Education Miracle in Bronx
We need to reduce friction more.
Ah, and how about increasing the radius of rotation to see how the speed changes .
It is a physics class of Bronx Lab School, a charter school in Bronx, New York, on January 16. And 12th graders were sitting in front of a computer in groups and studying with a roller coaster software simulation program.
Physics teacher Amy Shapiro was just helping students. Students were studying the subject by themselves like a team project. Ms. Shapiro walked around the classroom and answered questions.
The answers were only part of advices that can lead students to the next step of finding answers. She first encouraged them to think and just directed the way to go.
Did all of you use your brain today? was written on the top of the blackboard.
To the question whether students find it difficult, Ms. Shapiro said, As they have been trained this way for a long time, they like it. Students can experience a university class environment before getting into college.
Bronx is one of New Yorks run-down and dangerous areas where poor families and immigrants live. Bronx Lab School opened in 2004, however, achieved a dramatic change called, 19%→90% Miracle.
Only 19 percent, or 241, of 1,300 students graduated from Evander Childs School, a school previously located in todays Bronx Lab School building four years ago. Bronx Lab School, however, has successfully raised the graduation rate to 90 percent in the same place with students from the same family backgrounds.
All of 90 12th graders, who will graduate this June, are waiting for their acceptance letter from colleges across the United States. Children with a poor family background, who had never dreamed of graduation before, not to mention studying at a college, are making their dreams come true.
Bronx Lab School is a classic success case of education reform headed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
With his inauguration in 2002, Bloomberg evaluated about 1,200 public schools at the end of last year and gave grades from A to F. According to the result, he gave huge incentives to successful schools while ordering shutdown of schools showing poor performances.
The United States, which has been in trouble due to polarizing public schools and deteriorating student performances, is gearing up for education reform, beginning from New York. America is not alone in this battle. European countries, which have been emphasizing equal education, and Asian countries are joining the reform.
The Dong-A Ilbo will introduce a series of successful education reform efforts across the world.
kong@donga.com
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