4,100 Students Prove ‘Small Is Better’ Rule Wrong

[alp227]

BROCKTON, Mass. — A decade ago, Brockton High School was a case study in failure. Teachers and administrators often voiced the unofficial school motto in hallway chitchat: students have a right to fail if they want. And many of them did — only a quarter of the students passed statewide exams. One in three dropped out.

Then Susan Szachowicz and a handful of fellow teachers decided to take action. They persuaded administrators to let them organize a schoolwide campaign that involved reading and writing lessons into every class in all subjects, including gym.

Their efforts paid off quickly. In 2001 testing, more students passed the state tests after failing the year before than at any other school in Massachusetts. The gains continued. This year and last, Brockton outperformed 90 percent of Massachusetts high schools. And its turnaround is getting new attention in a report, “How High Schools Become Exemplary,” published last month by Ronald F. Ferguson, an economist at Harvard who researches the minority achievement gap.

What makes Brockton High’s story surprising is that, with 4,100 students, it is an exception to what has become received wisdom in many educational circles — that small is almost always better.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[femmocrat]

1. What!? On their own?

They did it without financial incentives, mass layoffs, or threats hanging over their heads? Arne just doesn't get it, does he?

[elleng]

2. Teachers persuaded administrators to change things.

'a handful of fellow teachers decided to take action. They persuaded administrators to let them organize a schoolwide campaign that involved reading and writing lessons into every class in all subjects, including gym.'

Sounds charter-ish to me. Imagine that!

[dkf]

3. Yet they had to work within the teacher's contracts.

Just think what what a struggle it would have been had they not had the teachers meetings already in the contract.

Also teachers were initially resistant because they thought it would take too much effort.

If this had come down from the administration, and teachers banded together to refuse to use these methods, I doubt it would have happened.

[dkf]

4. Where is the huge support for teacher innovation and success? Knr!

[madfloridian]

5. All through the years teachers have been creative and innovative.

I can NOT believe why people think they have not.

[dkf]

6. Why do we not celebrate these achievements though?

So far the only successes I've heard of are things that are being beaten down in the charter school debate.

[madfloridian]

7. Because teachers are fighting for survival?

Against the Democratic onslaught to turnaround their schools and lay them off or fire them??

[dkf]

8. The one thing I see that these political school reformers have in common...

They are all black men. I think they feel they are fighting for their survival too. That is what is going to make this struggle brutal.

Too many black boys are landing up in jail, living for the moment because they have no grand future to save themselves for. When I look at the topic of public education, this is the student I picture in my minds eye and who I see has the least among us.

I do think that teaching is a noble profession. I think because of that I kind of expect a lot. Yeah it's not fair to you all but there it is.

[madfloridian]

9. The reason you see that is many think charters are meant to resegregate.

I guess there is a lot to be said for neighborhood schools, a whole lot. But the charter schools seemed geared to minorities or are being made to appear that way.

[jtuck004]

10. K&R. These good people, both the teachers that pushed the effort and the

administrators that didn't get in the way deserve a ton of appreciation and some sincere congratulations.

They took personal responsibility for turning around a poorly performing school, with an innovative approach that added reading, writing, and logical thinking to every class (including physical education) and turned the place around.

In a big school, with a lot of students.

They did it within a union contract, keeping the meetings within the guidelines.

That's an incredible performance in a public school.