St. Paul Pioneer Press Tue, Editorial, Jun. 27, 2006
Backed by Gates, earned with sweat
Our
high schools are the emotional centers of our communities. No one need
list their many challenges. So we are pleased to hear stories of
dreams, growth and change at several St. Paul high schools, stimulated
by a chunk of change from Bill Gates.
Harding High School and
Johnson High School, both on St. Paul's East Side, and Highland Park
High School, serving the western end of the city, report a burst of
innovation and creativity and some bottom-line improvements. All were
beneficiaries of grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The
money is running out but the creativity won't. The schools received
more than $2.5 million over a five-year period, which helped retrain
staff and reshape these large schools into groupings of smaller
schools-within-a-school. Because the Gates money bought time instead of
staff, many of the programs will continue.
"It's been a great
five years,'' said Johnson principal Kay Arndt. "We've had the
opportunity to do things I've never dreamed of.''
Johnson
Senior High School. (1,600 students) The focus has been on ensuring
that every graduate leaves school with a plan for post-secondary study.
Teams of teachers visited successful school programs in Texas and
Oregon, and eight sub-schools, known as academies, were created.
The
academies focused on such topics as architecture and engineering; arts
and communications; business and marketing; health sciences;
hospitality and tourism; and natural resources and sciences. All
students were required to complete a senior project, and Arndt said,
"They all rose to the occasion."
Harding Senior High School.
(2,300 students) For Harding, which is building on an educational
partnership with 3M, the Gates funding came at a pivotal point and
opened "a variety of possibilities,'' said principal Todd Hochman.
Harding
has academies devoted to fine arts, human services, medical and
environmental studies, and engineering and industrial technology. The
funding helped push along changes that included more autonomy for the
academies and improved training for teachers and administrators.
Highland
Park Senior High School. (1,450 students) Principal Efe Agbamu said
more teachers have been trained to teach the international
baccalaureate classes so more students can be exposed to "a rigorous,
challenging curriculum.''
Highland Park is organized into
three academies focused on technology and science, liberal arts and
world health and human services. With the Gates funding, there has been
a greater focus on students' working with individual advisors. "This is
personalizing high school,'' Agbamu said.
Joe Nathan, director
of the University of Minnesota's Center for School Change, which
administered the grants for the Gates Foundation, said the three
schools operated under fixed goals. These included an emphasis on the
schools-within-a-school concept; programs that were open to all
students; an emphasis on close, personal connections between students
and advisers; and a focus on increasing preparation of students for
higher education.
Follow-up studies compiled by the center
demonstrate that the three high schools have done better than the
district as a whole in several critical areas, Nathan said.
Graduation:
Between 2002 and 2005, four-year completion rate increased 9 percent at
Highland Park and 14 percent at Johnson, well above the 5 percent
increase in the district as a whole. Harding's percentage remained
steady and fell slightly below the district's percentage.
Test
results: Between 2002 and 2006, the percentage of students passing the
10th-grade writing test increased 10 percent at Highland Park, 9
percent at Johnson and 3 percent at Harding. The district average
increase was 3 percent.
Racial gaps: In completion rates,
higher-education enrollment rates and in graduation tests,
African-American students at the "Gates'' schools often showed more
improvement than in the district as a whole.
"We think there's
really exciting news here,'' said Nathan. "Not only was the achievement
gap narrowed, but overall, achievement and graduation rates improved.
We think that's a real cause for encouragement.''
Kwame
McDonald, associate director of the reform project for the Center for
School Change, said the changes remain a "work in progress.'' He said
the administrators and teachers working on the Gates project proved
themselves. "These are a group of people who care about kids,'' he
said.
The Gates money did not buy instant success. But just as
we dream for our children, our schools must pursue their visions. We
thank the Gates Foundation for giving them the opportunity to do so.
And we salute inspired and innovative educators everywhere involved in
the daily struggles of high school life.
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