Bayley in the USA

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Description

John Bayley spends a week at Olympic High in North Carolina where a dynamic new head is facing major challenges. When Pam Espinoza took over 7 years ago, the school was in crisis. Results and behaviour were the worst in the district, and staff morale in crisis. Since then, Espinoza has worked a minor miracle, and last year took the dramatic step of splitting the 2000 students complex into five small schools, each with its own principal. But Olympic faces a new challenge: the decline of America's global economy. Espinoza believes the country's multi-choice testing system, long thought to be best served by teaching from the front, is poorly equipping students for the 21st century, where skills like creative thinking and team working will be essential. Active learning, and project based teaching are the new buzzword, but it's proving a struggle. Some teachers are finding the changes tough, and test scores have taken a worrying dip. Can John Bayley offer some solutions?