SXSWedu: Weingarten and Ravitch on Schools
Highlights from the education conference
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER, FRI., MARCH 7, 2014
Diane Ravitch
PHOTO BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
SXSWedu – the education intro to the high festival season – kicked off on Monday, March 3, but American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingartengot an early start. Prior to her formal panel on the value of community schools, she had a chance to see in action two of the Austin Independent School District's most collaborative campuses. Accompanied by AISD trustees Gina Hinojosa and Lori Moya, Education Austin President Ken Zarifis, and Council MemberMike Martinez, she visited Webb Middle School in North Austin and Travis Heights Elementary in South Austin. Both campuses have been through major changes, but under very different conditions. Last decade, Webb was under a state threat of repurposing before the neighborhood rallied to save its school, while Travis Heights is Austin's first "in-district" charter.
The AFT has a particular connection to Travis Heights: It was a union grant that provided seed money to enable the community to reshape its campus while remaining in the district. In a series of classroom visits, Weingarten saw the results of that newly won latitude, including new analytic tools in "blended learning," using game-based computer education to supplement and guide classroom instruction on a child-by-child basis. She was particularly impressed by project-based service learning. Fifth graders explained how they had taken a survey of bullying on campus to understand its roots, while second-grade students discussed how, as part of their lessons on conservation, they will carry a bucket of water nearly four miles – a common experience for people in parts of the developing world. The result, Weingarten told the school's Thunderboard parent/teacher advisory group, was a testament to "the underlying notion of caring and relationship building."
There was much discussion of how to use the Travis Heights model elsewhere in Austin.