Urban Education Reform:
The Boston Experience

An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — April 16-17, 1998

The American Youth Policy Forum site visit to Boston highlighted key elements of education reform and provided numerous insights for the trip’s 20 participants.  Over two days, the group visited a high school, middle school, after-school program, student work site, alternative school and community college and met with leaders from the Boston Public Schools (BPS), local businesses and intermediary organizations.  Central to the visit was learning how school-to-careers (STC) has been integrated to broader education reform efforts within BPS and its 128 schools.

Lessons from “The Boston Experience” can best be summarized by the following list, comprised of comments of trip participants--Federal officials, Congressional staff and representatives of national non-profit associations.  It represents reflections of what participants learned and saw in Boston over the two-day period.  Following the list are an overview of Boston’s system-wide efforts and brief descriptions of the sites visited.

Participant comments on education reform initiatives:

• Leadership is critical to initiating reform, but the buy-in of all staff and students is necessary for any reform to establish lasting and positive change.
• Maintaining high standards for all students increases the likelihood of their success.
• Money is critical--for professional development, for more teachers and for school improvement.
• Professional development is an important element in improving education.
• After-school activities are an effective way of connecting young people to other institutions and individuals in their communities.
• Broader regional or state-wide coordinating committees can be effective in addressing challenging areas such as standards and assessment.

Participant comments on school-to-careers:

• STC is a “real thing” that affects students in many positive ways.
• STC is a powerful pedagogical tool for establishing real change in schools.
• Age- and stage-appropriate STC programming is critical as it engages students in learning before they become disenchanted with the education system.
• Talking about and exposing students to careers at an early age does not lock them into a career path; rather, it sets the stage for meaningful academic learning and expands students’ horizons.
•  Patience is necessary to achieve desired outcomes.  While STC has exhibited early success in increasing student motivation, attendance, college-going rates and career opportunities, academic achievement has yet to improve markedly.
• To succeed, STC must champion its examples of effective programs rather than promote its methodology.
• The vocabulary of STC is confusing.  Numerous name changes have damaged public perception and over-use of jargon has hindered the movement’s ability to clarify is meaning and goals.

Participant comments on serving out-of-school youth:

• STC can effectively reengage out-of-school youth in the education system and help them take control of their learning and their lives.
• Young people need to be allowed to re-enter the education and training system on their own time, but the supports must be in place to accept them when they do.

Overview

Boston is at the forefront of engaging multiple community partners in a coordinated set of activities and programs designed to help young people transition from primary and secondary education into college, careers and adult life.  Three key partners in Boston’s system are the Boston Public Schools (BPS), the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC) and the Corporation for Business, Work and Learning (CBWL).  Multiple business and community partners, as well as national research and advocacy organizations, such as Jobs for the Future (JFF), have also played critical roles in developing education, youth and career programs across Boston and in multiple institutions.

Under the leadership of Superintendent Thomas Payzant, BPS is restructuring all of its schools to center on “teaching and learning,” with STC as a major catalyst for that focus.  STC, which at its core works to connect students and teachers to the world of work, has been successful because it creates an environment of active learning and real world connections.  Kathleen Mullin, Director of Technical and Vocational Education for BPS, also emphasizes that STC is a sustained effort, not just a piece of a larger project.  In Boston, notes Mullin, STC is about the “intersection of competency and rigor,” with work- and community-based experiences helping students understand how rigorous academic learning translates into competency at work throughout their life.

The PIC, notes Executive Director Neil Sullivan, is a business-led organization which helps ensure that STC is as much about workforce development as it is about education.  The PIC and its business partners have identified three key values of STC: (1) work- and community-based learning provides more time for learning; (2) applied learning shows young people the rationale behind education; and (3) people, particularly in one-to-one settings, make a difference in the lives of young people.

Innovation is also key to the success of STC.  High schools are finding that breaking schools into smaller “career pathway” learning communities allows businesses to focus their involvement and resources more effectively.  Programs such as Communities and Schools for Career Success (CS2), a STC and education reform initiative run by CBWL, have also shown the business community that middle schools are appropriate venues to begin exposing young people to careers, invigorated (real-world) curriculum and choices.  Using trained change agents called school/community entrepreneurs, CS2 connects to the world of work and other aspects of their community.  The program utilizes the elements of STC to create a coordinated set of activities that expose young people to a range of postsecondary and career options, connect them to adult mentors and equip them with the skills required for success in adult life.

