Intaka Island staff led the LEAP students as they took water samples, analysed organisms with microscopes, identified birds and other wildlife, observed recycling efforts on the island, learned about water filtration systems, and acted out plays that the students wrote about birds living on the island.

“We have a Code of Conduct that we follow at LEAP,” said Maths teacher Mona Ewees. “These are our shared values in the school. One of them is to ‘Care for Our World’. Intaka Island is a great place for us to teach our students how they can start caring for our world right here in Cape Town.”

The LEAP Science & Maths School is a high-achieving school for township students from grades 9 to 12. With two campuses in Cape Town, LEAP serves students from Langa, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha and Crossroads. The schools provide student-centred, maths and science-focused education to promising students with a focus on enabling self-awareness and ensuring optimal academic results.

Last year LEAP boasted a 94% Matric Pass rate. LEAP uses an extended school day and students are in classes until 17h15 every day. Extra classes are run on Saturday and during holiday periods.

“At LEAP we try to use every single chance we can to gain more teaching time,” said English teacher Geordie Brackin. “During holiday periods, we run enrichment camps so our students have access to important out-of-the-classroom learning opportunities. Intaka Island was perfect for us because of its focus on environmental education, sustainability and wildlife preservation. The students were able to learn in a way that was very real for them.”

“I left Intaka Island knowing a lot more about birds and plants than when I arrived,” said Grade 9 student Khanyisa Mpemba. “I loved learning about the different birds like the Red-Knobbed Coot and the Egyptian Goose. The Egyptian Goose stays with one partner for their whole life, which means they don’t cheat. In the minds of the Egyptian Goose it is ‘till death do us part’.”

Because LEAP is a low-fee independent school, it relies on fundraising from private donors to pay for the majority of a student’s fees. Intaka Island generously provided program support and field rangers to guide the students through each of the four science activity stations.

“Our students had an unforgettable educational experience at Intaka,” said Brackin. “They are already asking about coming back next year!”

“I want to say thank you to the entire staff at Intaka Island,” said Grade 9 student Thuthula Luke. “We learned so many things about nature in our time here. You made us feel so welcome. I can honestly say I felt like I belonged here.”

Intaka – which means bird in Xhosa, is a 16ha wetland and bird sanctuary situated just 7km north of the Cape Town CBD.  The wetland is an example of nature conservation and property development co-existing in harmony. Find out more at www.intaka.co.za

The successful candidate must be willing to be an active participant within a truly transforming education framework where openness, honesty and sharing are core values.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Teaching english
• Curriculum Development
• Aligning the English curriculum across the LEAP schools

• Ability to work independently as well as in a team
• Experience teaching high school English
• Relevant English qualification
• Curriculum development experience
• Strong sense of social responsibility

To apply, please email Raeesa Mohamed at recruitment3@leapschool.org.za a letter of application stating why you consider that you meet the requirements for this position and a full CV which includes the names and telephone numbers of three contactable referees.

Please note the following:

• LEAP Science and Maths School reserves the right not to proceed with an appointment.
• Failure to meet the minimum requirements will automatically disqualify an applicant.
• An application does not entitle an applicant to an interview.
• If you have not heard back from us within six weeks, your application has been unsuccessful.

In many countries, new models have developed in order to break this cycle of inevitability. It is time—indeed, past time—for South African educators, politicians, social development agencies and active citizens in South Africa to consciously and intentionally plan and create alternatives to our existing educational models.

• We need to create a layer of high-performing parallel alternative, impact schools that will open the gates to the flood of young people from the poorest communities who deserve access into spaces and places where quality education is guaranteed.
• We need to be clear that South Africa’s alternate models should not weaken or invalidate what is already working, but rather accelerate the pace of transformation and improvement.
• We need to acknowledge that copying existing models from other countries  is not the answer, but that learning from them is vital. We must build on existing models, and make sure that we don’t take too long to learn what others have already learned before us.
• We must collaborate with those that have gone before and with one another to ensure that we do not repeat needless mistakes.
• We must not expect perfection. Instead, we must share and learn from any and all mistakes or missteps. Only by doing so can we ensure we discover and accelerate adoption of solutions and partial solutions.
• We must establish a framework for actively sharing solutions and ensuring that they become part of best practice across all schools. Work done by the South African Extraordinary Schools Coalition (SAESC), under the auspices of BRIDGE, is an example of an effective collaborative platform.

The goal of South African education reform: Excellent instruction every day

What is the ultimate goal of this work? Certainly we seek to guarantee all children the quality of education that guarantees them access to university and that enables them to move through university to become more vibrant and vital citizens of our young democracy.

