In the continuing exploration of how museums might best fulfill their missions as educational institutions, a few have gone to the heart of the matter: they opened charter schools within their walls. Case studies from Michigan, California, and Arizona provide a report from the field – and the classroom.

This series of articles was published in Museum News, September/October 1998.

The Most Public of Public Schools

By Wendy Pittman and William S. Pretzer

THE HENRY FORD ACADEMY OF MANUFACTURING Arts & Sciences is a four-year public high school academy-a charter school-located on the premises of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Mich. The museum and Ford Motor Company are the founding partners of the academy, which is chartered by Wayne County RESA (Regional Educational Service Agency). The academy opened with 100 ninth-grade students in the fall of 1997 and will graduate its first class in 2001, when it will have its full complement of 400 students in grades 9 to 12. Students are selected by simple lottery from applicants in Wayne County. The faculty, all Michigan-certified teachers, have been recruited from industry and education. As defined by the charter, the board of directors includes three representatives from the museum, two from the corporate partner, one superintendent of a local public school district, and one parent of a student attending the academy.

The academy is the first major collaborative effort of its type involving a global corporation, a renowned not-for-profit cultural organization, and the public schools.

Imagine a public school where students have immediate access to the resources of a great museum or science center. Imagine students with direct access to the skills and perspectives of a major corporation. Imagine a public school where students and teachers see and are seen by 1 million visitors a year! Think about the students' ability to actively interpret past, present, and future. How might such a school affect teaching and learning? What impact would it have on its sponsoring organizations?

The Henry Ford Academy of Manufacturing Arts & Sciences is being developed with these characteristics and questions in mind. The goal is to provide a model that links public education as broadly and deeply as possible with the resources and activities of the larger community, in this case, the business world and the cultural community. This is a school of choice – not for everyone, simply one way of customizing education for students' diverse needs. The vision is rooted in a commitment to public accountability and a belief in the power of institutional collaboration.

In 1993, Gov. John Engler signed a bill allowing for the creation of charter schools in Michigan. Engler chose the steps in front of the Scotch Settlement Schoolhouse in Greenfield Village as the site for his educational reform bill ceremony, noting that he hoped for a charter school at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village as well as at other cultural organizations. He was, in fact, merely updating Henry Ford's original vision. Ford's indoor/outdoor museum was dedicated in 1929 and the Greenfield Village School opened in that same year. At its height, just before World War II, the school enrolled more than 400 students in grades 1 to 12. The organization operated as an independent school as well as a museum for the visiting public until the school closed in 1969.

In fact, the museum leadership had focused increasing attention and resources on an expanded educational mission before the governor's comments. Former Museum President Harold K. Skramstad, Jr., initiated a thorough review of the museum's mission in 1992, which resulted in the board of trustees' adoption of this mission statement:

Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village provides unique educational experiences based on authentic objects, stories and lives from America's traditions of ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation. Our purpose is to inspire people to learn from these traditions to help shape a better future.

Once the governor made his announcement, the museum was deluged with offers to start charter schools on the museum's grounds. Local teachers, parent organizations, and New York's for-profit Edison Project made serious proposals. A charter school, however, was but one of several vehicles considered by museum staff. In February 1995, Steve Hamp, then director of educational programs (now the museum's president), invited two local educational leaders to explore mutual concerns and opportunities: Mike Flanagan, superintendent of Wayne County RESA (Regional Educational Service Agency), and Renee Lerche, then director of strategy process and planning for Ford Motor Company. Both had reputations as innovative educators.

Hamp, Flanagan, and Lerche were convinced that problems in the public schools demanded solutions developed in conjunction with other social sectors. They were intrigued by the possibilities of a collaboration among the public, not-for-profit, and corporate sectors. They decided to explore the potential of a charter school.

Thus began a 14-month feasibility and preliminary planning process. Initial conversations brought together a number of possible participants including local community colleges and universities, educational consultants, businesses, and community groups. Discussions focused largely on the issues of vision and mission, but governance structures, curriculum, faculty, and facilities all received attention. Using a grant from the Ford Motor Company Fund, the project contracted for planning consultants from the College of Education at Michigan State University.

