The idea of a national non-profit
educational change organization began with the opportunity to
design a brand new Rhode Island school called The Met. And, in
turn, it was the opportunity to design a brand new kind of school
that inspired the formation of The Big Picture Company. The Big
Picture Company designed and founded The Met, and nearly ten years
later, the two still work closely together as the hub of a national
effort to demonstrate that schools and education can be radically
different, and wildly successful.
In 1993, Stanley Goldstein, founder of the CVS Corporation, asked
Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor of Thayer High School in New Hampshire
to come to Rhode Island to help improve education in the state.
A few months later, Theodore Sizer, chairman of the Coalition
of Essential Schools at Brown University in Providence, invited
Dennis and Elliot to be the first Senior Fellows at the newly
formed Annenberg Institute for School Reform. In July of 1994,
after learning more about the state’s educational needs
from Rhode Island Commissioner of Education, Peter McWalters,
Dennis and Elliot created the Rhode Island Educational Reform
Project through their work at Annenberg. This was the beginning
of a state and national education reform effort headed by Dennis
and Elliot, that, in 1995, became the independent, non-profit
called, The Big Picture Company, Inc. With a motto of "Education
is Everyone’s Business," The Big Picture was founded
with the sole mission of encouraging, inciting and effecting change
in the education system. As co-directors, Dennis and Elliot merged
their national reputations for successful educational innovation
with a staff of creative and passionate reformers, and a Board
of Directors that included both national education leaders and
prominent Rhode Island business professionals.
Around the same time, Rhode Island was re-examining its educational
system, particularly its vocational and technical programs. In
1993, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), began the
research for the development of a new career and technical school
in South Providence. This resulted in a report entitled “Education
Program for the Greater Providence Career and Technical School.”
The report proposed that the facility and site specifications
of the school ought to follow, rather than precede, the development
of the school’s philosophy and curriculum. It also proposed
that the school should aim at educating a cross-section of students
with varying interests and abilities, integrate business and technical
training with life skills and academics, and focus on fostering
good citizenship among its students.
A South Providence citizens’ group along with the Board
of Regents, the Governor’s Office and the General Assembly,
brought the question of this new school to a vote on a $29 million
bond issue in a public referendum in the 1994 election. The Regents
determined that, if approved, the new school would draw its students
from the entire state and would be called “The Metropolitan
Regional Career and Technical Center” (The Met). The public
voted “yes” to the bond issue and this new school,
and in 1995, RIDE contracted the newly-formed Big Picture Company
to develop the first phase of The Met’s design and implementation.
The total project was a public/private partnership of RIDE, the
RI Department of Employment and Training’s Human Resources
Investment Council, The Annenberg Institute, the CVS Corporation
(then the Melville Corporation), and The Big Picture Company.
With the approval and support of these organizations and government
agencies, The Big Picture Company prepared the design of The Met
- a bold new school dedicated to educating “one student
at a time” - and opened the first campus in the Shepard
Building in downtown Providence in September of 1996. In 1999,
a second campus of the Met opened on Peace St. in Providence,
and in 2002 four additional Met schools opened on a central campus
in South Providence, along with a fitness center, a performance
space, a culinary kitchen, and a state-of-the-art technology center.
The Big Picture’s mission to
catalyze vital changes in American education has led us to much
more than the creation of the network of Big Picture Schools.
In 1999, Big Picture launched The Principal Residency Network
(originally named the Aspiring Principals Program) as a leadership
development and certification program that prepares aspiring principals
through full-time, school-based apprenticeships. This program
is now run through the Education Partnership. In 2000, The Big
Picture Company opened the CVS Highlander Charter School as part
of its overall commitment to generate and sustain a fundamental
redesign of K-16 schooling in Rhode Island. Like The Met, CVS
Highlander is dedicated to educating “one student at a time”
in a small school environment. At its opening, the school began
with grades K-5 with plans to add a grade each year as new kindergarteners
enroll. In 2004, CVS Highlander graduated its first 8th grade
class. The mission of the CVS Highlander School is to help elementary
school children develop as active and responsible citizens, productive
workers, and life-long learners.
The Big Picture Company has used its
design of The Met Center as a model for the development of similar
schools across the country with the support of the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2000, we supported the implementation
of the Big Picture philosophy at the new United Preparatory Academy
middle schools in Detroit. In September 2002, Big Picture Schools
opened in El Dorado, CA, Oakland, CA, and two Schools opened in
Federal Way, WA. In September 2003, more Big Picture Schools opened
in Detroit, MI, Sacramento, CA, Denver, CO, and two schools in
Chicago, IL. In 2004, Big Picture Schools opened in Mapleton,
CO, San Diego, CA, two schools in Indianapolis, IN and a K-8 school
in Santa Monica, CA. In 2005, Big Picture Schools will open in
Camden, NJ and Bloomfield, CT.
In 2002, The Big Picture Company received
a grant from the Noyce Foundation to study the process of generating
and sustaining Big Picture Schools around the country.
In 2003, Big Picture received
a $1.9 million grant to serve as coordinator of the Alternative
High School Initiative, a group of six youth development organizations
that will generate and sustain a total of 122 schools over five
years.
And, in 2004, The Big
Picture: Education Is Everyone’s Business by Dennis
Littky with Samantha Grabelle, is published by the Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). The book
was distributed as member benefit to 96,000 ASCD-member educators
in the United States and throughout the world.
In June of 2005, the book received top honors
as the winner of the Association of Educational Publishers' (AEP)
Excellence in Educational Publishing 2005 Distinguished Achievement
Award.