But there is another goal that’s both simpler and more profound. It’s that, as Jim Knight writes in his book, Unmistakable Impact, “[every] student receives excellent instruction every day in every class.”  This goal that will not be achieved, he continues , “until educators are energized, thrilled and empowered by learning.”

There’s no silver bullet solution that will help us achieve that goal.  No one—or two or three—simple solutions will work. But there are layers of opportunity to be mined. Many of them. One, two, three and more solutions operating in parallel may begin to address some of the problems so deeply rooted in our exclusionary education system.

Social entrepreneurs and existing schools are working hard to engage all stakeholders in active, solutions-oriented conversation. The extent to which we can, across sectors and political divisions, openly converse with and listen to one another is the extent to which we can hope for change.  The nascent impact school movement has opened the conversation. Now it’s time for everyone interested in meaningful reform to join in.

Originally posted on the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation website.

According to official estimates, only about 40 percent of young South Africans nationwide obtain any qualification beyond grade nine. As students progress through school, the issue of unequal access becomes glaring: Less than one in 20 black students ends up with a post-high-school qualification or degree, compared to one in two white students.

Turnaround will happen neither easily nor quickly. But we believe systemic change is possible. The South African Extraordinary Schools Coalition (SAESC), a group that the foundation has helped to fund, operates on this principle.

SAESC seeks to foster collaboration among a new wave of low-cost, high-quality, high-impact schools capable of consistently preparing students for higher education and careers. Before coming together, this small group, which includes educators and leaders from 13 public and independent schools, had been grappling in comparative isolation with the question of how to provide high-quality education to disadvantaged students. Each school faced challenges: finding, funding and retaining high-quality teachers; supporting students who come from poverty-stricken township environments, where survival often takes priority over education; and obtaining reliable funding.

But participating schools have shown that they can help students thrive. For instance, students typically enter LEAP Science and Maths Schools with a two- to three-year educational deficit; within four years, some 94 percent pass the matric — the standardized test issued in the final year of South African secondary school — with a score that qualifies them for university. (At the national level in 2011, only 24.3 percent of students who sat for the exam earned a qualifying score.) The Inanda Seminary outside of Durban has likewise achieved outstanding results over the last few years, comparable to the best-performing schools in South Africa. For the past five years its students, all girls, have maintained a 100 percent pass rate on the matric. In that same period, at least 95 percent have earned the bachelor’s qualification that makes them eligible for university entrance. Other SAESC members have achieved equally compelling results.

The coalition’s current focus is on articulating how and what each member does to help students, and then on translating that into a set of best practices and guidelines that will help schools nationwide raise their own quality. Coalition members have also agreed that the final measure of their quality will be their high school graduates’ ability to get through university and find employment. In other words, passing the high school exit exam, even at the level required to gain admittance to institutions of higher education, is no longer enough.

In the coming months and years, the foundation will continue working with the coalition, with individual high-impact schools, and with the government to identify and codify best practices in establishing and maintaining high-quality schools. We’ll work across sectors to devise and model new public-private finance structures to support low-cost, high-quality schools. And we’ll work throughout the government school system to help educators improve their skills to better address student needs.

US Education: Portfolio Districts

Despite years of education reform efforts, urban school systems in the US still struggle to educate all students to a high standard. The concept of portfolio school districts — originated by the Center on Reinventing Public Education —  is one of the most promising strategies for comprehensive improvements that reach all students in a district. Portfolio districts are open to and supportive of a variety of school operators, as long as all meet appropriate quality standards. Successful portfolio districts must undertake seven key actions. They must:

1. Define school quality based on objective measures that ensure accuracy and enable accountability; these measures must be the North Star that guides all decision-making districtwide.
2. Provide good options and choices for all families by ensuring the ongoing development of traditional and alternative school models, and transparent enrollment systems for families and children.
3. Enable school-level autonomy and empower school leaders to make the right decisions for their schools and students.
4. Ensure that funding follows pupils to schools — this lets school leaders use the dollars to pay for resources and staff to support their students’ success.
5. Enable school leaders to obtain support services from a diverse set of providers.
6. Expand talent-seeking strategies, and hire and develop leaders from all sectors.
7. Open a two-way community dialogue about the benefits of alternate school models and the types of schools and choices parents want.

This work has begun in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, Cleveland and more than 30 other cities. Transformation will depend on active, open dialogue about results and challenges, on the firm commitment of innovative districts and leaders, and on community members’ willingness to consider new approaches to improving educational opportunities for all children, regardless of zip code.

