GWEN IFILL: Here’s an idea for improving the learning environment in a low-performing urban school: Stand the traditional classroom model on its head. That’s the experiment under way in a suburban Detroit school.
Jeffrey Brown has the story as part of our American Graduate project, a public media initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
MAN: So, you see how they are in the same family.
JEFFREY BROWN: What if you took the traditional school day and flipped it on its head, not literally, of course, but having lessons offered at night at home and homework done by day in the classroom?
That’s the experiment under way at Clintondale High School just outside Detroit, an area still reeling from the economic and social ills of the nearby city. The school serves many low-income families and faces tight budgets and declining enrollment.
MAN: So what’s the number part that I’m going to need for all three?
RELATED INFORMATION
Creating the flipped ‘lecture’ for at-home use