Imagine a School ...

in which all children achieve at high levels, regardless of their backgrounds ...
that treats all children as gifted and builds on their talents through enrichment strategies, independent research, problem solving, science, writing, music, and art ...
in which all members of the school community develop a vision of their ideal school ...
in which all members of the school community collaborate to achieve that vision by making major decisions about curriculum, instructional strategies, and school organization ...
where ideas count

As long as she can remember, Christine Finnan has been imagining a school where ideas count and the achievements of all school children are at high levels. The ideal stated above, taken from the Accelerated Schools Plus website, is Finnan’s ideal.  She says she initially became interested in the development of so-called “accelerated learning” while at Stanford University, the school where she earned her doctorate.   She would be involved in developing the innovative Accelerated Schools PLUS program, a comprehensive approach to school change designed to improve schooling for at-risk children.

Accelerated learning helps children achieve high levels, regardless of their backgrounds, and treats all children as gifted and builds on their talents through enrichment strategies independent research, problem solving, science, writing, music and art.  The program challenges the segmenting of students by gifted, average and remedial levels and details strategies, methods and philosophies to help teachers understand how accelerated strategies and programs can benefit students of all levels and backgrounds.

Finnan knew that she wanted to better the education in schools by starting with children at a young age and found that “hands-on” involvement was more effective than research alone. “I found it to be a good way to help kids, especially those coming from low-income homes,” said Finnan, now an associate professor of elementary and early childhood education at the College of Charleston.  Finnan is also an associate dean with C of C’s School of Education and is the director of the South Carolina/Georgia Accelerated Schools PLUS Program.   

Since coming to Charleston in 1991, Finnan has helped implement accelerated learning at several area public schools and the results, she says, have been very positive.  “With accelerated learning parental involvement has improved greatly and discipline problems have gone down in those schools involved with the program,” she says.

She says teachers using accelerated learning approaches report students who are more “active and responsible” and more “turned on to learning.”

“The notion that gifted kids are the only ones who benefit from accelerated learning opportunities has fallacies,” Finnan said in a 2000 College of Charleston news release about her book, “Accelerated Learning of All Students: Cultivating Culture Change in Schools, Classrooms, and Individuals” (co-written with fellow C of C education professor Julie Swanson).  “All kids have the propensity to explore and to become engaged in learning. If you give them relevant experiences, and show them that you care, often times they’ll come through.”

New Charleston County School Superintendent Maria Goodloe is high on the Accelerated Learning Program and is interested in expanding it to more area school.  The goal is admirable-- and as Finnan has found at schools already committed to accelerated learning—the goal is attainable:  to do for low-achieving students what we have done for gifted and talented students—accelerate their program rathern than slow it down. 

For more information on Dr. Christine Finnan, please see her website at:  http://www.cofc.edu/~finnanc/

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