School-Based Health in India: Modeling Change

Childhood malnutrition leaves children in India’s slums stunted, impairs their cognitive abilities and makes them prone to serious illness. It also renders them more likely to drop out of school and to face a lifetime of diminished earnings. But proven interventions exist and can be easily administered in the place where impoverished children are most likely to congregate: government schools. Relatively simple intervention opportunities include distribution of deworming tablets; mid-day meals that are contractually provided to government school children by NGOs and that can easily be fortified with critical nutrients such as iron, folic acid and vitamin B12; and water kiosks in government schools.

In 2012, the foundation helped facilitate the government-run deworming of 19.5 million school children in Delhi and Rajasthan. We’re also working in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan to showcase the implementation of more comprehensive school health models at scale. The hope is that these initial implementations will 1) demonstrate an approach that works, 2) enable the development of a blueprint for successful implementations in other states, and 3) lead to the eventual entrenchment of effective school-based health programs as a routine part of state-run governmental operations.

The strategy has begun to gain momentum. In late 2012, the central Indian ministries of health and education formally partnered to support the development of school-based health programs, including a deworming component, to help address chronic malnutrition among urban school children. This is the first time politicians leading the two key central government ministries involved have publicly announced their intention to actively collaborate on the implementation of school health programs in India.

Founder’s Note

Transformation happens when you try a different approach or apply a new way of thinking to old problems. We really try to inspire the connections between people and organizations that lead to creative thinking. We make it a point to share insights and experience across teams and regions. We try to anticipate potential barriers to change – things that have blocked similar work elsewhere. It’s an approach that fuels some of our biggest efforts – the possible game-changers.

In philanthropy, where each organization is working very hard to drive tangible differences every day, sometimes there doesn’t seem to be time to sit back and look for connections with the work of others. But that is a big opportunity. We can find productive ways to share what works and what hasn’t worked, and apply these lessons from the past to new situations.

– Susan Dell, January 2013

Originally posted on the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation website.

For more information, please visit www.morethanyourself.co.za

In this issue we celebrate the hard work of our 2012 matric students and our graduates. LEAP’s new Instructional Leader, Glenn Bunger, shares some of his insights into how we can develop work ethic in young people. We also celebrate our educational and funding partnerships.

As Mike Feinberg, founder of KIPP Schools, said in his interview with Sophie Hobbs:

The underlying premise is that there are no short cuts to teaching kids. We, as adults and educators, have to roll up our sleeves and get working.

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You are also able to view this edition of the newsletter online.

“A big part of what you are is how you work,” says Glenn Bunger, the new instructional developer for all the LEAP schools and a teacher with 10 years’ experience. Glenn moved to South Africa in September from New York where he was one of the head professional developers for the city of New York.

You want your students to succeed at something they will spend a big part of their life doing. For most, work will take up a third of their lives. And if you don’t enjoy your work, you can at least enjoy doing it well – doing something well is part of the reward.”

Effort means success

And here lies the key: hard work and discipline contribute more to success than innate ability. In The Secrets to Raising Smart Children Carol Dweck looked at more than 30 years of research and found that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is the key to success in school and later life.

Dweck argues that an overemphasis on intellect or talent – and the implication that these traits are innate and fixed – leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unmotivated to learn. Rather than telling children how clever and talented they are, we should be praising their effort and persistence. This, says Dweck, creates a ‘growth mind-set’ and teaches children about the brain as a learning machine.

Genius for a day

Glenn, who is also co-teaching maths at LEAP schools, says: “I praise my kids in the classroom for doing work well. I have this thing called ‘Genius of the Day’. In a maths classroom, kids are trained to think that there is only one answer and that when you’re wrong, you’re wrong.”

“I try not to say anything is wrong. In fact, my ‘Genius of the Day’ is almost always someone who got it wrong. But they did something interesting, took a chance and in that process learned something that taught the whole class.”

Plastic brains

Discoveries in neuroscience are shedding new light on the idea of the growing mind. Until very recently, the brain was considered to be ‘hard-wired’ by the end of early childhood. Now, there is increasing evidence that the brain is a highly adaptable structure that undergoes constant change throughout life. This ‘neuroplasticity’ has enormous implications for education but, more importantly, proves that fostering a good work ethic in children can fundamentally change the physical structure of their brains and the future path of their lives.

“My tip for teachers is to save the big praise for the big deeds,” continues Glenn in the same vein. “In my classes I continually reference the LEAP Code, stressing that students should admit mistakes and learn from their mistakes. Even when there’s a challenge, there’s an opportunity for growth.”

