High School Redesign and Innovation
Providence, RI

An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — May 13-14, 2002

Background

This field trip focused on urban high school reform. Providence, RI is one of seven cities funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to redesign its high schools. The Carnegie Corporation funding ($8 million over five years), enhanced by additional funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, allows the city to create a completely new vision for secondary education. The AYPF group also had the opportunity to learn about The Met, a small, innovative high school. Our trip included:

• Meeting with representatives of the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to discuss state secondary education reform
• Meeting with the Providence Public Schools Director of High School Redesign
• Visiting Central High School and Mt. Pleasant High School, both Providence Public School District high schools undergoing redesign
• Meeting with representatives of the Rhode Island Children’s Crusade for Higher Education and other members of the Leadership Team to learn about innovative efforts to involve the Providence community in planning for secondary education reform
• Visiting The Big Picture Company to meet with students and teachers from The Met

Visit to The Big Picture Company

The AYPF field trip began with a visit to The Big Picture Company, a not-for-profit organization that designs “break-through” public schools, researches and replicates new models for education, trains educators to serve as leaders in their schools and communities, and actively engages the public as participants and decision-makers in the education of youth.

The Big Picture Company philosophy is grounded in educating “one student at a time” by promoting and creating personalized education that is unique for each student. The Big Picture Company believes that learning best takes place when each student is an active participant in his or her education; when the student’s course of study is personalized by teachers, parents, and mentors who know him/her well; and when school-based learning is blended with outside experiences that heighten that student’s interest. The Big Picture Company is best known for its involvement in helping to create and support The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (The Met), a small, innovative high school. Field trip participants had the opportunity to meet with Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor, Co-Directors of the Big Picture Company and founders of The Met, and students, administrative staff, and advisors (teachers) from The Met.

The Met was commissioned by the Rhode Island Department of Education and Board of Regents in 1996 to model the most up-to-date, research-based educational practices. The school is independent of the Providence Public School District, and receives funding for operation directly from the state. Because it was commissioned by the state, it is freed from district education policy and labor contracts, allowing it much greater flexibility with its teaching staff and program of studies. The Met is designed to be a small school, with approximately 100 students. Currently, there are two campus locations for the Met (Shepard Campus and Peace Street Campus with 100 students each), with plans to grow to encompass multiple small schools of no more than 100 students each, separately located, but within a single organization.

Meeting with the AYPF group, Littky posed a rhetorical question about high schools: “Why do we teach every student the same way when they are all so different? We know that 70 percent of the students coming from middle school are not making it there, so they probably won’t make it in a large high school. That is why we are providing an alternative,” he said. The culture of the school is “find your passion.” Once youth decide what it is they are passionate about, they will become motivated learners. The Met subscribes to the Coalition of Essential Schools philosophy of “depth, not breadth” of curriculum. According to Littky “there is no common content that all students need to know to be successful in this world. We want kids who can read and write and think.”

Students are grouped into advisories of 14 students with one adult advisor, who stays with that group of students all four years. Advisors are hired for their commitment to youth and a willingness to work with a team of students for four years. Advisors have content knowledge expertise, and when needed, will work with students, but their main focus is to help organize the learning for the teens in their advisory. The majority of the advisors’ day is spent connecting their students to resources, individually coaching them in their work, helping them develop projects, and communicating with their mentors and parents.

Learning at The Met occurs in two main spheres. First, students participate in a “Learning Through Internship” (LTI), in which they serve a meaningful internship two days a week with an employer who is committed to mentoring and helping the student learn new skills. Second, students design a self-directed course of independent study that allows them to gain knowledge and skills in five arenas: empirical reasoning (science-related), quantitative reasoning (math-related), communication, social reasoning, and personal qualities. Advisors help students determine where and when over the course of the four years the students will develop competencies in the five areas. Students are able to pursue independent study, work with a group of students from their advisory on projects to learn certain skills, take college courses, primarily at Rhode Island Community College and Johnson and Wales University, and learn through the internships. The Met does not offer a standard list of courses; however, advisors with certain content knowledge will engage in small tutorials with students to address certain subjects. Students build skills through research, writing, attending workshops, and working. Because of the variety in students’ learning plans, there is not a single whole-school schedule. With the help of the advisor, each student creates a weekly individual schedule based on the work needed to do, the resources to be located, and scheduled workshops, college classes, and the internship in the community.

