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New England Project Aims to Use 'i3' Aid for Innovative Learning Approaches

Justin Quigley, 16, a junior at Pittsfield High School, in Pittsfield, N.H., observes a surgery at the Companion Animal Hospital, in Chichester, with Dr. Fiona Doody. He is shadowing veterinarians at the hospital as part of a regional program that seeks to extend students’ learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom.

—Katie Barnes for Education Week

For New England group, federal grant offers help going beyond classroom

By Diette Courrégé

In Laconia, N.H., high school principal Steve Beals sees the potential of a schoolwide culture that celebrates learning beyond a traditional classroom.

In the school year that just ended, nearly 30 percent of rural Laconia High School’s students participated in student-created, teacher-guided learning experiences that took place whenever and wherever students wanted. That could mean, for example, exploring the role of a pharmacist under the direction of a pharmacy director four or five hours each week, a project one of Mr. Beals’ students completed with the help of her biotechnology teacher.

Mr. Beals says those activities, formally known as Extended Learning Opportunities, have helped produce more engaged students and fewer dropouts. He now hopes that Laconia High’s involvement in a regional project funded through the federal Investing in Innovation, or i3, program, will allow that same kind of student-led learning to infiltrate courses...