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I N N O V A T O R |
News about high school innovation . June 26, 2009
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Welcome to INNOVATOR, a bimonthly report on high school change in North Carolina from the North Carolina New Schools Project. INNOVATOR informs practitioners, policy makers, and friends of public education about high school innovation in North Carolina as well as success stories and research from across the nation.
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Pioneering 9th graders graduate from NC's small high schools
Four years ago, nearly 90 students just out of middle school came together as the very first freshman class at East Wake Health Science High School -- one of 11 new small high schools in the state to open in 2005 with a shared and ambitious goal of ensuring that all students graduate ready for college, careers and life.
This year, almost all of those same students did just that, forming an inaugural four-year class in which 95 percent of them earned their high school diploma on time except one who dropped out and three who must return for another year. A number of others transferred elsewhere because of family moves or chose one of the other small schools that opened after the Health Science High School. In all, the school graduated 93 students earlier this month and 11 after the first semester.
The Howard Health & Life Sciences High School in Fayetteville also said farewell this month to the school's first class of 9th graders who started four years ago. Of those 44 original students who chose to enroll in the school - another of the state's first innovative high schools - 34 graduated, one was counted as a dropout and the other nine transferred because of moves out of the military-dominated community or preference for a more traditional high school. The school's first class finished with a 97 percent graduation rate.
"Students didn't fall through the cracks," said Natasha McFadden, 17, a member of Howard Health's class of 2009. "It's the connection that I think we all felt. That's what helped me. That feeling of belonging. Every student should get that." Natasha will attend UNC Charlotte this fall and has a career goal of becoming an anesthesiologist.
In all, eight of North Carolina's first 11 small high schools reached the same milestone this spring with graduations of their inaugural classes. Taken together, they totaled about 500 students. All of the "redesign" schools emphasize a "feeling of belonging" with a high degree of personalization and strong support for students. Each of the schools enroll no more than 400 students. Two of the schools this year graduated classes that began as 10th graders and one of the schools was merged this year with other small schools on the same campus.
Craig Baker, the principal of East Wake Health Science High School,
said its small size made a big difference for students, a number of
whom he said probably would have given up. The graduation rate for the
larger East Wake High School in 2006 was barely 75 percent. This year,
all but 10 of the 90 students who ultimately formed the class of
2009 were accepted to college.
"The biggest thing they'll tell you is that they know their
teachers," Baker said. "We kept kids who may not have graduated. We
provided that safety net for them. They may not have been on the radar
screen in a larger school."
The first graduates at Howard Health & Life Sciences school also benefited from the same kind of close attention, said Katrenna Rich, the school's principal. "You're keeping an eye on all of them," Rich said. "Because of the small size, you're not just looking at academics and it makes you look beyond the statistics."
Gaven Mayo, 18, a member of the class of 2009 at East Wake Health Sciences High School, said the reason most of his classmates graduated was because of the support their school provided.
"We had teachers who wanted us to graduate and wanted us to learn," said Gaven, who will attend UNC Pembroke in the fall and wants to teach middle school language arts. "Teachers actually got to know us, and if we had a problem, they would come to us. I struggled in math classes all the time, and I got a lot of help from my teachers, including one who wasn't even my teacher."