The group hammered out approaches to fundamental issues. Every decision involving governance and legal oversight, location, and philosophy was investigated, debated, and understood to be full of implications and consequences:

• The museum and motor company would be the founding partners and would be formally represented on the school's board of directors along with a superintendent of a local public school district and a parent.
• Wayne County RESA would charter the school and provide legal oversight, thus permitting student applications from the entire county.
• The school would be a four year high school committed to an intensive use of innovative instructional technologies and employing the theme of manufacturing as a lens through which to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum that would meet state and national academic standards.
• The school had to model innovative approaches to teaching and learning; aspects of the school would have to be replicable elsewhere; if the school's approach and program were only successful for 100 students a year, it was not worth the effort. Facilities would be developed on the grounds of the museum using start-up money committed by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The school, to open in 1997 and graduate its first class in 2001, would be named the Henry Ford Academy of Manufacturing Arts & Sciences.

In April 1996, Gov. Engler joined Ford Chairman Alex Trotman and William Clay Ford, Jr., chairman of the museum's board of trustees, to make the public announcement. That left 15 months to make all the arrangements – facilities, staff, curriculum, students, just to name the most obvious – for the first day of school.

A steering committee composed of senior leaders of the sponsoring partners oversaw the work of staff teams devoted to facilities; curriculum; student activities; community information; student application process; faculty and staffing; instructional technology; organization and governance; transportation; funding; and professional development. Corporate, museum, university, and public school staff participated on all teams, contributing experience, expertise, and judgment. Each team faced its own challenges and struggles. For example, existing school boards generally approve new institutions, but in this instance, the board structure had to be defined before the school could begin operations.

Steven Bingler, president of Concordia Architects of New Orleans, was named the academy's principal architect. Bingler's design process emphasizes participant involvement, linking the built environment with the curriculum and incorporating existing resources as much as possible. He devised a master plan for campus development. Building on the museum's existing facilities – a cafeteria, rest rooms, auditorium, pool – allowed planners to envision a 400-student high school for a fraction of the typical cost.

The goal was to integrate the school and museum environment as much as possible, but provide as much separation and security as necessary. Using a storefront glass-with-aluminum-grid system, the offices and classrooms are visually accessible to museum visitors but sound separation and fire-code issues are satisfied. Located in the main exhibit area of the museum, the academy's offices and ninth-grade learning studios are within full view of hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

The rest of the school is located in Greenfield Village. The farms, fields, and historic structures of the village will again be the focal point for formal education. Non-historic structures such as an old restaurant and arcade are being converted into learning studios, project rooms, staff offices, and a cafeteria. Eventually, some historic structures, such as Thomas A. Edison's Fort Myers, Fla., laboratory, will be converted for use by the academy students as well as museum visitors and summer camp participants.

Learning Designs, Inc., a curriculum development firm in Auburn Hills, Mich., was contracted to initiate the curriculum development process. This firm conducted an assessment of national and state curriculum standards, including standards for advanced manufacturing education; held workshops with university and public school educators on innovative curriculum approaches; and interviewed business and industry representatives on skills needed for the global economy. The resulting curriculum framework, and several manufacturing projects that help students see real-world applications for their discipline based studies, are refined and developed into actual lesson plans by the teaching staff.

Due to Michigan's charter school law, creating the student body was simple enough. The law stipulates that eligibility for charter schools is limited only by the geographic area served and the student's grade level. By virtue of a charter from the Wayne County RESA, students from Wayne County were eligible to apply. The county is home to Detroit and 33 adjacent school districts of widely disparate socio-economic and demographic characteristics. All students in the eighth grade during the 1996-97 school year from the 34 districts were eligible to apply to the academy. In fact, 616 of the more than 10,000 eligible students did apply. From these, 100 would be randomly selected in a computerized lottery process conducted by an independent accounting firm. They would become the Henry Ford Academy Class of 2001. Of the 616, 110 were invited to attend the orientation meeting, with numbers 101 through 125 placed on the waiting list.

