What Is HFLI
Who We Are
The Henry Ford Learning Institute (HFLI) is an innovative nonprofit organization dedicated to the belief that education reform cannot take place within an educational system that isolates students and teachers from the community and separates teaching and learning from the real world. We envision a future where public education becomes a truly public endeavor, engaging a community to create vibrant educational models, leverage underutilized local resources, and remove boundaries between learning and the real world. To this end, HFLI creates innovative small schools that bring national and local community resources into the educational process and help to create thriving communities where education is everyone's responsibility.
What We Do
Focusing on communities where traditional public schools have struggled to meet the diverse educational needs of all students, HFLI is developing a network of small high schools located in America's premier cultural institutions and community organizations. These schools will be based on Henry Ford Academy, the acclaimed small high school launched in Michigan in 1997 that is the nation's first school developed jointly by public education, a global corporation, and a nonprofit cultural institution. Over the next six to eight years, HFLI will work with communities around the nation to design and open ten new Henry Ford Academies.
What We Believe
HFLI's mission is to create educational models designed to serve as a visible learning laboratories, where innovations in teaching and learning are shared with the wider community. Classrooms on museum floors or on college campuses are used for community-wide education programs, and every effort is made to share existing resources — including curriculum and professional development opportunities — with the public education system. The model provides a real educational venue for community institutions to come together and think about education in new ways. Once that happens, innovations and ideas occur that move beyond an Academy, as partners share ideas and programs that can be leveraged to drive change in new and exciting ways.
Why This Is Important
From both an education-reform and workforce development standpoint, high school is a pivotal point in a young person's life. The academic and skill-based foundation that is formed -- or, more commonly, not formed -- for young people during this time in their lives impacts their potential for an effective transition to post secondary education, job training, and/or the workplace. Ensuring that more students make this transition successfully is essential if our nation is to remain a global leader in the creation of high wage, high skill jobs and industries.
Unfortunately, our system of public education has served to isolate high schools from their communities, and therefore from significant untapped educational resources. It also creates an environment where teenagers feel no formal connection to their communities. We see the result of this disengagement in unacceptably large drop out rates, anemic college-entrance rates, high college remediation rates, and a frustrating lack of progress in raising long-term high school educational attainment as measured by standardized tests. To reverse this, we must begin to create models of education that engage students, connect them to their communities, and show them the relevance of what they are learning.
Living Our Mission
HFLI was founded on the belief that public education must become a truly public endeavor. Nowhere is this vision more urgently needed than our nation's urban centers. Schools must strive to bring the entire community together to drive meaningful, long- term educational change. It is not enough to simply create an outstanding school for 400 students — instead, HFLI is focused on creating dynamic community change agents. By nature of its design, the Henry Ford model is uniquely qualified to make a significant difference in urban communities. We hope you will join with us in support of children, education reform, and in bringing about truly "public," public schools.
Academy Design Framework
The original Henry Ford Academy, launched in 1997, is a public charter high school that combines the strengths and resources of The Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company, and Wayne County Public Schools. Widely acclaimed for its design and careful preparation of college-ready students, additional Academies are now being planned for selected major U.S. cities. Each Henry Ford Academy will be based on the following design framework.
Partners In Learning
Central to the design of a Henry Ford Academy is the commitment to public school as the center of a tightly knit, growth oriented community. The business and community partners of an Academy are critical to its ultimate success. These partners bring together their financial, material and human resources to support the development of powerful, authentic learning experiences for students, and by extension, the further enhancement of their own organizations. Academy partners provide students with work-based tools, projects and contexts; contribute time and experience through mentoring, tutoring and serving as Adult Partners in the Senior Mastery Process; and support a wide variety of core and co-curricular programs. Most significantly, the host institution shares its physical space and overall professional community with staff and students on a daily basis. The strategic use of shared resources enables both an Academy and the contributing partner institution to identify and take advantage of underutilized community assets.
