They complained that too few high schools are places of excellence where all students learn the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in college or the workplace. They collectively moaned, groaned, and vowed to do something about it. The data supports much of what these leaders were saying, and all of us want to find solutions.
President Bush has stated that the partial answer is to push the testing concept used in No Child Left Behind into the high school grades. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested millions of dollars to create new small, stand-alone high schools and small high schools as sub-parts of larger institutions.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Secondary School Principals has produced its second major report on the subject, Breaking Ranks II. (Yes, they knew high schools had problems long before the rest of us!) And Public Agenda produced another research study confirming that many high school students do not feel sufficiently challenged, do not spend a lot of time doing homework, and would just as soon get on with their life.
Although all this attention is appropriate to a challenge that is formidable, it strikes me that many of us who are closer to the problem than the “policy wonks” can see the answers pretty clearly.
If you see high schools that work, as school board members often do, the real challenge is how can we replicate them in every neighborhood. That takes great leadership; adequate resources (a euphemism for money); a smart, well-trained, and dedicated faculty; a school board that supports excellence and creativity; and a parental/ community infrastructure that supports the school.
As avid School Board News readers know, I love to visit schools. I do not have time to visit as many as I’d like, but this spring, I had the privilege of spending some time at James Hubert Blake High School in Montgomery County, Md.
There are 25 high schools in this school district, some truly famous like Montgomery Blair, whose students excel in many areas, including science, and produced six Intel award winners in one year.
Blake is less well-known. It was established seven years ago as a solution to a classic set of problems -- increasing enrollment and a need for parental choice, plus, and this is huge, an understanding that students need a choice about their own learning environment, learning styles and aspirations, and about the way they want to spend four years of their life.
Within the large, suburban/ urban Montgomery County school system, the Northeast Consortium includes three high schools. Each campus offers a comprehensive high school curriculum, as well as a “signature” program, focusing on a particular field of high interest to young people and woven throughout the curriculum.
Paint Branch High School focuses on science and the media. Springbrook has an International Baccalaureate program and a specialty in information technology in a global society. Blake specializes in the fine arts and humanities.
Within the Northeast Consortium, eighth graders and their parents can either select their neighborhood high school, where they have a guaranteed admission, or they can apply to one of the other high schools, with their assignment determined by a lottery.
Blake, a relatively new school, is clean, shiny, and without a speck of graffiti anywhere. It contains outstanding learning facilities and a diverse, energetic student body (about 35 percent African American, 9 percent Asian, 10 percent Hispanic, and 46 percent white).
Among the 1,939 students, only 11 percent are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, although in recent years this group has been as high as nearly 30 percent. An impressive 39 percent of children from lower-income households are in the honors/AP program.
But a high school visit is about more than data. It is a lot about impressions, experience, and memories. Here are some of mine, a collage of images across a jam-packed three-hour visit in mid-day:
(1) The high energy level of students -- focused, not chaotic -- deep in discussion in the hallways and during lunch.
(2) A top-notch news program directed, anchored, edited -- and watched -- by students.
(3) An outstanding class on print journalism with presentations done with computer graphics and highly sophisticated techniques.
(4) Several music classes with highly interactive teaching, learning, and performances.
(5) During the lunch period, groups of students mixed by race sitting at tables, in hallways, or in corners with trays. But when we walked through the school after the class bell rang, there wasn’t a single piece of trash in sight. And if there had been one, one very neat principal would have quietly collected it!
The “lunch hour” is the centerpiece of the school. All students have the same 50-minute lunch break; there are no staggered lunches. During this time, teachers are in their classrooms available to students for consultation, tutoring, problem-solving, discussions, and connecting.
The students I met said this seemingly simple scheduling decision made a huge difference to them. Because teachers are available during lunch time, one student told me, “I didn’t have to decide between help in geometry or my after-school job.”
How did this innovation occur? It was the result of a negotiated trade-off between the dedicated faculty and a visionary principal.
The highlight of my visit was lunch with six amazing young people. Adam, Priska, and Greg told me they had chosen to attend Blake because of its feeling of community, respect for learning, pride in their young school, and diversity. I was struck by Rebecca, Stewart, and Autumn, who told me they had chosen Blake over the more prestigious Springbrook where their friends were, because of the racial diversity of Blake. All six are high-achieving kids, all bound for college.
About 86 percent of Blake’s students go on to postsecondary education. All of the six students I spoke with intend to go to college, and their plans include Morehouse, New York University, and the University of Maryland.
None were “artists,” but all loved the fact they had to take an arts, theater, or music course. “It opened my eyes,” one student told me. “I realized I could be creative in other courses using the skills I had acquired in a media course.”
All six respected and felt genuinely close to a teacher, coach, or counselor. All felt they knew their principal, Carole Goodman. “She knows everyone,” one student told me.
This is what I found at Blake: connection, belonging, and meaning; students who had pride in their sports teams and in their school; respect; and seriousness. Yet, there is a sense of boldness among these young men and women.
Blake exemplifies a learning community that cares. Pictures of a diverse faculty are displayed on the walls. Among the school’s 127 teachers, 10 have National Board certification and four more are in training. The school demonstrates support for professional development. But more important, students know their teachers and respect them.
At Blake, the data shrieks progress. More than 93 percent of students graduate. There is a 96 percent attendance rate. Nearly 84 percent of teachers are highly qualified. The average SAT score is 1068, compared to a national average of 1026.
But the bottom line is this is a high school that works. It has great leadership, highly qualified faculty dedicated to teaching and student achievement, enough resources to create a rich learning environment, and a community that is engaged in the school.
Hats off to James Hubert Blake High School -- and to all the high schools that work. Governors, policy makers, Bill Gates -- and everyone else who thinks the nation’s high schools are all failing -- ought to check it out.