Week 6

Hello Everyone!

As always, I hope you've all had a great week! This week  has definitely been a busy one, as I conducted many interviews and student surveys. All in all, this week has made for a great opportunity to learn more about my school, BASIS Ahwatukee, and see how the experience has been for both students and faculty. For the purpose of this blog, I want to share some insight I received from my interviewees and how they believe the culture of BASIS Ahwatukee has allowed for their success.

The idea that "academic success" is seen as a good thing and not a bad thing was one of the interesting conversations in my interviews. It was something that I had never put much thought in until now. This was especially after I made a connection to a discussion I had with a student at BASIS Washington DC. The fact that BASIS offers a safe environment to those who excel academically, where they aren't teased and made fun of for being intelligent and having a desire to learn, goes to show how much we value the importance of a positive school culture. Even more interestingly, the interviewee went on to say that from the very beginning of the school opening, there has always been a bilateral encouragement and willingness to help one another achieve their goals, between students. This is something that isn't always prevalent on a "typical" high school campus where being smart or the so called "nerd" isn't always admirable. In connection with the discussion I had with a student from the  DC campus, this student remembered the experience attending regular schools and how difficult it was to be treated differently just because they were a fast learner. They described their experience as the student who received extra packets or work and revised lessons plans. This student had became frustrated, especially because they weren't being challenged and felt as though they didn't fit in. From the interviews I've had with people, to the student surveys I've read through, BASIS seems to offer an environment open to all people and can even become flexible when there are those who don't quite catch on as fast as others.

Another thing I'd like to discuss from my interviews thus far as a whole, is a commonality between all of these discussions. One of the questions I've asked interviewees is, "what would you like to see differently at our school that could help improve the development and sustainment of a positive school culture". The common response was that they felt BASIS could do a better job at keeping things consistent. In other words, BASIS needs to work on its consistency. On a campus as unique as BASIS Ahwatukee where we've experienced much change in a shot span of time, there has to be to some degree, a level of consistency that students can depend on in their daily lives. Whether this consistency be in rules, policies, procedures, or even those in charge such as admin and staff . For example, there have been those such as teachers, students and admin who have been at our campus from the beginning. More specifically, there have been teachers from the beginning who have had the opportunity to develop unique relationships with students, where they really know them and even their families, often times over a couple of years. This has allowed these teachers to not only build a solid relationship with that student but learn what the specific needs of that student are over years of development through teaching them multiple subjects. With a constantly changing admin like BASIS Ahwatukee, you get a more bureaucratic approach to student life, discipline, and any problems that may arise. With that, the people who may be enacting discipline, creating rules, or developing programs, are doing so from somewhat of a cold environment. A cold environment in the sense that there isn't an "organic" knowing of these students and who they, where they're at, and what they need. Some students have described this as just a prescription or system that begins to feel cold over time. From a students perspective of this situation, most of them resent the fact that they've been there longer than some of those who are enacting these changes without any sort of explanation. In affect, this causes some students to feel slightly disrespected. But, because things are constantly changing, there isn't the opportunity for new people to realize the maturity and growth of students who have been there since the beginning and the fact they can deal with the hardships of life and tough information if given it upfront. One way I believe BASIS Ahwatukee can begin to improve this issue is by possibly having meetings between admin and staff with students in a sort of "town-hall" setting. That way students can voice their concerns and feel a sense of being heard. This also provides an opportunity for relationships to begin formulating between students and admin. Like I've said many times before, good strong relationships is important for having a positive school culture.

As always, I look forward to keeping you all up to date about my progress, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Eli