SRN LEADS/Stanford University: School Redesign Network — Leadership, Equity & Accountability in Districts & Schools

In the News

Seniors' real-world test
At capital-area high schools, students in their final year are delivering senior projects: A new graduation requirement that shows off and affirms their skills

Sacramento Bee
May 25, 2007
By Laurel Rosenhall - Bee Staff Writer

 

A plate of sushi. A video about hearing aids. A stint teaching Sunday school. These are not the things on which high school graduation usually depends.

As more schools require that students complete a complex project during their senior year, the final days of high school involve more than taking exams and signing yearbooks. Students are making presentations that their diplomas depend on, incorporating research and field work on subjects of their choice -- from diabetes to ballroom dancing to Brazilian jujitsu.

Those were some of the projects seniors at Rosemont High School presented this week as they fulfilled the newest graduation requirement in the Sacramento City Unified School District.

Senior projects are becoming popular around the region and the country. Some educators see their creative and individualized nature as an antidote to all the standardized testing now required in schools. Others embrace the projects as a way to make the last year of school more relevant to students as they head into the adult world.

"All throughout high school there's always that question: What do you want to be when you grow up?" Juliana Ljubisavljevic said as she explained why she chose to do her senior project on hearing loss.

Interested in a health care career, the 18-year-old Rosemont student said she wanted to learn more about audiology. So she sat in on hearing tests, filmed people getting fitted for hearing aids and interviewed a woman who runs a hearing aid center.

"I learned that I would never want to be an audiologist," Ljubisavljevic said. "And I'm freaked out by earwax."

That's all right, educators say, because the point of the senior project isn't for students to find a job. It's to get them thinking and working in a more sophisticated way -- synthesizing information, looking at an issue from multiple perspectives, learning to make a compelling presentation.

Daniel Na, for example, wrote a research paper on the history of sushi -- it originated in China and came to Japan in the seventh century. The Rosemont High student shadowed a professional sushi chef for several weeks and learned how to make three different types of rolls.

In his presentation this week, he showed a DVD of himself making sushi, explaining what his mentor taught him about each step of the process -- cooling the rice with a fan, spreading it evenly across the seaweed with wet fingers, standing at a 45-degree angle when slicing the roll with a sharp knife.

Na offered the panel of judges -- two teachers and a parent volunteer -- a colorful plate of sushi he had made.

"Mmmm, perfect," teacher Joyce Lucich said as she bit into a roll.

Then came the questioning, which -- like a university student defending a thesis -- is another key part of the senior project.

Lucich asked if Na's high school career had prepared him to succeed on the senior project.

He said school had prepared him well for the research part.

"But ... I didn't do that much hands-on in my high school life, so this was hard," he said. "I had to get up and do something with my hands."

Researchers say such projects are just what's needed to keep students in school.

"When kids engage in work that's meaningful to them, where they're developing a product that's shared, it makes school worth going to," said Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford education professor who has studied how projects shape teaching and learning.

"They're really not interested in coming to school for a multiple choice test."

Sacramento City Unified added the project requirement as part of its broader effort to improve secondary education, said Assistant Superintendent Mary Shelton.

"The thought behind it was that our seniors needed to have certain skills -- presentation skills, being able to stand in front of a group and present research," she said.

"Whether they're going to college or career preparation or careers, they're all skills they will need."

Graduates of the Natomas Unified School District also must complete a senior project. In the Elk Grove and San Juan school districts, not all campuses require them.

Grant Joint Union High School District Superintendent Larry Buchanan said adding another graduation requirement would keep some students from getting diplomas. So his district hasn't joined the senior project trend.

Advocates for project-based learning are trying to change Buchanan's mind. A Bay Area group called the Coalition of Essential Schools designated May as "National Exhibition Month." They are promoting schools around the country that require students to do complex projects.

"It's not a new fad," said Brett Bradshaw, the organization's spokesman. Some states, such as North Carolina and Washington, require all public school grads to complete senior projects, he said.

"We're trying to swing the pendulum back a little bit so that people understand there are a number of measures you can use to evaluate how much students have learned and how well students are doing."

Students at The Met, a Sacramento City charter school, are familiar with the routine. They perform exhibitions every semester to demonstrate what they've learned and to become comfortable with public speaking.

When it comes to their senior project, students have to kick it up a few notches: They must create something of service to the community of their choice.

"We take this skill they've developed in doing projects and we push it," said Principal Beth Kay. "Now you've got to show us you can put it together in a real place, in the real world, and you can make something happen."

Avery Milbrodt made something happen here in Sacramento and across the world. For her senior project at The Met, Milbrodt, 18, organized a benefit concert to raise money for a health clinic in Vietnam.

Working with a fellow student, she recruited the bands, found a performance venue, organized an art auction and got food and sodas to sell. The benefit raised $900 to buy medicines for a health clinic in Vietnam.

And it helped Milbrodt forge a path for her future.

"I figured out what I want to do with my life," she said. "I want to open up an arts and cultural center. I want to teach art and continue doing benefits for anyone that needs help."

 

Transforming education and community

Professional basketball player and community activist Kevin Johnson poses with students from his St. HOPE program, which currently educates around 2000 students in the Sacramento area. The program also includes a cultural center and an after-school facility.

 

Photo: Shams Shaikh (Stanford Daily)

Learn more about the lecture