The Basic School Booklet

Introduction
"We are convinced that a new vision of elementary education is urgently required, one that presents a comprehensive, practical plan of action based on best practices that would be appropriate for every school."    Ernest L. Boyer The Basic School, 1995

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Princeton, New Jersey, released The Basic School: A Community for Learning by Ernest L. Boyer. In it, he defines the priorities for an effective elementary school: The School as Community, A Curriculum with Coherence, A Climate for Learning, and A Commitment to Character. Fitted within each of these building blocks are key components and specific programs best practices that really work.

The Basic School Network
Even before The Basic School was released, Ernest Boyer began working with elementary schools throughout the nation interested in implementing these four priorities for an effective school. The Basic School Network, as the consortia of sixteen schools is called, began with the Jackson-Keller Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas, when in 1992 it became the nation's first "Basic School."  

In 1994, twelve more elementary schools were added to the Network from throughout the country. Last summer, three more schools joined the Network. All agreed to begin to implement the concepts of the Basic School and to focus on transforming Ernest Boyer's vision into practice in their own school communities. The Network members further agreed to share their strategies with each other, communicate this vision to other schools in their area, and to participate in a national dialogue on how to implement best practices to renew elementary education.

Network Schools
The Basic School Network has a well-defined mission that contributes to its success, and gives the schools a common language. The mission of the Network is to organize a diverse cohort of schools, in a variety of locations, and with a range of expertise among teachers and administrators, according to the philosophy and practices defined in The Basic School.  

The Network schools are located in urban as well as suburban areas. A Native American tribal school, a Catholic school, and a Christian school are also Network members. Two schools occupy new buildings, one is housed in an office building, another has functioned at three separate sites over the past eighteen months while its new building is completed. Most Network schools are housed in traditional, older buildings.  

The schools also range in size from about 100 to over 700 students. Two schools have one class at each grade level, while the other schools range from two to four classes for each grade level.
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Network Partners
The Basic School Network works through a partnership of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, National Association of Elementary School Principals, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and American College Testing. This Network partnership supports each Basic School with a modest stipend for staff development and provides each school with the following:
Mentors. One mentor works with the staff at each Network school to develop long- and short-term goals, implement best practices, create integrated thematic units, problem solve, demonstrate active child-centered teaching strategies, and guide staff through the process of implementing the Basic School priorities, components, and practices. The mentors share a common language and are peers-primarily teachers, principals, and faculty at universities who have worked in or with other Basic Schools.

A University Partnership. Each Basic School is developing a mutually-beneficial relationship with a college or university in its own area for ongoing inservice support, research, and exchange of resources and information about what works in schools.

Summer Institutes. Each summer, the teaching staff and administrators of the Basic Schools gather together for instruction, discussion, and reflection on the Basic School philosophy and practice. Thus far, the institutes have been at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and Westfields Conference Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

Meetings for Administrators. Originally convened only for principals, these meetings during the school year have been opened to include superintendents. Involving all administrators has increased support for schools in the Network. Superintendents are also able to focus on bringing the model to other schools in their districts.

Communication Links. The Basic School Network is on the information superhighway. Eventually, it will link all the schools via e-mail, the Internet, and World Wide Web. Many Basic Schools already have the ability to communicate electronically with each other frequently and directly, building new relationships with those thousands of miles away, while at the same time answering immediate concerns and problems particular to implementing the Basic School.

Network director Mary Ellen Bafumo states: "The purpose of the mentors and university partners, institutes and seminars, as well as the new communication links, is to provide ongoing coaching and evaluation needed to nurture change."

To Celia Burger, former principal of the Irving B. Weber Elementary School in Iowa City, Iowa, the Basic School Network has been critical to its success as a Basic School. "We know that this progress would not have been possible without the mentoring, the network institutes, the administrator meetings, and the financial support that buys time for teachers to reflect and to participate in professional dialogue while creating curriculum and grouping patterns to fit the purpose of the Basic School," she said.

