High School Reform and Workforce Development
Baltimore, MD

An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — March 22-23, 2001

The purpose of this field trip was to learn about secondary school reform efforts in two urban high schools using nationally-recognized models, to visit an urban service and conservation corps program, and to better understand how Baltimore is working to integrate its K-12 system with alternative education and workforce development programs for youth.

Day One, 3/22/01

Lake Clifton Eastern High School

The first visit was to Lake Clifton Eastern High School, located in a low-income neighborhood close to inner-city Baltimore. Lake Clifton Eastern (LCE) has approximately 2400 students, divided into two schools, each with about 1200 students. Half of the school is a zoned high school for students who live in the immediate neighborhood. The other half is the Baltimore Academies program, which is open to eligible students citywide and offers an Academy of Finance, an Academy of Information Technology, plus the Academy of Law-Related Education. These programs are part of the National Academy Foundation (NAF) network, which provides the curriculum, professional development, and standards for the academy programs.

The campus of LCE is next to a large park and the 19th Century home of Johns Hopkins, Clifton Mansion (which serves as the headquarters of Civic Works). The physical condition of the school is quite poor and the layout of the school is confusing due to multiple additions clearly constructed with no master design. Inside, however, the halls and classrooms are neat, orderly, and quiet.

We were met by Kathy Floyd, Director of the Baltimore Academies, who oversees the these academies at Lake Clifton Eastern (LCE) High School and two other academy programs at other high schools in Baltimore. Floyd welcomed the American Youth Policy Forum group and indicated that the career academy programs were established under a memorandum of understanding between the Fund for the Improvement in Education and Baltimore City Public Schools to increase student achievement. The agreement separated Lake Clifton Eastern High School into two sections and gave the academies much more flexibility and control. Both sections have their own principal and staff, in effect, creating two separate schools in one building.

The career academy model was chosen because it offers three distinct components: small learning communities; a career focus; and opportunities for work-based learning. LCE breaks students into small groups as part of their academy experience, and they stay with the same core teachers (English, math, science, and social studies) for four years. In the ninth and tenth grades, students take general and introductory courses in their chosen field, and in the last two years, the courses get more specific and detailed (e.g. constitutional law is required in 12th grade for the law-related academy students). The work-based learning portion of the program allows students to take field trips in ninth grade; to shadow professionals in the tenth grade; to have a summer internship after 11th grade; and to take a college level course in the elective field in 12th grade.

The first year of planning for the new career academies involved the staff and teachers in deciding what they wanted the school to look like and in increasing the career awareness of teachers and staff. To begin, teachers complained about basic problems such as no paper, no access to copy machines, or unworkable schedules, and they asked for help in improving these basic working conditions as the academies were established. The administrators determined it was their job to make it easy for the teachers to teach, so they have helped create an environment conducive to teaching and providing support (such as access to copiers and supplies) for teachers. Administrators also arranged the schedule in blocks to allow a daily 90-minute planning period for teachers by discipline. Once a week, the planning period is used for staff development, which has been focused on adolescent literacy. A principal was hired as an instructional leader to spend at least seventy percent of her time in the classrooms. Prior to opening, all teachers who were interested in teaching at the academies were required to participate in five weeks of professional development the summer before (paid for by the business community). The business community also helped train teachers on how to use technology and the Internet.

A conscious effort was made not to separate the ninth graders from the upper classes. Floyd said in her experience separating ninth graders was not a good idea, as they "feed on the energy of each other." She said they have found that the older students act as mentors and role models to the younger students and it is a good way of helping them to mature.

Because of social promotion and poor attendance, the average reading level for a ninth grader at LCE is a 5.2 grade level (fifth grade, second month). To enter the academies, students must have at least a seventh grade reading level and good attendance. In reality, many of the students who attend the Law-Related Education Academy have about a seventh grade reading level, but lower math skills, and the students in the Finance Academy have a fifth grade reading level but seventh grade math skills.

Given the low reading levels, the career academies decided to focus on literacy in the ninth and tenth grades in every class. Jennifer Green, a master teacher and literacy coach who works with the Fund for Educational Excellence, teaches a tenth grade English class and provides professional development to her colleagues on how to teach reading and writing to older students. To help increase reading, students receive double blocks of reading in ninth and tenth grades. Each class, regardless of the subject, posts vocabulary words on a "Wall of Words," as a way to encourage reading and spelling. Green said, "We have a big job to convince social studies teachers that reading and literacy is their job."