The Senior Thesis Project is designed to deepen and strengthen each student's personal learning process. Throughout 11th and 12th grades, each Met student conceptualizes, designs, and implements a project based on his or her own interests. Some sample Senior Thesis Projects from previous years include: designed and planned a school-based health center and received an initial grant for it (partnership between two seniors); scripted and produced a video for young people on community/police relationships; founded and led a Girls’ Math group for young girls developing math skills; designed, produced, and installed a set of 12 stained glass windows for the Peace Street campus; programmed a functioning computer game for Brown University’s Computer Science 32 project; and completed seven preliminary college courses toward a pre-med program.

The LTIs allow students to develop capabilities in areas other than school work, which help to build their self-confidence, but also allow them to make choices about their future career plans. Students are responsible for developing the concept of and finding internships themselves, although the advisors will provide advice and ideas. Students have participated in a wide range of LTIs, including working in: a psychiatric mental health center, a glassblowing studio, the office of Hispanic Affairs in City Hall, a trout hatchery, the RI State Archives, a hospital as a Spanish-English interpreter, and an elementary school.

A large part of the advisors’ work is to visit students when they are at their internships, to meet with the employer/mentor, and to discuss what skills the student is learning. Advisors also discuss with the student and employer what additional learning is needed in order to perform certain tasks, and that work becomes part of the student’s learning plan. Students also develop “products” or evidence of their work (such as brochures, videos, art pieces, computer programs) that become part of their portfolio. As students mature, their LTIs become more challenging, requiring greater independence and responsibility, and when seniors participate in their LTI, it must have value not only to the individual, but also to the school and the community.

For students to be successful, they “have to feel there is a place for them in the community,” said Washor, as he described the LTIs. “The LTIs are a way to motivate students and for students to be around adults who love what they are doing,” he continued.
The Met uses portfolios as a tool to quantify and qualify student performance. Portfolios include drafts of papers, evaluations, artwork, journal writing, Learning Plans, project work, and work from the LTIs. This comprehensive collection of work is also used to help translate the Met experience for colleges and other high schools. Narratives are The Met’s method for reporting and documenting a student’s development to his/her parents. Both the advisor and student write these detailed evaluations of the student’s accomplishment of learning goals, efforts on projects, and contributions to the Met community on a regular basis.

The Met continually strives to adjust teaching practices to incorporate real world and professional standards into methods of assessment using observations, conferences, journal writing, presentations and exhibitions, project write-ups, standardized tests, teacher’s narratives on student’s learning progress, and lots of conversations.

Students arrive at the Met with an average 5th grade reading level and an average 4th-5th grade math level. Approximately 52 percent of the student body qualifies for free or reduced price lunch. Seventy-five percent of the students come from the City of Providence, and the remainder from the rest of the state. The ethnic/racial breakdown of the school is 38 percent white, 32 percent Hispanic, 22 percent African American, 2 percent Asian, and 6 percent other. Common languages spoken include English, Spanish, Portuguese, Cambodian, Russian and Ukrainian.

Rhode Island requires a test in 10th grade of basic skills (not to determine high school graduation), and because students come to the Met with low skills, they do not perform at high levels. The test does, however, help to identify weak areas. “Math is an issue for our students,” Washor said, “but because we know the students very well, we can identify what they don’t know and address weaknesses quickly.”

College access and success is a goal for all Met students. Adults talk about preparation for college so much that the students know the stakes for getting into college and, as a result, demand that they have the right skills to be accepted. Students understand that being strong in all subjects is required to get into a good college. If a student knows he or she is weak in a subject, he/she will seek out the necessary learning opportunities with the help of the advisor. In this way, students take on the responsibility to ensure that they are prepared for their future.

Ninety-one percent of the first graduating class and 93 percent of the second graduating class entered college, and 85 percent of those students are still in college, said Littky. Of these, 75 percent were first generation college students.

There is “accountability for life” with Met students, Littky said. “We follow the students into and through college. If they drop out of or leave the Met, we continue to try to work with them and help them – they are our kids.” The Met philosophy also includes helping the families of students and addressing issues affecting students outside of school. In some cases, parents of Met students have taken GED classes at the Met.

