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Payzant pushes plan to overhaul high schools Redesign would create ‘learning communities’ By Megan Tench, Globe Staff, 12/16/2002 Two years before the end of his tenure as one of the nation’s longest-serving big city school chiefs, Boston Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant is staking his legacy on the one issue that has proved the most hostile to change: high schools. Long viewed as struggling academically and decaying physically, the city’s non-exam high schools have tried plan after plan to cut dropout rates, curb violence, and improve the achievement of mostly low-income youth. But this week, the Boston School Committee is scheduled to approve one of Payzant’s most radical overhauls yet - one that, if successful, would signal the end of the comprehensive, traditional high school in the city where it was born more than three centuries ago. Echoing a national trend, Payzant’s plan calls for creating “educational complexes” of smaller, career-focused schools or campuses targeting special populations such as students who repeatedly have been held back or new immigrants. The latest push to redesign high schools comes as the district faces a projected boom in high-school enrollment, dismal MCAS scores, and a budget crunch that demands consolidation. “It’s been the biggest challenge and one that I really want to meet and help accomplish on my watch,” Payzant, whose 10-year superintendency is expected to end in 2005. “This is not a time for incrementalism. It is a time for big, bold, and accelerated.” Nine of Boston’s 12 non-exam high schools have created several “small learning communities” within their buildings, but with varying degrees of success. Payzant’s new effort, for example, targets Dorchester High School, a 150-year-old campus that, despite past reform efforts, still lags academically and has become the school of last resort for some. National specialists on high schools say Payzant’s vision, if fulfilled, could make Boston one among a handful of cities to successfully replace all of its comprehensive high schools with educational complexes - almost like university campuses with a collection of separate undergraduate schools. Yet some caution that little concrete evidence exists that smaller high schools produce better students. And others worry that career pathways could overshadow a well-rounded, rigorous academic program. “There is nothing about smaller schools that guarantees quality education,” said Anne Hallet, executive director of the Cross-City Campaign for Urban School Reform, a Chicago nonprofit that serves as a network for urban school districts. “All of these schools must have a basic core curriculum. One of the things we want to keep an eye on is the academic quality of these schools so they don’t become a vocational track.” Nevertheless, school systems are increasingly embarking on this “small school” path as standardized tests show that large percentages of big-city high school students can’t achieve at basic reading and mathematics levels. Districts in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago are experimenting with smaller learning communities, which have garnered praise for improving teacher-to-student relationships. It remains a cautious trend. US Department of Education statistics show that about 70 percent of American high school students attend schools with 1,000 or more students while nearly 50 percent attend schools with more than 1,500 students. And smaller has not necessarily meant better test scores. “Smaller certainly means you can get a more personal touch with students, and students feel a better sense of belonging,” said Gene Bottoms, senior vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board, an Atlanta-based non-profit reseach organization. “They’ve done a good job of making everybody feel better but they have not raised academic standards.” Still, given Payzant’s national reputation as a skilled educator, both Bottoms and Hallet believe he may succeed in making the trend toward smaller high schools stick. “Tom has a reputation of being a very solid educator,” Bottoms said, noting that most urban school districts have a high rate of superintendent turnover. “Stability seems to be the key to improving urban districts. If he has worked out a design and he can stay there to follow through with it, that’s important.” Others applaud Payzant’s attempt to spotlight special populations, especially those who have not fared well on the 10th-grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam, a high school graduation requirement. The district is developing the Newcomer’s School for English language learners ages 14-18, and Prep Academy for older ninth-graders who have been held back multiple times and are not ready to enter high school. “For the past 80 years high schools were judged based on the success of the top quarter of the class, those who went to good colleges,” said Neil Sullivan, executive director of Boston’s Private Industry Council, a nonprofit that helps match students with jobs. “MCAS has turned that upside down. Now schools are judged based on how well they do with the bottom quarter of the class, students who were often ignored or overlooked.” Payzant’s battle to reform high schools has been slow and methodical, and has required repeated refocusing. In March 2000, he sent “strike teams” to three high schools that had posted the lowest MCAS scores in the city: Dorchester, Boston, and South Boston. The teams of educators and administrators met with teachers, students, and parents and Payzant then recommended creating the smaller learning communities. Of the three, Dorchester High is still struggling to carve out a successful identity as its reputation for violence and low test scores has persisted. “One of the things that didn’t change at Dorchester was some of the external forces,” Payzant said of the school’s reputation. “When everything else was filled and students have to be placed, they go there.” Payzant’s plan has TechBoston Academy, a new, technology-based pilot school now based at the Taft Middle School in Brighton, moving to Dorchester High - and thus fulfilling a promise to place a high-tech high school in one of the neediest areas of the city. “It needs this next push to make it a very desirable place for students to be,” Payzant said. Robert Belle, Dorchester High’s headmaster, acknowledged that some teachers and adminstrators at the embattled school remain reluctant. “There is some animosity and resentment but people don’t always accept change,” he said. “We’ve been here before. We know we’ve got some problems that need to be worked out, and we are going to band together and make the transition as smooth as possible.” At South Boston High - now the South Boston Education Complex - MCAS scores remain low, with 67 percent of seniors still failing the exam, but administrators insist the school has made progess elsewhere. “Our attendance is the highest it’s been in 30 years,” said Karen Daniels, one of the school’s three headmasters. This year’s attendance rate so far is 84.9 percent compared to 79 percent in 2000. “This is the first step. If we can get the kids to come to school, maybe we can teach them something.” James Weathers is a 17-year-old senior at the school. “I like it here much better now,” he said. “Before, when it was one big school, it was pretty much a mess. Everybody was in the hallways during class, teachers didn’t know anyone. Now we get much more attention because teachers know you. It makes it hard to get away with anything.” Some community leaders are cautiously optimistic about smaller high schools. “As we’re dialing up the heat on raising expectations of these kids, at least in smaller schools when kids fall off the track we find them quicker,” said Emmett Folgert, of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, a non-profit outreach group working with students in various Boston schools.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 12/16/2002.
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