Bay Area School of Enterprise
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The Bay Area School of Enterprise (BASE) founded in 2001, is the first youth created charter high school in the United States. It was created by 10 youth and 2 adults working in the afterschool program HOME Project to create a school for non traditional students. BASE is a public charter school in the Alameda Unified School District.
BASE is a small project based school in Alameda, California. The students participate in numerous small projects, called enterprises, and a major enterprise in humanities (English and History class, alloted a double block) class each year.
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[edit] Mission Statement
Charter schools are generally founded to address a need, and so they have vision and mission statements that they adhere to as closely as is feasible.
BASE's Mission Statement: We are intelligent and committed youth who want to see change in our world and are assertive about achieving it. We see that traditional high schools do not meet the needs of all teenagers. We are providing an innovative alternative learning environment that will better serve today’s youth. At the Bay Area School of Enterprise, each youth will create an individual plan incorporating enterprise, project-based learning, internships, small group instruction, and independent study, as appropriate to the way each individual best learns. Because learning occurs everywhere in the real world, our school will seek learning opportunities throughout our neighborhood, community, region, nation and world. Our school will graduate powerful new citizens who are ready to take responsibility for the future. It will be a model of what is possible in education when youth are empowered to take charge of their own learning.
The BASE Mission Statement is revisited and rewritten at each charter renewal (a charter term is 5 years). This is the most recent revision.
[edit] Student Body
The school serves students from Alameda and Oakland. There are 93 students enrolled in the 2006-2007 school year. The school model is meant for a very small school, and BASE has an enrollment cap of 120 students. The intense community and accountability would be diffused, if enrollment were higher.
[edit] Location
The BASE building is on the former Alameda Naval Base in the Decommissioned Officers Club. As the school grew from 47 students in 2001 to 97 students in 2004, it was necessary to expand the school. To this end, students petitioned the Alameda Unified District Board for two portables, which they received. The school is relatively isolated from shops and houses.
[edit] Enterprises
Enterprises have many requirements, but the spirit behind the requirements is: enterprises must benefit the youth (by helping them develop academic skills, develop socially and morally, and the enterprise has to help the larger community (outside of BASE) in some way.
Before doing a project, the students have to link the real world to their curriculum (the freshman class usually gets more help from the teacher in this step than the other classes). The teacher facilitates and guides the process, helping the students find consensus but not taking over the project. (The exception is when an enterprise is needed for the school, such as presenting the Annual Report to the school board or dissemination. For these enterprises the proposal process is skipped and the enterprise is an elective or extracurricular group.) Once the students have a proposal, they present it to outside community members for suggestions.
The community members judge the proposal based on its adherance to the school principles, called the Six Rs and the Seven As.
The seven A's are specific to enterprises, not the whole school. They are
-Assessment Practices- before the project can begin and in presentations, measures of success, and debriefing students are assessed
-Adult Relationships- students work with adults with expertise in the relevant field (social activists, coaches, council members, parents)
-Active Exploration- this A can be considered a linguistic stretch in order to provide alliteration: the students go into the world for interviews, flyering, research, and so on. This is a departure from traditional school projects.
-Attainability- (formerly sustainability, until it was pointed out that attainablity is more accurate and also begins with A) the project must be achievable in the time available with the resources available (many petting zoos and paint ball courses would have been partway founded if not for this requirement.)
-Academic Rigor- the project has to be relevant to the coursework and provide academic stretches for the students (some examples are: writing letters to the editor, writing poems, researching history)
Authenticity- enterprise has meaning and value to youth. The enterprise constitutes daring action and involves risk.
Applied Learning- the enterprise clearly links to and applies specific course outcomes (as listed in the course syllabus). The enterprise requires youth to use skills and develop competencies expected in the world of work (time-management, use of technology, problem solving, creative thinking, professional communication, learning skills, and collaborative work skills.)
[edit] The Six Rs
Formerly the 5 rs, these principles guide every decision made in and for the school. During school crises the posted signs are fervently pointed to, for example. Respect Rigor Relationships Responsibility Real Risk
[edit] Spirit and Traditions
The school colors are red and white. At the end of a student or coaches' first year at BASE there is a breakfast that includes a key ceremony during which coaches present antique metal keys on ribbons to new students and coaches. After completing their time at BASE, students "ring out" on an old fireman's bell. The tradition is inspired by the Navy Seals tradition. The bell is never rung at other times and in fact, there are no bells to indicate the changing periods at BASE. Students who visit or attend other schools after BASE report feeling disoriented and needled by school bells, or simply forget to wait for them at all.