The two-campus Met staff is comprised of two co-principals, 16 certified teachers, (three of whom have dual roles as Aspiring Principal), two special education teachers, a college planning counselor, a guidance counselor, two workplace learning coordinators, a technology coordinator, two office managers, and part-time support staff that includes a special education director, a psychologist, and a nurse.

Staff development plays a major role in the success of the Met model. There are three levels of staff meetings at the Met: grade-level, campus, and whole-staff. Advisors are paired across grade levels to share resources and experiences as well as encourage positive peer alliances between older and younger students. Campus meetings allow each campus to make decisions for their own needs and goals. Monthly all-day (whole staff) retreats provide professional development and decision-making affecting the whole school.

As a mechanism to help keep the culture of the Met strong, the Co-Directors purposely build in time for sharing and communication among staff. In the last year, numerous whole-school retreats were held: three days following the close of school were used to reflect on the year and pinpoint needs for the upcoming year, and two weeks in August are set aside to plan for the new year. Topics for past retreats included family engagement, mentor appreciation, standards and assessment, and learning plans. Part of professional development at the Met involves ongoing collegial communication. Each Friday, the staff produces an internal “TGIF” newsletter. Staff members take turns writing a personal reflection of their work and sharing best practices. Each co-principal writes a reflective summary of the week, which helps the staff stay focused on the school’s vision and philosophy.

Because of its desire to promote change in education, The Big Picture Company is engaged in a process to replicate the Met in approximately 10 other cities around the U.S. Each new school will have 110 students, one principal, and eight advisors. The strategy for replication relies heavily on developing principal leadership, and The Big Picture Company currently offers a program, the Principal Residency Network, to immerse prospective principals in the operation of the Met in Providence for one year, before sending them off to the new schools. To aid in the replication of the Met, the Big Picture Company has also put all the information about how the school is organized and operated on the web, so that other sites will not have to “reinvent the wheel.” And, as part of the replication process, The Big Picture Company plans to compile longitudinal data on student outcomes at all the new sites.

One issue for the replication of the Met will be financing. In Providence, the per-pupil expenditure (PPE) provided by the state is approximately $9,000. “When we open a Met school in Oakland, CA,” said Littky, “we will only have a PPE of $4,500. It will obviously be a challenge for us to see if we can operate the school with that PPE, and if we can effectively replicate the model.”

Rhode Island Children’s Crusade for Higher Education

Mary Silvia Harrison, President and CEO, Rhode Island Children’s Crusade for Higher Education (RICC) said the organization was started in 1989 as a public-private initiative to focus on the high dropout rates and low college-going rates of students in Rhode Island, particularly minority and low-income students. RICC created an early intervention program to help students plan and prepare for college, support and mentor students as they move from grades 3-12, and provide scholarship funds. It has also served as an effective means of engaging the community on issues affecting students.

During the planning stages for the Carnegie Corporation grant, Superintendent Diana Lam, Providence School District, realized that there needed to be a stronger focus on youth development and that the school district would have to work more closely with students, parents, youth development agencies, religious and cultural groups, businesses, universities, community-based organizations, policymakers, and politicians. Lam asked RICC and other community agencies to become involved as a “core group” and help address the issue of outreach to the community and youth development strategies.

The youth development core group determined that one of the best ways to decide how youth development should be part of the reform plan was to ask youth and community members directly by using “study circles.” Nineteen study circles involving 240 youth and adults focused not just on school, but what the community must do to raise healthy young adults. As another strategy to encourage the participation of youth, RICC set up a competition, with monetary prizes, for students to express their opinions about high school.

Because of RICC’s success in community outreach and engagement, it became the project’s fiscal agent and core partner, with the responsibility of the “public engagement” aspect of the project. Harrison said a number of major issues face the reformers in Providence: the absence of a culture of high expectations for students; a lack of willingness to use data to drive the reform efforts; and a lack of understanding about why high schools have to change. To address these issues, RICC created a public awareness campaign called READY – Raising Expectations and Discovering Our Youth – as a way to engage various sectors of the community in the effort of reforming high schools. As another strategy to encourage the participation of youth, RICC set up a READY competition, with monetary prizes, for students to express their opinions about high school. As our group traveled to different sites, we saw evidence of the coordinated public awareness campaign and many references to READY. As the reform effort progresses, Harrison believes RICC will be very influential in influencing students, parents, and the broader community, while the school leadership team will deal more directly in influencing policymakers.

