# Archived Information

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="2.5in" height="1.4791666666666667in"}

**THE BIG PICTURE: IN FOCUS**

**WHO:**

▪ The Big Picture Company is a non-profit organization dedicated to a
fundamental redesign of public schooling in America.

▪ Big Picture's mission is to catalyze vital changes in public education
by generating and sustaining innovative, personalized schools that work
in concert with the real world of their greater community.

▪ Big Picture builds and supports break-through public schools and
coordinates a cadre of youth development organizations establishing
alternative high schools for at-risk youth nationwide.

**WHAT:**

▪ Big Picture is now a network of 24 small, personalized high schools
across the country, with an additional 26 slated to open by 2008.

▪ Big Picture Schools are community centric, engaging family and
community members through social services and outreach programs that
strengthen the community while intensifying the educational experience
for students.

▪ Located in underserved, urban areas, Big Picture Schools are cohesive
learning communities of no more than 150 students.

▪ A rigorous, highly personalized curriculum combines demanding academic
work with real-world experiential and inquiry-driven learning.

▪ Students, many of whom have managed to squeak by unnoticed through
middle school, become active, accountable players in their education;
teachers, parents, and professional mentors help design a challenging
course of study, and school-based learning is infused with real-world
work two full days a week in community organizations, agencies and
businesses.

▪ Big Picture was selected by the Gates Foundation to lead its
Alternative High School Initiative for youth at risk of "falling through
the cracks" of the present system -- most notably high school dropouts.
Initiative partners include the Black Alliance for Education Options,
Communities in Schools in Georgia, Diploma Plus, National Association of
Street Schools, See Forever/Maya Angelou, and YouthBuild USA. The
Initiative will establish 78 diploma-granting high schools nationwide
over the next four years.

**WHERE:**

▪ Big Picture is based in Providence, RI, as is its flagship high
school, The Met, which has grown to a cluster of six small schools.

▪ In the past three years, new Big Picture schools have opened in
Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Indianapolis, and Oakland, Sacramento, San
Diego, and El Dorado (CA). Additional Big Picture Schools are scheduled
to open in 2005 in New Orleans, Camden, NJ and Bloomfield, CT.
Negotiations with additional districts throughout the nation are
ongoing.

**HOW:**

Distinguishing elements of the Big Picture model are as follows:

▪ An individualized learning plan is carefully engineered and managed to
meet rigorous educational standards, which are uniquely and intricately
approached through personal interests;

▪ An academically integrated internship takes students out into the
community to do real work around their learning plans in closely
accountable relationships with professional mentors;

▪ A 4-year advisory, a group of no more than 15 students who stay with
the same teacher while in school, precludes anonymity and pushes
students consistently toward higher standards of achievement;

▪ Quarterly exhibitions -- dissertation-style defenses before a panel of
teachers, parents, mentors and peers -- take the place of traditional
tests;

▪ Strong partnerships with families and community organizations elevate
individual and collective achievement to relevant and exhilarating new
heights;

▪ Heavy emphasis on the recruitment, training and support of principals
and advisors moves the model forward while consistently reinforcing a
culture of passionate, lifelong learning.

\* To date, The Met is the only Big Picture School to have completed a
full four-year cycle. Statistics at other Big Picture Schools are
currently comparable.