Public Schools in Public Spaces
Academy students learn in a real-world environment that deeply embeds the school within a content-rich public setting. HFA Dearborn students attend classes and participate in learning experiences in the midst of The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, an open environment containing millions of irreplaceable artifacts and documents, and 1.6 million visitors and over 1,500 employees and volunteers. Students and teachers interact daily with the objects, exhibits, historical presenters and curators that form the essence of The Henry Ford. This content-rich environment provides students with the opportunity to work with and learn from the myriad unique resources contained within its walls. Teachers incorporate the analysis of artifacts, presentations from curators or historical interpreters and on-site exploration of relevant exhibits into their lesson plans. These teacher-facilitated lessons help students develop their own abilities to respond to and learn from the environment through which they move every day. As a result, students develop a broad understanding of the content and skills associated with core subjects, as well as the ability to think critically, consider multiple sources of information reflectively, and communicate their developing understanding effectively.
In addition to its collection of historic objects and experts, The Henry Ford provides students with a truly public high school experience that has a tremendous impact on their personal and academic development. Academy students are expected to learn and work in this diverse and mature setting, interacting with people from all over the nation and the world and maintaining high standards of personal conduct. Their very presence in the larger organization exposes them to a much broader spectrum of people than you would find in the traditional, stand-alone high school. Furthermore, students are frequently called upon to provide assistance to visitors, collaborate with museum staff on joint events and serve as unofficial ambassadors of the organization simply by their presence on-site. This has a direct impact on the expectations for their behavior, social interactions, language and personal appearance.
The Work Place As The Learning Space
With its location in the center of a major cultural institution, HFA Dearborn provides students with opportunities daily to observe how adults live and work to meet the responsibilities associated with their careers. They witness the demands those adults face as they meet deadlines, plan and accomplish various tasks and goals, implement new strategies, collaborate with colleagues, continue learning long beyond formal schooling, and gain pleasure and a sense of accomplishment from a job well-done at the end of the day. In a very real sense, the adults with whom students interact model the essence of life-long learningÑ through their own needs and interests as well as through their engagement with students. This consistent multi-generation interaction reinforces the connections between what is emphasized in an Academy curriculum and what students will find in the world beyond their classroom. Frequently, students gain an awareness of careers that receive little to no exposure through the media, but which may prove to capture their interests or draw on their developing capacities and provide a viable goal for the future. In addition to attending school at The Henry Ford, Academy students have multiple opportunities to participate in the working community as full-fledged members. Many students hold jobs on vacations or during the summer break from classes. Others fulfill their Senior Practicum placement by working in one of the departments that make up the larger organization that supports Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. At times, the placements have been so successful that students have continued to work as part or full time employees of the Henry Ford long after they have graduated.
Authentic Achievement
an Academy curriculum provides students with a structured approach to developing deep knowledge that emerges from thoughtful, discipline-based inquiry and that addresses the value of that knowledge beyond the classroom. Graduates of an Academy are expected to demonstrate a high level of individual mastery in each of the Five Developmental Areas: academic content, communication, technology, personal development, and thinking and learning. Core classes, elective classes and co-curricular activities all are designed to reinforce some or all of the Five Developmental Areas so that students begin the process toward successful accomplishment from the very first day of school. All students must demonstrate they have attained the standards required of Academy graduates by completing the intensive Senior Mastery Process (SMP), a requirement for graduation. The SMP is the capstone to an Academy experience and is built to ensure that all students have indeed prepared themselves for the demands they will face as citizens of the 21st century global community.
Essential Elements
In addition to the overall Academy Design Framework, all Henry Ford Academies are defined by their adherence to and innovation around ten non-diminishable elements. While all Academies are expected to demonstrate these elements in ways that are most appropriate for their local community, there is also the expectation that each Academy works diligently to maintain consistency across these elements. HFLI works with each Academy to ensure these elements are successfully implemented and assesses them each year as part of the HFA Accreditation Process.
-
1. Small Schools, Small Classes
All Henry Ford Academies are expected to leverage the benefits of small schools and small class sizes. While exact school and class sizes will vary from site to site, research and experience give us ranges where student success, rewarding teacher roles, and financial stability can and do intersect. Academy classroom sizes of 15 Ð 25, and grade-level cohorts of 60 Ð 100 frame this expectation. Within these ranges and with careful consideration of resource constraints and availability, HFLI works with each Academy to determine the most effective size for a given school.
-
2. High Expectations for All
Being part of a Henry Ford Academy means agreeing to meet high expectations. With each Academy positioned as a nexus of reform in each community, school and student outcomes must be measurably high. HFLI and each Academy will work together to document challenging expectations for all involved and to assess them on a recurring basis. Academies are expected to deliver student results that are significantly higher than local comparisons and high enough to be considered national benchmarks. Academies are to be financially independent once full enrollment is reached. Teachers are expected to take responsibility for the success of their students and their ability as teachers. Students and parents must also commit to high, documented expectations.
