{"id":4064,"date":"2016-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/high-expectations-at-epic-north\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:59:09","slug":"high-expectations-at-epic-north","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/high-expectations-at-epic-north\/","title":{"rendered":"High Expectations at EPIC North"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rites
Students in EPIC North’s Rights of Passage program meet to support each other academically, socially, and personally.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article is part of a series of case studies of schools in New York City. Read the entire EPIC North series with parts one<\/a>, two<\/a>, and three<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As with my first visit to EPIC North, the conversation started with students. I was thrilled to have the chance to talk with sophomores who now had a year and a half under their belts in a mastery-based school. In this post, I\u2019ll review some of the main elements of the EPIC design \u2013 cultural relevance, project-based learning, competencies and attainments, and high expectations \u2013 while drawing upon the insights of students. (Check out the Epic Playbook<\/a> for more information.)<\/p>\n

Cultural Relevance<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Competency-based or mastery-based education can be a powerful enabling force upon which to build cultural relevance. Cultural relevance, one of Epic Schools\u2019 core elements, was a concept developed in the 1990s that \u201crecognizes the importance of including students\u2019 cultural references in all aspects of learning.\u201d Mastery-based education allows for students to co-design projects or have choice in how they demonstrate their learning. This is what personalizing education is all about.<\/p>\n

However, cultural relevance reminds us that adults may not have the same life or cultural experiences as their students. Adults might not understand what is particularly meaningful or particularly demoralizing without first creating a way to have dialogue. This is particularly true when the race and ethnicity of the teachers are different than the student population. Cultural relevance requires us to go beyond the \u201cgolden rule\u201d toward the \u201cplatinum rule\u201d of seeking out what is important to other people rather than using our own culture and priorities as a starting point. Essentially this is what building relationships with students is all about \u2013 finding out what is important to them. (See the report Culturally Relevant Education (CRE) and the Framework for Great Schools<\/a>, produced by the Expanding Success Initiative at the NYC DOE, for examples of culturally relevant practices drawn from schools.)<\/p>\n

Epic North has developed a weekly Rites of Passage to support young people as they reflect on their lives and develop the attainments that are more related to adolescent development. I was invited to sit in on one of the teams, Brothers for Life (Rites of Passage have been broken into gender specific teams). One of the young men led a call and response for the code of cooperation they had created as the opening activity:<\/p>\n