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Pilot articles: Articles on Pilot school students and staff

Young Boston man gets a village of support, by Linda Matchan, in the Boston Globe, August 19 , 2007.
An extraordinary 19-year-old, Andre Woodberry, homeless at times and with a deck stacked heavily against him, “deciding that Jermiah E. Burke School wasn’t a good fit, he transferred to the evening school of Boston Day and Evening Academy in Roxbury and began to turn his grades around.” He is headed with a full scholarship to Hampshire College.

Hub high schoolers head home after African adventure, by Banner Staff, in the Boston-Bay State Banner, August 16, 2007.
Students from Another Course to College, a Pilot high school, headed overseas to Ghana where ACC teacher Bethany Wood, on a Fulbright Exchange, was teaching at the Achimota Secondary School. “The students had spent the school year preparing, and studying Ghana, but the experience of living there really brought this learning to life,” says Wood.

Mission accomplished: Teen's tough times end with a title, by Jackie MacMullan, in the Boston Globe, March 13, 2007.
New Mission High School, a small Pilot school, won the Division 4 girls basketball championshiip with only six players. This article focuses on Brittany White, once a racalcitrant, angry student who had been kicked out of one school, who responded to intense care and attention at New Mission to become a star player.

‘Union’ of students, actors puts local story onstage, by Catherine Foster, in the Boston Globe, March 11, 2006
In the Globe’s Living | Arts section, this story is about the preparations being made at the Calderwood Pavilion (Boston Center for the Arts) for the play “A More Perfect Union,” which is only in part based on the story of Fenway teacher Obain Attouoman. It’s a professional production in a professional theatre, yet 7 of the 16 parts are played by BAA students, and the Globe story focuses on the undertaking.

Students say alternative approach at school works, by Russell Nichols, in the Boston Globe, December 12, 2005.
Boston Day and Evening Academy, a Horace Mann Charter School in the Pilot School Network, is portrayed as a caring, successful, personal alternative school in this sensitive piece that quotes several students who arrived there after tough times in more traditional settings.

Wood to tour Vietnam to help teach others, in the Somerville Journal, June 2, 2005.
Bethany Wood, who teaches American literature of the Vietnam War at Another Course to College, a Pilot school, will tour Vietnam this summer on a Fund for Teachers/Boston grant. She said she realizes in her classes, “I am not telling the whole story. I am not telling the Vietnamese story.” She will visit historical and cultural sites and live in a Vietnamese home where she will “hear the stories from Vietnamese voices to complement the stories that I know.”

The Harbor School Students Earn Trip to Baltimore/Washington, D.C. for Winning Boston Celtics/Southwest Airlines Assists Community Service Contest, on celtics.com, the official NBA site of the Boston Celtics, April 28, 2005.
‘Ten eighth grade students from The Harbor [Pilot] School in Dorchester have earned a trip to Baltimore/Washington, D.C. after winning the sixth annual Assists community service contest, a partnership among the Boston Celtics, Southwest Airlines and the Boston Public Middle Schools designed to encourage students to create and implement projects that meet community needs.” They were selected from among 13 entrants.

Students want to make sure gays get played straight, by Erin Smith, in the Allston-Brighton Tab, April 22, 2005.
Kelly Lydon, a student at Another Course to College pilot school, has taken a small grant from the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, and organized a state-wide conference of Gay Straight Alliance Clubs from schools throughout Massachusetts.

Fenway students rally for their teacher Obain Ottouoman. When the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service informed Fenway Pilot high school teacher and Ivory Coast refugee Obain Attouoman in January that he would be shipped back to his former homeland on February 11, students began a letter-writing campaign as well as rallies and protests in Boston that at first won Obain a brief reprieve to March 4. On March 3, the day before Obain was to be deported, a delegation of students and adults went to Washington to meet with their members of Congress, where they won a much longer reprieve, to January 2007, with a good chance that Obain will be granted permanent residency. For the students, it was an unforgettable lesson in democracy and empowerment. The story was covered nationally, in newspapers, television, and radio. Here are a few of the stories, listed chronologically:

• After rally, teacher granted reprieve, by Scott Goldstein, in the Boston Globe, February 10, 2005.
  Students and teachers marching in front of the JFK Federal Building in Government Center gain 3-week reprieve from deportation.
• Fenway High students rally to stop teacher’s deportation, by Jeremy Schwab, lead story in the Boston-Bay State Banner, February 17, 2005.
  A week after the 3-week reprieve, the Banner’s lead story is about Obain, the students and teachers, and the injustice in immigration policy.
  