Without even realising it, the LEAP Values have been promoting the ‘growth mind-set’ that Carol Dweck says will make children more successful in life. “Work hard, work well and be open to change,” are things that Glenn believes can help students achieve great things.

If you hear something enough you start to believe it.”

Tips for teaching hard work

So how do parents and teachers build an appreciation of working hard and doing things well? The consensus seems to be:

• Be hard-working role models. You can’t expect children to work hard if the adults in their lives don’t.
• Praise effort and persistence not talent and intelligence. Say: ‘That wasn’t easy but you stuck at it and got it right’ rather than ‘you’re clever to get that right’.
• Make work fun. Just like Glenn with his ‘Genius of the Day’, make it all about the joy of learning something new and the reward that comes with doing something well.
• Have patience and don’t be a perfectionist. Children are not going to get it right the first time, they are going to take a bit longer and they are not going to do it perfectly. Don’t jump in saying: ‘oh let me do it’. How can they get any sense of achievement or reward if you do it for them?

Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State, Professor Jonathan Jansen, underlined the imperative for change: “We made a promise to our children, all our children, in 1994 – we dare not fail them.”

“Every child in this country has the capacity to learn, to love, to imagine, to explore, to remember, to care, to calculate and to write,” said John Gilmour, Executive Director of LEAP Science and Maths Schools – one of 23 organisations that make up the Extraordinary Schools Coalition (SAESC). Gilmour joined Professor Jansen and American visitor Mike Feinberg who co-founded the Knowledge is Power Programme (KIPP).

Choice

KIPP is part of the United States’ charter school system – publicly funded but fully independent schools. This, asserts Mike, is key to creating choice for low-income families and challenging regular state schools to do better.

“What we need are systems of schools, realising that one size does not fit all. The best role that government can play is to allow and oversee enough quality schools of different models to provide communities what they need and want for their children.”

The South African Extraordinary Schools Coalition, including schools as diverse as Inanda Seminary in KwaZulu-Natal, Ridgeway Sumbandile in Limpopo and the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, is pushing for the creation of a new funding model based on this principle. The model would see government money following the student into the school and create a network of free public schools, fully independent from government but accountable for their results.

“We don’t expect anything more or less than what regular state schools are getting,” said Feinberg which Gilmour echoed: “We are not asking for special funding; just funding that is equal to what is being spent in state schools. We want to be part of the government solution.”

Results

Although the experts, including Feinberg with over 20 years’ experience in education, agree that there are no silver bullets for fixing South Africa’s under-performing education system, these schools are achieving results that should make anyone interested in education sit up and take notice.

The six LEAP schools, for example, take in young people facing the most serious academic and social challenges but manage to achieve an average 94% Grade 12 pass rate with 72% of matriculants pursuing tertiary studies.[1]  KIPP (87% of whose students are from low-income families) has been similarly successful: 84% of KIPP students go on to university and KIPP’s university completion rate is four times the national rate of students from low-income communities[2].

These are not elitist academies, cherry picking the best students who would have probably made it to university anyway. They are schools that make no excuses and have high expectations for every one of their students.

Lessons in learning

There are common success factors in ‘impact schools’. Graeme Bloch, from the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, reported on the event: “Manage schools well, extend the school day so there is time for everything, don’t focus only on maths and science but encourage the kids to be whole people who also do sports and culture, look at ourselves and our own prejudices and wounded-ness.”

Mike Feinberg makes the ingredients of success sound simple, “great teaching and more of it” to which he quickly adds, “Easy to say, hard to do”.

Leadership

“What helps great teaching to happen is the function of great leadership. Because horrible leadership will ensure it never shows up,” explained Feinberg.

“South Africa needs to grow and develop a new layer of leaders in education quickly – we cannot afford to wait for 15 years,” said LEAP’s John Gilmour. LEAP is already demonstrating that charter-type schools can work in the diverse South African context with successful, no-fee schools serving communities from rural Limpopo to Alexandra township. “The LEAP story says that whether it’s Langa, Gugulethu, Alexandra, Diepsloot, Jane Furse or Ga-Rankuwa children are ready and waiting, it is simply a case of unlocking the opportunity.”

In LEAP and the other ‘no excuses’ schools at the event, we have the practical beginnings of a charter school system for South Africa. What is needed, agree the experts unanimously, is collaborative pressure to realise a funding model that will allow the system to grow and thrive. And the time is now.

