Vivian Shaw
Director of Postsecondary and Alumni Advising at BIG PICTURE PHILADELPHIA - PHILADELPHIA, PA, US
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BIG PICTURE PHILADELPHIA
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Big Picture Philadelphia (BPP) provides a progressive, project-based, real world education to more than 400 students at two Philadelphia public high schools. The BPP approach is student-centered. We begin with students' dreams and passions, and the skills and resilience they bring with them. We are also practical in our approach. We build rigor in a small classroom, steered by a dedicated advisor; we build community by looking outside the classroom, to internships and service learning; and we build relationships at school, at home, and in the city.Beginning in 2008 with the launch of el Centro de Estudiantes, BPP began work in "alternative" education with students in the School District of Philadelphia who were under-aged and over-credited. Having disengaged or completely disconnected from high school, these students were offered a high school diploma in an accelerated school environment. A progressive, project-based model was implemented with opportunities for Real World Learning (RWL) and two-day-per-week internships. Student success came quickly and the graduation rate over the past three years has averaged 77%, far above the overall rate for similar students throughout Philadelphia.Based on our success at el Centro, the School District of Philadelphia approached BPP in 2016 to open a second school serving students in the Sharswood-Blumberg neighborhood. In the fall of 2017, Vaux Big Picture High School opened with 125 ninth grade students. Adapting the BPP model to a traditionally-structured school (the students enter after completing middle school), we are now building the RWL and internship programs in our third year. Fall 2019 will see ninth through eleventh grade, and the addition of twelfth grade in 2020. Our mission is to provide transformative educational experiences for under-served high school youth through proven, sustainable educational practices and, in so doing, contribute to Philadelphia's city-wide educational reform efforts.