Dinner Meeting

Dennis Cheek, Director, Office of Research, High School Reform and Adult Education, Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, provided a brief overview of the state’s activities with regard to high school reform and raising student achievement. Cheek said that high schools had not been a high priority, but that the Board of Regents (which oversees elementary and secondary education) decided two years ago to focus on high school reform. In 2000, a statewide summit on the topic helped to raise awareness of the need to focus more time and attention on secondary schools. During the Summit, a number of areas were identified that need action. They include: (1) Students ready to learn; (2) Basic literacy must be a priority; 3) Students must learn what matters; 4) Communities must support high schools and their students; 5) High schools must be adolescent-friendly and challenging; 6) High schools must develop cohorts of leaders; 7) High schools must teach for tomorrow; and 8) High schools must help students embrace learning as the business of life.

The Board of Regents has now outlined its policy objectives: promulgate regulations that describe a common core of learning for high schools; focus on reading, especially for the middle level reader in high school; increase high school graduation requirements; and personalize the learning experience with the goal of student achievement. In addition, the state has decided not to apply a high stakes, single-year test to determine if students are ready to graduate from high school until it has dealt with the issue of opportunity to learn for every student. Cheek said he realizes this may take a number of years, but that policymakers are comfortable with postponing high stakes assessments until the issue of adequacy of learning has been dealt with.

While the state is not focusing on a high stakes test to measure student performance, it has developed an accountability system that measures the quality of the education offered to students. High school students do take an assessment in 10th grade to measure basic skills proficiency, and the scores are used to look at school effectiveness and ways to improve teaching and learning. All high schools will have to meet the standards set by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges accrediting standards as well as the RI School Accountability for Teaching and Learning (SALT). To meet these new accountability standards, schools will be visited by peers for at least five days each year. If schools are deficient in certain areas, they will be required to develop school improvement plans.

As a way to increase public awareness of the need to reform high schools, the State Department of Education has created a list of low, moderate, and high-performing schools and has posted the names on their website. Cheek said that this information will help inform parents and other community leaders about the condition of their own schools, which should help create a demand for better schools and increased student achievement.

Joe DiMartino, Director, Student Centered Learning, Education Alliance, Brown University, took a few minutes to describe his organization. The Education Alliance, a department of Brown University for more than 25 years, works to effect change in education. The Alliance has a number of programs, including the Northeast and Islands Regional Education Lab (LAB), one of ten federally-funded labs performing applied research and development to improve teaching and learning and promote effective school reform. The LAB carries out work related to high school restructuring, standards, assessment, and instruction.

The Education Alliance also focuses on adolescent literacy, leadership and teacher development to improve low-performing schools, student-centered learning in high schools, and the development of personalized pedagogy. It works with states in the Northeast to advise and develop policies to support high school restructuring. DiMartino described one such policy decision recently made by the State of Maine to put all of the resources from the federal Comprehensive School Reform program into secondary schools, rather than elementary schools, which is what most states do. This policy change has had a major impact on high school reform efforts, not only by shifting resources to high schools, but because it highlights the priority of the state on reforming secondary schools.

Day Two

Regis Shields, Providence Public Schools

Regis Shields, Project Director of High School Redesign, Providence Public School District, provided an overview of the Providence Public Schools and the reform plans being put in place as part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) grant (supplemented with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Shields said that the dropout rate for Providence high schools is approximately 50 percent and that some high schools have an average daily attendance rate of only 70 percent. There are nine high schools, four very large schools and five smaller or alternative high schools. Shields said that all the high schools in Providence are considered to be low-performing (the elementary and middle schools are low-performing but improving).