More challenging for the school, and more critical to its very spirit and mission, was ensuring that the student body would be representative of the communities of Wayne County. An extensive community and family information system was established. Advertisements were placed in major metropolitan newspapers, suburban weekly publications, and Michigan's major African-American newspaper. Radio advertisements also ran on a variety of stations with very disparate demographic profiles. The museum, Ford Motor Company, and Focus: HOPE, a well-known community organization in Detroit, included information about the academy in their widely distributed publications.

Materials were distributed to all school districts in the county and to the parochial schools. Groups representing ethnic communities, particularly the African-American, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern communities, were invited to an informal dinner at the museum and encouraged to distribute information. Finally, a series of seven community meetings were held in different locations throughout the county, from the inner city to the suburbs. The result was truly gratifying: a diverse population of applicants, representing families from all over the county and almost equally divided between girls and boys. The lottery draw resulted in exactly 50 boys and 50 girls being selected in the first 100. These students came from Detroit and 18 separate suburban communities; 69 came from public schools and 31 from non-public schools. Fifty-five were African American and 35 Caucasian with the rest divided among three or four more ethnic backgrounds. Approximately one-fourth of the students qualified for the federal free or reduced-cost lunch program. Their previous educational backgrounds ranged from privileged and high achieving to less-than-adequate and scoring well below grade level. This past March, a similar process was followed that resulted in over 520 applications and an equally diverse entering class of ninth graders.

Well before this student profile was known, the planning staff recognized that these pioneering students would face serious transitional issues, beyond those that affect any child moving from middle or junior high to high school. These students were moving to a school that did not yet even exist. They were going, for the most part, on their own, without their neighbors, friends, or former classmates. They were not going to a traditional school; they would be attending classes in a museum. And they were going to a school that proclaimed that it would be unlike schools they had previously attended.

The staff planned an orientation week that focused on important aspects of student life. This consisted of activities that helped students and staff to get acquainted, discussions about diversity and respect, introductions to key Ford Motor Company and museum participants, tours of public and behind-the-scenes areas of the museum, and training in public speaking and press relations. The staff recognized that going to a school in a veritable "fish bowl" required that students be prepared to handle public interaction gracefully and effectively.

These activities all contributed to the students' recognition of the five key developmental areas defined for academy students. These areas include communication, thinking and learning, personal management, and technology, as well as academic content. Academy faculty not only teach their academic subjects, but they are also models for the other areas of student growth. Drawing on discussions within the business as well as the educational community, planners focused on these five developmental areas as essential to each student's future success. Regardless of individual hopes and ambitions, the future demands that individuals:

Recognizing these issues is no innovation. What is innovative is making them elements of the school day along with math, science, social studies, and language arts and creating developmental opportunities and rubrics for assessing student growth and achievement. Academy staff and their partners are working to make goals and standards in these areas as demonstrable as those of the academic disciplines. Parents play a big part in the process of standard-setting as well. Parents helped define the dress code and the student code of conduct. Parents have raised funds, distributed the school's newsletter, sponsored social events, and worked with staff to bring together content experts and students. Plans are underway to connect parents to the school via the Internet.

Of course, conceptualization, planning, and orientation are essential, but, as we say in the Motor City, "the proof comes when the rubber meets the road." Launching any new enterprise is fraught with challenge and success is commonly defined in degrees. So let's start by noting that the first semester daily attendance rate for this school averaged 96 percent, and that included students who had to ride public transportation for up to two hours each way to attend class. Retention rate between the first and second years is expected to be better than 90 percent. This is a high school that students want to attend.

It is a school where the teachers are encouraged to develop lesson plans that draw on the resources of the World Wide Web, the museum, and Ford Motor Company, as well as more traditional sources. Textbooks are found alongside laptop computers. Company employees have served as "academic coaches" and project experts. The boys' basketball team used a nearby junior high school gym and school dances were held in the museum's ballroom. The museum's employee cafeteria is now also the school's cafeteria. Many employees, who looked forward to a moment of quiet in the private cafeteria, were concerned about having 100 ninth-graders eating there. However, schedules were devised so that there were no more than 35 students in the cafeteria at one time, and the academy had a staff member moniter the students while they were dining. Field trips included a play at Wayne State University and a visit to the Ford automotive design center. Student activities range from publishing a newspaper to a laptop computer club as well as student government, sports, and social events.