Ephraim Weisstein, Director of the Center for Youth Development and Education at CBWL, emphasizes the need to provide first-class programs and opportunities for out-of-school and at-risk youth.  Weisstein argues that CS2 and other CBWL programs, such as Diploma Plus, incorporate many of the key principles of STC and apply them to all populations of students, demonstrating that when given the opportunity, all young people can succeed and achieve at very high levels.  Weisstein also highlights the power of coordinating the efforts of a wide range of partners around a common theme.  Since the beginning of STC in Boston, which dates back to the early 1980s, reform has always been focused on the “child in the classroom.”  With that focus, all partners have been able to come together first to determine what services should be provided to meet the students’ needs, then divide responsibility for implementing effective programs around these mutually-identified needs.

This has paid off in improved outcomes for the city’s youth, notes Payzant.  Early indicators demonstrate that although STC participants have not yet demonstrated higher academic achievement than non-participants, they do have higher attendance, lower dropout rates, reduced tardiness, increased enrollment in more difficult courses and increased college attendance.  Hilary Pennington, President of JFF, adds that these results are similar to those realized in other cities at an advanced stage of STC implementation, although Boston’s example has been particularly powerful in showing that collaboration is the ultimate key to success.

One of Boston’s oldest STC programs, the PIC’s ProTech initiative, has been examined by JFF in its research on outcomes measurement and effectiveness.  Their work showed that 42 months after completing ProTech, participants were still demonstrating increased attendance at college and/or work, higher rates of degree completion, higher wages and higher instances of job satisfaction than their non-ProTech peers.  This suggests that STC is not only achieving its desired outcomes but also preparing students to sustain these outcomes over time.

Initiatives serving out-of-school youth are also a critical component of Boston’s system.  CBWL has been active in developing programs in Boston and across the state to help address the needs of this important population of young people.  One of CBWL’s central programs in this area is Diploma Plus, a high school diploma-granting program implemented at four alternative education sites in Boston and in four other Massachusetts communities.  Diploma Plus consists of two parts.  Part I focuses on core academic skills and “life skills” and is a standards-driven, competency-based program designed to get young people up to and above grade level in basic academic subjects.  Students complete Part I by demonstrating competence, so the length of participation in Part I varies depending on a student’s skill, knowledge and ability when they enroll and how hard they work once in the program.  Once students meet the Part I competencies, they are eligible for Part II, the “Plus” year, a rigorous program which consists of college courses (generally at the community college level), structured internships and year-long projects. Students who enroll in Diploma Plus with higher academic skills are sometimes able to move directly into Part II.  A diploma is awarded after the completion of Part II, but only when students demonstrate competency in a range of subjects and through a variety of methods.

In Boston, there are more than 20,000 young people who have dropped out of school before graduation, with many more across the state.  While Diploma Plus is serving nearly 200 students, there remains a great need for additional services and resources.  To help address this need, CBWL in Fall 1998 developed a Statewide At-Risk and Out-of-School Youth Steering Committee.  According to Terry Grobe, Program Manager at CBWL, the Committee brings together state and local representatives to jointly examine the needs of youth and determine what can be done to address these needs.

Partners on the Committee at the state level include state agency representatives, regional federal employees and other government officials.  Local partners include program coordinators and directors, community-based organizations and school systems.  The initial consensus of the committee called for work in five key areas: (1) system building, (2) tapping new and existing resources, (3) supporting the work of communities, (4) identifying and replicating best practices and (5) advocating for at-risk and out-of-school youth.

Three current projects of the Committee address these areas: (1) monthly meetings designed to develop and identify new resources, (2) the creation of a “best practices network” and (3) community forums.  Resource development has been approached with a comprehensive “resource mapping” project through which partners have identified all sources of support currently available for at-risk and out-of-school youth (e.g., U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. and Massachusetts Departments of Education, private foundations, etc).  The Committee’s legislative task force is also addressing the issue of resources, having successfully sponsored legislation that changes the appropriation timeline for the governor’s summer jobs program.  Next on the legislative agenda is to increase dual enrollment funding so that more alternative high school students around the state can take college courses.

The best practices network identifies gaps in service, determines what works and replicates effective programs across the state.  The Committee works with programs, including Diploma Plus, and encourages them to complete a self-assessment and evaluation of their work.  From these assessments a set of standards will be identified that will serve as the backbone of the network.  Community forums pull multiple providers together to learn from one another.  To date, three communities have hosted forums around specific themes, from technology to STC.  In time, forums will evolve into training and technical assistance seminars.

