Committee on Architecture for Education Spring 2002 Conference
C O N F E R E N C E P R O C E E D I N G S
by Sara Malone
This conference, sponsored by the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education, was held in Cambridge, MA, April 11-13, 2002.
Conference
Sessions
Lifelong Learning—What Do We Expect?
The Campus as Classroom: Issues and Opportunities
Sustaining and Promoting an Educational Facilities Design
Keynote: Lifelong Learning on a 21st-Century Campus
Technology: The Unifier in a Multidiscipline Educational Environment
Equity and Excellence-Making an Urban School System Work
Sustainability-Massachusetts Sustainable Schools Pilot Program
Tours at MIT
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
TEAL Room (Technology Enabled Active Learning)
Albert and Barrie Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center
Simmons Hall Undergraduate Dormitory
PIA Gateway Newsletter
Equity
and Excellence—Making an Urban School System Work
Bobbie D'Alessandro,
Superintendent of Schools, Cambridge, MA
As superintendent of the Cambridge School System, Bobbie D'Alessandro faces many challenges, particularly the area's high costs and the need for greater socioeconomic and racial diversity.
She spent 18 months talking to students, teachers, and parents about how the system needed to be reorganized. Following the assessment period, D'Alessandro decided to start several magnate programs, to close some schools, to do renovations, and to build new facilities.
Among the changes was the decision to merge two high schools and, within the new larger school, create a small-school environment. At the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), the 2,000 students have been divided into 5 groups of 400, thereby ensuring close interaction between the students and the adults. These five "houses" are equal based on factors such as race, income, test scores, and language needs.
The school's core goals include the skills that all students are expected to master, including an emphasis on multicultural understanding. There is a flexible approach to grouping, integrated special education, and bilingual faculty and students integrated into three schools.
The program includes:
- College and career preparation year-long seminar for seniors
- Grade 9-10 core program and team in each school
- Opportunities for integrated curriculum and projects
- Reading, writing, math, and other academic support
- Field experience-internships, community service-via outreach to institutions and industry and "inreach," or bringing outside groups into the school
- Senior project, exhibition, and portfolio
Other features of the school include community centers with couches, parent liaisons in every school, flexible doors, lots of outdoor activities, and team teaching.
D'Alessandro predicts that in the future, schools will be open 12 to 14 hours a day and will need to incorporate additional services like healthcare, etc.
Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.