With the funding from Carnegie, Providence plans to focus on classroom teaching and learning. Providence is working with Lauren Resnick at the Institute for Learning (IFL) (www.instituteforlearning.org) at the University of Pittsburgh, a noted education researcher. The IFL has established a set of principles of learning that are designed to help educators analyze the quality of instruction and opportunities for learning offered to students. The principles of learning include: Accountable Talk, Clear Expectations, Fair and Credible Evaluations, Learning as Apprenticeship, Organizing for Effort, Recognition of Accomplishment, Socializing Intelligence, Self-management of Learning, and Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum. One belief of the IFL is that practice must change before culture does. As a result, Providence will focus its efforts on strategies to help change teaching practices.

First, because so many students drop out in grade nine, Providence has decided to start the reform process by changing the teaching that occurs in that grade. The city has instituted ninth grade core academic teams, common planning time, and ninth grade academies (although they will not be physically separated from the upper grades) in all high schools. Just to allow for common planning time for the ninth grade teachers at all high schools will cost approximately $1 million. It is the first time the high schools have used common planning time; for it to be effective, it needs to be well structured and not just an “add on.” The schools have reduced the number of electives so that more time and resources can be focused on basic skills and literacy.

Another priority area for Providence is to help principals become true instructional leaders of their building. In the last year, all high school principals have been trained and continue to receive on-going support in recognizing quality instruction and supporting continuous improvement. They have been working closely with the ninth grade teachers and in implementing changes to that grade. Now that the principals have been trained, Providence is training the assistant principals, other supervisors, and moving into the teacher corps. Next year, teachers in the 10th grade will receive professional development and support for teaming.

Coaching is a major strategy of the IFL. Content-focused coaching is a long-range professional development practice that trains coaches to work individually with classroom teachers to design, implement, and reflect on rigorous, standards-based lessons that promote student learning. The coach and teacher work together during a pre-conference to refine lesson design, during the enactment of the lesson in which both the teacher and coach are co-accountable for student learning, and during a post-conference in which they reflect on evidence of student learning and plan for subsequent lessons.
Coaches are former teachers who possess deep knowledge about a range of issues central to lesson design and delivery in their content areas, including theories of teaching and learning, standards, instructional practices, assessments, and curriculum resources.

Literacy coaches (called instructional coaches at high schools) have been assigned to each high school, and work with the ninth grade teachers across disciplines. Right now Mt. Pleasant has only one literacy coach for 1600 kids. Providence plans to have coaches for other subjects, like math, but have not instituted that yet. For teachers in other disciplines, professional development is focused on developing more rigorous content as the first step. One way to help teachers develop more rigorous coursework is for them to look at student work as a team. To continue the process of development, the lead teachers from each high school in a discipline meet to discuss the quality of student work as they move to the same level of rigor across the system.

Shields said that Superintendent Lam has made it clear that principals are accountable for student learning. That has been coupled with training and support for the principals to help them be more effective and to learn strategies to increase the rigor of instruction. The district also uses data to analyze performance and to chart future actions, and the Superintendent meets with the high school principals once a month to review progress.

Shields explained that there has been a significant labor dispute this school year, and teachers have been under a “work to the rule” arrangement, so extra planning time could not be added to the day. This “work to the rule” has slowed down some progress, according to Shields, but a new labor contract will now allow schools more flexibility in scheduling. Other schools are trying to become site-based management schools, which will provide even greater freedom, but negotiations with the union continue.

The Providence School District has plans to create small learning communities for all high school students but has not yet determined if that means free-standing small schools or small learning communities within larger schools. Superintendent Lam would prefer the former, but cost is an issue. As new high schools are built, they will be small high schools of no more than 350 students, but with shared facilities. Providence will be opening a Performing and Visual Arts Academy; a Health, Science, and Technology Academy; and the Providence Academy for International Studies (International Baccalaureate program). Another new high school is the redesigned Feinstein High School, which will be a site-based management, ungraded performance-based school.

Shields mentioned a number of challenges the district faces as it moves forward with its reform efforts. One is to get good teachers who want to teach ninth grade and give up the higher level courses. She said there is a small core of committed teachers, but not enough teachers are on board yet. Also, the Carnegie grant is a five-year grant, but the work will take much longer than that, and resources to sustain the efforts will have to be identified.

Another challenge relates to the vision for career and technical education. The District is starting a health and science high school that will rely on internships, and it is building a strong advisory board. But, Shields said, there is very little business located in Providence, so it is hard to find quality internships for all students.

