CAMDEN, N.J. — Angelo Drummond wears a pressed white shirt and a red power tie for his presentation to his harshest critics — a panel of fellow students at Camden’s MetEast High School.
The stocky 17-year-old lays out his intention to study through the summer to bring up his scores on the SAT and New Jersey’s high school graduation exam. He also explains his senior-year project to plan a lounge where teenagers can hang out, study and avoid the trouble that snags so many in his city.
His peers tell the junior he needs to get his timeline together to apply for grants for the lounge, that he might need to scale back his ambitions for the project, and that he needs to learn more about how nonprofit organizations get grants.
It’s an extraordinary display of wisdom for students in a city where dropout rates are consistently among New Jersey’s highest and test scores are among the lowest. Neither is the case at MetEast, which graduated its first class of seniors Friday.
It opened in 2005 as a laboratory for education in a city where the schools are part of an entanglement of problems.
It’s one of about 60 schools nationwide established with the help of Big Picture Learning, a nonprofit with offices in San Diego and Providence, R.I.
The schools are small and very different from traditional schools. MetEast has just over 100 students. The educators are called "advisers,” not teachers, and they advise the same group of students all four years.
Classes are built around the idea that students will learn by following their passions. Students do internships. Graduation requirements include a senior project with the aim of doing some good for the community. And four times a year, every student makes a presentation to a panel of peers and adults.
All 28 students graduating from MetEast have been accepted to at least one college. Principal Timothy Jenkins expects most of them to attend in the fall.
by the associated press
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