EDITORIAL
Aiming high in high school

High-stakes MCAS tests have put the public focus on helping as many students as possible pass. But education reform was designed to produce more than minimal competence, and that goal needs more attention.

The first rigorous study of high-achieving urban high schools in the MCAS era has reached a disappointing conclusion: There are hardly any.

After examining nine large school systems with a poverty rate and minority enrollment of at least 50 percent, only one high school -- the University Park Campus School in Worcester -- was found where students consistently performed at high levels.

However, eight other schools came close, and together they provide important lessons for urban high schools statewide.

The study was put out by the Center for Education Research & Policy at the nonpartisan think tank MassINC. It concluded that five factors appear most important to superior performance:

* High standards and expectations for students and teachers.
* Supportive school cultures, including individualized teaching.
* Small learning communities and class sizes.
* Focused, data-driven curriculum.
* Engagement with parents and others in the community.

As if to underline the third point, only two large high schools -- Lynn Classical and Somerville High -- made the top nine. Two of the others -- Accelerated Learning Lab in Worcester and Sabis International, a charter school in Springfield -- are K-12 schools that have relatively small high school enrollments: 158 and 224 respectively. The other four are all small programs in Boston: two charter schools -- Academy of the Pacific Rim and Media & Technology Charter High -- and two pilot schools -- Boston Arts Academy and Fenway High School.

The advantages of small classes and small schools are clear, but classes are beginning to grow in some communities, and this year $18 million that had been in the state budget designated specifically to reduce class sizes was eliminated. Also, the new study provides evidence that administrators -- and school building assistance from the state -- should be steering local school systems in this direction.

Also worth noting is that the study was funded by the Trefler Foundation. Education reform has made great strides in Massachusetts since 1993, but the state has consistently underfunded self-evaluation.

S. Paul Reville, executive director of the Center for Education Research & Policy, is on target in saying that one key premise of education reform is that “everybody should be challenged.” This means every possible student should be helped to pass MCAS -- and that a great many students should be encouraged to set higher goals, and to achieve them.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.