Boston has taken a comprehensive approach to serving its many populations of young people.  Critical to early success has been the willingness of all partners to come together to identify concerns and problems, then work together to allocate responsibility for addressing those problems.  Most encouraging is that such cooperation is occurring at all levels, from the state to local communities.  In Boston, for example, BPS, alternative programs, businesses and multiple intermediaries are all working together to serve the city’s young people.  The following sections will describe the specific work of schools and programs across Boston who exemplify this commitment in practice.

Jeremiah E. Burke High School

Jeremiah E. Burke High School, located in the Dorchester section of Boston, gained notoriety in 1995 when it was stripped of its accreditation due to the consistently poor academic performance of its students.  To help turn around Burke, the school hired Dr. Steven Leonard as Headmaster.  Leonard had achieved great success in revitalizing local Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School.

Leonard arrived at Burke to find an institution in great educational and structural disrepair. Before educational reforms could even be considered, however, more basic needs had to be met. The first to address was the building’s structural deficiencies.  An early tour of the school with the Mayor of Boston exhibited the dilapidation of the school, as a piece of the auditorium ceiling literally crashed to the ground.  Graffiti covered all parts of the school’s interior and exterior, and vending machines cluttered its hallways.  Leonard and BPS committed resources to ensuring that staff and students had a safe, welcoming environment in which to teach and learn.

Once structural repairs were underway, Leonard turned to Burke’s poor attendance and discipline record and, more importantly, the school’s history of ignoring such deep-rooted problems.  While crime and drugs prevailed at the school, in the year prior to Leonard’s arrival Burke suspended only eight students.  By comparison, 250 students were suspended during Leonard’s first year. This focus on “law and order” was nonexistent at Burke prior to his hiring.

With structural and behavioral improvements underway, Leonard had to ensure that all of his staff were supportive of and focused on addressing the school’s deep-rooted educational problems.  Following a period of releasing uncommitted teachers and recruiting new ones, Leonard instituted an ongoing series of professional development opportunities to prepare teachers to implement and sustain reform.

After a multi-year process of repairing the school and hiring and training staff, Leonard was finally able to focus on educational programming.  While re-accreditation has been a clear goal, he emphasizes that it is only one benchmark on the way to broader success and achievement, with an ultimate goal of demonstrating that “public education can work.”  To reach this goal, Leonard promotes three principles of effective education: (1) an attitude and culture of high expectations; (2) hiring and developing teachers who know how to teach; and (3) ensuring that teachers know the content of what they are teaching.

Undertaking such an ambitious project has required extensive support from outside resources.  Recognizing the vast needs of the school, BPS pledged its commitment by reducing enrollment by one half while at the same time doubling the overall budget and adding staff.  Three successive superintendents have also been supportive of the work at Burke.  The first began the movement to turn the school around, the second was involved in putting together a plan of action, and the current superintendent, Payzant, has been a central figure in implementing the new strategy.  Other organizations, such as CBWL, have played a large role in Burke’s revitalization by implementing and staffing specific programs, such as CS2, on site.  Mabel Reid-Wallace, CS2 Entrepreneur/STC Specialist, has helped drive Burke’s restructuring through a number of efforts such as infusing technology directly into the  curriculum.

Leonard views all members of his staff as equal partners in Burke’s reforms.  Professional development is ever present at Burke, and teachers are encouraged to try new things to expand their limits of supporting effective teaching and learning.  Teachers also have a say in what is happening at Burke.  For example, Leonard was initially opposed to hiring a School Attendance Officer and locking out students who were late for school.  Teachers and staff, however, convinced him to institute the program, and he is now one of its greatest supporters.  As a result of the program, attendance has increased every year of his tenure and tardiness has in large part been eliminated.

For its efforts, Burke has achieved a great deal of success, and increasing numbers of students are prepared to continue into postsecondary education.  Of the 1997 graduating class of 120 students, 70 are currently enrolled in college, with the remainder feeling prepared to do so but not willing or able to make the financial investment required to attend.  With successes, however, have come concerns.  Once accreditation is restored, Burke is likely to lose its budget boost, reducing per pupil expenditures from nearly $7,000 per student to approximately $3,300.  Leonard remains optimistic that the massive changes made since 1995 are institutionalized to the point that Burke will remain on the upswing.  Its partners--from BPS to CBWL to its own staff--remain focused and committed as well.