Students use museum artifacts and exhibitions for analysis, inspiration, and association. For example, students in math class used the museum structure itself as a resource, making estimates and calculations of geometrically symmetrical window, wall, and ceiling areas as well as irregular exhibit spaces. Clear plastic covers on light switches and security boxes provide opportunities for science and technology lessons. Emphasizing the "muse" in "museum," students in the language arts class found a spot in the museum and recorded their impressions of the environment, once in prose and once in poetry. Students produced brass candlesticks using early 20th-century machine tools and calculated tool speeds, feed rates, and mechanical advantage in the historic Greenfield Village machine shop as part of their study of physics. A discussion in civics began in front of the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in that fateful night at Ford's Theater.

In part, our experiment is to see how the direct, authentic world of the museum and the interactive, virtual world of electronic media complement one another in education. This first year of museum use was exploratory in nature. There was no effort to impose a "museum learning" philosophy on the teachers and students. Rather, each teacher was encouraged to find ways to incorporate resources at hand into their lesson plans. With more time for preparation in this and succeeding years, academy staff will work closely with museum staff – "museum subject-matter experts" – to prepare activities that more extensively exploit museum opportunities. Parallel discussions occur with Ford Motor Company staff in the effort to connect needs with opportunities. Similarly, this first year has been an experiment in the use of computers, Internet-based communications, and the World Wide Web. Next year, those resources will be more intensively employed in daily activities.

It is clear that teaching and learning does not happen just in school; nor does it happen just between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.; nor does it involve only 5- to 18-year-olds and a smaller percentage of 18- to 22-year-olds. New kinds of educational experiences are needed to prepare adolescents for a world where one is constantly learning and applying new knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Not allowing school to be separate from the rest of life – to connect culture, politics, business, family, and public life with education – is a challenge for us all.

The Henry Ford Academy of Manufacturing Arts & Sciences faces that challenge every day. It draws on its partners for opportunity and inspiration. Its partners – museum, corporation, public schools, and higher education – are strengthened and inspired by their partnership with each other and with the academy.

Wendy Pittman is president, Henry Ford Academy of Manufacturing Arts & Sciences, and William S. Pretzer is senior leader for educational strategy, Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Mich.

The Museum School: A Model for Educating Through the Arts

By Gwen Fowler

For San Diego's Children's Museum/Museo de los Niños, the inspiration for a museum school came from Executive Director Robert Sain's experience in Chicago. There he had worked with Michael Spock and a group of museum professionals to develop a new kind of public school that would use the collections, exhibitions, programs, and facilities of Chicago's leading museums.

That was in the spring of 1992. In August of that year, Sain was recruited by the board of the then-named and newly homeless Children's Museum of San Diego. His first priority was to find a new location for the museum, which had been evicted (due to an upcoming renovation) from its former retail mall facility. Sain first secured a strategic downtown site. He then expanded the museum's vision to embrace the notion of the nation's first kids' block – an innovative mix of cultural, social, and health service organizations and businesses that would serve the children and families of the greater San Diego region. The idea of a museum school developed as a natural extension of the museum's new mission, philosophy, and direction – to provide arts-based learning experiences to adults and children.

Sain's idea for a school gained enthusiastic support from the museum's board and staff. In late 1994, Barbara Broderick, the museum's then director of development, wrote a proposal to the San Diego City Schools' Board of Education requesting that a charter be granted to create the Museum School, a school that would "use the exhibitions, programs, facilities, and relationships of the Children's Museum of San Diego and other San Diego cultural institutions to. . .teach basic, meaningful life skills to the ordinary child." It would serve 80 children in grades 3 to 6; include regular visits to area museums; utilize the services of museum curatorial, education, and administrative staff on research projects, curriculum design, and evaluation; provide apprenticeships for students with museum staff (curators and exhibition designers); afford behind-the-scenes museum experiences not available to children in other public or private schools; and offer the opportunity for collaborative work, for both students and teachers, with the artists, designers, architects, scientists, writers, and business people associated with the museum.