Researchers have found that it takes, in general, three to five years to implement fundamental change in schools. But already, many of the principals and teachers in the Basic School Network have noticed profound paradigm shifts in the community, curriculum, climate, and character of their schools. Not all schools are renewing themselves in the same way. But here are a few highlights of how some of the schools have adopted the four priorities of the Basic School: The School as Community, A Curriculum with Coherence, A Climate for Learning, and A Commitment to Character.
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The School as Community
In the Basic School, community begins with a shared vision. Teachers are empowered and the principal is lead teacher. The circle of community extends outward to embrace parents, who are viewed as the child's first and most important teachers.

Jackson-Keller Elementary School began its flagship journey as a Basic School by focusing on creating a community, one with a sense of purpose, in a climate that is communicative, just, disciplined, and caring, and with occasions for celebrations. To principal Alicia Thomas, "Community is the glue that holds an effective school together."

A Shared Vision. In fact, 86 percent of the teachers in the Basic School Network state their schools are "caring," and 85 percent report that the school has created an atmosphere in which parents, teachers, and administrators now feel part of a community working toward a common goal. In addition, over 85 percent of the parents in the Network surveyed recently used words such as "welcoming," "supportive," and "caring" to describe their Basic Schools.

A common vision with a common philosophy and common conversation is causing "a transformation in the quality of instructional services provided for students who attend William Perry Elementary School," said superintendent T. Lowell Lemons in Waynesboro, Virginia. "The Basic School philosophy has been reaffirming for the teaching staff while at the same time causing them to rethink how the components of their teaching practice fit together. It has created a climate of collaboration and commitment versus isolation and compliance."

Teachers as Leaders. Teachers are emerging as leaders in Network Schools. At Etna Road Elementary School in Whitehall, Ohio, teachers now regularly meet as a whole staff, "which has enhanced school community and climate and facilitated discussion and changes across grade levels, improving procedures and curriculum," according to mentor Kristina Herrera. Etna Road teachers now make basic decisions regarding meetings, inservice procedures, and budget. Kindergarten teacher Carole Bryant is released one day a week as the Basic School Coordinator.

Prairie Star Elementary School in Leawood, Kansas, and Douglass Elementary in Kansas City, Kansas, are both new to the Network. But, teachers in both schools resolved as their first order of business to find more planning time together through teaming and rearranging their grouping schedules. Because of their proximity, the two schools are supporting each other through joint inservice programs.

Some Basic Schools have changed their internal structures by creating "teaching families" to improve their total school community, including Benjamin Banneker Elementary School in Milford, Delaware, and Jackson-Keller School. "Families" connect the teachers and the students in kindergarten through grade five.

At Jackson-Keller, creating teaching families was a way to more effectively integrate the curriculum. At Benjamin Banneker, the adoption of "families" was a solution to a problem in the school. First graders and fourth graders at Benjamin Banneker had been egging each other on to act out in the cafeteria. Once teachers began teaming their classes to form a school family, each fourth grader was paired with a first-grade buddy, and the "older siblings" set the behavior standards for their younger "brothers and sisters." The family ideas then blossomed into a schoolwide program. "Everyone now takes responsibility for all students, not just their own, and there are no hard feelings when a colleague disciplines another student," teacher Sandy Baker recently told Instructor.

Principals are the lead teachers in Basic Schools. John Fries, principal of David Cox Road School for Communications and Academic Studies in Charlotte, North Carolina, recently said to the editors of Teaching K-8 when they visited his school: "In the Basic School, the principal is the lead teacher and just as in the classroom, his or her office should make others feel welcome."

Parents as Partners. In Basic School communities, parents are partners in a variety of ways. St. Ann School in Somerville, Massachusetts, once had little parent involvement in the daily life of its school. But as a Basic School, a newly-developed parent volunteer program places parents in every classroom, in the office, and in the lunchroom so that teachers can meet together for planning time. Etna Road Elementary School has expanded communication with parents and now all Etna Road staff regularly attend parent-teacher association meetings. And at Willard Model School in Norfolk, Virginia, a parent liaison coordinates all activities and parents now have lunch with their children, if they so desire, or assist teachers in the classroom.
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A Curriculum With Coherence
In the Basic School, literacy is the first and most essential goal, and language is defined broadly to include words, numbers, and the arts. Students study the various fields of knowledge, which are organized, thematically, within a framework called the "Core Commonalities." The Basic School is accountable to parents, to students, and to the community at large.