• Feds Order Beloved Teacher Deported - Students, Fellow Teachers Say His Loss Would Be Devastating, by Dean Schabner, ABC News, February 20, 2005.
  This is a national report from ABC News, detailing the expected deportation on March 4.
• Students, activists protest imminent deportation of Boston school teacher, by Theo Emery, Associated Press, in the Boston Globe, March 2, 2005.
  As Obain’s deportation day of March 4 approaches, the Associated Press explores the story and the student protests in detail.
• Living civics lesson: teacher's asylum bid, by Sarah B. Miller, in the Christian Science Monitor, March 3, 2005.
  A day before the scheduled deportation, the Monitor has a front page story on the case, stating, “...the halls of Fenway High School have turned into a living civics lesson.”
• Students Lobby Against Deportion of Teacher, radio report by Athena Desai, on WBUR’s Morning Edition, March 3, 2005.
  On the morning that Fenway students left for Washington, Morning Edition had an in-depth feature on the campaign, with live takes from students, lawyers, and politicians. This web link offers photos and the full streaming audio of the broadcast.

• Teacher’s fans win a delay in his deportation, by Scott Goldstein, in the Boston Globe, March 4, 2005.
  On the day he was to be deported, newspapers report of his reprieve, following efforts by politicians in response to students. Says one student, “I am so overwhelmed and happy that he’ll be able to stay.”
• A victory for good sense, by Adrian Walker, in the Boston Globe, March 7, 2005.
  In his Monday morning-after column, Walker interviews Sen. John Kerry, looks at how the system ultimately worked, says “Attouoman’s Fenway High students deserved much of the credit for the victory,” and calls them “impressive kids.”
• Immigrant seeking permanent reprieve - Popular teacher fights deportation, By Russell Nichols, in the Boston Globe, October 26, 2005.
  Pointing out that Attouoman has reasonable hopes of permanent residency, this feature story interviews him, talks about his teaching and his relation to Fenway HS, and discusses his past and future.

In Dorchester, learning takes root, by Tracy Jan, in the Boston Globe, November 27, 2004.
This is an inspirational story taking place at the New Boston Pilot Middle School, where severely physically disabled students, like seventh grader Keillen Fields (who has cerebral palsy), grow intellectually and participate physically through a garden designed to be accessible to them.

A Level Playing Field, by Lani Harac, in Teacher Magazine, October 1, 2004.
Feature article focuses on a teacher and a student at Young Achievers Pilot school, looking at how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) brings a student with learning disabilities into mainstream classrooms. CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology), the key national promoter of UDL, is also featured.

Educator agent for change, interview of Deborah Meier by Globe correspondent Katie Oliveri, in the Education section of the Boston Sunday Globe, September 26, 2004.
Mission Hill School founder and long-time education reform leader Meier talks about a variety of issues in education in this interview-style article.

HERALD HEROES: Sax Man sings the blues over a lost opportunity, by Casey Ross, in the Boston Herald, August 16, 2004.
Joseph Omicil Jr., a Mission Hill Pilot school music teacher, had been making a difference in the fight against crime while teaching music in MHS. Now budget cutbacks have eliminated his job.

School of jazz: Saxophonist Andre Ward shares love of music with middle-school students, by Bob Young, in the Boston Herald, June 2, 2004.
Premier jazz saxophonist Andre Ward is working with middle school students at the Lyndon Pilot school, teaching them to play jazz. “Ward hopes to create what he calls a ‘funnel program’ to send promising Lyndon students to the Boston Arts Academy and then to onto Berklee College of Music.”

New Boston Pilot pupils sort gangsta from grimy, Letters to City Weekly, in the Boston Sunday Globe, April 25, 2004.
NBPMS pupils of grad student Stephanie Hooker write to the Globe in response to an article about slang.