The San Diego City Schools' Board of Education approved the proposed charter in February 1995. The proposal was then forwarded to the California State Board of Education. In May 1995, only six months after the original proposal had been submitted to the local school district, the Museum School became the 81st charter granted by the state of California. It was also one of the first school charters granted to a U.S. museum.

News of the museum's charter school was released to the public. Soon, parents who wanted to register their children (some of whom were not yet born) began calling the museum. Sain and the entire staff celebrated the victory and the school's popularity. But then members of the community, who knew of the museum's day-to-day financial demands, began to challenge the practicality of opening a school. According to Sain, they argued "Wait a minute! Your front door is broken and you're trying to start a school? You don't have e-mail, and you're trying to start a school? You don't even have one red cent of endowment, and you're trying to start a school?" His reply to every challenge was, "That's right!" The Museum School was not merely "a nifty or noble pursuit for the museum," says Sain. "It was a strategic interest of the future of the institution." His hope was that the school would strengthen the institution's position in the community and with area schools by demonstrating the museum's value as a resource for students and teachers.

Despite the broken front door and lack of e-mail, the Children's Museum/Museo de los Niños was (and continues to be) supported by increasing numbers of adults and children. The strategic solution, then, became to expand the museum's reach into the community and into the realm of education funding. As Sain says, "Our interest was really not in the politics of a charter school. . .. Our interest was in how to apply the resources of museums. In our case. . . a charter was the only way to do it."

In retrospect, a charter was only one of the ways to do it. During the 1997/1998 school year, the museum launched Art Lab, an education initiative developed in cooperation with the San Diego City Schools. Designed by an executive committee that included Kay Wagner, a museum board member and director of visual and performing arts for the San Diego City Schools, Art Lab was developed to promote the museum's mission of "learning through the arts" and to demonstrate the link between learning, relationships, and creativity and their effect on student achievement. It also became a way to test the efficacy of using the exhibitions and artists associated with the museum to teach basic skills to elementary school children, the premise of the Museum School. One lead artist was selected for Art Lab, and two more worked with children in a classroom at Walker Elementary, a local public school whose student population most closely represented San Diego's demographic profile.

Walker's principal, Rich Cansdale, enthusiastically backed the new venture. But many teachers were reluctant to try Art Lab, feeling that their work loads were already too heavy. Cansdale and Wagner persuaded the teachers that Art Lab, instead of adding more work, would help them find new ways to approach their curriculum requirements. Artists contributed to Walker Elementary's curriculum, not as adjunct performers, but as integral partners in the teaching of the basic material. An exhibition and the accompanying activities developed by museum staff became the basis for the Art Lab's work with the Walker students. In fall 1997, the museum presented "Memories of Childhood," an exhibition organized by the Steinbaum-Krauss Gallery in New York. Students, teachers, and artists made field trips to the museum to view the show and, after several months' work in math, language, writing, and social science, the students designed and built an exhibition of their own called "Memory Masa." (The title, chosen by the students, may be loosely interpreted as "mass or group memory.") This was a colorful womb-like kitchen constructed from a metal frame and covered with a canvas skin painted with words and symbols drawn by the students. Inside, the students installed unique appliances, including a velvet refrigerator and a sloping counter (designed for people of various heights). They also incorporated sensory and visual cues – such as fragrant potted herbs, family photographs, and recipes – to stimulate visitors' thoughts of home. Throughout the exhibition, visitors were encouraged to explore a variety of issues relating to their memories of home and childhood – a charge similar to that given to the artists commissioned to create works for "Memories of Childhood."

At the end of the school year, the teachers at Walker Elementary, pleased with their students' performance, elected to continue the program in the 1998/1999 school year, and to incorporate Art Lab's teaching methods throughout the school. As a result of the continued success at Walker, the museum will make the Art Lab program available to more schools in San Diego. Sain's hope is that Art Lab methods can be applied in schools throughout the region.

