking portion of this academy has a solid start. There is a clear vision and direction for the ZONE Academy. There are, however, issues that require further attention. The first of these is the actual identification of students. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prevents the collection of certain data, including identifying the incarceration of a parent. As such, unless that information is collected anecdotally, there is no uniform structure to identify students with this significant need. This issue is significant. As educators, we are tasked with meeting every student at every level. Yet FERPA says that only people who are on a need-to-know basis have access to this critical information. Shouldn't teachers have access to this information in order to better serve our students, both academically and emotionally? Teachers are already trusted with information such as socioeconomic status and race. Why should we not be trusted with information on homelessness, familial incarceration, and foster system enrollment?
The other major issue to be further examined is that of research. After a thorough exploration of the research and literature base, there seems to be a little information regarding a case study approach to education. While it will be an amazing opportunity to add to this limited research base, the lack of current research results in the reality that implementing ZONE is going to be done, to a certain extent, blindly. Therefore, this is an excellent opportunity for action research and, in time, an opportunity to create a packageable, scalable structure for other schools to use.
Without big risks, big rewards cannot be realized. Undoubtedly, there is significant risk associated with the design and implementation of this new structure. That said, there is an extraordinary opportunity to positively affect a unique, underserved population. This new chapter of my school’s story will have its drama, but with ZONE, my hope is that the theme of this chapter will be that of risk, of reward, and most importantly, of an undying belief that every student will rise to greatness given the supports to do so.
At the start of the 2016 school year, I took a leap of faith and left the classroom to become a resource teacher and instructional coach at Stuart Academy in Louisville, Kentucky. As I observed the setting, administration, staff, and students, I found many blessings. They included the following:
- We are a 1-to-1 school. We have Chromebooks for every child.
- We have an instructional coach for every content area.
- We have two assistant principals whose jobs are solely instructional, not behavioral.
- We have extra security personnel.
- We have small class sizes.
- We have a dedicated instructional technology coordinator.
- We have school structures in place to take care of tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 intervention needs.
- We have a full-time mental health counselor, youth service center coordinator, and a speech pathologist.
And yet, with all of these resources, my school had a significant number of students who were not successful and were, in many ways, underserved. By December, I had a crisis. Never before had I personally felt so defeated with my own students, and never before had I seen so many solutions attempted with so little apparent student gains. In that moment of crisis, I went to Dr. Deborah Powers, the School Redesign Coordinator of JCPS. We spoke at length about the problems, why they were occurring, and how to fix them.
Through research, we discovered a staggeringly impactful set of statistics. My school has the 10th highest homelessness rate in Jefferson County Public Schools, the 6th highest rate of transience for middle schools in Jefferson County, and the worst year-to-year return rate for middle schools in Jefferson County. To further understand what drives our work, check out this chart. All of these numbers add up to tell one story: far too many students in Stuart Academy do not have a true, stable home.
With this in mind, I asked myself two essential questions:
- How do we fulfill a student's basic needs which might then provide an opportunity for them to fall in love with school again?
- Which students are most affected when it comes to not having a true home base?
From those questions, the ZONE Academy was born. The ZONE Academy, or the Zealous Opportunities for Novel Experiences Academy, set to open next year, will be a small academy of students, no larger than 20 students. All participating students, because of research stating the need to be more intentional, will have some combination of the following characteristics:
- current or former incarcerated parent(s)
- living in the foster system
- or living with a non-parental guardian
The academy structure will also realign preexisting resources at school to create more of a "home" environment at school, while also intensifying the intentional identification and utilization of community resources. The academy will implement developmentally appropriate practices that focus on 21st-century skills with an emphasis on inquiry and project-based learning to increase student engagement. And, most importantly, it will draw on the successes of the medical and social work fields regarding a case management approach.
It is that last component, the case management approach, that is the most innovative and where the biggest dividends will be paid. An unfortunate narrative in public education is that of ratios. In a school of about 650, one support staff member cannot maximize his impact. That is a ratio of 650:1. But if a small group of students is identified and intentionally approached through a strategic reallocation of time and resources, the ratio becomes much closer to 1:1 because specific issues are addressed. The idea is that the academy would only be 50% academic, while the remaining 50% would be dedicated to a non-cognitive, case-management approach to socio-emotional supports for students affected by trauma. Going again with the theme of case management, not only will we would have supports for academics, willingness to learn, course recovery, and extension (already in place at the school), but also supports for students affected by trauma as well.
As of writing this, the systems thinking portion of this academy has a solid start. There is a clear vision and direction for the ZONE Academy. There are, however, issues that require further attention. The first of these is the actual identification of students. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prevents the collection of certain data, including identifying the incarceration of a parent. As such, unless that information is collected anecdotally, there is no uniform structure to identify students with this significant need. This issue is significant. As educators, we are tasked with meeting every student at every level. Yet FERPA says that only people who are on a need-to-know basis have access to this critical information. Shouldn't teachers have access to this information in order to better serve our students, both academically and emotionally? Teachers are already trusted with information such as socioeconomic status and race. Why should we not be trusted with information on homelessness, familial incarceration, and foster system enrollment?
The other major issue to be further examined is that of research. After a thorough exploration of the research and literature base, there seems to be a little information regarding a case study approach to education. While it will be an amazing opportunity to add to this limited research base, the lack of current research results in the reality that implementing ZONE is going to be done, to a certain extent, blindly. Therefore, this is an excellent opportunity for action research and, in time, an opportunity to create a packageable, scalable structure for other schools to use.
Without big risks, big rewards cannot be realized. Undoubtedly, there is significant risk associated with the design and implementation of this new structure. That said, there is an extraordinary opportunity to positively affect a unique, underserved population. This new chapter of my school’s story will have its drama, but with ZONE, my hope is that the theme of this chapter will be that of risk, of reward, and most importantly, of an undying belief that every student will rise to greatness given the supports to do so.
Noah Klein, English teacher and soccer coach, works as an instruction coach at Stuart Academy in Louisville, KY. He is a Center for Teaching Quality Storytelling Ambassador and a member of JCPSForward. Noah also publishes his own blog, Identity in Education.