Description of the Special Project

Hampton High School is just entering its second year and will have its first senior class
starting in the fall of 2015. The challenge is to provide a better method of preparing seniors for
the college or the workforce by giving them an opportunity to showcase all the skills they have
acquired over the past three years of high school. In addition, the school climate and culture
needs to be developed to accept this new approach to learning and consensus must be created
among teachers to build the collaborative environment for such an endeavor to take place. I
began the consensus building by sending out a survey to teachers and students in order to
measure interest in the idea of Capstone Projects for rising seniors. The online survey generated
a lot questions and interest in the idea. Several members of the English Department showed
interested in developing a Capstone Project Program. Several students even liked the idea of
doing something different for their senior year, especially something that would be meaningful to
them and the community. From this initial survey, the main overall question that emerged was
who would be responsible for organizing and monitoring the process. I agreed to be the
Capstone Coordinator with the understanding that all staff members would have a role in the
process. However, this was only a small group of the staff that showed interest and a meeting
was setup to present to the administrations Technology Team and Design Team to gain
administrative acceptance to the idea. The meeting was set for the first week of August, 2015.
With the goal of building consensus in the school, I contacted my colleague, Joann Absi,
the media specialist at Ashley High School in New Hanover County, NC. She was Graduation
Project Coordinator for 10 years and started the Graduation Project Program at Ashley High
School in 2003. We conducted an email interview in which she outlined some important ideas to
consider in implementing a Capstone Program. One of the important issues she mentioned in her

interview is to take advantage of the opportunity to create the process. Since there is no set
guidelines followed by the county, the staff has the freedom to create a process that they have a
part in creating. She mentioned that she worked in a new school similar to Hampton High
School and the idea of creating and being a part of the process was a great help in unifying the
staff around the idea. As she explained,
Since we were a new group, it was very easy for all of the staff to come together to
work on a new project; there was no past history of how things were done
previously and everyone bought into the idea of it being a collaborative project for
the kids. Faculty members serve as advisors, some taking 2 or 3 when necessary;
this includes not only touching base with the students to make sure they are keeping
up with due dates but also grading their research papers and providing opportunities
to practice their presentations and give suggestions along the way (Absi,
Interview).

In addition to giving me advice on how to build consensus, she also provided me with a
detailed description of the duties and roles of the Capstone Coordinator. In her interview, Mrs.
Absi explains that the she meet with English Department Head to discuss due dates for the
different parts of the project, created teams of faculty and community members as judges for
presentation night, and organized portfolio grading by entire faculty, as well as trained new staff
and community members of the judging rubrics used during presentation night. Another
important role that Mrs. Absi performed was to recruit judges from the community to participate
in the presentation night. Equally important to the success the program is the support of the
school leadership and administration. As she explained, The community was supportive and
the administration was supportive and took part in the judging and grading (Absi, Interview).
She goes further to explain the principal and administrative staff took an active role in the
process, welcoming judges on presentation night and participating as lead judges. The

administrations strong interest in the success of the program had a great impact teachers willing
to support the program (Absi, Interview).
Another important factor that Mrs. Absi emphasized in the interview was the importance
of having modern technology. Ashley was a new high school when it opened in 2001, and it was
only in its third year when it began its Graduation Project Program. The new facility and access
to new technology, especially video and multimedia technology, made the showcasing of
projects much easier on students and staff. As Mrs. Absi explains, When we started doing
graduation projects we were very fortunate to be a new school and having very up-to-date
technology. We had laptops and cameras that students could check out to use on their projects
(Absi, Interview). Since Hampton High School is a 1:1 technology school, it is well suited for a
Capstone Program. Students will have access to all the resources they need to get the help and
support they need to complete their projects. In addition to the interview, other school sites were
researched and their student handbooks were evaluated and examined. From examining student
handbook guidelines and rubrics from New Hanover County Public Schools (NC), CharlotteMecklinburg Public Schools (NC), Maine Department of Education, and Kansas Department of
Education, a rough draft student handbook was developed to be reviewed by the English
Department of Hampton High School. Changes from their analysis will be added before the
complete proposal will presented to the administrative Technology Team.
Building a Case for Capstone Project: A Review of Literature
Capstone and Senior Projects have been used in various forms for decades and have been used
with varying results in many different states and school systems. Archbald, D. A., & Newmann,
F. M. (1988) explained that the goal of these projects is to create authentic assessment of
student learning. They go further to explain that authentic assessment can provide students and

educators with authentic achievement. However, these assessments must include disciplined
inquiry, integration of knowledge, and value beyond evaluation (p. 11). In order for these
assessments to be authentic, students must learn new ideas that give them new knowledge,
research, analyze, and demonstrate what they have learned (Archbald & Newmann, 1988).
Darling-Hammond and Pecheone (2009) conducted a study which determined that performance
assessments such as projects can have these benefits:
elevate the focus of instruction to include higher-order thinking skills;
provide a more comprehensive assessment of what students know and can do;
allow instruction to be altered in a timely fashion to meet student learning needs;
lead to more student engagement in both the learning and assessment processes;
invite more teacher buy-in and encourage collaborative work; and
support standards-based instruction and improvement of teaching practices (p. 30).
Another study conducted by Achieve, Inc. and The Education Trust (2008) emphasized the
importance of developing group work skills and the ability to effective communicate and
collaborate. As the report explained, It is difficult in on demand testing situations for students
to demonstrate that they can engage in teamwork or perform contextualized tasks that involve
extended analysis, research, or communication (p. 29). A Capstone Program would provide
opportunities to learn these skills as well as offer an assessment that would measure these social
skills.
Another factor is the impact of a Capstone Project has on the senior year of students. A
study conducted by Kirst et al. in 2004 revealed that seniors who complete more rigorous

