Some fear St. Paul's Open School will change too drastically in...

It was started 38 years ago by a group of moms wanting a different kind of school.

[MFB]

Schooling is not day camp. In school, children are meant to assimilate facts and figures, put them together like pieces of a puzzle and be able to use them effectively. This requires work and self-dicipline, even when the child would rather drift away and play hacky sack in the hall. These "feel good academies" try to tell us that they are educating the pupils but the tests tell a different story. It is a disservice to children to give them a diploma when they lack basic reading and math skills. These become the cashiers who cannot make change if the register does not tell them how much to give. These are children who cannot spell, other that phonetically - and who cannot tell you what the word 'phonics" means.

[SPPS Retiree]

Open School has always been viewed with skepticism since it was founded by Wayne Jennings in 1971 with assistance from Betty Lampland. In the early years District Tradesmen and substitute teachers passed back stories of what they witnessed while working at the school. Open was quickly christened the "Open Zoo" by District staff who were aghast at the chaotic atmosphere, lack of accountability, and instances uncorrected student conduct.

The first principal to exert any control was MaryKay Boyd, who worked hard to turn Open into a successful educational program. Under Boyd Open made great gains in enrollment, student conduct, and learning achievement. When Boyd left to become one of the District's Associate Superintendents the Open School began a backwards slide that has continued to this day. At times the enrollment was so low that there was talk of closing, but the program was, and is, politically popular.

It's time for the School District to examine Open School and determine if it is fulfilling the school district's educational mission and if it is the best use of educational dollars. If it is not working or is not cost effective it should be reformed or closed.

[Open School Parent]

This is our first year at Open School. My 7th grader came from one of the SPPS elementary schools with the highest test scores. She herself was identified as "Gifted and Talented" through the district's testing and indeed reads at a college level and did well on her standardized testing. She is well behaved and polite.

Open has been a wonderful learning environment for her. She enjoys school much more so now and loves learning because the teachers at Open are excellent and the classes are small. She takes one accelerated class at another larger junior high. After her first day there, she said "Mom, that behavior wouldn't have been tolerated at Open! Those kids would have been sent to the principal's office." Now a couple of months later, she still comes home with stories about student behavior at the larger school versus more positive or friendly behavior at Open.

She also noted that both schools are more ethnically diverse than her elementary school (we are white) but noticed that the kids mix at Open and self-segregate at the larger school. So far, amazingly, we have seen no evidence of cliques.

As far as I'm concerned, Open School is one of the best kept secrets in the St. Paul Public School system, and I am glad we found it. I would encourage other St. Paul parents to consider it as a viable academic and nurturing school that can work exceptionally well for many children.

[Open School Student]

Open School is more then what people think. It is a great school with different ways of giving kids their education! I came to Open as a 7th Grader and since then I have had a great time with the friends I have and the way we learn.
I have had family members, including my mom, go to Open when they are younger and yes it has changed much since then but it is still one of the best schools to conform to the students needs of education.
I like the idea of the school changing but I'm afraid that Open wont be the same as it used to be. I like the idea of all the students feeling like family with the staff and being able to have their learning needs meet. The kids get to have PSCO, special education, AP Classes, and much more. This gives all of us what we need while keeping us together and being friends!
There are many parents/adults who don't understand how good this school is for a lot of us. Test scores are just numbers of the students population in general NOT each individual student. We (students and teachers) for years have been trying our best to get the education we need and to pass tests and we have. You can't expect all the students in the world to be the most advanced students EVER, we all have our needs and problems but we still keep together and keep moving forward.
I love Open School and I hope that it'll never lose what it's always had, the love for students, teachers and families and the best education we could possibly get!

[SPPS parent]

It will be interesting to see hos Jean O'Connell and her fellow board members handle this, or don't handle it.

The unions will come into play and to make a long story short, you will still see the same old program under a new name and then this new school in name only will have five more years to fail.

Oh the DFL in St. Paul, controls everything and wonders why things aren't working.

[SPPS parent]

Not sure why I got a **** in my last post, as there were no swear words or any inappropriate words either.