In a recent survey of teachers in the Basic School Network, 98 percent said that developing literacy skills is a key priority in their school. And 96 percent integrate literature across the curriculum. Sugar Grove Elementary School in Tipp City, Ohio, which recently instituted the teaming of grades for the first time, started Reading Buddies- several times a week older students in the schools team with younger students to read to each other. They also carry on regular pen pal correspondence between students and teachers at Public School 207 in New York City, another Network school. Etna Road established a partnership with Ohio State University and the Early Literacy Initiative to improve reading in the early years. All teachers in kindergarten, first, and second grade have been trained in the Initiative strategies.

The Centrality of Language. But in Basic Schools, mathematics and the arts are essential languages, too. Ninety-six percent of network teachers surveyed stated that literacy in their school includes not just proficiency in words, but in mathematics and the arts as well. Kristin Sonquist's classroom at the Downtown Open School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for example, uses origami to teach both art and geometry. Elsewhere, students attend plays, create their own dramas, and participate in movement exercises. The arts are threaded throughout the curriculum. For students at David Cox Road, this means historical events illustrated on timelines, the study of the geometric beauty of the city's skyline, clapping to the rhythm of a Piedmont folk song, and enacting Scottish Highland Games.

The Core Commonalities. Many of the Basic Schools have developed new integrated thematic units based on the eight human commonalities described in The Basic School: The Life Cycle, The Use of Symbols, Membership in Groups, A Sense of Time and Space, Response to the Aesthetic, Connections to Nature, Producing and Consuming, and Living with Purpose. Jackson-Keller teachers have been creating curriculum units for the commonalities for the past three years. For Response to the Aesthetic, kindergartners may explore "I Am an Artist." "I Am a Writer" and "I Am a Reader" are tied to The Use of Symbols. Second graders study "Choices, Choices" for Living with Purpose. Third graders study "Stories of the Earth" in the commonality. A Sense of Time and Space that weave the traditional academic subjects of history, geography, science, and, of course, math, writing, and the arts.

Etna Road is building integrated thematic units that spiral one grade level to the next. Danebo Elementary School in Eugene, Oregon, incorporated curriculum changes to include all eight commonalities and redesigned its curriculum to integrate academic subjects and develop skills within the framework.

Measuring Results. Efforts at aligning assessment and instruction into a coherent curriculum are central to the Basic School's mission. Basic Schools perform on standardized tests as required, but they also demonstrate achievement through authentic assessment measures-portfolios, including multimedia electronic portfolios, performance tasks, surveys of parents and teachers, and self-assessments. Some schools are using computerized assessments that match specific instructional software. In a recent survey, 81 percent of the Network teachers say they use anecdotal records, 85 percent use checklists of skill attainments, 93 percent utilize performance tasks, 71 percent are now using portfolios, 79 percent employ student-devised performances or products. Eighty-six percent state that the evaluation of student performance is directly linked to classroom lessons and activities.

When Irving B. Weber Elementary School, for example, recently studied the rain forest as part of an integrated unit on "Connections to Nature," students completed essays and multiple-choice questions, and constructed, as a class, a twenty- by nine-foot rain forest mural in three dimensions. Student guides explained the contents of the rain forest to visitors as part of their assessment.

Regular assessment and reporting to parents is important in Basic Schools, too. At David Cox Road, students now attend parent-teacher conferences, and, together, parents, teachers, and students all examine how well they are meeting the David Cox Covenant, a pledge all partners have taken to promote a child's learning. Academic standards have been established in both language and the Core Commonalities, with benchmarks to monitor student achievement. Personal qualities of student development also are evaluated carefully by teachers. David Cox Road, like other Basic Schools, is accountable to students, to parents, and to the larger community.
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A Climate For Learning
In the Basic School, every student is encouraged to become a disciplined, creative, well-motivated learner. Connections are made across the generations. Rich resources for learning, from building blocks to books, libraries to zoos are available too. The Basic School serves the whole child, acknowledging that a student's physical, social, and emotional well-being also relates to learning.

