College Unbound to Open in Providence This Fall
by Linda Borg
April 19, 2009
When Dennis Littky and Eliott Washor opened the Met School in 1996, they set out to break the mold of the super-sized anonymous urban high school.
They have done just that. At the Met School’s five Providence high schools, there are no classes, no tests and no grades. Students follow their passion, spending two days a week in internships. Instead of taking tests, they give public exhibitions of their work. Students earn a diploma based on the skills they have mastered rather than the number of credits they have amassed.
Now, the Met School’s founders are launching College Unbound, a natural extension of the high school’s unorthodox, school-without-walls approach to learning. The college will be run by Big Picture Learning, a private, nonprofit organization created by Washor and Littky, in partnership with Roger Williams University’s continuing studies program. Based in South Providence, College Unbound is designed for first-generation college students, the same kind of students who are attracted to the Met. When it opens with eight students this fall, the college will look like no other college in New England, and possibly the entire United States.
In many respects, College Unbound is a grown-up version of the Met. Students will spend three days a week in apprenticeships at local companies; the remaining two days will be spent in workshops and seminars with faculty advisers, post-doctoral students drawn from area colleges. Currently, the design of a traditional four-year college mimics that of a typical high school. Students earn a degree based on the number of college credits they accumulate. College Unbound aims to turn that system on its head. Instead of fitting a student’s interests into a set curriculum, College Unbound will design a path of study around a student’s passion, be it marine sciences or art.
“This is not about sitting in a classroom doing work that’s disconnected from the real world,” said Jamie Scurry, co-director of College Unbound. “It’s about preparing a student to be successful in the real world.” College Unbound was created to address two big challenges in higher education: low college retention rates and the quality of a college degree. Only 20 percent of low-income students actually graduate from college. In fact, the United States now has the highest college drop-out rate among developed counties, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Littky believes that colleges have to rethink the way they teach first-generation college students. Specifically, colleges should give them much more individual attention, whether it’s through mentoring, advisories or smaller classes. They have to help these youth learn how to navigate a complex bureaucracy, including handling their personal finances, he said. At College Unbound, students will live together, eat together and study together under the guidance of a resident director. The hope is that students will not only bond emotionally but develop a rich sense of academic community.
A recent study found that nearly two thirds of employers think that many college graduates lack the skills they need to succeed in a global economy. Littky said that College Unbound will train students how to think, not simply what to think. Employers are looking for college graduates who know how to problem-solve, work in teams, communicate clearly and find creative solutions to complex problems. When students graduate from College Unbound, they will be critical thinkers, Littky said.
Because they will attend college full time, including summers, students will be able to graduate in three years with a bachelor’s degree in general studies from Roger Williams University. In keeping with today’s multimedia world, students will graduate with an electronic portfolio of their work in addition to the traditional grade-based transcript.
Big Picture chose to partner with Roger Williams because of the college’s commitment to recruit students from beyond its traditional middle-class base. A Roger Williams professor will serve as the faculty in residence at College Unbound and adjunct professors will provide additional academic support to students from College Unbound. In addition, students from the university’s Intercultural Leadership Award Program will mentor freshmen from the Big Picture program.
“What appealed to President [Roy] Nirschel is that this program involves students from backgrounds that are typically under-represented in college,” said Lynn Fawthrop, the university’s senior vice-president for enrollment and advancement. “One of our core values is ensuring that college community represents the world at large.”
Although College Unbound hopes to grow to 120 students, the first class will be small. Eight students were selected from a total of 40 applicants, all of them from Met-style schools across the country. (Big Picture has opened 66 small, alternative high schools like the Met in cities from Los Angeles to Camden, N.J.). College Unbound decided to begin the pilot program with students from Big Picture schools because these teenagers are already familiar with advisories, internships and a nontraditional school day. Since cost is a huge hurdle for low-income youths, students who attend College Unbound will only pay $1,500 a year toward tuition, plus room and board. Big Picture has already raised $500,000 in private grants and Roger Williams will pay for half of the $12,000 tuition, plus a $500 stipend for books and supplies.
Click here to listen to WRNI’s piece about College Unbound.