-
3. Use of Henry Ford Academy Curriculum Adapted to Local Resources
The Henry Ford Academy curriculum has been developed to align with relevant state and national standards and benchmarks, incorporate the key elements of the Five Developmental Areas and reinforce the use of authentic pedagogy in its implementation. Academy teachers are expected to use this carefully written series of core classes with their students, adhering to its key content and instructional features while also bringing their own professional experience and expertise to bear on the classroom. With the support of HFLI, each Academy is expected to take advantage of its unique local cultural and community resources, integrating them into the students' regular learning experiences in ways that naturally reinforce in-depth learning and the connections between what students learn in the classroom and the world outside its walls.
-
4. College-Focused Culture
Each Henry Ford Academy is expected to develop a college-focused school culture that culminates in each student gaining admission to and graduating from a 4-year institution. Essential to this culture is the framing of high school graduation as a launching point, not a terminal event. With HFLI's assistance, each Academy is to design and implement, across all grades, a comprehensive strategy for guiding, informing, and preparing all students for academic success and to nurture a passion for intellectual development throughout their lives. The goal is for HFLI graduates to have successful careers in the American workforce while being active and engaged citizens in their local communities.
-
5. Extensive Use of Community Resources
Local partnerships are critical to the success of a Henry Ford Academy and are based on the belief that extensive but often untapped resources exist in every community that can provide significant educational value. Identifying and arranging for use of these resources provides part-time assets for an Academy, integrates students into the greater community, and offers a broad range of real-world-based academic content. Each Academy is expected to develop local partnerships with organizations able to provide these resources.
-
6. Participation in the Leadership Development Program
HFLI believes strong leadership is critical to the success of each Academy. Therefore, all Academy leaders are expected to participate in the HFA Leadership Development Program. During planning and start-up this program involves a range of training with experts from around the country, numerous visits to best practice schools, and a residency at the original Academy. After start-up, additional annual leadership training will be arranged throughout the year on both a group and individual basis. Each Academy is expected to invest, along with HFLI, in the development of their leaders.
-
7. Professional Learning Community
All Henry Ford Academy staff are part of a larger network of committed professionals working to support high student achievement in a variety of ways. By sharing successful programs and interventions, learning from each other's challenges and concerns, and maintaining regular lines of open support and communication, Academy staff will enhance the growing professional learning community in which they participate. This effort to learn from each other and apply the new knowledge and skills to the advantage of our students is a hallmark of the Henry Ford Academy Network of Schools. HFLI and experienced Academy staff will provide numerous structured events to promote the necessary relationships. Examples may include, summer workshops, paired principals, sharing data/evaluation feedback through accreditation workshops, etc.
-
8. Site Autonomy
HFLI believes that in order to meet the Network's high expectations for student and organizational success and to carefully adapt an Academy model to a given locale, each school must have a significant degree of autonomy. Accordingly, the board and senior leadership of each Academy are expected to effectively manage their own budget and the selection of all teaching and administrative staff. Though HFLI will provide each Academy with a consistent process for key internal decisions like budgeting and hiring, the decision-making responsibility lies with the principal and his or her board of directors, with staff involvement highly encouraged. Academies are also expected to arrange local partnerships, propose and create elective courses, and innovate in ways consistent with the core values of the HFA Network of Schools.
-
9. Site Accountability
Each Academy agrees to be accountable for delivering results. This means working with HFLI during the planning process, and in subsequent years through the Accreditation Process, to set agreed upon expectations for student and organizational outcomes. Accountability requires a commitment to gathering and maintaining a range of data and schools are expected to use HFLI's assistance and/or invest in capacity independently. Like students, each Academy will progress at its own rate, but all Academies will be subject to transparent annual reporting both locally and as a member of the Network.
-
10. Active Member of the Network in Good Standing
Being a Henry Ford Academy means conducting school operations in accordance with Network expectations. Some of these expectations are simple, like attending the annual Network Summit, supporting Academy branding efforts, paying a share of Network costs, and submitting required data on time. Others are more complicated, like participating in the annual HFA Accreditation Process, sharing best practices with other Academies, building a local nexus of reform, and working collaboratively with HFLI.
