Last year, seventh graders at Thomas Metcalf School were invited to opt into an innovative, integrated curriculum, where, in one student’s words, “the learning never stopped.”
The School within a School pilot program was designed and led by Dr. Robyn Seglem, director of the Mary and Jean Borg Center for Reading and Literacy, and Kristi Sutter, Instructional Facilitator at Thomas Metcalf School. Through their shared interests in inquiry and design theory, Seglem and Sutter empowered students to become independent thinkers able to articulate how they each learn best.
The curriculum was developed around 10 core competencies that built upon 21st century skills: accountability, advocacy, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, oral and written communication, reflection, intercultural engagement, resilience, and problem solving. Some of the learning experiences were intentionally shaped by standards, whereas others emerged organically through students’ interests and ambitions.
The program emphasized learning from experts in the community. For instance, students participated in a forensics unit that included a visit to a crime lab, where they learned from Dr. William Lally, clinical assistant professor in Criminal Justice Sciences at Illinois State. Seglem said she would ask herself, “Who has the expertise outside of this classroom or school that can assist in helping our students understand things differently?”
The idea for this pilot program started two years ago when Seglem and Sutter took a research trip to California to meet with educators, designers, and creative thinkers at the Stanford d.school. As they toured schools doing innovative things in the San Francisco Bay Area, such as Avenues of the World School, Sutter recalled, “We were really impressed by the schools we saw.”
One night in a hotel room, while brainstorming what these pedagogies could look like in practice at home, the idea for a School within a School model was born.
Over the course of the 2023-24 school year, the students involved developed confidence and criticality. Every learning experience had an authentic purpose and a wider audience beyond the school building. For example, Seglem and Sutter brought in government officials to hear students’ arguments, which they cited as a turning point for helping students recognize, “We do matter. Our voices do matter.”
Seglem and Sutter both chuckled when asked to name the most memorable thing that happened through the project because they invited their seventh graders to answer the same question at the end of every week; students wrote letters home to let their families know what and how they were learning, providing a continual loop of feedback and ongoing reflection.
Sutter said her favorite moments were the circle discussions at the end of the year as students articulated just how meaningful the experience was and how passionate they were about what they did. She will never forget sitting side-by-side with the community she helped build and hearing how they felt empowered and comfortable in a safe space to share their ideas.
For Seglem, there was no one event that stands out, but rather, the accumulation of memories over the course of the year. She was particularly struck by the young girls who started out shy and quiet, and then, became articulate and self-assured. A poetry slam held at Fusion Brew in Normal especially demonstrated how these students were learning to share their voices.
Despite the school year ending and the program concluding, the students walked away with lifelong lessons, both about the content and about themselves. Insights from the experience are now being implemented throughout Thomas Metcalf School while Seglem and Sutter continue analyzing the data and recognizing just how effectively their design-based model worked.
By empowering students to express themselves and engage with their communities, the School within a School approach leads the way toward more dynamic and inclusive education.
