The student success triangle: Jeffrey McClellan at TEDxCLE
The founder of MC-Squared STEM High School explains that student success requires building a "Student Success triangle" comprising motivation, social engagement, and self-management. He argues this holistic focus, rather than just test scores, fosters resilient leaders whose strength can withstand the forces of adversity. The ultimate illustration is a student named James, who demonstrated self-directed action by using a laser cutter to fix a flapping curtain, proving his capacity to create change.
## Speakers & Context
- Jeff McClellan, founding principal of MC-Squared STEM High School.
- Delivered presentation acknowledging nervousness and the importance of the school's model.
- The school was founded based on a document requiring 80+ partners from the Cleveland metropolitan School District.
- The context of the school involved putting students in learning environments that were sometimes *"sealed off to the students."*
## Theses & Positions
- A successful 21st-century learning environment must be characterized as both *"a small school with a large footprint."*
- Student achievement is best measured by mastery of learning outcomes, not the amount of time spent in classrooms.
- True student success requires achieving equilibrium across three areas: motivation, social engagement, and self-management.
- These three elements form the *"Student Success triangle,"* analogous to the strongest two-dimensional structure in engineering, the isosceles triangle.
- The community connection to the school is key, creating a situation where students are "conditioned to respond to situations in a different way."
## Concepts & Definitions
- **MC-Squared STEM High School:** The institution embodying the described model.
- **Lottery-based school:** Admission determined by lottery, not test scores or interviews.
- **Mastery:** A method that ensures students learn important outcomes at a high level by providing necessary time and resources.
- **Student Success triangle:** A conceptual framework arguing that success requires motivation, social engagement, and self-management.
- **Isosceles triangle:** Identified as the strongest two-dimensional structure in engineering.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Curriculum Progression:**
- **9th Grade:** Exploring STEM professions, with activities at the Great Lakes Science Center and working with NASA Glenn Research Center partners.
- **10th Grade:** Transitioning to East Cleveland, utilizing Neela Park's campus where students work through the entire product design process with GE engineers and volunteers.
- **11th-12th Grade:** The entire city becomes the campus; students complete paid internships with companies like Rockwell Automation, Turner construction, Lockheed Martin, and GE Lighting.
- **Motivation generation:** Achieved by focusing on mastery outcomes, recognizing that time is the variable, not what the student knows (the constant).
- **Social engagement development:** Stemming not only from peer support but significantly from relationships with adults, such as the twice-monthly lunch events with GE volunteers.
- **Self-management cultivation:** Developed through a process described as *"ringing Pavlov's Bell,"* which conditions students to respond positively to unpredictable situations.
## Named Entities
- **Cleveland metropolitan School District:** The governing body involved in the school's founding.
- **Great Lakes Science Center:** Location for 9th-grade activities.
- **NASA Glenn Research Center:** STEM partner utilized in the curriculum.
- **East Cleveland:** Location for 10th-grade activities.
- **Neela Park:** Location associated with 10th-grade development.
- **Rockwell Automation, Turner construction, Lockheed Martin, GE Lighting:** Companies utilized for 11th-grade paid internships.
- **Cleveland State University:** Location for the 11th and 12th grades (home base).
- **James:** Specific student featured in the concluding story.
## Numbers & Data
- Founding of MC-Squared STEM High School: **2008**.
- Number of founding partners: **over 80**.
- Scholarship money offered to the first graduating class: **over 6 million dollars**.
- Grade levels involved: **9th, 10th, 11th, 12th**.
## Examples & Cases
- **11th Grade Experience:** Students doing paid internships with companies like Rockwell Automation, Turner construction, Lockheed Martin, GE Lighting.
- **Lukes's biography:** (This section is not applicable as the source material does not contain information about Lukes.)
- **James's demonstration:** The student observed standing outside GE, running up to the principal, and using the laser cutter in the Fab Lab to fix a flapping curtain.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Laser cutter:** Located in the Fab Lab at GE.
- **Student Success triangle:** Conceptual model tool used for curriculum design and assessment.
- **Baited trap mechanism:** (Not applicable, used in a different source dossier).
## References Cited
- The *"founding document for mc-squared stem high school."*
- The **Cleveland metropolitan School District**.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The school acknowledges that the "special quality" in the students is something they "couldn't really explain."
- The school admissions process does not rely on test scores or interviews.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The model's success is predicated on maintaining a community connection to the school.
- The final message is that potential can be unlocked by creating an environment where students are continuously challenged across motivation, social engagement, and self-management.
## Implications & Consequences
- Successful graduates are producing leaders capable of sustaining growth and withstanding forces put upon them by city circumstances.
- The process develops students who can be recognized for work done in college because of the carryover from the high school experience.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"A small school with a large footprint, a 21st century learning environment."*
- *"I'm very used to creating environments in which students are doing amazing things and talking about the monster Jan..."*
- *"It's a lottery based school that would follow a year-round school calendar and would assess students based on mastery of learning outcomes as opposed to the amount of time that they set in classrooms."*
- *"This is Hakeem here in the foreground Hakeem is an engineer at GE and Hakeem has a lunch body every year eats lunch and soda so does every other student in our 10th grade they launch with a GE volunteer twice a month"*
- *"The motivation that they felt and the encouragement that they were receiving was a direct result of one of the key components of our school model which was was mastery."*
- *"I can be properly prepared to take on this task I can have the right people around me if I lose control of myself or if I participate in in destructive behaviors that compromised my ability to get to the end then I'm not going to be successful"*
- *"you know what there's a laser cutter in the Fab Lab at GE I can go in to that laser cutter and I can make something that stops that curtain from flapping"*
- *"If we can get James we can get pretty much anyone"*