The school's request to continue Art Lab, coupled with recognition from the California State Board of Education, which presented Walker Elementary with a California Distinguished Schools award for its work with the museum, were strong indicators that the Museum School would work for both students and teachers. The next step was to push for funding the school.

Sain knew that the museum would not be able to raise funds for the school without assistance. He hired as a consultant a long-time colleague from his early days in Minneapolis, Wayne Jennings, an educator and proponent of school reform. Jennings had started and successfully operated several schools, one of which had won the Pacesetter Award from the U.S. Office of Education for being educationally exceptional, cost effective, and worthy of replication. Jennings' first task was to obtain a planning grant from the California State Board of Education. He then set about creating a business plan and a budget. He developed policies, procedures, benefit packages, job descriptions, and a multitude of other essentials. He also helped to find, interview, and hire Carl Hermanns, the Museum School's new director.

Sain had discovered early on that as a charter school the Museum School would be eligible for a scant $2,200 per student from San Diego City Schools. Jennings knew from experience that per-child allotments could fluctuate depending on class sizes and ages of students. He also knew that the formula amount that the school district offered would not cover the day-to-day operations of the school. He researched San Diego City Schools' funding parameters and was able to secure more per-child funding by proposing that the Museum School open with 30 children in grades 3 and 4 (rather than 80 children in grades 3 through 6).

As a result of Jennings's efforts, the per-student allotment from San Diego City Schools to the Museum School increased from $2,200 to $5,700. That $3,500 difference per child has allowed the Museum School to open in September 1998 with 30 third- and fourth-grade students. It has allowed the Museum School to launch its model program of using the exhibitions, programs, and resources of the Children's Museum/Museo de los Niños and other San Diego museums to teach children basic skills. It will allow the children who attend the Museum School and visit the museum regularly to give invaluable feedback to the exhibitions department and artists so that they can become better at what they do.

The Museum School is located in a facility adjacent to the museum. Airy, open, and colorful, the school echoes the spacious interior of the museum's 30,000-square-foot structure. Its flexible floor plan is designed both for direct instruction (an entire class) and for cooperative learning groups – comprised of three to five kids – led by Hermanns or Sabrina Buselt-Carlon, a teacher recruited from Walker Elementary and the Museum School's only other employee. During the first year, Hermanns and Buselt-Carlon will incorporate into the curriculum "Design Worlds-Diseño Mundos," the museum's largest exhibition to date and the most comprehensive exhibition about design in the country created specifically for children. Funded by a $460,000 grant from the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation, "Design Worlds-Diseño Mundos" is intended to empower children with the language and tools necessary to explore the everyday world through the disciplines of graphic, industrial, fashion, and environmental design. The exhibition will open in four phases, starting in late 1998 or early 1999.

Based on the creative activities that will be developed for "Design Worlds-Diseño Mundos," one of the first projects on the agenda for Museum School students, according to school director Hermanns, is to design and build desks that the students will use throughout the school year. The desk project is one example of the school's approach to teaching that initially attracted parents and children to the school. It will employ basic design principles intended to enhance the students' math and motor skills. At the same time, the students' classroom work will inform the museum staff and the curators of "Design Worlds-Diseño Mundos" (Jonathan Ive, vice president of design at Apple Computer, fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, graphic designer Ivan Chermayeff, architect Adele Naude Santos, associate editor of Wired magazine Mark Frauenfelder, and artist Alan Kaprow) during the final months of planning and building the exhibition.

From the start, the idea for the charter school developed as a way to use the museum's resources to the fullest. The Museum School, Art Lab, and "Design Worlds" are happening at the same time because the museum was able "to demonstrate impact on multiple levels and a smarter use of dollars," says Sain. "'Design Worlds'" will fill 100 percent of the museum for one year. So the major exhibition in the museum will serve the public. The major exhibition will become Art Lab's foundation. And the major exhibition will form part of the basis of the Museum School's curriculum." It is a terrific synergy that is, as Sain says, "an unbeatable combination."

