A Class Act

No MVPs here—it's all about the team.

Robert Lenz ’86 knows that the lessons he learned during his four years playing rugby at Saint Mary's have translated into life skills. In fact, for Lenz, co-founder of Envision Education—which runs three high-performing charter high schools in the Bay Area—it's all about the team, not the individual.

"When I played rugby at Saint Mary's there were no MVPs," he said. "You knew you were only as successful on the field as your teammates. It's the same at Envision. We've built a culture of collaboration and teamwork for both the teachers and the students."

Founded in 2002, Envision Education's main goal is to close the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students by focusing on project-based learning—a classroom approach that helps kids develop knowledge and skills by working on real-world questions or problems over an extended period, from a few weeks to a whole semester. Because students are actively learning rather than simply memorizing information, the technique pays off, according to Lenz. More than 90 percent of Envision school graduates go to college, compared to 40 percent of all California high school graduates; for African American students, the rate is 87 percent compared to a national average of 32 percent.

And it's not just graduating from high school and going to college that contributes to a student's long-term success: They need to finish.

"Going to college doesn't transform your life—actually graduating from college does," said Lenz, who recently published a new book, Transforming Schools Through Using Project-Based Learning, Performance Assessment, and Common Core Standards. "In the US, the overall rate of students who are either still in college or graduated five years after high school is 60 percent. In contrast, our first Envision cohort of graduates had a rate of 72 percent, and our second group had a rate of 85 percent.”

Lenz took a circuitous route to becoming an educator. He graduated as a government major and worked for a while after college as a glue salesman ("a tacky job," he said) for a Berkeley firm. His first teaching gig was at Saints Peter and Paul Salesian School in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. While he worked there he got his teaching credential and a master's in education through an evening program at San Francisco State University.

His time in college definitely shaped his educational style, Lenz said.

"One of the biggest influences in my career has been the emphasis on community and connectedness that I experienced during my undergraduate years—both with fellow students and with professors," he said. "After Saints Peter and Paul I worked at Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, and started a small learning community there with these values in mind."

Lenz's efforts bore fruit: In 1999, Sir Francis Drake was one of 13 schools named by the U.S. Department of Education as a "New American High School" showcase site; in 2000, it was featured in U.S. News and World Report's high school issue. The honors brought national exposure.

"We were hosting visitors from all over the country, and what I kept hearing again and again was, ‘It’s great what you're doing here, but it wouldn't work for the kids in my community,’” Lenz said. "I got tired of hearing that, so I launched Envision."

Envision's three schools—in Oakland, Hayward and San Francisco—are intentionally small, with no more than about 450 students. Seventy percent of Envision students are the first in their families to go to college, and since they don't have family members to help them prepare for the SATs or think through where to apply, teachers and staff take on this mentoring role.

Students fulfill the A-G course curriculum (a range of classes required for entrance into the University of California and California State University systems), and not only do they have to pass these classes, but are expected to create a college-ready portfolio of what they think is their best work by the time they are seniors. The portfolio consists of a textual analysis, a research paper, a piece of scientific inquiry, a creative project, and a reflection on their own growth; examples vary widely, from a retelling of Dante's Inferno through mosaic to a scientific analysis of the BP oil spill in 2010. To graduate, Envision students undergo a dissertation-like defense of this portfolio during which they make the case that they're ready to go to college.

"The portfolio is a key part of our project-based learning framework," Lenz said. "It gives them an advantage in college, because they're really comfortable participating in class and giving presentations."

Lenz was also the first in his family to go to college. But he's aware that he had more opportunities than most Envision students do.

"My parents did an amazing job supporting my education, even though they didn't go to college themselves," he said. "They communicated the expectation that I would go and supported me in that. But since I'm white and male, I had all kinds of opportunities that my Envision students don't necessarily have. Really, my accomplishments pale in comparison to theirs."

To further spread Envision's educational model, in 2010 Lenz created Envision Learning Partners, a consulting and training arm of the organization that helps district and charter schools put Envision tools to use. Collaborations take place over at least a year, and include a summer institute for teachers—during which they get a chance to experience Envision techniques—and support with curriculum and teaching methods while school is in session, Lenz said.

"We're now working with schools across the country," he said. "In fact, this past year we finished working with six high schools in Detroit, and more than 700 seniors defended college-ready work."

Along with his efforts for Envision, Lenz has continued to serve at Saint Mary's as part of the School of Education's advisory board and as a teacher in the school's educational administration program. His modus operandi is very Lasallian, said Kathy Perez, SMC’s director of the master’s of arts in teaching.

"Bob's passion is to help underserved students achieve success in high school and beyond—to teach them life skills for the real world, not just theoretical knowledge," she said. "His approach resonates well with the Lasallian vision."

Envision alumnus Kaleb Lawson agrees. Lawson met Lenz when he was 14, and was the first Envision student to attend college at Saint Mary's, graduating in 2011.

"Bob encourages students to take ownership in what they're doing, to invest in their own education," Lawson said.

And Lenz himself certainly takes ownership of making Envision principles available to other educators. His book, released in January by Jossey-Bass/Wiley and co-written with colleagues Justin Wells and Sally Kingston, underlines the need for a "deeper learning" educational structure, one that helps students build on core knowledge as well as develop their critical thinking, collaboration and communication abilities.

In the end, it always comes back to that team framework—individuals working together, according to Lenz.

"Successful rugby players don't run directly to the ball—they run where the ball is heading," he said. "We're helping kids anticipate and prepare for life events that may seem like setbacks, but become opportunities for learning."

This story originally appeared in the Spring 2015 edition of Saint Mary's Magazine.