The career academies also focus on college awareness and readiness. "We have a policy of when you go to college, not if you go to college," said Floyd. College visits are arranged for students in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades to see five or six different area colleges. Students attend college fairs as well and are given help with student financial aid and completing admissions forms.

During our tour, we visited several classes that looked very much like high school classes thirty years ago. Most of the teachers were in the front of the classroom lecturing. Students in a number of classes had their heads on their desks or looked off into space, clearly not engaged. Several students were always quick to raise their hands and answer the teacher’s questions. We did not see any signs of cross-disciplinary teacher or project-based learning, but the focus of the academies is on increasing basic reading and math skills, given the levels students arrive with.

There was a very different feel in the master teacher’s class, where she was teaching ninth grade reading. Maryland State standards urge every high school student to read 25 books a year. Few students at Lake Clifton Eastern had read more than five during the school year. Students are encouraged to select books of interest to them from a reading level of elementary to adult. Teachers hope that if students become interested in the message, they will be more inclined to read. A corner of the classroom was outfitted with comfortable couches and pillows that felt more like a living room than a classroom, as a way to encourage reading. After a quick daily vocabulary quiz, a student came to the front of the room to give a book report. Students then asked their peer questions. The questions were insightful and intelligent and led to some brief discussion between students. Students appeared to be much more engaged in this classroom.

Evidence from a national study conducted by the Manpower Research Demonstration Corporation (MDRC) shows that career academies have an impact on dropout and attendance rates. Looking at LCE, MDRC found, in comparing students to a control group, that the dropout rate was reduced by 18 percent and that the attendance rate increased by 15 percent. While students were more likely to graduate, they did not increase academic scores. Data show that students scored only at 32 percent on a nationally normed test, which was slightly better than the control group, but not at all close to the national average of 50 percent. Floyd said that all students from the Law-Related Education Academy entered postsecondary education.

Ultimately, Floyd said the plan is to expand the career academy model to the entire high school, but they feel as though they have not yet had enough experience with the model, especially the literacy part of it, to know if it increases student achievement.

Lunch Meeting with Karen Sitnick, Director, Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Employment Development

Karen Sitnick presided over a stimulating lunch with our group and representatives of the Baltimore Youth Opportunity System, which includes partners such as the Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore City Community College, the Maryland State Department of Education, and the Youth Opportunity (YO!) grantees. The presence of these different organizations signals the type of cooperation that exists in Baltimore to focus on the problems of youth and to find solutions.

Sitnick’s office is one of 36 recipients of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Youth Opportunity Grants. Baltimore will receive $44 million in federal funds to implement a project that creates six ports (sites) in Baltimore’s East and West Empowerment Zones (EZ). The goal is to increase employment and high school completion rates, as well as improve the long-term economic well-being of youth in the EZ communities. The YO! approach addresses the total person, focusing on a youth development model of comprehensive support services.

Baltimore has had a long history of having its education and workforce development systems work together, and it was very clear by the attendance at lunch and the camaraderie around the room, that these folks work closely together. The chair of the Youth Council, an entity required under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), is Skip Sanders, Deputy Superintendent of the Maryland State Department of Education. Sanders gave a quick overview of the challenges faced in Baltimore and why it is so critical for the schools and the alternative systems to work together. He said that of 7,000 students who begin ninth grade in Baltimore City, only 2,950 will graduate from high school. Their focus has been to build a unified system, so they do not lose a single child. Additional statistics provided to the group made clear the challenges faced in Baltimore:

• 44 percent teen parent rate in the Empowerment Zones
• 68 percent mobility rates in schools
• 82 percent single parent families in certain neighborhoods
• 90 percent incomes less than $10,000 in certain neighborhoods

Karen Sitnick said that the city has always recognized the out-of-school programs as an integral part of the educational system, not an add-on, and that is why so many of the pieces are in place. At the core, she said, they need advocates for youth and a way for youth to access the services because the city is a city of neighborhoods, and each neighborhood is very distinct and separate from the others. As a result, the Youth Council created the "There Is No Wrong Door" approach to help youth access services from any entry point.

Sitnick continued that services must fill the full range of needs of youth, whether they are dropouts and participate in alternative education, such as Job Corps or YouthBuild, or they are seeking pre-GED and GED programs at community colleges, skill training, such as A+ certification, or occupational training. There are also child care and transportation needs of teen parents, major problems of drug and alcohol abuse, mental health needs, and a lack of recreational opportunities to be met as well, she said.

The Youth Council decided to use the YO! funds to build a system, not to fund separate programs. When additional funding comes to the city, it is used to continue to add to the system. While the YO! is targeted only to youth in the empowerment zones, the city decided to use other funding from WIA to provide services for youth outside of the empowerment zones. To determine what services exist in each neighborhood, the city will conduct a resource mapping of what is currently available and how to make the most efficient referrals for youth. The city is also supporting its faith-based communities in an initiative called "Baltimore Rising" to provide service for the most at-risk youth. Another partner, Baltimore City Community College provides free classes in adult basic education to the YO! Centers.

In selecting staff for YO! sites, the city held a job fair looking for individuals interested in working with youth. Each individual was interviewed by a panel of young people, and they had to serve an internship before they were offered a permanent job. Baltimore City Community College is the employer of record for the employees in the YO! system. This removes the administrative burden from the YO! Centers, and provides the employees with greater security, benefits, and level of service.

Baltimore decided to focus on youth providers and practitioners as a key resource and a constant in all the youth programs, regardless of where programs were or what services were offered. By developing the practitioners, they felt the quality of programs would be better. The city, Baltimore City Community College, and the Sar Levitan Center for Social Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University sponsored a Youth Practitioners Institute, which was designed to teach youth workers about youth development and give them an understanding of how to find additional funding and combine supports. Now the city is trying to find a way to provide this training and professional development to all youth workers, not just those who work with the YO! grants.

The Youth Council is also exploring a policy change to allow education funding to follow youth regardless of where the young person receives education and training services. Because they have strong representation of educators on the panel, this is being seriously considered.

Civic Works

Civic Works is a comprehensive youth development and community service organization. Its mission is twofold: to provide critical community services that would otherwise go undone and to enhance the work, education, and citizenship skills of young people. Civic Works corpsmembers serve on teams with an adult supervisor on various projects, including renovating low-income homes (through a partnership with YouthBuild), building community parks and gardens, boarding up vacant houses, reforesting stream buffers, and tutoring and mentoring school children. Civic Works has been recognized for its work by the Promising and Effective Practices Network (PEPNet) sponsored by the National Youth Employment Coalition.

Dana Stein, President and Executive Director of Civic Works, said that the three core values of the program are work, service, and education. Youth learn all three during their time with Civic Works, which is usually about 11 months. Programs begin in September and generally end in August. Some students remain in the program for an extra year to improve their educational and occupational skills. Students work on projects on average four days a week and then pursue their educational studies the other days. In the YouthBuild program, students split their time between work and educational studies. Each day starts at 7:30 AM with exercise, often on the steps of City Hall, and ends with time for reflection and journal writing.

The program accepts approximately 175 students per year. Students who have dropped out of high school and are between the ages of 17-25 with no felonies fit the general profile of youth joining Civic Works. Civic Works provides a three-week orientation period to help students adjust to the work and study schedules. A number of youth will leave the program because they are unable to meet the daily schedule or because they do not like the physical labor. This strong focus on "soft skills," such as teamwork, being on time, being ready to work, helps youth prepare to enter the labor market. Civic Works also uses a Corpsmembers Council, which is run by the youth to help direct the programs, provide advice, and recruit new members.

In 1998, Civic Works implemented a new program, Corps-to-Career (sponsored by the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps), to improve the education and employment chances for youth in the program. The program provides academic and career guidance, targeting educational and employment opportunities, preparing corpsmembers for employment and college, securing job placements, and tracking and reinforcing the progress of graduates for one year after they leave the program. In the first year of the Corps-to-Career program, 83 percent of the corpsmembers who completed the program were employed after graduation. If a corpsmember loses his or her job in the following 12 months, Civic Works will soon be providing a new service: a Job Club to offer counseling and support during the search for a new position. Two of the corpsmembers who gave us tours indicated their career plans to us: a young man planned to open a construction company and a young woman expressed her interest in going to college to study pediatrics.

Funding for Civic Works comes from a variety of sources, due in part to the creativity and resourcefulness of the Executive Director. AmeriCorps provides a significant grant to pay for stipends for the corpsmembers while they are in the program. Other funding comes from a community development block grant, the YouthBuild program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, many corporate and foundation sponsors, as well as contract work from the City of Baltimore. Students who complete a full-year program are eligible to receive a $4,725 AmeriCorps education award; part-time participants will receive a $2,363 education award, which can be used to pay for postsecondary education.

The City of Baltimore turns over a number of vacant houses to Civic Works each year for the YouthBuild program to renovate. The houses, when fully renovated, are turned back to the city to be used for temporary housing for needy families. Civic Works would like to renovate an entire block of homes in its neighborhood.

During our visit, we toured three row houses in a low-income neighborhood with many abandoned properties that were being renovated by the young men and women involved in the YouthBuild program. Students learn all aspects of construction, from demolition, to framing, to drywall, to cleanup. (Plumbing and electrical work is done by certified professionals in order to meet housing codes.) Corpsmembers learn skills by doing the work themselves, under the watchful eye of their adult supervisor. As corpsmembers mature, they take on more and more responsibility for the work. Corpsmembers were very proud of the work, especially when looking at the condition of the "before" and "after" homes. Many of the young people remarked that they also felt a sense of pride because their work would allow a needy family to live in a clean, safe, and attractive home.

Civic Works collects data on program and student outcomes annually. Among outcomes documented in 1998: nine different community improvement projects were initiated; corpsmembers tutored 1,000 students with special needs; 31 corpsmembers worked with 10 different Police Athletic League centers on behalf of children and teens; and 50 percent of corpsmembers receiving GED instruction passed the GED exam.

Dinner with Kathy Oliver, Assistant Superintendent, Maryland Department of Education

Kathy Oliver provided background on the education reform efforts in Maryland. The focus on standards began in 1990 with the creation of the Maryland School Performance Program (MSPP) which included criterion-referenced performance assessments in grades 3, 5, and 8. Maryland’s High School Improvement Program extends MSPP through high school. Students entering Grade 9 in the fall of 2003 will be required to take tests in certain course content areas. MSPP also required the reconstitution of low performing schools, as well as the recognition of schools that have made progress in increasing academic achievement. In 1992, the state increased the requirements for core subjects for high school graduation and clarified what subjects counted, e.g. business math or general math did not count for graduation, but algebra did. The new graduation requirements also mandated that students complete one of three elective pathways. This opened the door for using career themes to help students achieve and stay engaged in school. Career Connections, Maryland’s school-to-career initiative has helped serve as a framework for high school reform. While she does not promote school-to-careers as a program, she promotes it as a strategy to organize and make school meaningful and to support the small learning communities that can enhance teaching and learning. "The goal of achievement is constant," said Oliver, "but the execution is open." She also said the development of high school assessments is ongoing and must include necessary interventions to help students learn to higher levels.

Oliver said Maryland is increasing its participation in the High Schools That Work network (22 Maryland high schools are in the program, including Patterson High School) and the state is beginning to make use of the Making the Middle Grades Matter and Making Schools Work initiatives, both also developed by the Southern Regional Education Board. Oliver said the high schools making the most progress are the ones where all efforts are aligned and the focus is on preparing students for college and the contemporary workplace. Maryland is also one of five states involved with the Malcolm Baldrige Business in Education Initiative which is leading to an alignment of data and resources, and providing a strong impetus for system-wide change.

Day Two, 3/23/01

Patterson High School

Patterson High School (PHS) was one of the first schools to be reconstituted under the education reform legislation passed by the State of Maryland in 1991. In response to the reconstitution, the Talent Development High School with Career Academies model was brought in. This model is a comprehensive reform model for large high schools that face serious problems with student attendance, discipline, achievement scores, and dropout rates. The model consists of:

• changes in school organization and management that establish a strong, positive school climate for learning;
• curriculum instruction innovations to transition all students into advanced high school work in English and mathematics;
• parent and community involvement activities to encourage students’ career and college development; and
• professional development systems to support implementation of the reforms.

Patterson High School is located in a low-income neighborhood in Eastern Baltimore. The school has 1700 students, two-thirds of whom are African American and the remaining third are referred to in Baltimore as "ethnic white." The programs are open to students city-wide, although preference is given to students in the neighborhood zone. Between 800-900 students attend the ninth grade academy and approximately 250-350 students attend one of the four upper-grade academies, which include Business and Finance, Transportation and Engineering Technology, Arts and Humanities, and Sports Health and Human Services. Approximately 350 students have Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and staff said these IEPs were at high levels of service. The average reading level for ninth graders is at the fifth grade; and according to staff, probably lower in math. One of the most difficult challenges PHS faces is attendance, which, according to some teachers, is only 60 percent on any given day. Because of low attendance, the size of the graduating class is approximately 160, according to the principal.

As our group arrived at 8:30 AM, we watched city busses discharge hundreds of teens on the school grounds. Students entered a different door depending on their academy assignment. At the doors were staff and teachers from each academy greeting students, sometimes with a friendly pat on the shoulder or a kind word, checking to see if the student was in uniform (khaki pants or skirt and a polo shirt with a logo for each academy). As they greeted the students, teachers and staff also talked to students about activities scheduled later that day, being absent or missing homework. It was clear that the teachers and staff knew "their" academy students well, and we sensed that the students knew they could not get away with much because of the limited size of the academy and the daily welcoming ritual.

From there we moved to a briefing with Jim McPartland, Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk, Johns Hopkins University and Laura DoAnna, the Principal. McPartland explained that the Talent Development model consists of the following essential components:

• Ninth Grade Success Academy – This is a school-within-a-school organized around interdisciplinary teams designed to provide incoming ninth graders with a smooth transition to high school.

• Career Academies for the Upper Grades – Career academies are self-contained, small learning communities with a career focus that enroll 250-350 students in grades 10, 11, and 12. The academies provide all students with a core college preparatory curriculum and work-based learning experiences supported by industry partners. Students study one of several career pathways, and teachers are organized into academy teams.

• Four-Period Day – The schedule is organized around four 80- to 90-minute periods.

• Common Core Curriculum – A basic set of college preparatory academic courses is required for all students across the four years of high school. Students are not tracked into college preparatory, vocational, or general tracks.

• Curriculum and Instruction Innovations – The ninth grade curriculum features Transition to Advanced Mathematics and Strategic Reading courses. These supplement Algebra and English, providing a double dose of math and English for students who need it. The English curriculum across all grades is further supported through Student Team Literature and Talent Development Writing which provide curriculum materials and instructional processes to enhance student engagement and learning.

• Extra Help – Students do not repeat failed courses during the regular school day in a Talent Development High School. Summer school, Saturday school, and after-hours credit school are offered so students can recover from course failures and missed credits can be earned.

• Twilight School – An alternative after-hours program is provided for students who have serious attendance or discipline problems or who are coming to the school from incarceration or suspension from another school. Instruction is offered in small classes, and extensive services are provided by guidance and support staff.

• Professional Development – Talent Development High Schools commit to ongoing professional development needed to implement and sustain the core components of the model. Teachers on special assignment (coaches) work with classroom teachers to develop instructional capacity within the school at the classroom level.

Jim McPartland described three areas on which PHS has focused: (1) organizational reforms, which include elements such as climate, attendance and promotion rates; (2) curriculum and instruction with a more flexible use of time and resources to help students master the material; and (3) implementation support. In the first years of implementation, the focus was on the ninth grade academy. McPartland said is it critical to keep ninth graders in school, because that is the year when most dropouts occur. Talent Development uses a student-centered approach and recruits teachers who like working with this age group. McPartland said there needs to be a balance between firmness and support. The model allows six teachers for 180 students, which helps create an environment in which all students are known. The model has a very strong focus on attendance, and teachers make calls to parents and students to find out why they are not in school. Because of the attention to attendance and the smaller learning community, attendance is up by 15 percent, which correlates to success and grade promotion. PHS has increased its grade promotion from 30 percent to 85 percent, due in part to this focus on attendance.

In ninth grade, students select the academy they want to attend. There are enough academies so the size can be kept to 250-350. Each academy has a principal, an instructional leader, a counselor, their own computer and science lab, a team of academic teachers, and a teachers’ lounge. Because the ninth grade is so large, it is divided into two groups – Success I and Success II – each with its own principal. In the ninth grade and upper level academies there are honors homerooms for students at higher levels.

The Talent Development model costs about $250,000 a year, which includes 3 people working as implementation coaches with English teachers, mathematics teachers, and ninth grade academy teachers. Johns Hopkins also provides curriculum, ongoing help and technical assistance, and a summer conference for Talent Development sites.

Laura DoAnna, Principal, came to PHS in the past two years and said she is working hard to build relationships and partnerships with the community and to ensure the relevance of the curriculum to business and industry. Each career academy has a business or postsecondary education partner. For example, a new program in the Transportation Career Academy is being developed with air traffic controllers. Sports Health and Human Services includes a pharmacy program and a child care program was developed in partnership with Dundalk Community College. Students who graduate from the career academies can earn a completer certificate recognized by the State of Maryland and the related industry.

DoAnna indicated that this is the first year that Advanced Placement (AP) courses will be offered at PHS. In the past, achievement levels were so low and there was such a strong focus on remedial work, there were not enough teachers to teach or students at high enough levels for AP courses. Staff and teachers have worked to eliminate all remedial work. Students that fail a class must go to flex school, at their own expense, during the summer, on weekends, or after school to make up their courses. Students can also repeat 9th grade for one semester then move ahead in the middle of the tenth grade year. AP and advanced courses are offered schoolwide, not just in each academy. Two years of foreign language are required for all students so they have it on their transcript when they decide to apply to college.

Only 13 percent of students have been going to community colleges after graduation, but now some are starting to go to four-year colleges, DoAnna said. More students are taking the SATs, and scores are going up. PHS is thinking about holding meetings with parents to encourage them to have their children take higher level courses. Parents are happy their children are graduating from high school, but don’t necessarily have expectations about their children going to college. DoAnna said reform efforts have to reflect the needs and the culture of the community. In this case, Baltimore is a "blue-collar" city comfortable with students going to work after high school. Patterson has also added a GED program in partnership with Baltimore City Community College, which operates around the clock, and an English as a Second Language program for parents in the evening. On Fridays, students provide service to the community by cleaning up neighborhoods.

While students can switch between academies if there is a problem, it is difficult to match up the curriculum and electives, so most students do not transfer, even though they should have the option, agreed Jim McPartland.

During the tour of the school, Jim McPartland told us of his first visit to Patterson about six years ago. He said that the school was in chaos, students were in control of the building, and there was no learning going on. When he entered the building the first time, the trophy cases (where academic and athletic awards are displayed) had just been fire-bombed by students. He said it was not unusual for students to start fires in the hallways. Contrast that scene with the quiet, orderly, clean, and safe hallways and classes we saw, with students who were respectful and addressed visitors politely, and a focus on learning basic skills.

We visited a number of classes in each academy, including a computer graphics classroom in which students designed posters for contests which they often won. When an AYPF participant remarked that there did not seem to be very much integration of core subjects in the graphic arts program, Jim McPartland said that was correct but you have to keep the kids interested and coming to school, and classes like this "support the holding power of the school."

One of the chemistry teachers we met shared her experience: "It is very important to be nurtured and everyone knows everyone else here. It really is about creating a family environment – the main ingredient is the caring of the teachers."

A ninth grade English teacher said he spends 30 percent of his time teaching and 70 percent of his time on social skills, making up for lost time. He has students who read at grade levels two through four. He double doses English by having English I and African American literature. In the past, the school had a policy of social promotion, but now that has changed. "We have to unteach the lesson that students learned that they could move ahead without doing any work. Now the kids have to learn they must work to advance. We would be lucky to get a pass rate of 40 percent on the MSPAS." He mentioned another issue for teachers. "We fail so many kids because they can’t do the work, then we get letters from the administration asking us why we failed 47 percent of our class? It’s due to attendance; they are not here." The English teacher, with a commanding presence that the students liked, said he never thought he would be teaching reading and writing in ninth grade, but he has no choice with the students at Patterson. He clearly loves his work with the students, but misses higher level academic work.

As we walked around the school, we noticed that there were few computers in the classrooms (although certain classes like graphic arts had relatively new computers). Indeed, PHS is not wired, and only the media center has access to the Internet. This clearly puts students at PHS at a disadvantage.

