|
|
« Man accused of assaulting 2 women who gave him ride | Today | Gas prices keep climbing » December 4, 2006Update: Report praises Hope High's progress
PROVIDENCE -- In his final report to the state education commissioner, special master Nicholas Donohue called Hope High School a success story in progress. Over the past 18 months, progress at Hope has been “enormous,” said Donohue, who was appointed by Commissioner Peter McWalters to oversee the school’s state-mandated reform. “The staff has responded heroically.The three lead administrators have handled a Herculean effort well and continue to learn and grow. “The students demonstrate seriousness about school and a sense of belonging,” he added. “While parent participation is lower than most would like, the creation of deep, meaningful community partnerships with a number of local institutions of higher education has exceeded expectations. By any reasonable measure, progress overall at Hope has been excellent.” That said, much work remains to be done. Donohue said the physical condition of Hope High School remains “an embarrassment.” The elevator took weeks to repair. The auditorium, which was deluged with rain shortly before graduation last spring, is being taken care of slowly, and technology is not repaired in a timely manner. Donohue said the lack of preparedness of students entering the high school is a significant problem. Practically no freshmen arrive capable of performing at grade level in English and math. -- Journal staff writer Linda Borg The other major challenge is the persistent tide of new students arriving at Hope long after the school year begins. But the single greatest impediment threatening not only Hope’s progress but that of the city’s other large high schools is what Donohue calls the school department’s lack of capacity at the administrative level. This is not a criticism of the quality and dedication of the school department’s staff, he said. Rather, it means that central office doesn’t have enough people to help individual schools do things like analyze their testing data or train a new a cadre of principals. In March 2005, McWalters hired Donohue to monitor Hope’s compliance with his intervention order, which included breaking the 1,200-student school into three smaller learning academies. McWalters ordered the major school redesign after Hope repeatedly failed to make progress on student performance, attendance and dropout rates. Posted by Jack Perry CommentsPatrick McQuillan | December 4, 2006 11:24 AM link Post a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
|
ADVERTISING |
|
|
|
|
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006
First of all, let me say that I was glad to hear tha things are going well at Hope High and that the small learning community structure is working effectively. That's great news.
I was very involved conducting research at Hope High when Brown U. and Ted Sizer were working to promote many of the reforms Cmmr. McWalters seems to be promoting. While I fully endorse the ideas presented in the article, I think that we as a society are kidding ourselves and doing a horrible injustice to students when we somehow expect the school that has the most low-income students, the most geograhically mobile students, the most special needs students, the most non-native-English-speaking students, and so on to be treated much the same as all other schools and expect that students should somehow succeed. (My assertions regarding Hope's students certainly held true while I was working at the school, 1986-92; I don't know if they are still accurate.)
And then you have a school like Classical in the same school system where much the opposite holds true. (Or at least it did between 1986 and 1992.)
My question to Cmmr. McWalters would be whether the school is receiving any additional support to help it succeed with a challenging student population? Are additional personnel available? Is additional funding made available? Why do you think the school would be successful if a school with disproportionate need receives the same support as all other schools?
Also, if any State or Providence administrative personnel would like to hear my historical perspective on Hope High, I'd be more than glad to share it with them.
regards,
Patrick McQuillan