But does it work?

I’ll be speaking at a conference in New York City on Saturday, January 15, on a panel with three other teachers from the Urban School of San Francisco. The conference sponsor is the Independent Curriculum Group, a network of schools that are working to develop home-grown curricula and to de-emphasize APs.

The conference will be held at the Calhoun School. The theme of the conference is But does it work? Debating an Independent Curriculum, and it promises to be quite interesting.

The way we usually defend my math department’s unorthodox approach and offerings is by pointing out that our strongest students do well on AP tests, and that many end up at places such as MIT. However this conference challenges us to develop our own internal criteria. Thus, I have been meeting with my co-presenters and we’ve started what is likely to be a many-year conversation. The title of our presentation is “Disciplinary Learning at the Urban School.” I look forward to sharing what we’ve come up with so far, and to hearing from others at the conference.

–Henri

PS: The Independent Curriculum Group is also a co-sponsor of the February 12 Escape from the Textbook! sharing and collaboration conference for math teachers.