Will a new day dawn for secondary schools in Baltimore?
It's an ambitious proposal Andres Alonso is making for 24 new middle/high schools -- and a significant risk he's asking philanthropists to take. Foundations have heard big dreams for Baltimore's secondary schools before. Now, five years after they pledged $20.8 million for high school reform in the city, only $12 million of that money has been spent, and many aspects of the reform plan have stalled.
Alonso will have to persuade the funders that things will be different this time. He'll also need to sell them on two controversial ideas: 1) separating the college-track kids from the vocational kids from the struggling kids and 2) combining middle and high schools, which is not common around the country. He says the structure would meet a specific need in Baltimore, a huge population of overage kids. Some of these figures are in my story today, but they're so stunning that they bear repeating:
-- Nearly half of the 18,488 kids in the city's middle schools are overage.
-- About 1,300 of those kids have been held back at least twice, including more than 400 current eighth graders.
-- In elementary schools, 325 kids are at least two years overage, including 179 in fifth grade this year.
The Urban Institute's evaluation of Baltimore's previous high school reform effort comes at a good time for Alonso. The institute found promising practices at the city's six innovation high schools, which promote the same practices Alonso wants systemwide: autonomy in exchange for accountability and partnerships with outside organizations. The study is supposed to be posted here when it becomes public today (Sunday). It makes a strong case for public school choice.
There is lots of interesting information in the study, but here is one small point worth noting: The innovation high schools are attracting more girls than boys. Talking to some folks from those schools last week, I heard that boys may be sidestepping the improved academic opportunities at innovation schools because of their lack of sports programs. The Baltimore Messenger ran an article last week accusing the school system of failing to live up to promised athletic funding for innovation schools. (I've asked the system to respond to that allegation.) Providing adequate extracurricular opportunities for students is one of many factors the system will need to take into consideration as it strives to reinvent itself.
If Alonso gets all the money he's seeking, a key challenge will be finding good people to run the new schools and stick with them over time. He's banking on the appeal of an opportunity to start a school from the ground up, without central bureaucracy dictating how it must be run.
Educators, parents and students: Does this idea appeal to you? The city's secondary schools look different today than they did five years ago. What would you like to see them look like in another five years? And how do they get there?
Comments
I am concerned over sending sixth grade students into an environment that contains high school students as well. I would like some more information on Dr. Alonso's proposal.
Otherwise, I think that this is a great idea.
Posted by: Danielle | December 16, 2007 1:00 PM
I agree, this sounds like a great idea. Here's hoping it will actually be executed to plan.
Posted by: KB | December 17, 2007 9:59 AM
I'd say the 6th grade would best be left "unfarmed" in an Upper School-Lower School plan. Too big a gap; but 7th and 8th? I'd really like to see more ideas about this discussed, as some schools at the HS level are beginni9ng to look at their space allocation and say, "yeah, maybe we could add a grade"-- this is the classic "put your money where your mouth is" challenge for those HS teachers who have been complaining about what they get from Baltimore's Middle Schools...Sara: keep on this story-- it is hot, hot...
Posted by: VoiceForSchoolTruth | December 17, 2007 5:24 PM
I attended a 7-12 school years and years ago. I remember being very concerned that I didn't want the "big kids" to think of me as a baby. I did my best to act more mature. I think it would be very important to allow the students in a school like this to interact with all grade levels. So many problems seem to arise when we try, for example, to segregate our 9th graders from the older students. They put all their energy into rebellion and have none left over to grow academically and socially. If we allow them some more freedom and responisbility they may well rise to the occasion.
Posted by: Avalon | December 17, 2007 5:37 PM
12 new schools in 8 months? Hmm.
Posted by: m | December 17, 2007 8:08 PM
I think the big idea here is that all schools need to look at what works - and what works is providing places where kids and adults know each other and can build relationships. What also works is providing as many choices to parents and students as possible. I love the fact that Baltimore has KIPP, ConneXions and Crossroads all as middle schools - each offering a very different view of what middle grades education can look like. I have 3 kids - 2 in BCPSS schools and I work in a BCPSS school. I am not sure that I would send any of my kids to KIPP, but I love that parents have that choice. Similarly, Alonso understands that:
a) It is easier to build new successful schools that it is to reform current schools
b) That new schools get to create a culture that can support learning far easier than coming into an existing school and trying to change a culture
c) Small schools work better (the research might be mixed on this in terms of academics, but little has been writen about culture and safety) than larger schools
d) There is little that is really working in the non-magnet schools (City, Poly, Western and SFTA)
e) If you raise expectations for student outcomes and begin to provide the tools to meet those expectations, lousy educators (administrators, teachers, you name it) will begin to see the writing on the wall and move out of the system.
my concern is that there isn't a deep pool to pull from once people start leaving. Also, there are many who profit from the current level of disaster that s BCPSS.
I for one hope that he has all of the success our kids deserve. I drink to you Dr. Alonso!
Posted by: Doug | December 17, 2007 8:12 PM
I do not want my 6th and 7th grade Daughters or sons housed in the same structure with 18, 19 year old men
Posted by: mike | December 18, 2007 10:05 AM