curriculum were better prepared for college and the work place. A Capstone program provides
this rigor as well as a more structured and meaningful learning environment that will reduce
consequences of senior laziness or disinterest. The study goes further to explain, The classes
students take in senior year will often determine the classes they are able to take in college and
how well prepared they are for those classes (p.295).
Another aspect of the impact a Capstone Program would have on student learning is the
greater engagement of students. Studies conducted using interviews and other mixed
methodology have revealed that there is a strong correlation between the Capstone experience
during senior year and student engagement in learning. One such study conducted by Anya
Lipnick Bent in 2014 explained that three themes of engagement are created by performance
based assessment: reciprocal learning, defined as student classroom learning applied in a
community setting; empowered learning, defined as students ability to make decisions about
their education that allows for a personal ownership in the process and the of their learning; and,
persistence to graduation, defined as the students continued learning to graduation. (p. 3). The
study goes further to emphasize that inclusion of a service learning curriculum in a senior
English class does have a positive impact on the engagement in a seniors final semester of high
school (Bent, p. 3). In addition to increased engagement, studies also indicate that
Capstone/Senior projects lead to improved moral development and better understanding of the
community in which they live. Deborah K. L. Tully in 2010 conducted a study on the impact of
Capstone and Senior Projects have on the moral development of students and she concluded that
Findings of this study suggest that a senior culminating project that includes community
service, as well as multiple opportunities for student reflection, has a positive impact on students
moral development (p. v).

To summarize, Capstone Programs provide students with an authentic assessment that

can measure skills and abilities not covered on standardized test, improved communications and
better understanding of group dynamics, increased engagement throughout the entire senior year,
and finally greater emotional development. All of these and many others are all positive benefits
of a Capstone Program.
Potential Solution to the Problem
The first step in the process is to form a Capstone Steering Committee that will approve
all guidelines and procedures needed to complete the Capstone Program. Using available rubric
and handbooks, the committee will approve the Hampton Student Capstone Manual that will
included all the rubrics and prompts need to complete the process. This Committee will also
help present the Capstone program to the Technology/Design Team in August, 2015. The
Capstone Committee will be chosen from the interested members from surveys sent out in May
of 2015 mentioned previously. There will be a member of each academic department on the
committee. The goal of the committee is to create three basic products to be approved by the
Technology/Design Team of Hampton High School. The first product is to create a student
manual. The second is to create a website that explains the process and lists resources to help
students and teachers to implement the process. The third is to create a multimedia presentation
based on a review of the literature on the Capstone Programs that builds a strong case for the
positive benefits of the program. The presentation will be in the form of a Powtoon video that
will be created by the Capstone Coordinator and presented to Capstone Committee for review
and feedback before presenting to the Technology/Design Team for approval. The Presentation
will conducted by Capstone Coordinator with support from members of the Capstone
Committee.

After approval of the program, the Capstone Committee will be in charge of training the
members in each of the departments of what the individual roles will be, for example, the role of
academic advisor. The Capstone Coordinator will be in charge of training the English
Department and providing technology and research support for implementing the project in the
classroom. The Capstone Committee will also be in charge of community involvement and
recruiting members of community to be judges and mentors for students (Lowder, p. 41-45).

Reference List
Absi, J. (2015, June 17). Capstone Projects [E-mail interview].
Achieve, Inc., & Education Trust. (2008). Making college and career readiness the mission for
high schools: A guide for state policymakers Retrieved from
http://www.achieve.org/files/MakingCollegeandCareer
ReadinesstheMissionforHighSchool.pdf
Archbald, D. A., & Newmann, F. M. (1988). Beyond standardized testing: Assessing authentic
academic achievement in the secondary school. Retrieved from ERIC database.
(ED301587)
BAKER CHARTER SCHOOLS Senior Capstone Project Guide 2013-2014. (2013, June 1).
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Darling-Hammond, L., Pecheone, R. (2009). Reframing accountability: Using performance
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L. M. (Ed), Meaningful measurement: The role of assessments in improving
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Alliance for Excellent Education website: http://www.all4ed.org
Graduation Project 2014-2015 Student Manuel. (2014, June 15). Retrieved from
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Kirst, M. W., & Venezia, A. (Eds.). (2004). From high school to college. San Francisco, CA:
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Lowder, C. M. (2008). Top 10 Ways For a Smooth Graduation Project Implementation. High
School Journal, 92(1), 41-45.
New Hanover County Graduation Project Handbook. (2011, January 11). Retrieve from
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Senior Capstone Project. (2011, June, 1). Retrieved from
http://www.kcpublicschools.org/cms/lib6/MO01001840/Centricity/Domain/101/KCPS%20
Capstone%20Guide.pdf

The North Carolina Graduation Project Published Fall 2014 Standards of Quality and
Verification Process for High School Accountability. (2014, June 1). Retrieved from
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