Another side of Northwestern High
I talked to Jason Hartling, principal of Northwestern High School. He says there were between 12 and 14 girls involved in Friday's cafeteria fight. School police maintain that it was at least 30. Hartling said the situation was contained and students were back in classes learning within 15 minutes.
In any event: As some of the teachers mentioned in comments, there is reason to celebrate over the school's success with Bridge projects. When Liz wrote about Northwestern in October, 165 seniors had not met graduation requirements either by passing the HSAs or earning a minimum combined score. Since then, Northwestern seniors have submitted 561 projects -- more than any other school in the city and more than all the schools combined in some other districts.
With about a 90 percent pass rate on the projects, more than 200 of Northwestern's 278 seniors now meet the requirements for graduation, and Hartling said another 50 are close -- with another project or two to finish up. He estimates that only a handful of seniors won't graduate because of the HSA requirements, and they're the ones who have not done what they're supposed to do. Seniors are giving testimonials to underclassmen about the importance of taking the HSAs seriously so they won't have to do the projects next year.
Getting to this point has been a ton of work, by staff and students. "We’re here on Saturday; we’re here after school," Hartling said. "I would put my staff up against any staff in the state. They just work incredibly hard."
And while we're on the subject of Northwestern: I've mentioned here before how impressed I am with its student newspaper, The Compass. And now, The Compass is online. In the current issue, students take their administration to task in an editorial for not having more Black History Month activities. Stories include a first-person account of attending President Obama's inauguration and a piece questioning whether it's right to lock student bathrooms during the day.
Categories: Baltimore City, School Safety (Or Lack Thereof), Testing
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
Thanks Sarah for sharing some of our successes as a school. And thanks for giving a shout out to the newspaper. We are always finding errors and trying to make it better, but it's a place for kids to learn and learning is sometimes messy. The paper's come a long way and is ultimately something we are proud of in our school.
I also have to say, just for the sake of making other journalism teachers jealous, that The Compass is so lucky to have administrators who want their student press to hold them accountable with hard hitting journalism. This is becoming rare as administrators across the country are feeling the pressure to use their newspapers as pr pieces. He has agreed not to use prior review or censor our articles as long as we are responsible journalists. If we aren't I suspect he'll turn that into a learning opportunity and not chastise our young scholars in an uproductive way. In terms of what I teach, I can tell that he gets how to empower students and get them ready to design the lives they want to live after high school. His pride isn't bigger than the kids.
Posted by: Amy Ensign | March 23, 2009 7:09 PM
I just wanted to say that Jay Hartling is an amazing person. I had him as a Hopkins professor and learned a lot from his experience in the classroom. I wish him continued success at Northwestern.
Posted by: David | March 23, 2009 8:31 PM
I wish my school's paper was that nice. Great job kids.
Posted by: James from Hampden | March 23, 2009 9:28 PM
I am the editor in chief of the Compass and I just wanted to say thank you for all the shout outs. But I think that with each issue we can do better but it will take time and that I have an amasing staff. I love those guys.
Posted by: Marika Turner | March 24, 2009 1:33 PM
Jay - amazing guy? Wait a second... someone drank from the NW kool-aid. Completely kidding! Jay was my CLT leader for social studies my first year in the TFA Baltimore corps. Not sure I could have made it without his help and content guidance, not to mention the high expectations he set for us regardless of how much we were struggling. It's great that NW is doing incredibly impressive things, and it's evidence that the large comprehensive high schools can maintain so long as the building is willing to accept the high expectations required of themselves and their students.
Well done as well to Marika - you're doing a great public service!
Posted by: Bill | March 24, 2009 2:52 PM
Sorry, one more thing to add, just clicked to the link to The Compass online - amazing. Honestly, no joke, for real, amazing. Really enjoy reading it and just added it to the bookmarks bar! Evaluation is by far my favorite part - interesting that Bridge projects got a C, high number turn-in rate but clearly the students don't like them. The messaging at NW certainly is having an effect if one of the top 5 things include the HSA Bridge Projects.
Posted by: Bill | March 24, 2009 3:01 PM
Bill - when the Compass editorial board met and was discussing the different items deserving ratings they were annoyed that the seniors (the board is actually all juniors and sophomores) put themselves in such a bad position to need hundreds of projects. They were proud of our submissions successes but disappointed that we were in that bad place. This part was definitely messaged unclearly, because the quality of our BRIDGE program isn't a C by any means!
Again, thanks for the kudos - I'll make sure the kids see this tomorrow!
Posted by: Amy Ensign | March 24, 2009 8:29 PM
Wow! I took the time to visit the site as well and these students are doing a phenomenal job. Kudos to the teachers and the school for providing such a wonderful forum to showcase their talents and skills! Amazing.
Posted by: Alrighty Then... | March 24, 2009 10:04 PM