Editor’s Note: What makes a good high school? Because every community is different, there is probably not a single “best” model. In this three-part series Bangor Daily News reporters Susan Young and Catherine Heins profile three high schools in eastern Maine and across the border in New Brunswick identified by the Governor’s Commission on Secondary Education as models of innovation.

Day 1 — Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford has increased test scores, boosted college attendance and reduced its dropout rate by raising academic standards for all students.

Day 2 — A self-paced curriculum aims to make students assume more responsibility for their educations at Southern Victoria High School in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick.

Day 3 — Mount Desert Island High School in Bar Harbor has developed a reputation for its progressive social conscience.

PERTH-ANDOVER, New Brunswick — Although it was only November, Donna Bolstridge had just completed her biology course. With that class out of the way, she looked forward to spending double time on math, a course that gives her more trouble.

Bolstridge is a junior at Southern Victoria High School, one of the most innovative schools in Canada, where students work through courses at their own pace with teachers acting as mentors and coaches, instead of authoritarian lecturers. Some students, such as Bolstridge, finish courses in less than a semester and then use the extra time to work on other classes or at a job.

SVHS, which is housed in a two-story, boxy brick building just five miles across the Maine-Canadian border from Fort Fairfield, claims a lot of firsts. For example, it is New Brunswick’s first “early adopter” high school, a designation given to schools that jumped on the technology bandwagon well before their peers.

It is also the only school in Atlantic Canada with an entirely self-paced curriculum, which means students move through subjects at their own speed instead of in lockstep with the rest of their class.

The original impetus for the SVHS makeover came from the government. The Canadian Restructured School Plan, a federal reform proposal, calls for a more self-paced approach to learning. The national model is a Catholic high school in Calgary, Alberta.

At the behest of the federal government, 10 schools in the country are following the Canadian restructured school model. SVHS is the only school in Atlantic Canada doing so.

A key to changing the curriculum was to retrain teachers, so the province kicked in a lot of money for professional development. In addition, the provincial government has provided 180 computers for the innovative endeavor, said Austin Greenlaw, the principal. He has pushed tirelessly for change during his four years at the 550-student school.

Teams of educators from as far away as China have visited the school, located near the banks of the St. John River. SVHS now has a formal partnership with a private school in Beijing. As many as 50 students from China will descend on Perth-Andover, a town that boasts one riverfront street of shops and banks.

After hearing about the school’s innovations, Maine officials invited SVHS here this summer to share its approach with other teachers and administrators at a conference devoted to reforming secondary education.

Principal Greenlaw laughs when he thinks back to that conference. People talked about block scheduling, a system whereby 80-minute blocks replaced 45-minute classes, and portfolios, in which students collect their work to demonstrate increasing understanding of a topic, as revolutionary. Schools in Perth-Andover have been doing those things for years, he said.

Self-paced curriculum

What sets SVHS apart from the vast majority of high schools in North America is its self-paced curriculum. While not an entirely new concept — many people in their 30s remember being experimental subjects for self-paced classes in elementary school — SVHS is unique because nearly all of its courses are self-paced. The school began moving to this format in 1996, and teachers have until August to convert their classes.

“We’ve taken learning off the shoulders of teachers and put in onto the students’ where it should be,” said Greenlaw, a former history teacher and guidance counselor. “It stops students from passing along without knowing the subject.”

Each course is broken down into 15 units. For each unit, the teacher has prepared a learner guide that lays out what the student is expected to learn, and lists a variety of activities to discover that information.

In a biology course, for example, one unit covers cells. The objective is for students to understand that cells are the basis of life.

To learn about cells, students read a chapter in a textbook, watch a video, do a computer program, use a microscope to view a cell and label its parts, do a crossword puzzle and take a quiz on the Internet.

The wide variety of activities is meant to appeal to students’ different interests and abilities, said biology and economics teacher Carl Elliott. If a student still does not understand the material, Elliott has prepared one-page “seminars” that go over the material in a different way. He also has alternative activities available.

Teachers move through classrooms answering questions and offering suggestions, but they rarely stand at the front giving lectures.

When students feel they are ready, they take a test in the school’s testing center, a large room supervised by teachers who do not have a class that period.

If they pass — by getting a score of 50 percent or higher — they move on to the next unit. If not, they review the material again and take the test over.

Teachers are encouraged to grade the tests the day they are taken so students will not sit around waiting to know whether they can move on to the next unit.