Basic Schools use a variety of grouping patterns. For example, 95 percent of the teachers in the Network have used cooperative projects and/or one-on-one tutoring sessions as one pattern for learning and 97 percent of them state they have found these to be positive experiences, according to a recent survey.

Patterns to Fit Purpose. As a Basic School, Danebo Elementary School created new patterns. It moved from a traditional kindergarten through fifth-grade elementary school to one that features multiage groupings. But in other Basic Schools, students are not just connected across the grades, they are connected across the generations. David Cox Road formed intergenerational partnerships with nearby nursing homes. Together, students and seniors sing, paint, read, and share stories. Teacher Joy Warner said, "Children learn best when they interact with others, seeing beauty in all kinds of people, and learning how to give."

Resources to Enrich. In the Basic School, books are everywhere. But so is the latest technology. David Cox Road maintains a Media Center filled with books, but students also produce a daily closed circuit news broadcast, and, with other electronic tools, connect technology to what they are learning in the classroom. In the computer lab, for example, children of all ages use computers for skill development and research, accessing a multimedia encyclopedia to explore topics they are exploring in their classes.

Some Basic Schools are farther along the information highway than others. But, according to a recent survey, seventy-five percent of the Network schools have computers in their classrooms in varying degrees. Thus, Etna Road has formed a technology committee to draft a five-year plan for technology and computer use in its school. It has begun to work with the state of Ohio and a group called School Net that assists with the wiring of all classrooms for technology.

Tools are important resources. But neighborhoods are also for learning in the Basic School. In fact, 87 percent of teachers in the Basic School Network use museums and libraries as community resources. Jackson-Keller, for instance, recently established a partnership with the San Antonio Museum of Art to augment its integrated curriculum.

Services for Children. The Basic School is committed to serving the whole child. So Network Schools have been adding to their health and social services. Jackson-Keller formed a new partnership with the local YMCA and the local health department to improve health services for children and families. Danebo offers its parents on-site day care. It also created a new social worker program in the school, and strengthened its counseling services. It opened an annual on-site immunization clinic and has hired a volunteer coordinator.
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A Commitment to Character
The Basic School is concerned with the ethical and moral dimensions of a child's life. Seven core virtues are emphasized, and are taught through the curriculum, through school climate, and through service.

After Benjamin Banneker Elementary School organized a public "values committee" of parent and community representatives, it defined its own list of values to emphasize in the curriculum and within the daily climate of the school. Meanwhile, at Etna Road, principal James Rodenmayer and his staff focus on various core virtues, one each week. Teachers integrate them into the curriculum. Other schools are embracing "service" as a means of improving character in schools.

Tiospa Zina Tribal School in Agency Village, South Dakota, is a Native American school, and focuses on character by meshing its traditional tribal and family values with the study of the eight commonalities. Students are taught to respect the earth, for example, while examining one commonality, Connections to Nature.

Willard Model School has a program that stresses excellence. The school now celebrates "E" days, which stand for "Excellent Days-no discipline referrals." Children themselves now take pride in their own behavior, stressing responsibility, respect, and honesty. Both teachers and students work to serve as role models for each other. Last year, 150 days out of 180 ended up "E" days. Willard also uses literature in its integrated thematic units, to stress character traits such as honesty and integrity.

The Basic School Network's progress can be measured by the impact it is beginning to make on programs and practices in schools. But by far its greatest achievement has been in how it is transforming, renewing, and energizing those within the school community. And Ernest Boyer's vision can be applied to virtually every elementary school in America.

Celia Burger, former principal of the Irving B. Weber Elementary School puts it this way: "Educators recognize the Basic School's comprehensive nature and depth, encompassing all aspects of the learning community. This recognition causes them to say, 'Yes, finally. It's like coming home, to have all the fragments or pieces pulled together into one model."'