Originally, the 17.3 acre campus of the Isaac Dickson Elementary, half a
mile from downtown Asheville, North Carolina, contained fields and
wetlands. With the help of community members and other partners, the
campus today hosts not only playgrounds but a nature reserve including a
pond and wetlands area, a bird sanctuary, and several gardens, including
a sound garden and numerous perennial and vegetable gardens. The school
has devoted so much effort to its environment because, in a very real
sense, the larger world *is* the school's curriculum. Originally the
Asheville Alternative School, Isaac Dickson was founded in 1989 by
dedicated parents and teachers. Their collaboration continues to support
the school's vision, which is that "children learn best by doing." Alida
Woods, a teacher when the school was founded, assumed the principalship
in 2002. The school seeks, says Woods, to invite and nurture diversity,
create a climate of kindness, and encourage students to reach their
learning potential in a community of lifelong learners.

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Isaac Dickson is based on the principles of the Foxfire organization, a
non-profit, educational and literary organization in northeastern
Georgia. Ensuring that "the connections between the classroom work, the
surrounding communities, and the world beyond the community are clear"
is a core Foxfire principle. At Isaac Dickson, this philosophy
translates into student investigations of nature, the local community,
and places as far from campus such as the coast of North Carolina.

For example, when asked, "What does local government look like?" fourth
grade students at Isaac Dickson tackled the question with vigor. Working
with University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA), they formulated
questions---such as, "What are three of the most important issues in our
community? and How do public officials demonstrate moral courage and
civic responsibility?"---for county commissioners and city council
members. Practicing their interviewing techniques with the college
students, they interviewed and produced slide shows on each council
member. Students not only learned about their community, they learned
how to act in it: subsequently, a playground in one of the neighboring
public housing projects was repaired with 48 hours due to the class
discussion with a city council member.

A student captures the force of first-hand learning: "I see things
through my own eyes." When students explored Appalachian history and
culture, they became intrigued by "canjos," a low-cost musical
instrument devised by European settlers to the region to play music of
the old country. A canjo is a banjo---made from a can. Isaac Dickson
students built their own canjos, learned some of the old ballads, wrote
about they had learned, and presented their findings and music at a
community concert. Students performed for other classes and produced
PowerPoint presentations of their projects.

As teachers and learners seek practical applications of classroom
content outside the school walls, the community becomes a learning
laboratory. When fifth grade students and their explored the history of
their own campus, unearthing a chimney and other artifacts of human
life, they discovered their school occupied the former "Stumptown," the
segregated, African American part of town dating to the turn of the last
century. This occasioned extended discussion of their community's own
past.

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In addition to Foxfire, the school uses the Comer model of comprehensive
school reform, which builds consensus through dialogue and shared
decision-making and taps adults to support students' learning and
healthy development. Principal Woods believes that collaborative
leadership is the key for success in schools: joint decision-making
creates a dynamic cohesion of staff, child, and family. Collaboration
must include teachers, parents, and students in partnership with
system-wide initiatives, she said.

![](media/image3.jpeg){width="3.1173611111111112in"
height="3.0520833333333335in"}Three teams, each including staff members,
parents, and community members, shape the school's operation: the School
Planning and Management Team (SPMT), the Student and Staff Support Team
(SSST), and the Parent Team (PT). The SPMT develops the school's
Comprehensive School Plan, sets academic, social, and community goals,
and coordinates all school activities, including staff development
programs. The SSST concerns itself with the school's culture, social
conditions, and personal relationships, and works in collaboration with
a larger support staff to provide academic and community resources for
students and families.

The PT engages parents in the life of the school and its students.
Parent involvement is strong at Isaac Dickson; they have been involved
in designing and putting the playgrounds in place, tutoring, hosting
classes on field trips and "most anything you can think of," Principal
Woods said. The school takes steps to include all parents, ensuring
their voices are heard even if they can't make it to the school. Once a
month, Isaac Dickson conducts "Family Nights"---dinner and information
sessions---at local housing projects to reach out to underrepresented
families.

Students are involved in many decisions, including writing class rules,
choosing class projects, and taking part in both class and school-wide
governance. An active Student Council follows a structured protocol with
well defined roles for timekeeper, facilitator, chairperson, and
recorder. Students believe they have a voice and influence school
decisions. Placing students at the center benefits achievement, too. In
2004, fifth grade students scored 100% in reading and 98% in math.

The school forms a range of partnerships, both within the school and
with the larger community. With the aim of helping students do their
best work, learn life skills, and celebrate their diversity, students,
staff, and community partners flow back and forth between the school and
community. Parents and grandparents, foster parents and foster
grandparents, mentors, tutors, university faculty as well as pre-service
educators from Western Carolina University, UNCA, Warren Wilson College,
and Mars Hills College, and partners in grant-funded projects all
contribute to the school's vitality. A visitor remarked on the absence
of walkie-talkies and student identification badges as a sign of the
sense of community in the school.

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="3.0200787401574805in"
height="2.833464566929134in"}Tutors, mentors, and other assistants work
with students based on needs identified by adult "teams" that support
each child. An SSST team arranges meetings when a student has a specific
concern. The SASSY ( Service All Stars Serving Youth) team's support
staff---social workers, nurse, school based therapist, speech therapist,
counselor, and administration work with families in greatest need and
coordinate the school's Wrap-Around Service. Other school-community
partnerships include the Family Room, housed at Isaac Dickson and funded
by a non-profit agency (Children First), that offers family education
programs as well as a clothing closet and referral system for families
in crisis. A representative of a community agency said, "Isaac Dickson
welcomes people and welcomes new experiences."