Co-founder of the

When I first meet Mike Feinberg, it is after a riveting presentation he has just delivered to a small group of grant-makers, organised by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Millennium Trust. I found myself nodding vigorously through most of it and when Mike handed me his business card, it read “Work hard. Be nice.” and I thought: “if that’s the only thing I manage to teach my children…”

No short cuts

When I interview Mike a few days later before his “No Excuses Schools” conversation with Professor Jonathan Jansen and LEAP’s Executive Director, John Gilmour in Johannesburg, he explains that this is the underlying philosophy of KIPP: “Work hard. Be nice. I think if it’s the two things we teach children, then we’ve done our job. But we also need the academic skills to round it out, so that it is not hollow.”

The underlying premise is that there are no short cuts to teaching kids. We, as adults and educators, have to roll up our sleeves and get working.”

Dreams and aspirations

Mike Feinberg started KIPP in 1994 with fellow teacher Dave Levin by launching a public school in inner-city Houston, Texas. In 1995, the second KIPP Academy was established in the South Bronx. Thanks to support from Doris and Don Fisher (co-founders of Gap Inc), they now have 125 KIPP public schools across the United States. One of the striking aspects of the KIPP approach is their commitment to preparing every student to make it to and through university, countering the ‘not all children are cut-out for university’ argument.

“If we survey our learners,” says Mike, “and ask them what they want to be, most of what we hear from them requires university degrees. So if we want to help our kids pursue and achieve their dreams and aspirations, we must prepare them for university. “

“And if they don’t end up going to university for whatever reason, it will prepare them to make a decent life for themselves and their families.”

Results

This is quite a goal, particularly since KIPP accepts students regardless of prior academic record, conduct or socio-economic background and 87% of students are from low-income families. This is not an elitist academy, cherry picking the best students who would have probably made it to university anyway.

The ‘high expectation’ approach has paid off: 84% of KIPP students go on to university and KIPP’s university completion rate is five percentage points higher than the national average and four times the national rate of students from low-income communities[1].

School systems

KIPP is part of the United States’ charter school system – publicly funded but fully independent schools. This, asserts Mike, is key to creating choice for low-income families and challenging regular state schools to do better.

What we need are systems of schools, realising that one size does not fit all. The best role that government can play is to allow and oversee enough quality schools of different models to provide communities what they need and want for their children.”

Is this something that could work for us here in South Africa? LEAP and similar schools in the South African Extraordinary Schools Coalition are pushing for the creation of an alternative funding model based on a similar system. This is a ‘third tier’ funding model where government allows the money (the full value of what it would cost to educate the child in a state school) to follow the student into the school. Part of the reason for Mike’s visit is to explore this option for South Africa with practitioners as well as government.

Inspiring tragedy

An intervention in South Africa’s education system has never been more urgent: “We made a promise to our children in 1994,” says Professor Jansen at the ‘No Excuses Schools’ event on 7 February. “We dare not fail them.”

Mike Feinberg echoes this bitter-sweet sentiment when I ask him what his impression of South Africa has been: “There’s been a paradox that’s been going through my mind all week. My impression is of an inspiring tragedy.”

It’s a tragedy because if you look at the current results, just 1% of all black children are going to graduate from university. And when you visit some government schools, you see why it’s 1%!”

“But when you look at the children, they are beautiful and still have the same hopes and aspirations. So it’s also inspiring. They have fire in their belly and song in their hearts. If only the adults can find ways to help these children achieve their aspirations – then the sky is the limit for South Africa.”

Great teaching and more of it

I like the sound of that but I’m wondering just what we need to do to make this happen. “Well, what do we want?” says Mike, “We want learners to learn well. What is the key ingredient for this? It is great teaching and more of it. Easy to say, hard to do.”

“What can help great teaching to happen is the function of great leadership. Because horrible leadership will ensure it just never shows up.”

In our experience, the starting point is to somehow, some way, start schools of excellence – truly transformative, breakthrough schools – so that we have black children and poor children all learning at the same, if not better levels, than their peers.”

Mike pledges KIPP’s support for this effort. “Thankfully, because of generous philanthropists like the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation we have found ways to connect two sides of the planet and help educators learn to start and grow schools of excellence here in South Africa.”

Confidence and humility

Schools just like LEAP. “I got to walk around LEAP 1 and 2 in Pinelands with a few of the students,” says Mike. “And I was blown away by their maturity and their passion for what they want to do for themselves, their families and their countries.”

“It is great to see that LEAP is confident and celebrates what it’s doing well yet also remains humble enough to see every day as an opportunity to learn and grow and get better. Any successful school has to strike that balance between confidence and humility.”

For more about Mike Feinberg visit workhardbenice.org