Chief Academic Officer Terry Edwards talks about how Everett Public Schools has dramatically improved graduation rates over the past seven years.
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An old idea is making a strong comeback in several states: Let 10th graders graduate from high school and enroll in community college if they're ready to do so. The idea of early graduation has a lot of merit, because it lets students choose a course that best suits their specific talents and aspirations.
But what about the opposite idea? What about late graduation?
No natural law dictates that high school should take four years. Some students can do it more quickly if they're ready to move on. But others, like recent immigrants who are still learning English, may need more than four years.
A high school principal once told me that she did what she could to keep some recent immigrants in her school as long as possible, even though her school's on-time graduation numbers suffered as a result. Some students arrive at her school at age 15 with no English and little or no formal schooling under their belts.
The larger point of any flexible graduation scheme is that the number of hours you spend warming a seat in your school should be less important than what you learn while you're there. As we weigh the benefits of early graduation, we shouldn't forget the needs of those students who need a little more time. ...
Emily and Bryan Hassel have an idea: Don't get too hung up on plans to make teachers better. Instead, figure out how to help the best teachers reach far more students. After all, they argue, the top 20 percent of teachers are three times as effective as the bottom 20 percent.
Try as they might, though, they cannot escape the need to support teachers through good old fashioned staff development, curriculum and assessment. It's time the education economists paid much closer attention to these critical areas, which are just so déclassé these days.
Of course, the Hassels' argument raises all sorts of questions. How do you identify the top 20 percent of teachers? Do we trust test scores? Will teachers stay in the top 20 percent from year to year? Are the "top" teachers good in every kind of school? Are they effective with every kind of student?
But the Hassels face an even bigger challenge. Their plan will require nothing short of a massive investment in all those things their fellow educonomists find oh-so tedious: Teacher training. New curricula. Much, much better tests. If we pursue the Hassels' brave new reforms the way we pursue most reforms--on the cheap--then we're going to be in a whole heap of trouble.
The Hassels, like so many of their ideological brethren, seem to believe that great teachers are born, not made. Hence their relatively dim view of staff development. (I've always found it curious that so many reformers who insist that every child ...
Success Stories
Story posted August, 2008
Results:
• Pass rates on Virginia Standards of Learning tests often meet or exceed state averages
• Steady gains on SAT and other standardized test scores over the past several years
J.E.B. Stuart is the most diverse high school in Fairfax County, Virginia - and it may be one of the most diverse in the nation. Thirty-nine percent of students are Hispanic; 19 percent are Asian; 12 percent are African-American; and 27 percent are White (and, of that total, 19 percent are of Middle Eastern origin). More than two-thirds of Stuart's students do not speak English as their primary language; and 41 percent were born in other countries (82 other countries, to be exact).
Add to these statistics the fact that more than half of Stuart's students qualify for free or reduced meals due to poverty, and it's clear that this suburban high school's faculty and staff have their work cut out for them. Their response to the school's remarkable diversity? A determined effort to respond to every child's individual learning needs. ...
Bending Bureaucracy to Kids' Needs in Great Neck
Story posted June 10, 2008
Results:
• The district tailors educational programs to students' diverse needs and interests
• Every student at the district's "Village School" for non-traditional high school students passed every Regents Exam in every subject
Great Neck Public Schools Superintendent Ronald Friedman doesn't like to play favorites, but one student at the 2007 North High School graduation made him especially proud. "Billy" had nearly dropped out of school near the end of his junior year. He wasn't going to pass a required math course, and the school's staff sensed that when faced with the prospect of attending summer school or repeating the course, Billy would likely give up.
Instead of sticking to the standard protocol, teachers and administrators collaborated to find a solution that would work for Billy. They created a summer tutorial he could complete at home. One teacher volunteered to meet with him periodically and wrote a special exam, which Billy passed. His coursework back on track, he returned to school in the fall and graduated on time. ...
Helping Dropouts Return to School
Story posted May 28, 2008
Results:
• 94% of students improved their grades after coming to Classic City High School
• 97% of students improved their attendance
• 150 students have graduated, with one-third pursuing post-secondary educational options
Clarke County School District's community has approximately 1,500 students ages 16 to 22 who are not enrolled in school-a number equal to the enrollment of each of its traditional high schools. The majority of these students are black or Hispanic, and many live in poverty. Because a high school education is critical to finding economically viable employment and because Athens-Clarke County has persistent, intergenerational poverty, the district decided to offer a way for dropouts to earn their diplomas. ...
Empowering Educators to Improve Outcomes
Story posted April, 2008
Results:
• 83.3% of students now read at or above grade level, which is well above state average
A sign in the main office of Southside Primary School lists "protected reading times" for each grade level (for example, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. for kindergarten). "No interruptions can be made to classes at these times," the sign warns.
Southside's vigilance when it comes to guarding classroom reading time is a reflection of a broader effort at the school to ensure that teachers have not just the time, but also the necessary skills, to help their students succeed. And, at Southside, success is measured according to one major objective: that 100 percent of students will be reading at or above grade level before leaving second grade. ...
A Wake-Up Call Sparks Action in Arizona
Story posted April, 2008. Results updated August 18, 2009.
Results:
• Greatly reduced the proficiency gap between the lower and upper grades
• In 2008 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th grade proficiency rates in math, reading and writing were all over 80% (over 90% in some cases) and all above state averages
Administrators and staff at the Vail Unified School District recognized they had a problem back in 2003. Student scores on the new statewide AIMS test showed a downward trend as children in Vail schools moved up through the grades. For example, while third-graders were scoring in the 70-percent range on average in math, by middle school and high school proficiency rates dropped into the teens.
"It was a real wake-up call," said Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Debbie Hedgepeth. "Students weren't performing where we knew they could and should." ...
Using Electives to Get Struggling Students More Math
Story posted April, 2008
Results:
• Participants math benchmark assessment scores improved by 17% from 2004 to 2005 and 9% from 2005-2006
• Math Essentials students on average outperformed grade-level students as a whole on the first two benchmark assessments of 2006-2007
The high schools in the Walled Lake Consolidated School District had a problem. Some students were scoring below proficiency on their 8th grade standardized tests. Fueled by the conviction that all students can learn, and that high school is not too late to turn students' lives around, the district tried many strategies to address this challenge: It pulled students out of their grade level courses, subjected them to a computer-based intervention, and stretched a semester's worth of content into a year of instruction. Yet student performance data from these intervention programs showed no effect or, in some cases, even negative effects on student achievement. ...
Creating a Learning Environment--Moving from Chaos to Achievement
Story posted February, 2008. Results updated April 1, 2010.
Results:
• 64.1% of students met or exceeded state math standards in 2009--better than the state as a whole despite serving a significantly higher proportion of students in poverty
• 67.7% of students met or exceeded state reading standards, close to the state average
How could Dayton's Bluff Achievement Plus Elementary School, a school so troubled that children rode their bikes in the hallways, become a beacon of achievement and learning? The transformation took leadership, vision and a willingness to turn a chaotic place into a nurturing learning environment. ...
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