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Pilot articles: Opinions about Pilot schools

What All Schools Can Learn From Boston’s Pilot Schools, by Ellen Guiney, in School Clips - A Newsletter of the Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public Schools, November, 2007.
Guiney argues that there is a “culture of trust” that is “palpable” in Pilot schools as soon as you walk in—trust among students, teachers, and administrators, and that this culture provides an environment where hard work and learning can take place.

Charting new paths in our schools, by Richard Stutman, Op-Ed in the Boston Sunday Globe, December 23, 2007.
Boston Teachers Union president Richard Stutman looks at the accomplishments of Boston public schools, expressing support for Pilot schools along with frustration that people point to Pilots as the only way to improve public education.

Business and school group urges Hub changes, by Tracy Jan, in the Boston Globe, August 21, 2006.
A coalition of Massachusetts education and business leaders is pushing for reforms likely to antagonize teachers unions. These include increasing the authority of superintendents in failing schools, and easing the process for creating new Pilot schools.

Boston’s Pilot Schools: Progress and Promise in Urban School Reform, by Dan French, “Commentary” in Education Week, April 19, 2006.
CCE’s Executive Director looks at how school districts, teachers unions, and the community have worked together using the Pilot school model to create successful urban schools “unified around a common commitment to excellence and equity, with clear strategies to get there.”

Pilot schools are one road to success, Editorial in the Boston-Bay State Banner, February 2, 2006.
“One program of the Boston Public Schools which definitely works is the Pilot Schools. A recent survey by the Center for Collaborative Education has established the success of the program.” This editorial endorses Pilot Schools as a viable public school approach for Boston.

Encouraging words from Patrick on schools, by Scot Lehigh, op-ed in the Boston Globe, December 9, 2005.
Gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick talks with columnist Lehigh about MCAS, charter schools, Pilot Schools, union negotiations around Pilots, and his views on public education. He singles out the Mason Pilot School, which he had visited, as an example of getting education right.

A competitive edge for schools, by Paul S. Grogan, op-ed in the Boston Globe, October 18, 2005.
Boston Foundation CEO Grogan advocates expansion of Charter schools in Massachusetts, for their ability to experiment and make reforms. With them he includes Pilots: “Pilot schools are similar to charters in that they are autonomous and invite new ideas and standards. They also offer impressive results, including higher college matriculation, graduation, and attendance, lower transfer and suspension rates, and better or comparable MCAS scores.”

Yoon Could Be City’s First Asian-American Councilor, reported by Janet Wu on Channel 5, published on TheBostonChannel.Com, October 11, 2005.
In this feature on Boston City Council candidate Sam Yoon, who placed a surprise fifth in the primary election, Yoon says that he has enrolled his son in a Pilot school because it holds more promise than traditional schools. The article quotes Yoon: “A principal is given autonomy and flexibility around designing his own curriculum -- hiring his own teachers. The classroom sizes are small.”

The Best Schools: Smart Answers—the Incredible Shrinking School, by Katherine Ozment, in Boston, September 2005 (excerpt p. 137)
TechBoston is cited as a successful example of a “shrinking school” that broke off from “massive” Dorchester High. “Students and teachers at TechBoston work together to create programs of study tailor-made for each student’s strengths and interests.”

Post-Payzant prepping, editorial in the Boston Globe, September 8, 2005.
Editorial looks at key issues that will face a new BPS superintendent, citing the achievement gap, the small schools initiative, drop-outs, teacher shortages, labor issues, and emphasizing that “the expansion of autonomous pilot schools is key to a successful future.”

Growing minds: High schools offer college credits to challenge underperformers, by Tom Vander Ark, op-ed in the Boston Globe, August 12, 2005.
Vander Ark, the executive director of education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, promotes the concept of early college high schools and also cites Tech Boston and the Pilot schools as institutions that “enhance academic curricula and help students connect with the world beyond the classroom.”

Follow the Boston pilot schools, by William G. Ouchi, op-ed in the Boston Globe, May 21, 2005.
After looking at successful school models around the country and in Canada, Ouchi concludes: “The pilot schools in Boston should really be the lead schools in what could and should become a district-wide implementation of local school empowerment. If that were to happen, it would place Boston on the forefront of what appears to be a national trend in the universal goal of improving student achievement.”

Passing the test, lead editorial, in the Boston Globe, January 3, 2005.
This Boston Globe lead editorial cites Boston Pilot schools, particularly the Tech Boston Academy, for eliminating the racial achievement gap and dramatically raising performance levels of formerly underserved and underachieving students.

In the News: J. Curtis Warner, Jr., op-ed feature in the Bay State/Boston Banner, July 1, 2004.
The Banner gives tribute to Pilot school Boston Arts Academy’s graduation ceremony honoree, J. Curtis Warner, Jr., who is Berklee College Vice President for Community and Governmental Affairs, as well past Chair of the planning committee that founded BAA.

