Draft:Open World Learning Community

Open World Learning Community

Open World Learning Community, commonly shortened to OWL, is a public high school located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States that serves students from 6th to 12th grade. OWL is in the Saint Paul Schools District and has been part of the national network of Expeditionary Learning schools since 2017. The school, originally named St. Paul Open School. was founded in 1971 as the original magnet school for the district. The school moved to its current West Saint Paul location in 2014. The current location shares the building and facilities with Humboldt Senior High School.

History

Open World Learning Community was founded in 1971 as St. Paul Open School by a small group of community members and parents, with a mission to create a child-centered school with a basis in the Open learning philosophy. The school was considered a research demonstration unit of Saint Paul Public Schools. The school’s first location was built in 1971, at 1023 Osceola Ave. It was one of the first open schools in the country. It was scrutinized by educators around the world and featured on several media programs. All students within St. Paul were eligible to attend. There were no entrance examinations, and previous school experiences were not considered for enrollment. Applicants were judged on age, sex, race and socioeconomic background to maintain a representation of the city's demographics. Financial constraints and conservative trends during the 1980s led to a possibility of closure, due to a drop in enrollment from 500 k-12 students and a large waiting list in 1971 to about 330 and no waiting list in 1988. This contributed to the identity crisis of the school. In 1988, a consultant hired by the district concluded it was a difficult place to be because of the confusion over what it was trying to do and how. The school survived, and the student population grew again. In 1994, St. Paul Open School needed more space. After petitioning the district, they were moved to a mostly unused school building, at 90 S. Western Ave. After failing to hit the targets of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2009, Saint Paul Open School underwent major changes. It transitioned to an expeditionary learning model, but still kept some aspects of Open learning. In 2010, the district directed the school to shed its elementary grades and move to a smaller building in Downtown St. Paul, then move to another location on the West Side. By 2014, the school moved into its current location, at 640 Humboldt Ave.

Curriculum

OWL is a member of the national expeditionary learning network, which promotes active, inquiry-based, education. A fundamental part of OWL is “Crew.” Crew is an advisory group that meets daily. Each Crew is a group of students from 6th to 12th grade. The goal is to set a positive and fun tone for student achievement through community-building activities and to provide students with a support system. The OWL curriculum is designed around “learning expeditions” that allow students to investigate issues in the school, community and world. OWL offers Advanced Placement classes and PSEO classes. Spanish is the only offered language course, but students can take other languages through the Flipside program. OWL has a variety of extracurricular classes such as Journalism, Choir and Digital Photography.

Student Life

OWL students are encouraged to participate in a variety of different activities to enhance their learning in the classroom and connection to their peers and the school. OWL only hosts three sports at the school: Archery, Ultimate Frisbee and Fraquetball. OWL’s archery team is the only inner-city Archery team in Minnesota and Saint Paul’s only school-sponsored Archery team. The Archery team has individual state champions in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2024, as well as First Place High School State Champions in 2023. Fraquetball is a sport created at St. Paul Open (now OWL) in 2003 and has been run by students since. It has been described as “ping pong meets floor hockey.” Students at OWL are eligible to play most other sports at Humboldt High School. For MSHSL sports that Humboldt doesn’t have, students can go to Central High School for cross-country, gymnastics, Nordic skiing and alpine skiing. OWL has a variety of clubs and student organizations, including but not limited to: FIRST Robotics, Feminism club, Black Student Union, Student Library Advisory Council, Environmental Club and GSA. Since 1990, students at OWL have had the opportunity to participate in the annual Outward Bound Service Adventure. Groups travel to Outward Bound base camps to do service activities.

Students

Currently, Open World Learning has 476 students enrolled, with a student-teacher ratio of 20 to 1. There are 47% female students and 53% male students. The school enrolls 33% economically disadvantaged students. 35% of students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 67% scored at or above that level for reading. Owl has 42.6% minority enrollment. Specifically, the student population’s ethnicity is: 57.4% White, 14.3% Hispanic/Latino, 11.8% Multiracial, 8.2% Asian or Asian/Pacific Islander, 7.8% Black, 0.6% American Indian or Alaska Native.