Gwen Fowler is marketing director, Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños, San Diego.

Partners in the Arts

By Karen Butterfield

A CHARTER PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL EMPHASIZING the visual and performing arts, Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy (FALA) is located on the research grounds of the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, on pine-forested land, with the majestic San Francisco peaks serving as a natural backdrop. The Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) collects and displays objects relating to Native American art and history, natural science, and contemporary art. Where appropriate, its art and science exhibitions are integrated into FALA's curriculum. School lessons are centered within six 28-by-60-foot modular classrooms, but the museum shares its entire 400-acre campus with FALA's students and faculty. Thus a visitor to FALA might encounter:

• high school students giving dance, dramatic, and musical performances in the museum's lecture hall, or exhibiting their artwork in the museum's galleries,
• teachers and administrators working with the entire museum staff to plan the academy's integrative lessons,
• Earth science students and their teacher learning from the museum's paleontologist as they examine fossils from MNA's collection,
• art students sitting in a gallery featuring works by a Navajo artist listening as the artist explains how he incorporates color, texture, poetry, and cultural values into his art.

Inspired by his words, the students return to their classroom to begin sketching their own ideas.

This fall, the school will serve 145 students in grades 9 to 12. After two successful years of operation, FALA continues to strengthen its rigorous academic/arts programs with its museum partner. The Arizona and U.S. Departments of Education have cited this partnership as a model of excellence. In addition, other museums across the country are looking at FALA as a model for their own charter schools.

My interest in the Arizona charter school movement began in 1994, when 50 charter schools opened their doors throughout the state. After 20 years of public school arts teaching and administrative experience, I wanted to start a charter school because I believe that a curriculum emphasizing the arts strengthens the whole child and develops analytical thinking skills. I investigated several arts-based schools, asked a lot of questions, and started writing a charter. In Arizona, one can apply for a charter through the local school district (which rejected my application), the state charter board, or the state board of education (which accepted my proposal). The lengthy and time-consuming application process requires a complete description of the school's curriculum, an assessment model to measure student achievement, a detailed plan of the site and the classrooms, a financial plan for the first three years of operation, the structure of the board and how it will operate, and a parental involvement plan. The school answers directly to its sponsor – in FALA's case, the state board of education regarding such issues as finances, annual student assessment, and attendance. As the writer and legal signer of the charter, I was responsible for all of the above.

FALA's charter was granted in January 1996, but I did not yet have a site for the school. My husband and I looked at a 10,000-square-foot facility in a shopping center, not the ideal environment for a high school setting. We also considered finding financial investors to purchase property and then leasing modular classrooms. By Feb. 1, our options were running out: If we did not find a workable site for the school soon, I would have to postpone the charter school for another year.

The partnership with the Museum of Northern Arizona began with a phone call to Kathy Chase, the spouse of an MNA board member whom I had known for more than 20 years. The day after the charter was approved, I called Kathy and asked whether the MNA could host the school, sharing the school's modular buildings for summer outreach programs and more.

Less than a week later, Michael Fox, MNA's director called and said he would hear my proposal. The rest, as they say, is history. Mike believed that hosting a school like FALA on museum grounds would strengthen MNA's programs for youth. He envisioned getting suggestions from high school students about how to design museums as intergenerational campuses that would better serve all youth. We both saw the school as an exciting venture that could counter the traditional paradigms of how museums and public schools serve the public. In addition, MNA's cofounder, Mary Russell Ferrell Colton, has been acknowledged as northern Arizona's first art educator. She was a painter who developed arts-based programs for local children and worked with Native American artisans in the development of their work.

Two weeks after that initial meeting, the proposal to house FALA on museum grounds was approved by the MNA's board of trustees. (Legally, the Museum of Northern Arizona is not responsible for FALA's operation and governance. That responsibility lies with me and the school's board, which includes MNA's vice president of museum services, Roger Clark).