Woodrow Wilson Middle School

Located down the street from Burke in Dorchester, Woodrow Wilson Middle School has “ventured into a new arena with collaborations developed through school-to-careers” since the appointment of Principal Rosalyn Browne seven years ago.  Reforms center around the recommendations found in the Carnegie Corporation’s Council on Adolescent Development’s 1989 report entitled Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century. Recognizing that 10- to 15-year-olds experience immense physical, emotional and mental changes, the Council encouraged middle schools to create small communities for learning; teach a core academic program that includes all subjects, including citizenship; promote the success of all students by not grouping and tracking students based on past academic performance; place decision-making responsibility with teachers and administrators; hire staff who are trained in teaching and working with middle school-aged students; recognize that health and fitness are an important factor in academic achievement; work to include parents and families in the education system; and develop relationships and partnerships with community members and organizations.

STC has led Wilson’s efforts to phase in the Turning Points recommendations.  First, Wilson evolved into a school consisting of small learning communities with extensive real world connections that help students learn and grow.  It also restructured the use of time.  Block scheduling, which has been well received by students, has allowed staff to enhance the curriculum and participate in more extensive professional development activities.

Extensive partnerships have been developed with a range of community organizations.  Wilson works with CBWL as the lead middle school for CS2 to provide a wide range of in- and after-school activities for students.  These activities also involve the PIC, and PIC Career Specialist/CS2 Entrepreneur Bill Church notes that this spring Wilson sent more than 500 seventh grade students on job shadows to help inform them about different types of careers and help them make high school and course choices.  Other community resources contacts are also made through regular classes.  One student, for example, is working with the Codman Square Heath Center to help organize the Run for Health, a city-wide charity race.

Two of Wilson’s major collaborative projects are with “Citizen Schools” and Carney Hospital. Citizen Schools is a nonprofit organization that allows children ages 9 to 14 to take after-school classes with a variety of volunteer professionals.  The three-year-old program enrolls “apprentices” from seven schools and focuses on projects that actively engage the young people, reinforce skills learned in the classroom and provide exposure to the cultural, educational and business institutions of Boston.  Students at Wilson’s Citizen School are involved in apprenticeships in computer networking, toy making, electric car design, first aid, home burglar proofing, dance, journalism, and law, among others.  Apprentices had recently completed a scavenger hunt at MIT designed to acquaint them with the institution, its history, location (and how to get to it) in the city and its role in technical and higher education nationally.

The after school program includes two components crucial to good after-school programs--an internal-review process and caring adults.  The volunteer professionals drawn from the community and the local higher education institutions create a diverse range of apprenticeship options and must complete evaluations of every class session.  In addition, Citizen School staff (including AmeriCorps members) call the students at home at least once a week to check on their progress.  The program is part of a larger commitment by the city of Boston to keep schools open in the late afternoon and provide expanded activities for children outside the classroom.

Carney Hospital connects young people to the surrounding community by demonstrating the range of options available in the health care profession.  In the 1996-7 school year, students were paired one-to-one with doctors and other Hospital staff to demonstrate the functions of the Hospital.  This year, in a more in-depth program, teams of students work with teams of doctors, and the doctors in turn work with school science teachers to design curriculum, create standards and develop projects and products to connect the Hospital experience to classroom learning.  For example, this year one group of students shadowed a team of doctors working with asthma patients.  Enhanced by the study of asthma at school, the students created an asthma awareness program to help educate patients at the hospital.  Although the Hospital first became involved with Wilson as a way of giving back to and supporting the community, the success of the program in attracting students to health professions and improving their motivation and academic performance has led to a firm, long-term commitment.

Action for Boston Community Development, Inc.

Action for Boston Community Development, Inc. (ABCD), explains Principal Lew Gitilman, provides students who have left BPS with the comprehensive education, training and social services they need to either move back into the formal school system or transition into healthy and productive adulthood.  In addition to working with students through Diploma Plus, ABCD works closely with the PIC to connect student to training opportunities and, ultimately, jobs.  PIC representatives meet with each student once a week for an entire semester to help students with resume writing, job search and networking.  ABCD also partners with local community-based organizations, which donate space and other in-kind resources, and BPS, which assigns four teachers to ABCD and provides funding for books and professional development activities.

As an alternative school, ABCD experiments with creative uses of time and assessment.  The school day begins at 8:30 a.m., and students arriving later than 8:45 are not allowed in the building.  Most days of the week students follow a traditional school schedule, but each Wednesday students participate in  seminars, which rotate throughout the year.  Seminar topics include a range of areas such as computers, social changes, sex education and chess to give students broad exposure to many topics and interests.  All students must also take an elective in school-to-career, in which students work on resume writing, job search techniques and networking skills.  Students do not receive regular grades for their classes, but must demonstrate competency to move to the next class level or to graduate.  Students also have the option of completing a 13-piece portfolio that includes personal information and samples of their work.