The school serves the community in other ways. Through a garden program
funded in part by Learn and Serve America and Title I, an outdoor
educator helps students learn about nutrition not only by studying food,
but by growing it in the school garden. Student-grown foods are shared
with local social service organizations. In partnership with Learn and
Serve America, the school began a system-wide recycling effort. Other
service learning projects include work with the local food bank, a
Classroom without Walls career shadowing program, and a community
project on African American Heritage, Literacy Through Photography.
Working with a professional photographer funded through Learn and Serve
and carried out in partnership with the local art museum; students in
this project studied photographers and photography, learned to use a
point-and-shoot camera, photograph family, and develop writing projects
from the photographs. A monthly Street Clean Up (in partnership with the
Local Quality Forward environmental group) brings school members out to
the community. The school's Read to Feed Program raises money for Heifer
International, an international charity, through student-driven reading
and discussion projects.

Students also work at the MANNA Food Bank in Asheville, stacking and
packaging food for needy families. Because they were "nervous" the first
time they volunteered at MANNA, Isaac Dickson students created a
brochure for students from other schools, letting them know what to
expect when they volunteer at MANNA.

The school's curriculum is based on the North Carolina Standard Course
of Study, as realized through the Foxfire approach. The Foxfire Core
Practices[^1] are:

-   The work that teachers and learners do together is infused from the
    beginning with learner choice, design, and revision.

-   The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and collaborator.

-   The academic integrity of the work teachers and learners do together
    is clear.

-   The work is characterized by active learning.

-   Peer teaching, small group work, and teamwork are all consistent
    features of classroom activities.

-   Connections between the classroom work, the surrounding communities,
    and the world beyond the community are clear.

-   There is an audience beyond the teacher for learner work.

-   New activities spiral gracefully out of the old, incorporating
    lessons learned from past experiences, building on skills and
    understandings that can now be amplified.

-   Imagination and creativity are encouraged in the completion of
    learning activities.

-   Reflection is an essential activity that takes place at key points
    throughout the work.

-   The work teachers and learners do together includes rigorous,
    ongoing assessment and evaluation[^2]

Teachers and students work together to decide how they will learn, how
they will assess and evaluate what they learn, and how they will use
what they know in meaningful ways. In the classroom, students learn to
work collaboratively and assume responsibility for their own learning
processes. They are expected to be involved, active learners who solve
problems creatively and apply what they learn beyond the classroom.
Where possible, the school encourages multidisciplinary collaboration
although, as a teacher noted, "Collaboration takes time and we are still
working on making time."

The other strong influence on the school is the Comer model, which looks
at the whole child through a complement of developmental
pathways---physical, language, psychological, ethical, social, and
cognitive. Explains a teacher, "We look at all the pathways one child at
a time." Children are not viewed as broken or imperfect but as persons
with possibilities. "We don't give up on any child. We work together to
get a plan and implement. . . . different ways of learning are honored
and supported." Adds another, "With the Foxfire approach we don't miss
any types of learning---tactile, visual, etc." Staff make an effort to
keep classes small, which not only allows teachers to differentiate
instruction according to students' needs, it lets teachers get to know
their students individually. Following extensive study by the Parent
Team and SPMT, planning has begun to move from multiage primary classes
to a combination of looping and multiage classes as key to the school's
overall mission and driving philosophy.

As teachers and students seek practical applications of classroom
content outside the school walls, the community becomes a learning
laboratory. Principal Woods has worked hard to bring in grants,
particularly for Landscapes for Learning and the school's outdoor
education program. In constantly tying skills and concepts to purposes
that can be seen and understood in learners' lives both today and in
preparation for their futures, teachers appear to inspire their students
to learn. One parent, drawn to the school because of its focus on
experiential learning, noted with pride, "My daughter is learning how to
learn and knows how to find out about things." Through partnerships with
Western Carolina University and UNCA, the school welcomes educators in a
two-way process that helps university programs stay up to date with what
works in actual schools.

![](media/image5.jpeg){width="2.351968503937008in"
height="3.1401574803149606in"}Tutors, all certified teachers funded
through Title I, work with regular classroom teachers to support small
group instruction. Tutors plan their work with the teachers and submit
weekly lesson plans that support classroom learning goals. Classroom
assistants work as co-teachers and are trained to teach literacy, math,
and writing. This year all 3-5^th^ grade classes had either an assistant
or a tutor for a two-hour block in the morning. Teachers maintain
contact with parents to reinforce classroom practices through homework.
"I talk to my daughter's teacher every day," a parent reported. "A
letter comes home every week telling me about what they are doing in
school so I can ask her about it." Teachers also visit students'
families at home to make communication easier for parents. A parent
remarked, "You do not need to wait for an official conference."

At Isaac Dickson, the boundaries between school and world are permeable:
the world enters the school, and the students and teachers go out into
the world. Surrounded by nature and gardens, it is deeply rooted in its
local setting, but faces out to embrace the world.

[^1]: www.foxfire.org/teachi.html Accessed June 15, 2005.

[^2]: