School and Community Reforms for Student Achievement
Boston, MA

An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — June 4-5, 2001

Purpose

The purpose of this field trip was to learn about high school reform, education and literacy programs for young adults, and a full-service community school in an urban school district.

Fenway High School, June 4, 2001

Our first visit was to Fenway High School, located in a building directly across from Fenway Park and shared with the Boston Arts Academy. Fenway was founded in 1983 as an alternative academic program for disadvantaged and/or disaffected students who were failing in Boston’s large high schools. Fenway is, in the staff’s own words, "a school community of diverse individuals, which inculcates caring and respect for self and others, teamwork, citizenship and fun." Its goal is to encourage academic achievement and habits of mind to create a socially committed and morally responsible community of learners, which values its students as individuals. From the start, Fenway was a pioneer in the small schools movement, which values personalized relationships between teachers and students, and in providing integrated, flexible curriculum, on-site, shared decision-making, and learning partnerships with outside organizations. Fenway was also one of the first New American High Schools selected by the U.S. Department of Education (see endnote).

Larry Myatt, Director, said Fenway is a Pilot School, a status that gives a Boston public school greater freedom over its operation. Pilot Schools are given autonomy over five key areas: curriculum, hiring and firing, budgeting, scheduling, and governance. Pilot Schools are reviewed every three years to determine their effectiveness and remain as a pilot. Fenway went through the School Quality Review in 2000 and was approved for three more years. At one point, in 1994, Fenway won charter status from the state, but chose instead to stay in the public school system and lead reform efforts from within.

Fenway has 31 staff and approximately 270 students who come from neighborhoods throughout Boston. The demographic mix is about 55 percent African-American, 20 percent Hispanic, 20 percent Caucasian, and 5 percent Asian. Students are grouped into three "houses" or learning families, each of which has its own faculty and student support staff. Students typically remain in the same house throughout their four years at the school, and they become well known by their teachers and form strong bonds with their classmates. Each teacher within a house also serves as an advisor to a group of about 20 students. Advisories meet several times a week to discuss issues that loom large for adolescents, such as peer interaction, health and safety in an urban environment, college applications, and career choices. As a Boston public school, Fenway receives the same per pupil allocation as other schools and hires teachers from the Boston Teachers Union (teachers apply to Fenway and to the school district in a parallel process).

The admissions policy is very open: students come to Fenway because they want to be there. After a visitation, students apply and write an essay on why they want to attend Fenway. The mere act of submitting an essay can get a student admitted, as essays are not judged for quality. Most students want to come to Fenway because of the safe and smaller environment, the strong focus on social justice, and the opportunity to work in the outside community as part of their learning. Fenway staff have also learned through their parent surveys, that the high college acceptance rate is a big draw. An admissions lottery is used in order to achieve a demographic balance, and as a public school, Fenway is required to accept any student, including those with disabilities. The school provides a one-week orientation for freshman to help infuse the culture of the school.

Because of its educational philosophy and approach, Fenway became a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), an organization of schools that share certain approaches to curriculum and teaching. CES schools espouse a vision of education in which students are active learners and able to demonstrate their skills and knowledge publicly; in which teachers tune instruction to individual needs and design curriculum to promote deep understanding rather than mere coverage of material; and in which school schedules and routines help teachers and students to know each other well and to work in an atmosphere of mutual trust and high expectations. (For more information on CES, visit www.essentialschools.org).

Fenway and CES schools believe that curriculum should focus on depth not breadth, to ensure that each student masters a limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge. Curricular decisions at Fenway are guided by student interest, and developmentally appropriate practice, with the aim of thorough student mastery and achievement. In implementing this principle, Fenway, for example, focuses on powerful integrated themes in science, not the typical layered approach to science curriculum (biology, chemistry, physics). The curriculum is very interdisciplinary, based on math and science curriculum frameworks and Massachusetts curriculum frameworks. While not fully aligned with the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), teachers are in the process of considering how and where they might adapt curriculum to MCAS without sacrificing the best instructional practice for students.

Students are grouped in three houses (vertical 9-12 learning families that enable class cohorts and a core teaching staff to remain together for three, sometimes four years) that have been identified in the past through the partnerships they have had with employers and community organizations. One long-standing partnership with Children’s Hospital, that defined one house as a health care house, will end because of changes that include personnel changes (loss of "champions") and budget difficulties at the hospital. New partners are being recruited, but the school is finding it challenging to identify corporate partners or employers who will commit to a long-term relationship and provide internships for students, a situation increasingly faced by schools that reflects changes in the corporate work culture, job definitions, and ideas of "employee contributions." Rather than looking for one large employer partner, Fenway is seeking emerging relationships with a wider range of employers in a more entrepreneurial manner that will allow students more flexibility in following their interests.

Fenway is not a "school-to-career" school, says Myatt: its focus is on academics and understanding the wider world. Senior year internships help integrate the prior years of study and work and are used to help students demonstrate independence, to structure their learning, and let them follow their passions. To demonstrate mastery, students present portfolios of their work every grading period, as well as a complete portfolio in senior year for graduation. In the 10th grade, students begin to select or frame an issue or topic they want to study. They begin to explore the community to learn about the issue or topic. In 11th grade, there is a Ventures class that helps students develop entrepreneurial skills and gain a wider exposure to resources in the community. In 12th grade, seniors perform a six-week internship focused on the issue or topic selected as a culminating experience. Following the internship, students present their portfolio demonstrating the competencies gained through their four years, organized in an interdisciplinary fashion. Students must also make a presentation that is reviewed by an interdisciplinary team of teachers and staff.

While portfolios are used extensively for all students through the four years, the school advocates for assessing student performance in a variety of ways: classroom-based diagnostics, exhibitions, standardized tests, work internships, integrated projects, and college acceptances (for seniors). Teachers also write in-depth narrative reports on students twice a year.

Staff and counselors help students think about college early in their high school careers. By junior year, students are asked to review and reflect on their academic progress, the kind of internship they want to do senior year, and in what career field they are interested.

A significant part of Fenway’s philosophy is to support students in their development as fully engaged young adults. The school has a strong commitment to serving the whole student, not just focusing on academics. To help prepare youth for life, the school provides a great deal of adult contact and support, and a very nurturing environment. There are three professional clinicians, one for each house, to focus on students’ health and mental health needs. This is in addition to an advisor assigned to each student.

Fenway provides professional development for staff and for counselors, who are viewed as critical supports to the health and well-being and therefore the ability to learn, of the student. Staff members have multiple roles in the school, they engage in team planning and review student performance. Because teachers and staff put in extra time and one week of planning during the summer, the school provides a small stipend to cover this extra work.

Fenway has a reputation as being a safe and accepting school. It has set out safety guidelines for students and staff and encourages respect and acceptance of others. Guidelines (known as safety or diversity language) for proper behavior include "Try It On" (to get a different perspective and understand the other person’s viewpoint); "It’s OK to Disagree"; "No Shame, No Blame or Attacks"; "Keep the Focus on Yourself" (take responsibility for your own actions); and "Group Confidentiality at All Times." In discussing sensitive issues, students and staff use this common language to better understand each other and work through problems. The school also works hard to be inclusive for gay, bi-sexual, and lesbian students and those with learning disabilities. Students and parents choose Fenway because of three criteria: 1) a safe physical environment; 2) a safe cultural environment (Afro-centric, punk, skateboards, gay/lesbian all accepted); and 3) intellectually (it’s okay to carry a book bag in the "hood" and okay to raise your hand for an answer, to aspire to college, to take a risk, etc.) A demonstration of the care given to students is that the school schedule starts at 8:45 AM, in recognition of the research showing the sleep needs of teens. Myatt said he would like to start school even later, at 9:45 AM, to give students more sleep time.

In discussing current educational challenges, the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) group and Myatt focused on the impact of the MCAS on Fenway. Currently, 70-80 percent of incoming ninth graders fail the practice MCAS, yet over 80 percent of Fenway graduates go on to college, Myatt indicated. Myatt said there may be sizable numbers of Fenway students that do not pass the MCAS for a variety of reasons including coming to high school with minimal academic skills. If students fail the MCAS, they cannot get a state-issued high school diploma but could get a community diploma, which would allow them to graduate but not be eligible to attend a state college or university (students could attend a private college or a public out-of-state college). Fenway leaders said they are agonizing over these issues of student achievement and high stakes tests and how to stay true to their mission without jeopardizing their students’ performance on the MCAS.

Myatt, along with his staff and Board, says he will not force the Fenway curriculum into the MCAS structure and that they will continue to push for a policy shift that allows multiple measures of assessment and a more holistic curriculum that helps students develop all their competencies. Myatt indicated that the Coalition of Essential Schools network in Massachusetts (not the national CES office) is working on developing alternative assessments to high stakes tests and to changing the focus of the debate from a single test to multiple and ongoing assessments. Ultimately, Myatt said it remains to be seen if the MA Department of Education and legislature, through the School Quality Review process, will accept the Fenway educational philosophy for its congruence with cognitive theory and research, along with its success in getting students into college or if they will push schools such as Fenway to align their curriculum with the MCAS. If the reviewers disagree with the Fenway philosophy, the school could be shut down.

As part of the most recent school review, Myatt said they found a need to provide more support for student literacy and numeracy, especially given the academic level of many students arriving from BPS middle school, and that in some cases, Fenway curriculum does not provide enough basic skills for some students. This is now being addressed with extra learning time and a focus on basic skills for students who need it. This effort may help a number of students pass the MCAS.

"Our school does great things with students, but it’s hard to document how a student uses the Habits of Mind [a template for decision-making and way of thinking that enables people to establish meaning, value and use for the events that shape their lives]. We, schools in general, rather than Fenway in isolation, have not been very good about our data collection. Fenway treatment may not really show up for 10 years after college. It’s a lot more than just test scores. We want to look at things like a good job, being a team player and flexible employee and able researcher, living well, being involved in the community, etc." said Myatt. Fenway is going to start conducting a longer term follow up of its students starting with the Class of 1998 and will ask questions about outcomes four, six, and eight years after graduation.

Myatt was also asked about the dual enrollment program that Fenway had in the past with Bunker Hill Community College. At the time, Fenway was known as Fenway Middle College High School and was located on the campus of the community college. Unfortunately, Myatt said, the relationship between the college faculty and the school changed, and the environment was not as supportive of high school students as hoped. While there were many positive aspects of the program, the different cultures and the gap in age of the students challenged the partnership.

Myatt strongly supports the small learning community movement and suggested that providing more choices of schools to students and parents might be a way of easing some problems with large comprehensive high schools. Fenway is a school of choice for students in Boston, and many students select it because of its size and personalization. This should be available to more students, Myatt believes.

Diploma Plus at Boston Adult Technical Academy, June 4, 2001

Diploma Plus is an educational initiative that re-thinks how educationally disadvantaged teens and young adults can best learn, finish high school, and transition to postsecondary education and careers. Developed by the Center for Youth Development and Education at the Commonwealth Corporation (Boston), Diploma Plus (DP) is offered at nine sites serving over 400 students in Massachusetts. Sites include alternative high schools, community organization managed programs, a large high school-based academy, and a school-to-career partnership based at a community college.

Diploma Plus has three interrelated goals:

1. to raise standards and expectations for high risk youth;
2. to demonstrate that with the right mix of challenges and supports, many such young people can succeed academically at high levels; and
3. to assist significant numbers of these youth to earn their diplomas and successfully make the transition into postsecondary education and careers.

There are two stages to the program model. The first stage emphasizes instruction and assessment tied to clear standards or competencies, individual and group projects, the development of a portfolio, and strong guidance and support. To enter the second stage – the Plus Year – students must show a high level of academic readiness, as determined by attainment of specific competencies, portfolio assessment, teacher recommendations, and college placement test scores. In the Plus Year, students work on intensive, year-long projects and develop college success skills in a small Senior Seminars. Students also participate in an internship that is structured according to a work-based learning plan. Finally, Plus Year students enroll in one or more courses, for credit, at local community colleges.

The DP program at Boston Adult Technical Academy (located in the building of Madison Park High School) primarily serves young adults who are recent immigrants to the U.S. and who have need of English language skills. Ninety-five percent of the program participants are from Haiti, China, or Cape Verde, have been in the U.S. only one to two years, and have an average age of 20. The program, while relatively new, does not need to recruit students, as a large number of young adults are anxious to participate. In the first year of the program there were 35 students; there are now 250 students. Most of the participants have a sixth grade reading level in their native language and participate in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. If their native language skills are lower, students are placed in a bilingual program to develop their basic skills before transitioning to ESL classes. Teachers in the program are Boston Public School (BPS) teachers, aided by a large number of volunteers from Trinity Church, one of the program’s most supportive partners.

Boston Public Schools regulations require that students who are 20 years or older be in a free-standing program like Diploma Plus, not a regular high school. Another regulation states that student who have not had three years of BPS English courses are exempt from taking the MCAS. Because of the large immigrant population at this DP program, it is therefore unlikely that many students will be required to take the MCAS.

Lew Gitelman, Director of the DP program, said there are three critical components to a successful program: (1) teaching and learning; (2) organization and management; and (3) youth development. From his experience, he said a lot of alternative and smaller learning programs for youth and adults are very good at organization and management and youth development, but are weak in the area of teaching and learning. DP’s focus has been to improve the curriculum and teacher skills to work with these young adults. They are setting up rubrics for quality lessons and teaching, and instituting ability grouping in math and science so that students can progress at their own speed. Classes are competency-based, so as students develop the necessary skills, they can advance or test out.

There is a strong focus on youth development and students are encouraged to develop leadership, to help govern the school, and to "own" their learning. Students are highly motivated and are committed to improving their skills, and despite the fact that most students work at least one full-time job, the attendance rate is 85%.

Outcomes from all the DP sites in Massachusetts include:

• 70% of 1999 and 2000 graduates enrolled in postsecondary institutions upon graduation.
• Average grade level increased 1.69 in math across DP sites.
• Approximately 75% of DP students have higher academic/career aspirations now than when they began the program.
• 96% of Plus Phase students say they are more interested in attending college after participating in DP.
• At Boston Adult Technical Academy, 26 of 31 of the first class of graduates went on to two-year college.

During the tour of the DP program, we met with numerous students who were fluent and articulate in English. Several of them presented their senior seminar work and answered questions from the group competently and completely. Students indicated their desire to attend class and the value of the classes, and commented on how supportive the staff and teachers are. While it was clear that these students were very motivated to learn, they appreciated the support from the teachers and the environment that empowered them to take charge of their learning.

BPS is interested in using the Diploma Plus model at the Boston Adult Technical Academy as a way to keep regular high school students engaged in quality learning and as a performance-based model. However, Gitelman said, for DP to be successful, you need a strong leader, a certain level of autonomy, and an interested and committed staff. To put this kind of program throughout Boston high schools would require a shift to small learning communities and a tremendous amount of professional development, he said.

Dinner, June 4, 2001

Our group had a relaxed dinner with a number of individuals representing various reform efforts in the Boston area, including Blenda Wilson, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Lili Allen, Jobs For the Future, Ephraim Weisstein and Joy Casteel, Commonwealth Corporation (Diploma Plus), and Ramona Thomas, Pathways to College Network at The Education Resources Institute.

Boston is one of the cities that has received a planning grant from the Carnegie Corporation of NY to look at district-wide reform of high schools. Carnegie will select a number of these cities and provide them long-term implementation grants. A number of the organizations at the dinner have been involved in this long-term planning and design effort.

A few points that were made during the brief general discussion around high school reform in Boston:

• It is impossible to work on the whole system and district wide reform without the right partners.
• A strong youth development perspective needs to be included in any high school reform strategy.
• We are trying to marry the best of the first and second chance systems, and we need to learn how to take the best from each. How can we look at the practices to determine what works?
• Small schools that are successful usually are very interdisciplinary. How does that work on a grand scale of an urban district that has a very distinct disciplinary structure? How do you get cross-disciplinary practice throughout the whole system? Because you can’t teach all of the MCAS standards in each separate discipline, it’s really a matter of teaching skills like literacy across the curriculum.

Brighton High School, June 5, 2001

The second day of our visit took us to Brighton High School, built in 1929, an imposing Gothic structure that sits high on a hill. As you enter the main hallway, you pass through a metal detector with two uniformed Boston police officers watching. One’s first impression may be of a locked down high school, but as you enter the main hallway, you sense a very different environment. Despite the imposing and guarded entrance, the school’s climate is one of openness, respect, playfulness, but also a commitment to and appreciation of learning. A sign on the wall gives a clue to this environment: "Make MCAS a game you just have to win."

Brighton High School has approximately 1100 students, with 50% African American, 35% Hispanic, 8% Asian, and 7% White. Brighton is a school of small learning communities, whose mission is to provide connected and personalized teaching and learning. The school has been restructured into four career-themed learning communities, including the School of Business and Technology; the School of Health Professions; the School of Law, Government and Public Service (which includes Teach Boston); and the School of Media, Arts, and Communication. It also contains a Grade 9 Academy which provides a rigorous academic program that allows students to transition successfully from middle to high school. The school offers Junior ROTC, which seemed very popular with both young men and women.

Charles Skidmore, Principal, said Brighton’s first experience with a small, career-themed learning community was in the early 1990’s, when Boston Public Schools required each comprehensive high school to have some sort of magnet program. The school initiated the Health Professions cluster with 25 students, growing to 200 students over several years. Early data showed that students in the health professions cluster had higher grades, fewer absences, and better college placement. Building on this experience, the school decided to add three new pathways over a three-year period with funding from the School to Work Opportunities Act.

To accomplish this goal, in 1994, a "change team," with teachers and administrators, was created. The Center for Collaborative Education, a non-profit (founded by Fenway High School Co-Directors) that helps schools move through the change process, was hired to help as well. The change team decided to create small learning communities with a career focus as part of their design. To determine the career pathways, the team sent out surveys to teachers, students, parents, and the community to determine what jobs and career paths would be most appropriate and to meet labor market needs. The change team took two years to select the pathways and design the smaller learning communities. Despite the two-year design process, there was still a great deal of concern on the part of teachers and parents about the proposed design. For example, all the English teachers wanted to join the media/communications pathway, and all the history teachers wanted to join the government pathway. But the design was to provide college entrance requirement courses in each pathway, so disciplinary groups were split up across all pathways. Parents were concerned that the pathway courses would crowd out preparation for college. Five Advanced Placement courses (English, History, Biology, Chemistry, and Calculus) open to students from all pathways were added, and parents’ fears were allayed when they saw the range of classes being offered. Because of the need for math skills among all students, math is not connected to a pathway, so students share classes and are groups by ability.

Eighty-five percent of the students stay in their chosen pathway, but they can switch to another if they wish. During senior year, a number of students switch into the business pathway because they want to gain practical skills. Seniors are required to perform an internship, which is scheduled during the last period of the day and one to two hours after school. The school is moving to a requirement of internships for all 11th and 12th grade students, starting with a six-week rotation and leading to a paid internship after junior year and senior year. Students are beginning to use electronic portfolios to record their work. Staff said they would be happy if they can get ten percent of the students involved in internships because of the logistical difficulties and in finding placements for students.

Brighton decided to set up a Grade 9 academy, as a way to help students adjust to high school and to focus on basic skills. Grade 9 Academy teachers are assigned to work only with the ninth graders, and the students are physically separated from the rest of the building. Staff of the Grade 9 Academy consists of a director, two teams of teachers, and one counselor. The curriculum focuses on literacy and math skills, in preparation for the MCAS tests in 10th grade.

Skidmore discussed Brighton’s strategy for helping students meet the MCAS. In the ninth grade academy, the focus is on literacy, reading, and numeracy. Resources are being put into tutoring as one strategy to help students. For students who fail the MCAS, Brighton provides computer aided instruction (software provided through a donation from a local bank) and testing for remediation. A summer school program is mandatory for students in the ninth grade if they have not met the MCAS benchmark. For tenth and eleventh grade students who fail MCAS, summer school is optional, but strongly encouraged.

Thirteen percent of the tenth graders last year passed the MCAS in math, and fifty percent passed in language arts. The tenth graders in 2001 had just taken the MCAS in May, and results had not yet come in. Skidmore says it takes three months to get results of the tests back to schools and students, and because of this delay, it is very hard to adjust teaching. This past year the only MCAS tests that were counted were the math and science tests. Skidmore said that students filled out these tests much more completely and worked much harder on these tests than on subjects that do not count, so this added student effort may help to boost scores. Finally, Skidmore said there is a much greater focus on literacy in grades two through six in the BPS, which hopefully will result in better prepared students over the longer term and more success on the MCAS.

Brighton has been fortunate in receiving an Annenberg Grant for Professional Development. As such, professional development and time for teachers to plan in teams is built into the Brighton week. All pathway teachers in Grades 10-12 meet three times per week for a total of 180 minutes in Common Planning Time (CPT) meetings, which are interdisciplinary. In one meeting each week, teachers and representatives from student support services and special education discuss the students’ academic and behavioral challenges and strengths and formulate plans and interventions using a case management approach. The two other CPT meetings focus on best practices and looking at student work.

Grade nine academy teachers meet after school for their CPT, because the 80-minute block schedule for math and language arts does not provide for any common planning periods during the day. In addition, Brighton makes available a literacy and numeracy specialist to provide training to all grade nine teachers once a month.

There is also an instructional leadership team composed of teacher volunteers, teacher facilitators from each pathway, administrators, and Annenberg coaches. The purpose of this team is to improve teaching practices in the classroom so that all students can achieve at high standards. At these meetings, teachers are invited to present their best practices or their "best challenge" on which they would like advice.

Brighton provides a wide range of student support services to ensure that youth are ready to learn. The school has a licensed school-based health center, which screens for mental heath and general health care needs. A school nurse provides audio and visual screening and ensures that all seniors have gotten a physical exam and are up to date with their immunizations as one step to enrolling in postsecondary education. There is a major focus on pregnancy prevention, which staff said is very effective. The school uses a case management approach to discuss student health and support issues, with weekly meetings of counselors and teachers during common planning time. Counselors from a nearby mental health center are on call for additional assistance. The school also has access to the Boston Medical Center, and residents and nurses are available to come to the high school. All of these health services (the school-based center and access to outside experts and services) have been funded through the tobacco settlement money. The goal of the school nurses and health professionals is to keep students in school and learning, rather than send them home or to another healthcare facility.

To help students think about and prepare for college, Brighton formed a College and Career Center five years ago. Counselors said that having the career pathways makes it much easier to distribute information to students and focus on their career interests. Counselors meet two to three times with tenth grade students from each pathway to share information about careers; in eleventh grade, counseling starts for PSATs and SATs, and every student registers for SATs. By senior year, students meet once a week with their counselor about college selection and to complete financial aid forms.

Seventy-five percent of the seniors go to further education or training after graduation, with half of them going to community college and the other half to four-year colleges or universities.

During our exchanges with students and staff throughout the day, we were impressed by the friendly atmosphere and the sense of respect between staff and students. In hallway conversations between classes, staff spoke to students, sometimes prodding or questioning about school work or activities, but always in a respectful manner. Students, for their part, felt comfortable speaking with us about all issues at the school and said they feel very supported by the teachers and staff. At the end of the day, we met with a panel of students, all very articulate and engaged. When asked why they choose to come to Brighton, they replied with comments such as:

• Because of the support I get from the teachers and staff.
• I like the hands-on approach to teaching, because it keeps me engaged.
• The school creates lots of options for you. If you are 16 and you don’t know what you want to do or you don’t like the pathway you are in, you can change it.
• Teachers genuinely care about you.

Boston Excels Community School, Ellis Elementary School, June 5, 2001

Nechama Katz, Director of Planning and Policy, Home for Little Wanderers, described Boston Excels as a school reform initiative that addresses the academic support needs of children and their families so that children can succeed in school. It recreates schools as centers for the development of children, families and communities. Such schools are increasingly known as full service community schools. The purpose of the program is to help meet the health, mental health, and social needs of students so teachers can focus on their job of supporting student learning.

This comprehensive program is a collaboration between the Home for Little Wanderers and the Boston Public Schools. Launched in 1991, Boston Excels serves as a coordinator and manager of the many supplemental programs and outside organizations that provide service to the schools and the community. The core components of Boston Excels are:

• School based individual, group, and family counseling
• Mentors and tutors
• Family literacy and family support
• Parent education and leadership development
• Parent involvement in the school
• After-school and out-of-school time programs
• Professional development for school staff
• Community connections and collaborations
• Shared leadership in school communities
• Improved school climate
• Whole school change
• Evaluation and dissemination
• Impact on public policy

The AYPF group visited Ellis Elementary School, one of the five Boston Excels sites in the city.

Anne Greenbaum, a coordinator for one of the Boston Excels elementary schools, says it is her job to leverage services for children, whether it is extended day or health screening, and to manage and coordinate outside organizations that provide help to the school. Each Boston Excels school has a full-time coordinator located in the school. Full-time clinicians are also located in the school and provide hundreds of hours of crisis intervention. Because service providers come into the school, they become part of the school community, and even though their salary is paid by another organization, their commitment is to the school community, said Greenbaum.

Carlos Gibbs, Principal of Ellis Elementary, said it is important to deal with the whole child, including mental health and family issues. "We are lucky we have so many options to help students through Boston Excels. Unfortunately, if you don’t have options, a lot of kids get referred to special education. Public schools in urban areas are in crisis because there are so many issues we have to deal with, we really need collaborators and partners."

Boston Excels is funded by both public and private sources. Approximately 60 percent of the funds come from public sources, including the 21st Century Community Learning Centers and Even Start programs, which are major sources of funding. Support for staff and counselors is provided by Boston Excels with money raised from foundations. Greenbaum said a bare bones program could be run for $150,000 per school, but that it really takes $250,000 to do a good job, especially for a larger school.

Representatives of Boston Public Schools, who joined the meeting, indicated that Superintendent Tom Payzant has been clear that schools cannot by themselves provide all the services needed and they need collaboration to improve teaching and learning and help students meet state academic standards. While Boston Excels serves only five elementary schools, Payzant would like to have similar services in all schools. Boston is rich in resources, but the challenge to the community is to align the work of the community agencies with the school system to support systemic reform, said the BPS staff. They are planning on moving towards community schools in each cluster.

During our visit to Ellis Elementary School, we met several parents who described their involvement with the school and the support they received from Boston Excels. A number of parents participate in English as a Second Language programs, as the population is largely immigrant. Parents develop language skills in the context of their children’s education, so that they learn to be involved and can advocate on behalf of their children. One example of this is an effort to help parents understand how mathematics is taught. Math classes are taught for parents so they can coach their children on their homework. Once parents learn how to help their children with their math assignments, they often continue to study math in adult education classes. One mother reached out to immigrant parents by involving other mothers in math at the local playground. The school has even started a "Parents Active in Math" club to help children succeed and keep parents engaged as their children advance. While strategies such as the parent math club have significantly increased parental involvement, Ellis School still has only 100 out of 500 families participating in school events.

As we toured the school, we saw the after-school program in which children of various ages were engaged in recreational and academic support activities. Small groups allowed for a great deal of interaction between the students and the adults and the children seemed happy and engaged. One program focused on math skills and self-esteem for young girls; another program on writing.

Boston Excels counselors also come into the classroom during the school day and work with students on their behavior. This integrated approach helps keeps students in the class rather than pulling them out for services, providing immediate feedback and support for the student, less disruption to the academic day, and more learning time.

At its five sites, Boston Excels has tracked outcomes of students and families and reports academic achievement, better behavior, prevention of negative behaviors, and increased parental involvement:

• From 1991-94, the number of students with reading scores above the 60th percentile increased by 115%, and in math the increase was 39%.
• Otis Elementary School, one of the Boston Excels sites, had the greatest improvement in MCAS scores of all Boston Public Schools.
• Principals, teachers, parents, and school records report decreased student disciplinary incidents in Boston Excels schools.
• By 1998, four Boston Excels schools (serving a total of 2,200 children) logged a 50% unduplicated rate of parent involvement in a school activity over a four-month period – as compared to the period prior to Boston Excels, when fewer than five parents were regularly active at any of these schools.
• Boston Excels clinicians provided families with 448 hours of family counseling and support – the equivalent of 11.2 work weeks devoted to families of the 2,400 students.

Summary

The four sites that we visited shared a great deal in terms of program philosophy and design. All of them made use of smaller classes and small learning and supportive communities to help students achieve, and they provided a personalized education with strong student (and often family) supports to make sure the student could focus on the main goal – learning. The programs also were structured to ensure a great deal of adult contact and support, by providing additional counselors, and lower student to adult ratios. The programs focused on the "whole" student, not just his or her academic needs, and included health and mental health services. Learning was designed to be engaging and interesting, from the after-school programs for the elementary school children to the internships and senior projects used by the Diploma Plus program and both high schools.

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Endnote: The Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education recognizes New American High Schools as schools where all students are expected to meet both challenging academic standards and acquire the skills necessary for college and careers. Characteristics of NAHS include:

• Core activities of the school concentrate on student learning and achievement.
• All students are expected to master the same rigorous academic material. High expectations are established for student achievement.
• Staff development and planning emphasize student learning and achievement.
• The curricula are challenging, relevant and cover material in depth.
• Schools are using new forms of assessment.
• Students get extra support from adults.
• Students learn about careers and college opportunities through real-life experiences.
• Schools create small, highly personalized and safe learning environments.
• Technology is integrated into the classroom to provide high-quality instruction, and students have opportunities to gain computer and other technical skills.
• Periods of instruction are longer and more flexible.
• Strong partnerships are forged with middle schools and colleges.
• Schools form active alliances with parents, employers, community members and policymakers to promote student learning and ensure accountability for results.

 

Contact Information

Larry Myatt
Headmaster
Fenway Middle College High School
174 Ipswich Street
Boston, MA 02215
617-635-9911- ph/617-635-9204-fax
fenway@boston.k12.ma.us

Lew Gitelman
Director
Boston Adult Technical Academy
75 New Dudley Street
Boston, MA 02120
617-635-1542-ph/617-635-1541-fax

Charles Skidmore
Principal
Brighton High School
25 Warren Street
Boston, MA 02135
617-635-9873-ph/617-635-9892-fax

Nechama Katz
Director of Planning and Policy
The Home for Little Wanderers
Boston Children’s Institute
271 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
617-927-0621-ph/617-267-8142-fax.
Nkatz@thehome.org

 

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