By Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 Reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-564703.mp3
Fort Worth, TX –
Catherine Cuellar, KERA Reporter: Bells have signaled the beginning of classes for about a century - a tradition that began when students prepared for factory jobs with whistle starts and stops. But in the fast-changing 21st century, Fort Worth is trying to reconfigure education to meet current needs. As head of the district's high school redesign, Chuck Boyd is updating three old educational R-words - reading, writing, and 'rithmetic to emphasize Rigor, Relevance and Relationships.
Chuck Boyd, Director of High School Redesign, Fort Worth ISD: We have more kids every year disadvantaged for a variety of reasons. Academic needs we need to address, but there are many other issues - poverty, disintegration of the family unit, violence in the greater community. And in many cases the school system becomes a surrogate parent.
Cuellar: Boyd aims to create a structured environment that fosters stable relationships with caring teachers for all students.
Boyd: As students begin to struggle and fail, it's to catch them before they fall through the cracks, make failure not an option. The only way to do that is knowing the kids. So that if things are beginning to go poorly for them A) we recognize that as adults or B) the kids feel confident enough to come to the adult and say "I need help."
Cuellar: Most public school teachers know only the most ambitious or most troubled students by name. Fort Worth is creating small learning communities called academies for ninth-graders district-wide and throughout two high schools - Dunbar and North Side - to create a point of connection for every student. Since August of 2005, North Side has used a $400,000 grant to fund teacher training for the pilot program. Educators pay particular attention to the transition from middle school to high school, when students have the most difficulty academically as well as socially. North Side High School orientation started during the summer, as 9th grader Dominick Perez describes.
Dominick Perez, North Side H.S.: We got to meet our teachers before school started. We got our schedules. We did math and science activities.
Cuellar: In addition to learning their way around the building, every incoming student met with an upper class mentor.
Perez: It was ninth graders who were participating in the thing but it was juniors who were helping out with the teachers since they've been here longer. They talked to us. They just told their experiences.
Cuellar: During the school year, a team of four core subject teachers have the same 120 students throughout the day. The teachers confer daily to discuss their students' progress and intervene as soon as a student starts to slide.
[Teachers: Is it scary for you to talk to a teacher? I'm being serious. Have you ever talked in class? We don't know what you sound like. I can't ask every student. You can do this. We want you to come to us and say I know I can do better than a 55. What do I need to do? So you're going to retake your test during lunch today or tomorrow? Female student: Today.]
Cuellar: This cooperative approach has also helped Perez, whose teachers know he has play rehearsals and a job after school that keep him busy until about 8:30 each night. Knowing students' circumstances outside of class helps teachers offer appropriate solutions. For Perez, it's finding extra study time for a tough subject.
Perez: In world geography I remember I was having trouble and in English I was doing quite well so I got out of English class for a day and got to work on world geography homework.
Cuellar: Ninth-grader Elizabeth Meaders also appreciates the academy approach.
Elizabeth Meaders, North Side H.S.: In junior high, there was like a lot less homework and there wasn't as much pressure getting it done because if you didn't like pass a six week, you could still pass a semester. But now there's a lot more homework and it's a lot more difficult. The teachers I know, they're really involved with the kids, so it helps you like pay attention in class. They make things really exciting.
Cuellar: Meaders wants to participate in extra-curricular activities, but transportation is an issue. So once in a while North Side principal Virginia Dean gives her a lift. Dean was Meaders' junior high principal and moved up to North Side this year with many of her students who are now freshmen. Dean and every member of the faculty, including front office staff and school counselors, have advisory groups of 15 to 18 students they meet with weekly.
[Dean: We've got a lot of work to do. Progress reports. Pink lines mean you fail. What does that mean? Male student: no credit]
Cuellar: While academies group ninth-graders together throughout their first year, upperclass students choose one of five disciplines - preparing them for a career or college major. North Side High School's academies focus on human services; business and marketing; fine arts and communication; health sciences; or science, technology, engineering and mathematics - called STEM. North Side STEM science teacher and upper class advisor Randy Young says about 125 students on any given weekday and several dozen students each weekend work with teachers outside school hours to achieve better than passing grades.
Randy Young, teacher: We have a redo/re-teach policy through high school where it is the expectation every student in this building will achieve 80% mastery. Anything below that is not acceptable. Not just to say here's a 60 or 70 on your report card. We're going to re-teach and redo the test until you get to 80.
Cuellar: Fort Worth is one of several urban districts piloting these innovative strategies as part of the Texas High School project, which is funded largely by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. The results first semester were dramatic, according to Principal Dean.
Virginia Dean, principal: We had a 48% decrease in the number of students taken to court for attendance problems. We have a 28% overall decrease in the number of failures in the freshmen academy. And when we take out the dress code violations, because last year they didn't have to contend with a board policy dress code, this year's freshman class also had a 28% decrease in the number of discipline infractions written.
Cuellar: But many of the program's benefits are immeasurable Dean says.
Dean: Right now in front of me I'm reading 110 letters from my teachers about their favorite students or students who touch their lives in some way and the stories I'm reading are about some kid who didn't have heat or some kid whose father was incarcerated or had a dependency problem. And these teachers have made connections because these kids are crying out for connections because they don't always have them in their home. That's not 100% of our families. We have some great families here. This is really a family-oriented community. But for that child who doesn't have that family structure, we have to be that structure for that child. And I think that if we can develop that structure for those children that they're going to want to be here instead of in the streets.
Cuellar: Baseline criteria established at North Side this year will shape the redesign of public classrooms statewide. Private funding was directed to the pilot with the expectation that, if successful, the Texas legislature would fund similar programs statewide. The need for new approaches is great since the Intercultural Development Research Association in San Antonio estimates 2.5 million Texas high school dropouts have cost the state more than 730 billion dollars in lost tax revenue, welfare, unemployment, and criminal justice costs over the past 20 years. North Side High School's current grant expires at the end of this month.
For KERA 90.1, I'm Catherine Cuellar