Poetic justice: Teen writers vent their feelings in literary journal, by Tenley Woodman, in the Boston Herald, April 5, 2004.
“Poetry is more than just words on a page. For teen contributors to the ‘Roxbury Literary Annual 2004 Youth Edition,’ the craft gives them the tools to express emotions they can’t verbalize.” Fenway High School and Pilot school sophomore Shanita Williams’ poem about domestic violence appears in the article.

Dorchester man makes a difference in Pilot middle school, by Robert Frank, in the Dorchester Community News, March 5 , 2004, p.1.
Feature story about Todd Meuse, father of a student at New Boston Pilot Middle School, who takes time off from work to volunteer at the school. The article shows the community and personal focus of this Pilot school.

Young Boston poets vie for chance to meet Maya Angelou, by Asa Pittman, Boston/Bay State Banner, February 5, 2004.
Poet-students from Boston Arts Academy and Fenway High School, after winning top awards in a competition, hope to meet Maya Angelou on her visit to Boston. BAA teacher Abdi Ali, who is adviser to the school arts magazine Slate Blue, provided support for the BAA writers.

Boston Arts sophomore picked for role in MLK concert, by Jeff Sullivan, in the Boston Sunday Globe, January 18, 2004.
BAA was asked to find a reader for a Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra MLK Day concert at the Strand Theatre. They selected a sophomore, Michael Cognata of Dorchester.

Educating Hub youth on voting, by Maria Padilla, in the Boston Sunday Globe, November 30, 2003.
Pilot school student Padilla, a senior at the Boston Community Leadership Academy, writes in this op-ed column, about the passions that impelled her to vote for the first time this past election and about the neighborhood dangers for Boston children, that she hopes her political activism will help to remedy.

Art for art’s sake—and education’s, by Swanee Hunt, the Boston Herald, November 10, 2003, page 1.
Feature story looks at Boston Arts Academy student Marquita, 17, who “has bounced around the foster care system since she was 2,” and who has been thriving in the environment of the Pilot school.

Designers of Orchard Gardens School think outside the brick box, by Robert Campbell, in the Boston Sunday Globe, September 28, 2003.
“This is a big school, with 750 children, but it doesn’t feel big because it’s divided into three sections. These perform like three small schools, each three stories high and clustered around its own staircase. The sections are called “academies” or “strands,” and they’re color-coded....Nearly all the school’s visual motifs are derived from African originals. They become an iconography that communicates cultural messages. The long main facade on Albany Street, for instance, was suggested by the mosques of Timbuktu....”

New school symbol of renewal: Orchard Park makes diligent work pay off, by Megan Tench, in the Boston Globe, August 25, 2003.
“When Orchard Gardens, a K-8 pilot school, opens next month, it will be one of the first new school buildings in Boston in 30 years - and a symbol of renewal to those still haunted by the racial turbulence and urban decay that followed the start of busing....On the first day of teacher orientation last week, more than 50 teachers piled into a yellow school bus for a tour of the neighborhood and a history lesson.”

Juneteenth Celebrated in Boston: Sixth grader awakens city to emancipation anniversary, front page in the Dorchester Community News, July 11, 2003.
Harbor Pilot School sixth grader Michelle Peña was in the library reading about the Juneteenth emancipation celebration, when she turned to librarian Kathleen Ross to ask why there is no official Juneteenth celebration in Boston. The rest is now history.

Mason goes Pilot: Principal readies for take-off, by Susanna Baird, front page in the South End News, July 3, 2003.
An already strong school, Mason Elementary, votes to make the transition to Pilot status. Now they are getting ready, under the leadership of Principal Janet Palmer-Owens, and with strong faculty support.

BEA valedictorian proves her mettle, by Jennifer Chase, in the South End News, June 12, 2003.
This feature article on the Horace Mann Charter/Pilot school Boston Evening Academy focuses on the experience of valedictorian, Mimi Chan. “According to Chan, in order to graduate from BEA students must complete between nine and 12 ‘products,’ projects in areas such as English, math, technology, social studies, and science. These products are not the regular garden variety homework tasks such as math equations and book reports....”