ABCD has been a lead institution in Boston’s expansion of alternative education.  Although not mandated by any government or legislature, the Mayor and Superintendent both view alternative education as an important option for the city’s young people.  In addition to reaching a hard-to-serve population, an emphasis on alternative education allows the system to tap additional funding sources, such as JTPA.  In doing so, Boston reemphasizes its commitment to serving all of its young people.

Bunker Hill Community College

Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is a critical partner in the Diploma Plus initiative, and it is the primary institution for students entering Part II, the “Plus” year.  BHCC works closely with the four alternative education sites running Diploma Plus: ABCD, Egleston, El Centro and City Roots.  Each recruits for and implements Diploma Plus differently.  ABCD and Egleston have designed their entire program and curriculum around Diploma Plus.  El Centro runs Diploma Plus as one of its many programs, and City Roots, operated at multiple sites, recruits students for GED preparation services and tries ultimately to re-enroll them in BPS.  Diploma Plus is one strategy employed to help reach this goal.

Students report that Diploma Plus has been a driving factor in their ability to turn their lives around.  One student, who labeled herself a “troubled” student while in BPS, heard about ABCD from a student already enrolled in the school, and learned through the college course-taking component of Part II that she “was able to do things that [she] never thought possible.”  Another student, from El Centro, “bounced around” from school to school and did not really care about her education.  Her first orientation at El Centro was “scary,” as she had never before even thought about going to college, but now had the opportunity to take college courses.  She enrolled in Part I during the summer, and was almost overwhelmed with the educational and social supports provided to her.  This year she qualified for Part II, has enrolled in college courses and is interning at Boston Medical hospital.  She plans to pursue a career in pediatrics.

Janice Thomas, Associate Dean of Enrollment Management at BHCC, states that Diploma Plus participants are treated as regular BHCC students; the only “extra” services they receive are a “College Experience” course and guidance counseling.  Professors are not notified which students in their classes are in Diploma Plus, and students must meet all class requirements to earn credit.  The majority of students are receiving A’s and B’s in their coursework.  Partnering with CBWL to implement Diploma Plus was an easy decision for BHCC, notes Thomas.  As an institution committed to reaching out and supporting their community, the link with alternative schools serving out-of-school youth was a natural connection. The success of the students in the classroom has only reinforced this commitment.

Contact Information

Rosalyn Browne
Principal
Woodrow Wilson Middle School
18 Crostland Avenue
Boston, MA 02124
Phone: 617-635-8827

Bill Church
PIC Career Specialist
Woodrow Wilson Middle School
18 Crostland Avenue
Boston, MA 02124
Phone: 617-635-8827

Lew Gitilman
Principal
University School, ABCD, Inc.
178 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02111
Phone: 617-228-2235

Terry Grobe
Program Manager, Center for Youth
Development and Education
Corporation for Business, Work and Learning
529 Main Street
Suite 110
Boston, MA 02129-1125
Phone: 617-727-8158

Steven Leonard
Headmaster
Jeremiah E. Burke High School
60 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02121
Phone: 617-635-9837

Kathleen Mullin
Director of Technical and Vocational
Education
Boston Public Schools
The Boston Public Schools
26 Court Street
Boston, MA 02108
Phone: 617-635-9050
Fax: 617-635-9059

Thomas Payzant
Superintendent
The Boston Public Schools
26 Court Street
Boston, MA 02108
Phone: 617-635-9050
Fax: 617-635-9059

Hilary Pennington
President
Jobs for the Future
One Bowdoin Square
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-728-4446
Fax: 617-742-5767

Mabel Reid-Wallace
CS2 Entrepreneur/STC Specialist
Jeremiah E. Burke High School
60 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02121
Phone: 617-635-9837

Neil Sullivan
Executive Director
Boston Private Industry Council
2 Oliver Street
Boston, MA
Phone: 617-423-3755

Janice Thomas
Associate Dean of Enrollment Management
Bunker Hill Community College
250 New Rutheford Avenue
Boston, MA 02129
Phone: 617-228-2235

Ephraim Weisstein
Director, Center for Youth Development and Education
Corporation for Business, Work and Learning
529 Main Street
Suite 110
Boston, MA 02129-1125
Phone: (617) 727-8158

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