It’s not about uber-teachers. It’s about students following their passions.
You know how you hate to talk about that great, inexpensive restaurant near you for fear that, in the words of Yogi Berra, “It’s too crowded. Nobody goes there anymore.”
Camden, New Jersey sits across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. It’s a tough town. If ever a city needed a success story, it is Camden.
And they have one. But it’s so good that I fear that like the secret formula in the old movies, it will fall into evil hands, become distorted and turned into a how-to power point, and, boom, a replicable model in the worst sense.
The Met School in Camden doesn’t seem to be about uber teachers, charter schools, union busting, teacher-proofed curriculum or standardized tests.
But, jeez, does it seem to work.
All 30 students who began as freshman at MetEast four years ago have graduated from high school somewhere, including a handful that have moved or transferred.
That’s a contrast to what happens in the city’s two traditional high schools.
According to state Education Department figures, nearly 1 in 7 Camden High students dropped out in the 2007-08 school year. At Woodrow Wilson High, it was almost 1 in 11. Critics say those dropout rates are understated, but still, both schools were among the 20 in the state with the highest dropout rates.
All 28 students graduating from MetEast have been accepted to at least one college.
Check it out:
Classes are built around the idea that students will learn by following their passions. Students do internships. Graduation requirements include a senior project with the aim of doing some good for the community.
And four times a year, every student makes a presentation to a panel that includes students and adults from outside the school.
That’s what put a confident Angelo Drummond put behind a lectern, explaining how he’s come to know himself better by studying daily for the SAT. “This is something I’m very proud of because I’ve never stuck with something,” he says.
Besides talking about their progress, the students also must moderate a discussion of a topic they chose. Drummond’s topic is a gang shooting that happened days earlier in Trenton.
It’s not esoteric for the audience. Drummond’s peers talk about the gang members they know.
Something good is happening in Camden. But don’t tell. Or soon everyone will want to do it.
