Designing and Implementing New 21st Century Secondary Schools

Preconference Workshop and Conference Presentations
at Alan November's
Building Learning Communities 2004 Conference
July 19-22, 2004
Boston, MA

Bob Pearlman, Kathi Mullin, Joe Battaglia

Are you, your colleagues, and community designing a new 21st Century secondary school or converting an existing school to one that prepares today's kids for to be the citizens and knowledge workers of the twenty-first century? Here are the resources that Bob Pearlman, Kathi Mullin, and Joe Battaglia shared with the participants at the Building Learning Communities 2004 Conference, one of the premier international conferences on school innovation. Particpants in this workshop came from Portland (OR), San Diego, England, Northern Island, and from across the United States.

1. Bob's presentations (Note: these are very large files, 3-5 MB-- download with a high speed connection).

• Presentation 1: Designing the New 21st Century Secondary Schools [Powerpoint 2000 file, 4.9 MB]
• Presentation 2: Getting and Assessing 21st Century Knowledge and Skills [Powerpoint 2000 file, 4.3 MB]
• Pre-Conference Workshop Presentation: Designing the New 21st Century Secondary Schools [Powerpoint 2000 file, 3.7 MB]

2. Kathi's presentation and materials:

• "Driving District Reform: Converting Large High Schools into Small, Autonomous Schools", [Powerpoint 2000 file, 212 KB]
• REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS for Small High Schools, May 21, 2004 (Word Document) and RFP Areas of Work (Word Document)
• Office of High School Renewal Bulletin Board (Key documents of the Boston High School Renewal Initiative)

3. Joe's presentation: Big Picture Schools: Educational, Facilities, and Technical Design [Powerpoint 2000 file, 65 KB]

4. Workshop Announcement, Agenda, Design Specifications Graphic, Design Specifications Chart, and Design Exercise.

5. New Small High Schools and Small Learning Communities. Includes key links and articles by Bob Pearlman on designing new secondary schools.

6. Key links on the MET and the Big Picture Company, the designer of the MET:

• A background to the Philosophy of the MET
• Schools Facility Design (featuring the 6 minute video “Building Knowledge”)
• Elliot Washor’s Doctoral Thesis about Innovative Pedagogy and Facilities Development
• Articles by Elliot Washor on designing new secondary schools
• The Big Picture Company web site

7. Boston's High School Renewal web Site

8. The New Tech High Learning System. The NTHS Learning System comprises the school's curriculum, standards, assessment tools, and reporting tools, all online on a common technology platform.

9. Bob's article on "The Role of Technology and Facilities in Redesigning the American High School" (PDF), Winter 2002.

10. Pre-conference Workshop by Bob Pearlman and Elliot Washor at the 2003 Building Learning Communities 2004 Conference.

11. Emails:

• Bob Pearlman: bobpearlman@mindspring.com
• Kathi Mullin: kmullin@boston.k12.ma.us
• Joe Battaglia: jbattaglia@bigpicture.org