Middleton High School sophomore Deonte Taylor visits with Middleton Alternative Senior High School faculty members Jason Pertzborn and Bryn Orum on Thursday. The teachers were tending an informational booth for Clark Street Community School, which will focus on project-based learning when it opens next fall.
Middleton's newest charter school next fall won't have any bells, traditional subject-based classes or rigid daily schedules.
Instead, about 120 high school students at Clark Street Community School will experience "project-based learning" in which they'll create their own schedules, study topics that pique their interest, and venture out into the community for hands-on learning opportunities.
A growing number of charter schools in Wisconsin are trying project-based learning, in which students solve problems related to their interests, similar to what they might experience in a modern workplace.
"Those 21st century problem-solving skills are what they hopefully will be teaching here," said Jerry Sielaff, president of the charter school's governing board.
People are also reading…
The concept can be found in Appleton, Janesville and at Badger Rock Middle School in Madison, but Clark Street will be the first project-based high school in Dane County, according to Sarah Toce, executive director of the Wisconsin Charter Schools Association.
Clark Street will replace Middleton Alternative Senior High School (MASH), one of the first charter schools that opened in the state in 1995. The new charter school will keep the same staff and building as MASH, principal Jill Gurtner said.
The Middleton-Cross Plains School District was interested in the switch because of a recent emphasis on integrating special education and at-risk students into regular classrooms, Gurtner said.
MASH had developed a reputation for serving only at-risk students, but Clark Street is expected to draw both students who struggle in regular classrooms because of learning disabilities like attention deficit disorder, and advanced students bored by traditional lectures and homework.
The school's model appealed to Jacob Stumpf, an 8th grader at Glacier Creek Middle School, who designs website templates in his free time. During an open house Saturday, Stumpf affixed a sticky note with the words "graphic design" on a chalkboard asking attendees, "What's your idea?"
"I don't learn by textbooks or sitting in class," Stumpf said. "I learn by hands on."
During the open house, Clark Street staff explained how MASH tried to incorporate project-based elements into their instruction, but found the structured school day to be an impediment. One group of students came up with ways to reduce energy usage at the building, but had to find time between classes to work on the project.
There are several variations of project-based learning in Wisconsin. Some have teachers plan the school day, but Clark Street will let students develop projects with help from their parents and teachers, who will act as advisers.
As one example of a project, a student might ride her bike to school every day, calculate the environmental benefits of not driving and write an article about it for a community newspaper, English teacher Bryn Orum said.
As students work on projects, they develop problem-solving skills, learn related math, science, language arts and social studies lessons, and figure out which career suits their interests.
"We hope to bring students in and say, 'What are your plans? What do you hope to learn?'" Orum said.
The clock is ticking on Wisconsin's K-12 COVID relief funds. How are schools spending the money?