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Newton-Conover recipient of NCNSP's Innovator Award
Talk to any student at Newton-Conover Health Science High School and the first thing they're likely to mention is how well known they feel. Teachers know them, and so do other students. Their school, they say, is a like a family. But it's also a family with high expectations. So high, students don't drop out. Since opening in 2005 as one of North Carolina's first innovative high schools, the Newton school has lost just one student to the kind of unwanted attrition that often plagues larger schools. So high, the school is closing the achievement gap that tends to separate students from low-income families from those whose families have more. About half the school's students are economically disadvantaged, but nearly 80 percent of the state End-of-Course exams those students took last year earned passing scores. By comparison, the passing rate for low-income students was 60 percent for the district and 54 percent for the state. For that kind of evidence of success, among others, Newton-Conover Health Science High was selected for the 2009 Innovator Award, given in each of the last two years by the North Carolina New Schools Project to innovative high schools that are delivering on the promise of preparing all students for college, careers and life. The award was presented to the school by Lt. Governor Walter Dalton during NCNSP's Summer Institute last week in Raleigh. The school was selected from 30 small, redesigned high schools in North Carolina. Students at Newton-Conover Health Science High aren't just well known, they're being challenged to think and learn on their own while also being supported to meet high expectations where college is a given next step. While the class of 2009 included only eight students - the school's inaugural four-year cohort - all eight are headed to college. The Newton school is proving that innovative instruction that stresses student engagement equates with concrete results. Across six courses last year that concluded with state exams, students either exceeded or met expected performance in all, based on a value-added reporting system provided to North Carolina school districts by Cary-based SAS Institute. Of 30 small, redesigned high schools in the state that opened in 2005 or 2006, the Newton school was alone in having no state-tested course last year where students performed below expectations on the SAS evaluation. This year, the school posted a passing rate of at least 83 percent in half the state exams given in eight courses, all of them taught at the honors level. Still, educators in the young school recognize they're still learning and that their school needs to continue its efforts to strengthen opportunities for all students to achieve and graduate ready for college, careers and life. Seasoned school observers from the well-known Cambridge Education consultants found strong potential at the school during a recent review visit. "The imaginative leadership of the principal and the staff commitment to the philosophy of the school combine to show that the school has good capacity to improve and become a very successful school," the reviewers wrote in their report. Jerry Willard, the school's principal, ties the school's success so far to its emphasis on personalization, one of five core "Design Principles" that define all of North Carolina's innovative high schools. "The relationship piece is key," Willard said. "When you take care of that, you keep kids." Josh Fisher, who graduated this year, tried a year at a traditional high school before returning to Newton-Conover Health Science. "At this high school everybody cares," Josh said. "Your teachers are more in touch with you. They give you more input. At a regular school, you're pretty much on your own." Back to top
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Schools explore their promises, reality at Summer Institute
What's your story?
That was the question at the heart of the work of teams from nearly 100 innovative high schools across the state last week during the North Carolina New Schools Project's 2009 Summer Institute.
The teams - usually the principal and two to three teachers, in some cases joined by a district administrator - spent hours discussing the unique promises their schools have made to students, their parents and the community and perusing data and other artifacts of school performance to assess how closely schools are meeting those promises. Each team developed a specific plan to engage their colleagues over the coming school year to shore up teaching and learning in areas where those promises and students' experiences are inconsistent, and NCNSP staff will be following their progress.
The teams also honed the ways they tell their stories, taking time to videotape an "elevator speech" and role playing various audiences from parents to county commissioners. Along the way, they got advice from experts such as Guilford County schools chief of staff Nora Carr and public affairs consultants Gary Pearce and Mathew Gross, who advised Gov. Jim Hunt and presidential candidate Howard Dean, respectively.
Schools also heard other leaders give their own views of high school innovation's story across North Carolina. Burley Mitchell, NCNSP board of directors chairman, remarked that innovative high schools are making good on the state constitution's pledge to give students an education that actually prepares them for economic success and democratic participation as called for by the Leandro decision of the state Supreme Court, which he authored as chief justice. Board member Cynthia Marshall, president of AT&T North Carolina, told educators that teachers who cared changed the course of her life, which began in a poor, troubled home. Marshall exhorted the audience to repeat, "We are saving lives."
State Board of Education chairman and CEO Bill Harrison, who as Cumberland County superintendent led the effort to create both a redesigned traditional high school and an early college high school, reflected on his daughter's graduating class this spring and the first class from Cross Creek Early College, saying it was hard not to notice how much more mature and prepared the Cross Creek graduates seemed as a group.
"What it's all about is creating places where kids want to be and want to learn - and you have done that," Harrison told about 400 educators attending the institute. "For far too long, we've cared far more about the institutions than about the students they serve."
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INNOVATOR is produced
by the North Carolina New Schools Project, an initiative of the Office of the
Governor and the Education Cabinet with the support of the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation and other businesses and foundations. For story suggestions or to opt out of receiving
this e-mail report, please send an e-mail to innovator@newschoolsproject.org or call Todd
Silberman at (919) 277-3760.
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