Visit to Central High School

When Deb DeCarlo became principal of Central High School, the school was out of control. “Students were not in classes and many teachers were not doing a good job,” DeCarlo told us. The school’s budget had been mismanaged ($50-60,000/year for five years had not been spent), the bathrooms and halls were filthy, there were no expectations and no accountability for students or teachers, and the staff were offering numerous courses of little interest to the students. The state had threatened to close the building.
Central has nearly 1500 students, of whom 53% are Hispanic, 24% are Black, 13% are Asian, 9.2% are White, and 1% is Native American.

In her first summer, DeCarlo eliminated many positions and asked that six teachers be removed “for the good of the school and community.” She cleaned up the physical plant and added a code of honor and dress code. DeCarlo also began to hold teachers accountable for professional performance. She spent her first month as principal of Central “writing nasty memos about teachers coming late or not monitoring the halls.” And teachers who saw they would no longer be able to get by without doing a good job left Central.

Upon analyzing data gathered as part of the redesign process, DeCarlo decided to focus efforts to prepare ninth graders with the necessary support and resources to achieve academic success. All ninth graders are assigned to teams located together in one section of the school. Students have a double block of English, as well as Algebra I, Biology, and World History. Ninth grade teachers teach only four classes a day (about 104 students, as opposed to the traditional 130). In addition, teachers have common professional development time as a team. Each team meets with an Instructional Facilitator who sets the agenda for the professional development of the team during their common meeting time. In total, Central High School has four Instructional Facilitators, many more than other high schools in the Providence Public Schools. Providence chose to use Carnegie funding to provide so many Instructional Facilitators to Central because the school was in such desperate shape and DeCarlo felt she needed these Facilitators to help reorganize the school and train her staff.

DeCarlo also reorganized the Special Education Program at Central. In 2000-2001 she moved about 190 students in the Special Education program into inclusion programs. Only 10% ended up returning to Special Education. Initially, teachers had a hard time thinking they would be able to meet these students’ needs, but later found inclusion had a very positive effect on the kids, most notably through improved attendance.

Central has seen marked improvement in the past year in student academic success, attendance, and behavior. Failure rates for the 2000-2001 school year were 48% in English, 32% in Math, 41% in Biology, and 32% in Social Studies. Failure rates in all of these core subjects dropped significantly in 2001-2002, to 24% in English, 24% in Math, 18% in Biology, and 19% in Social Studies. The average attendance rate rose from 77% in 2000-2001 to 82% in the first semester of 2001-2002. Suspensions dropped from 576 in 2001-2001 to 174 in the first semester of 2001-2002.

DeCarlo stressed it is early to see the results of the many changes at Central. They are currently working to collect and analyze data to evaluate the effects of their reform efforts. DeCarlo reported improved attendance and discipline and dramatically improved academic success. “Lateness still needs improvement,” she noted. Central is conducting focus groups with students to get their feedback on changes. Said DeCarlo: “We are trying to get our staff to see the kids as our customers.”

Through the Gates Foundation-funded “Credit Recovery Program” and “Make Up” school, Central High seeks to get students who fail 9th grade back on track by 11th grade. Ten percent, or approximately 50 students in the 2000-2001 freshman class at Central earned fewer than two credits. The Credit Recovery Program was designed to serve all 9th grade repeaters, allowing them to engage in extended term work after school, curriculum compacting ( i.e., covering more course material by covering a subject during regular and after school hours), and pending approval, a community service component. Students in the Credit Recovery Program attend a double period of English and math. If successful after the first quarter, students are assigned community service and journal writing. Community Service earns students additional credits to keep them on track for graduation. The “Make Up” school is offered to 9th grade students failing Algebra I or English after their first semester. Students attend a ½ credit make up class to replace the failing grade they received during the first quarter and avoid repeating or going to summer school. Students in the program come to class immediately after regular school hours two nights per week for English instruction and two nights per week for math instruction. Students and their parents sign a contract with clear expectations and pay a $20.00 fee, which is refundable if they successfully complete the class. After two absences, students are dropped from the program, and students must be present during the day to attend the after school program.