While most courses rely on pencil-and-paper tests, the goal is have students make presentations or do research papers to demonstrate their understanding of the material.

Mixed reviews

In Elliott’s classes, 22 students are ahead of schedule, 14 are behind, and the other 42 are on pace to complete the courses by the end of the semester in January.

As with the results, student opinions of the school’s new format vary widely.

“I love it,” said Tasha Turner, a senior who has finished two of her classes already this semester. That means she can leave school at 1:30 to work at a part-time job.

Freshman Justin Tompkins said, “I like it because the rules are not real strict and you can do what you want.” He said he was going to start 10th grade math soon because he already had finished the ninth-grade material.

Wesley McLean, president of the student council, said the approach is good preparation for college. “When I arrive at the university, I assume no one will tell me to get my work done,” he said.

But there are also plenty of critics.

“I hate it,” said Sheena Trembley, a sophomore. “I need someone to teach me something to understand it.” She said her math grade has dropped from a 90 to a 50 because the class is now self-paced.

“Self-paced learning is horrible,” said Brad Logan, a senior. He said students don’t learn as much and it’s easy to fall behind.

“They’re not preparing us,” junior Trevor Inman said of the school’s teachers. “They have no part in it. They say write a four-page paper by whenever.”

More responsibility

Teachers, on the other hand, say that’s the point — for students to take charge of their own learning and to understand that only they are responsible for completing their work.

“I have become a cheerleader, a coach,” said math teacher Glenna Montieth, summing up the school’s new philosophy.

Test scores appear to support the argument that making students responsible for their work also improves their performance. In 1996, SVHS juniors who were not in college-bound courses scored 7 points below the New Brunswick average on an annual provincial English test. In 1998, the juniors at SVHS scored an average of 12 points higher than the provincial average on the exam. Scores on the math section of the test followed the same pattern. Scores for college-bound juniors at SVHS also rose, but not by as large a margin.

Still, a top concern among teachers is that the reform is not working for all students, especially those who are not at the top of their class.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” said history teacher Mike Briggs, who will retire this year after 31 years in the classroom. “It doesn’t work for the low-level student. But what we did before didn’t either.”

Despite his misgivings, Briggs said students now act more maturely and discipline problems have decreased at the 550-student school.

“I have students in grade 12 that I can’t do anything more for. They belong in the university,” he said. Still, he worries that only about 20 percent of the school’s students are at this top level, while the other 80 percent are not self-motivated.

Greenlaw said. “Are all students turned on by this? No. Any reform will miss some [students]. Every school is battling apathy.”

He said it is unfortunate that students who are not doing well academically will blame the school’s self-paced approach. Sometimes their parents will concur.

The school does modify programs or develops individualized learning plans for students who need them. And, just a few weeks ago, an alternative school was started that emphasizes hands-on learning in smaller groups.

High-tech school

The SVHS transition would not be possible if the school had not, at the same time, acquired computers — lots of them. It has one well-equipped machine for every three students, a ratio that would make most U.S. educators envious.

The computers, equipped with high-speed chips and subject-specific software, are the linchpin in SVHS’ self-paced model. Students readily use the Internet to find information on subjects they are studying, from czarist Russia to genetic mutations.

They take quizzes and do workshops on the computers. After collecting information from the Internet and scanning pictures into a computer, they make elaborate multimedia presentations to demonstrate their understanding.

“I’m not interested in doing 19th century things with 20th century tools. It allows me to do things I’ve only dreamed of,” said history teacher Murray Grant as he showed off a PowerPoint presentation one student had developed. PowerPoint is the software used by executives for presentations at conferences and sales meetings.

The school’s new approach is more time-consuming for teachers. Grant said it takes countless hours to find and assimilate material for one learner guide.

“I spend all my off time working,” he said. Teachers are commonly at the school until 5 or 6 p.m. developing learner guides and searching for relevant activities.

Technology and the school’s self-paced approach have broadened the array of courses SVHS can offer. For example, the school offered a class in political science last year that was taken by only three students. Also, for the first time in the school’s history, advanced English and history courses are offered.

Using the Internet, interactive television and other technological mediums, the school is able to provide classes to students in subject areas for which it does not have or could not afford staffing.

The ultimate goal, according to Greenlaw, is to turn SVHS into a school where students work totally on their own under the guidance of an academic adviser. They no longer would have to sit in a designated biology classroom to work on biology. They might not even have to come to the school building. The education offerings would be as limitless as the electronic courses that are increasingly filling cyberspace and the airways.