McPartland says there are three key elements to success of Talent Development: there must be a planning year in order to make this model work; there must be strong leadership and the courage to delegate responsibility to lower levels; and a schedule that allows double dosing and planning time is key. McPartland said he wishes there were more team-teaching and more integration of curriculum in the academies. He recognized that Patterson needs to work on increasing the rigor of the curriculum and instruction, and now that the environment is stable, that will start to happen. He said the primary goal of the school has been to focus on creating smaller learning environments and improving reading and literacy levels.

Despite the heroic efforts to change the culture and learning environment, and despite increases in attendance and grade promotion, there has been no change in test scores for the students at Patterson.

Conclusion

The two schools we visited had comprehensive models of education reform in place and were moving ahead with those models, with moderate success. The challenges faced by the schools are enormous: students who have been socially promoted arrive in ninth grade with average reading levels at the fifth grade, some as low as second grade. Attendance is another problem, with students being out of school an average of six weeks per year. Whether greater connections to the community would help with attendance is a question. The schools are attempting to increase attendance by making learning more interesting by linking it to the real world and by finally giving the students the skills they should have learned in elementary school. They are focusing very directly and intensely on literacy and providing as much attention as is realistic on reading and writing. However, with students coming into the ninth grade with such low skill levels, it is almost impossible to get them up to grade level in one school year. Additionally, teachers are not prepared to teach reading and writing and must learn these new skills. The move to eliminate remediation at Patterson High School has helped to bring about higher level courses for students who are ready. But one wonders what effect it will have on the dropout rate. Administration said that most students who fail do attend summer school and extra classes, and because of the smallness of the academies, they do stick with it. However, the school is still only graduating 160 students out of an entering ninth grade class of 800-900.

The alternative system may help students who leave Patterson or Lake Clifton Eastern High Schools, but those programs are limited in scope and cannot serve all students. The City of Baltimore has an impressive vision to build a system using funding from a diverse range of sources to help provide wraparound services to needy youth. The emerging proposal to allow education funds to follow youth to any agency or service provider they find may spur this system building.

Contact Information

Kathy Floyd
Director of the Baltimore Academies
Lake Clifton Eastern High School
2801 St. Lo Drive
Baltimore, MD 21213
410-467-6307- ph./410-467-0316- fax.

Jennifer E. Green (literacy teacher at Lake Clifton Eastern HS)
Program Officer
Fund for Educational Excellence
800 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-685-8300 ext. 20- ph./410-685-1911-fax.
jennifere@ffee.org

Karen Sitnick, Director
Mayor’s Office of Employment Development
City of Baltimore
101 West 24th Street, Suite 300 A
Baltimore, MD 21218-5024
410-396-6722-ph./410-467-7869-fax.
Ksitnick@oedworks.com

Skip Sanders
Deputy Superintendent for Administration
Maryland State Department of Education
200 W. Baltimore StreetBaltimore, MD 21201-2595
410-767-0464-ph.

Sally Maxton, Director
Alternative Schools and Program
Baltimore City Public School System
1601 E. Pratt Street, Room 14
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-396-3020-ph./410-396-3022-fax.

Dana Stein
President and Executive Director
Civic Works (with YouthBuild program)
2701 St. Lo Drive
Baltimore, MD 21213
410-366-8533-ph./410-366-1831-fax.

Katharine Oliver, Assistant Superintendent
Maryland State Department of Education
200 W. Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-2595
410- 767-0158-ph./410-333-8666-fax.
koliver@msde.state.md.us

Cynthia Janssen, Assistant to the CEO for High Schools
Baltimore City Public Schools
200 East North Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-396-1683-ph.
Cjanssen@bcps.k12.md.us

Laura DoAnna, Principal
Patterson High School
100 Kane Street
Baltimore, MD 21224
410-396-9276-ph.

James McPartland, Project Director
Center for Social Organization of Schools
Johns Hopkins University
3003 North Charles Street, Suite 200
Baltimore, MD 21218-2696
410-516-8803-ph./410-516-8890-fax.
Jmcpartlan@csos.jhu.edu

American Youth Policy Forum   1836 Jefferson Place NW,  Washington DC 20036
Telephone 202-775-9731      |      Fax 202-775-9733      |     Email aypf@aypf.org