[joehedlundathtml -artisan]

I attended Open School from '88 -'91 and those were by far my favorite years out of K-12th grades. What Open School does best is let students excel at what they are good at. From my first year there in 5th grade they let the students and parents decide what courses they wanted to take. With that freedom to choose my own path and not be forced to attend courses where I wouldn't do well from not being interested in the subject matter, I actually looked forward to going to school every day.
I tended to go for art and writing courses. Back then, a pen and paper role playing game called Dungeons & Dragons became popular between many of my peers. The school eventually offered a D&D course in the school library! I'm not kidding. I don't remember any teaching going on and you could basically show up and pass. I think the course was offered because that game encouraged reading and writing.
Oh yeah, the atmosphere there encouraged people to socialize with each other in many ways. There were many k-12 school events, the classes were small, and there was never any stress over grades because you are always for going to get an 'S'(satisfactory) for the courses because YOU had something to do with choosing them therefore you are interested in the subject matter.
It wasn't until 8th grade at Washington Middle School did I learn anything about cliques and fitting in with them because I never noticed that at Open School. I was a great young writer and artist at Open but lost interest in those things after leaving because no other school really offered much in those subjects.
In summary, I would recommend Open School for anyone (at least as it used to be), especially for kids who aren't interested in being mediocre at many subjects, but want to be great at one or two that they choose. By the way, I left my real name here in case anyone I met at Open wanted to contact me - had more friends there than any other school so you never know (the last part of the username is dot com).

[St Paul Parent]

You will hear testimonies about how much the Open students just loooooooove their school, but let's put them up against kids in more traditional schools, even charter schools with a less traditional curriculum. The only press I have read over the past year about Open School is how great the kids think it is, how they can play games in the hallway, how the get to socialize, etc. Yet their scores, whether they're NCLB or not, are atrocious. My sons love school, they attend 'traditional' schools, have friends of other 'colors', aren't in cliques, excel in what they enjoy, but also do well in what they don't particularly love, but hey, life is going to throw stuff at you that you don't particularly like. This type of environment only lends itself to raising kids who get participant ribbons whether they do well or not; they are more concerned about how they 'feel' about things than what they know about things; if they aren't recognized for mediocre outcomes they pout. They feel entitled to learn only what they want to learn, and not what mean old nasty society thinks they should.
I'm so glad the parents love the school. But the district has been covering for your bad outcomes for too long. It's time to suck it up and realize your school is failing in its primary goal...to educate your kids.

[just some kid]

This is so much more complicated than any flimsy 200 word comment can express.

[Open School Parent of 2]

As an Open School parent for the last five years, I have certainly heard the stories of kids playing hacky sack in the halls instead of being in class. But those days are long gone. Our kids have to be in class, on time just like at any other school. My daughter complains regularly about all of the homework she gets in her advanced placement (AP) classes, just as a teenager should

My kids are undoubtedly doing better at Open School than they were at their elementary school (which was also a good school,) both academically and socially. In a district as large as Saint Paul, I think it's important to offer a variety of school programs and environments so that parents can find one that works best for their children's interests, abilities and learning styles. Open School is just another choice among the arts and language magnets.

And I believe that the move toward Expeditionary Learning will help all of our students perform better in school and in life. While the name "Expeditionary Learning" may sound like endless field trips, that is not the case. In an "Expedition", students delve into a subject in-depth to answer questions and complete projects related to the subject. These projects involve a variety of learning areas, perhaps tying social studies to math and science or theatre with science and language. I can't wait to see what our talented teachers come up with as they begin to roll out their expeditions over the next couple of years.

[US News Best Schools]

I agree with an earier post that Open is one of the best kept secrets in St. Paul! Just because the school honors its students with a real voice in their educational plan, doesn't mean that anything goes there. I have been a community reading tutor at the school for years and have found it to be a REAL learning community where teachers and students have authentic relationships and achieve educational goals. This school was the first to realize that SMALL is better and have stuck to this model since the get go.
As with any diverse group of kids, test scores alone will not show how far they've come.
There was only one school in St. Paul recognized on last year's U.S. News and World Report's Best High Schools list: St. Paul Open School! Here's why, according to the report: All students performed better than statistically expected for the average student in the state. The school’s least-advantaged students (minority, low-income, etc.) performed better than average for similar students in the state.
They also have a stellar graduation rate. Doesn't look like this school is leaving any kids behind!