After meeting with Deb DeCarlo, our AYPF group split up to visit a number of classrooms at Central High. We were struck by the huge challenge faced by DeCarlo as she tries to make Central into a successful high school. We saw few students in classes and few engaged teachers. The teachers and students seem to experience Central very differently from DeCarlo. An Instructional Facilitator who escorted us through the building explained that some teachers are on board with the changes DeCarlo is making, but many are not. Some continue to “put in their time” awaiting retirement.

Mt. Pleasant High School

Mount Pleasant has been developing career academies since 1992. Yet when Principal Nancy Mullen arrived in 1995, the students could not identify what academy they were in. The school is currently engaged in a process to slowly move all students, grade by grade, into career academies. As of the 2001-2002 school year, about 30 percent of Mt. Pleasant’s students are in academies. Next year, every 9th and 10th grader will be in an academy. Mullen described the school as a “work in progress,” with developing the existing academies a major focus. “Academy kids are the stars of Mt. Pleasant,” reported Mullen. “They are more connected to school, stay in, and do better.”

Mt. Pleasant has 1650 students in grades 9-12. It strives to prepare “students to be literate, competent, self-sufficient, and informed citizens of a multi-cultural democratic society.” It is a popular school--there are about 600 students currently on the waiting list. Both students and parents feel the school is safe and like the academy program. There are a higher percentage of Latino students at Mt. Pleasant than other schools in Providence, and Mt. Pleasant has 100 students involved in bilingual and ESL programs.

Mt. Pleasant High School has five career-based academies:

• Health and Science Academy
• Teacher Academy
• Travel and Tourism Academy
• Finance Academy
• Computer Information Systems Academy

Each academy has relationships with area organizations and businesses that offer academy students internship opportunities and serve on academy advisory councils. For example, Mt. Pleasant Teacher Academy students who meet the criteria get preferential treatment and financial aid at Rhode Island College, the traditional teachers college for Rhode Island.

We enjoyed lunch in the library with a very articulate and poised group of Mount Pleasant students who answered our questions about their school and why they chose it. Many students spoke of Mt. Pleasant’s good reputation for safety and family feel. It was clear that they had a great deal of respect for Principal Nancy Mullen.

After lunch we took a “Learning Walk” through the school. During this non-evaluative walk, Mullen suggested we ask students in their classes four questions: 1) What are you doing? 2) Why are you doing it? 3) What did you learn before that helps you learn what you’re learning now? and 4) How do you get an “A” in this class? Mullen explained that she wanted us to look for evidence of clear expectations, both in what students said to us and artifacts in the classroom. We found students and staff at Mount Pleasant are very familiar with visits to their classrooms and were ready to answer our questions while their classes were in progress. On our “Learning Walk” we observed a school in which expectations were generally clear and in which students and teachers were engaged, yet at the same time able to answer our questions as our group joined them in the classroom. As we toured the school, we got the sense that students feel respected as learners. They were engaged and aware of what was expected of them and how they could best succeed. The environment felt conducive to learning. There was a spirit of community throughout the school.

As part of the Carnegie-supported high school reform in Providence, Mt. Pleasant is currently embarking on a new process of professional development for teachers and administrators. Teachers meet in teams, rather than departments, for common planning time. This common planning time is meant to provide a forum for teachers to engage in discussing their teaching and their students’ work. After our classroom visits, we returned to the library where we met with teachers who described the work they are doing in their common planning time to develop their curricula and demonstrated methods they use for discussing student work. The level of discussion of student work we witnessed demonstrated that Mt. Pleasant teachers are very familiar with sharing ideas about teaching and learning. Clearly, at least for some Mt. Pleasant staff, the Carnegie-funded professional development that has gone along with reorganizing schools into “smaller learning communities” or “houses” has been influential in how teachers are working together to improve student learning.

The ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University

ArtsLiteracy Project Director Kurt Wootton and Providence Black Repertory Company Executive and Artistic Director Donald King got the group up and moving to demonstrate the work they do to prepare teachers and artists to improve student literacy through the performing arts.

The ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University has a twofold mission: 1) to provide a year-round professional development program for teachers and artists linking performing arts and literacy and 2) to provide challenging academic and artistic opportunities for students in urban schools. The project began in January 1997 on the premise that partnerships among practicing teachers and professional artists would create powerful literacy learning opportunities for secondary school students. They set out to explore the theory that multisensory learning involved in theatre and other arts work (improvising, photographing, writing, dancing, singing) is a powerful tool for engaging students with new ideas, with their own creativity, and with one another.

The ArtsLiteracy Project staff lead workshops both regionally and nationally. Teacher/artist teams collaborate in public school classrooms and after-school programs with ongoing support of mentor teachers. Each collaboration lasts from six to twelve weeks and culminates in a student performance for the larger school and community. Brown Summer High School is a summer “lab school” which is used to train teachers and artists to work with high school students. Teams of teachers and artists learn to use performance in classrooms by working with 300 high school students who participate in this summer program.

Conclusion

With strong leadership from Superintendent Lam and funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the City of Providence is embarking on an ambitious program to recreate its high schools to improve student performance. The work of the Rhode Island Children’s Crusade to involve the community in this process holds great potential. It will be interesting to see how the civic engagement portion of the Carnegie work unfolds.

The comprehensive model of high school reform the Providence Public Schools has in place is being implemented with varying success. The PPS high schools we visited are working hard to improve teaching and learning, but they face many hurdles. It remains a question whether breaking large, comprehensive high schools into smaller “schools-within-schools,” “learning communities,” or “houses” is working to address problems that plague large, impersonal schools: students falling through the cracks, curricula which are irrelevant to students, teachers working in isolation with no accountability, students coming into high school unprepared for the work, and high student drop-out and failure rates, etc.

The Big Picture Company provides a model for developing new, small high schools. Clearly the Met is one type of school that sets the stage for a personalized education in which no student is “lost in the crowd.” While the Met reaches some students who were not successful in larger traditional schools, such a program cannot serve all students. It will be interesting to watch as the Big Picture Company, with funding from the Gates Foundation, helps replicate the Met model in other cities.

Contact Information

Dennis Cheek, Ph.D., Director
Office of Research
High School Reform and Adult Education
R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Shepard Building, 6th Floor
255 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903
Tel. 401/222-4600, ext. 2150
Ride0015@ride.ri.net

Deborah DeCarlo, Principal
Central High School
70 Fricker Street
Providence, RI 02903
Tel. 401-456-9111
Ride6935@ride.ri.net

Joseph DiMartino, Director
Student-Centered Learning
The Educational Alliance
The LAB at Brown University
222 Richmond St.
Providence, RI 02903
Tel. 401/274-9548
Fax 401/421-7650
Joseph_DiMartino@Brown.edu

Mary Sylvia Harrison, Executive Director
Rhode Island Children’s Crusade for Higher Education
134 Center, Suite 111
Providence, RI 02905
Tel. 401/854-5500
Fax 401/854-5511
Mary@chidrenscrusade.org

Diana Lam, Superintendent
Providence Public School District
797 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903-4045
Tel. 401/456-9211,9212
Fax 401/456-9252
Diana.lam@ppsd.org

Dennis Littky, Co-principal
The Met
The Big Picture Company
275 Westminster Street, Suite 500
Providence, RI 02903
Tel. 401/456-0600
Fax 401/456-0606
DLittky@bigpicture.org

Martha Mueller, Ph.D.
Managing Director
The Big Picture Company
275 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903
Tel. 401/456-0603
Fax 401/456-0606
MMueller@bigpicture.org

Nancy Mullen, Principal
Mount Pleasant High School
434 Mount Pleasant
Providence, RI 02908
Tel. 401/456-9181
Mullenn@ride.ri.net

Regis Shields, Project Director
High School Redesign
Providence Public School District
797 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903-4045
Tel. 401/456-9215
Fax 401/456-9252
Regis.shields@ppsd.org

Elliot Washor, Co-Principal
The Big Picture Company
275 Westminster Street, Suite 500
Providence, RI 02903
Tel. 401/456-0600
Fax 401/456-0606
EWashor@bigpicture.org

Kurt Wootton, Director
Arts/Literacy Project
Education Department
Brown University Box 1938
Providence, RI 02912
Tel. 401/863-7785
Fax 401/863-1276
Kurt_Wootton@brown.edu

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