We had no time to waste. Leadership from the museum and FALA joined forces to organize the school, proposing the site plan to city planning and zoning officials for approval and preparing for state inspections. I also applied immediately for two state and federal "stimulus grants" – another bonus of Arizona's charter law – designed to assist new schools with expensive first-year site costs. FALA received double the funds that other charter schools averaged; we believe this is because the state board of education viewed the school as a strong candidate for success due to its partnership with MNA. The $82,000 grant was spent on preparing the grounds for the modular buildings, utilities, licensing costs, safety and health costs (class A fire alarm systems, etc.), and more.

Early on, Mike Fox met with the local school district superintendent to ensure relations would continue to be positive. This was a crucial step for us politically, as 10 charter schools had opened in Flagstaff in a two-year period and were considered "threats" to the local traditional school district. FALA and MNA have always viewed the partnership as community-based and accessible to all. After the school opened, I invited the superintendent and his board members to visit the site. FALA and MNA also obtained much media attention, soon becoming a local, state, and national model for a community partnership. Parents and community leaders phoned, exclaiming, "[We] wish we had thought of the museum [for the school]!"

The development of the partnership was centered upon several ground rules:

1. At both charter school and museum, there must be clear communication, based upon the values of trust, honest, and mutual respect, across all departments (administration, education, security, volunteer coordination, etc.). Quarterly reports of FALA's progress are presented to the museum's national board of trustees.

2. The school and museum must remain autonomous while at the same time collaborating to strengthen the vision of both organizations. FALA and MNA maintain separate financial structures, and each has its own set of policies and standards. The school is responsible for all public school compliance issues.

3. Both museum and charter school must develop and maintain high standards of excellence. After its second year of operation, FALA continues to score above the local, state, and national norms on the Stanford 9 achievement test. Its academic program is as strong, if not stronger, than its arts programs. FALA is going through the rigor of the accreditation process.

4. Both organizations understand that they must be community-based. Therefore, MNA and FALA have worked to maintain strong relations with the local public school district, arts agencies, Northern Arizona University, professional artists, and community and civic leaders. Our goal is to best serve all children, not solely those who elect to attend the academy.

Learning about Museum Work

MNA's apprenticeship program is taught by Rachel Edelstein, the museum's manager of education programs and a certified teacher. This program teaches FALA students about all aspects of the museum – as a business, as a future work place, and as a service agent to the public through its arts, research, and science programs. Trained as junior docents, the students provide tours to other school-aged children and teens. This past spring, as part of the museum's annual Youth Arts Celebration and the students' final exam, the apprenticeship class designed and hosted its first professional exhibition "Teens Through the Decades." The class wrote grant proposals to procure funding, researched memorabilia from the 1950s through the '90s, and created scale models for the construction of the final exhibit. The apprenticeship program has become the strongest branch of the MNA/FALA tree, demonstrating the achievements of the high school students within this inter-generational museum campus. The apprenticeship class also prepares future museum employees and supporters.

FALA students also volunteer at the museum throughout the year. To graduate, they must fulfill 15 hours of community service per semester. Students also develop a strong interest in museum programs simply because the school is housed on museum grounds. FALA students have assisted MNA staff with its summer Heritage Programs and Indian Marketplaces, special exhibitions, a children's art corner, and museum open houses, to name a few. In addition, students also serve as museum aides in the administration and education departments, obtaining both academic credit and grades in the process. This past school year, one FALA senior was put on the museum's payroll after she successfully completed a semester of volunteer work.

FALA faculty and students also have access to the museum's Colton Research Library, which houses research materials about the Colorado Plateau. In addition, teachers and students share MNA's archival, archaeology, ethnology, geology, paleontology, and fine arts resources.

FALA students and faculty have been adopted by the MNA staff and FALA, in turn, has adopted the museum. After two years of operation, faculty have noticed that the students have a strong, increased respect and reverence for this beautiful museum, its outstanding staff, environment, and fine arts/scientific treasures. The FALA/MNA partnership is built upon high standards of excellence and mutual respect. Its goal is to encourage our young adults to be creative, critical, and analytical thinkers and to help develop strong leaders for our nation's future.

Karen Butterfield, Ed.D., is executive director, Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy, Flagstaff, Ariz.