[joehedlundathtml -artisan]

US News Best Schools wrote:

I agree with an earier post that Open is one of the best kept secrets in St. Paul! Just because the school honors its students with a real voice in their educational plan, doesn't mean that anything goes there. I have been a community reading tutor at the school for years and have found it to be a REAL learning community where teachers and students have authentic relationships and achieve educational goals. This school was the first to realize that SMALL is better and have stuck to this model since the get go.
As with any diverse group of kids, test scores alone will not show how far they've come.
There was only one school in St. Paul recognized on last year's U.S. News and World Report's Best High Schools list: St. Paul Open School! Here's why, according to the report: All students performed better than statistically expected for the average student in the state. The school’s least-advantaged students (minority, low-income, etc.) performed better than average for similar students in the state.
They also have a stellar graduation rate. Doesn't look like this school is leaving any kids behind!

Agreed. I think Open School pays attention to an important factor that other schools don't look at, which is keeping students interested in continuing their education - hence the low drop-out rate. What people really have to worry about is kids dropping out of high school - which will likely lead them to living much of their life off of government checks, or end up in the corrections system. That would be the biggest tax burden on all of us.

On an unrelated note I think we should ask ourselves why we place such an importance on high school athletics, which has nothing to do with education. Open School didn't have that extra curricular bs (another thing that encourages 'cliques') which in my opinion is a real waste of tax payer money.

[John Buegle]

I wonder what the research results about Expeditionary Learning models are? Only 1 model has been tested and proven to the tune of 750 million dollars- DI, or Direct Instruction... anything else at this point is a waste of time and money. Researched, not "researched based" curriculums need to be adopted in St. Paul

[Small by design]

The person who posted as SPPS retiree does not have their facts right. Open School has not been in jeopardy of closing. It has been a small school by design since its inception. In fact, Open School used to be located in the Linwood Building, but had to move because it outgrew the school. In a time of declining enrollment, Open's numbers have consistently been above district projections, including this year.

Regarding NCLB, last year Open School made Adequate Yearly Progress in all five of the areas lacking the in previous year. This is an amazing accomplishment. However, there is one new subgroup did not make AYP last year. Open School, although widely misunderstood, cannot be categorized as failing its students by any stretch of the imagination. That is, unless you are willing to label all of the hundreds of MN schools not making AYP as failing, including the school with the highest test scores in the state: Edina High School.

[Some experience]

All I know is back when i was in public high school (1975)we got to take a trip to Gary IN as part of a parternship with the Open School.
We were to study the culture and experience what it is like to be a minority. It was great, the place we stayed at was right across from a whore house so we could watch the hookers all night, the teachers sat and smoked cigs with us and one even slept nude as that was 'natural'. Lets get that going in the public schools -

[Jane Doe]

I remember when my sisters went to Open School in the early 1980's. My oldest sister went to school to hang out with her friends and go to the "smoking area" of the school. All my sister really had to do was "just show up". My younger sister had a developmental delay and she failed miserably at Open and was held back a year. Given the demographics at Open it is fair to say the "at your own pace", free-spirited style at Open is obsolete. You cannot create this atmosphere to students who are not proficient in English and/or need special ed students. But let's face facts: Kids LIKE structure; they thrive at having rules, routines, and expectations placed for them.

[Staggering ignorance]

Open School does not have an open campus. You can't just leave. You can't smoke there. You can't just hang out. They have classes, just like everywhere else -- including many AP classes. There is routine, structure, sequenced learning. Teachers are passionate about their work with students. Because it is such a small school, teachers have a much better handle on how and what their students are doing. Student-centered does not mean free for all -- it means giving students a voice in their education -- one that they have to earn -- and teaching them how they learn best. This model of school works for all who are motivated -- including ELL and special education students.
It is easy to slam this great school based on things you have heard from more than 3 decades ago, but why don't you see for yourself? Schedule a tour and learn about the program!

[9to5r]

What were the open schools' test scores in relation to national standards? Were they exceptional in one area and lacking in another or what? Too generalized of an article.