In the classroom, reporting skills come in handy, by Warren Hynes, in the Christian Science Monitor, June 30, 2004.
Pilot school teacher Hynes, from New Mission High, is a former journalist turned English teacher. He reflects on the similar strengths that go into creating a good teacher or journalist.

Education also needs a taste of competition, by Thomas Keane, Jr., in the Boston Herald, June 18, 2004.
Columnist Keane sees competition as healthy for public schools and decries recent actions of the state legislature and the Boston Teachers’s Union to put a moratorium on charter schools and veto the Gardner school conversion to Pilot status.

A pilot school grounded, lead editorial in the Boston Globe, June 11, 2004.
Critical editorial on the decision by the Boston Teachers’ Union decision to veto Pilot status for the Gardner School, a status endorsed by 24 of 29 Gardner faculty members.

Horace Mann finds popularity elusive, by Laura Pappano, in the Boston Sunday Globe, December 7, 2003.
In her weekly “The Chalkboard” column in the Sunday Education section, Pappano wonders why there aren’t more Horace Mann charter schools, like the Boston Evening Academy, among others she looks at.

Studies Find Good Work in Boston Pilot Schools, in the Boston People’s Voice, November 7-20, 2003, page 1.
The study finds that Pilots “are among the top performing schools in Boston on the MCAS, have among the highest daily student attendance of all BPS schools, graduate a high percentage of their students, and send a high percent of their graduates to college,” all while serving “a student population that is generally representative of the larger BPS student population.”

Study finds Hub’s pilot schools have best results, by Kevin Rothstein, in the Boston Herald, October 25, 2003.
“Pilots - small public schools operating free from typical administration and union rules - have higher graduation rates, hold fewer kids back and suspend them less, the pro-pilot Center for Collaborative Education reported.” The article is in response to the release of the CCE research report on outcomes at Pilot schools.

New year, clean slate, by Sam Allis, The Observer column in the Boston Sunday Globe, September 21, 2003.
“Over the past couple of years, I’ve watched New Boston [Pilot Middle School] rise where abandoned buildings once defaced the landscape along a raw stretch of Columbia Road. The area is still sketchy, and the school carries a certain Fort Apache karma. “These are the toughest streets of Boston,” says Boston Police Officer Jay Green....As a pilot school, New Boston runs its own show. Its classes are longer, and its staffing, schedule, and budget options more flexible. For example, [Principal Debra] Socia has divided the school into four academies. (All the data support this move to smaller entities.) Escorts take all kids from class to class. More important, escorts walk many of them to and from home, through gang turf, in Operation Safe Passage.”

Pilot school progress, Editorial in the Boston Globe , June 26, 2003.
Beginning, “There is no arguing with success,” the Globe urges the school committee to resolve misunderstandings with the Pilot Lyndon School and allow it to expand to an additional kindergarten class. The editorial endorses the Lyndon philosophy: “Adaptability is a strong Lyndon trait. And because it is a pilot school, Lyndon’s administrators have been able to make management decisions free of bureaucratic interference.”

Creating Equity from the Ground Up, by Linda Nathan, in Horace, Spring 2003.
Pilot school principal Nathan discusses the process her school has been going through to address coexisting commitments: “The Boston Arts Academy (BAA) is one of the few arts schools in the United States that has a completely open academic admissions policy. That is, we admit students solely on the basis of an artistic audition or portfolio, without regard to their previous academic record. At the same time, we are committed both to preparing all our students to do college work and to maintaining heterogeneous classrooms, without tracking, in most subjects. To meet both of these commitments is an enormous challenge.”

Promise of pilots puts them in peril, op-ed by Thomas M. Keane, in the Boston Herald, February 19, 2003.
“Boston’s pilot schools have long existed on the fringes of the school system, serving only a small fraction of the city’s 62,400 students. But the number of pilots may soon increase dramatically - and if that happens, it could change everything.”

Selfish union wants to halt pilot schools, op-ed by Thomas M. Keane, in Boston Herald, November 20, 2002.
“The Boston Arts Academy is a remarkable high school....Even more striking, it’s a public school. Spend some time with its enthused and engaged students and you begin to wonder: Why can’t all public schools be like this?...The Arts Academy is what is known as a ‘pilot school.’”

BTU’s pilot roadblock, editorial in Boston Herald, November 19, 2002.
“Recent efforts by the leadership of the Boston Teachers Union to put yet another roadblock in the path of pilot schools are both bewildering and distressing.”

Pilot-School hope , editorial in Boston Globe, November 16, 2002.
“The expansion of pilot schools in Boston is key to school improvement.” Editors scold teachers’ union for impeding public/private Pilot initiative.