Worcester Telegram & Gazette
November 20, 2003
City school stands alone
in survey:
University Park urban high rated highest-performing
By Clive McFarlane
WORCESTER-
The University Park Campus School, which this year placed all 31 of its
graduates in college, was judged to be the only high-performing urban
high school in the state by MassInc.
In a study being
released today, the organization said it had tried to identify the highest-performing
urban high schools in the state, but had to switch gears when UPCS turned
out to be the only school consistently performing at high levels.
To qualify as high-performing
in the study, an urban high school had to show, among other things, a
poverty rate of at least 45 percent, a minority student enrollment of
35 percent or more, an 80 percent or higher passing rate on the MCAS 10th-grade
English exam and 65 percent or higher passing rate on the 10th-grade MCAS
math test.
The qualifying school
also needed an attendance rate of 90 percent or better, a dropout rate
of less than 5 percent, and 60 percent of its students planning to attend
a four-year or two-year college.
The schools also
needed to achieve or surpass state and federal Adequate Yearly Progress
goals on the MCAS tests.
While UPCS was the
only school in which students consistently performed at the high standards,
eight other schools statewide were selected as the highest-performing
among their peers, according to criteria adopted for the study.
The only one of those
eight schools in Central Massachusetts was the Accelerated Learning Laboratory
on Woodland Street.
However, except for
UPCS, each of the eight schools continues to have considerable portions
of students performing poorly and some students who have experienced declines,
the report said.
“The real story
here is all the other schools that are not performing at a high standard,”
said S. Paul Reville, executive director of the Center for Education Research
and Policy at MassInc.
“We have redefined
the work of educators,” he said. “Instead of getting some students
over the bar, we are asking them to get all students to become high achievers.
That is hard work in urban schools, and there are huge gaps to be closed.”
The state must develop
a clear strategy for struggling urban schools, according to Mr. Reville.
He said the schools
highlighted in the study share characteristics such as high standards
and expectations, small learning communities, personalized instruction,
data-driven curricula and strong community relationships.
“If we believe
small learning communities increase academic success, how to work with
local school districts to make that possible should be among the strategies
state policy-makers should be considering,” Mr. Reville said.
Worcester is restructuring
its comprehensive high schools into smaller learning communities, helped
by more than $8 million in grants.
The restructuring
aims to create some of the qualities that make UPCS such a success, according
to Superintendent James A. Caradonio.
UPCS, he noted, was
opened with the collaboration of Clark University, which supports the
school by allowing its students and professors to teach and tutor there.
The university also
offers UPCS students opportunities to take college courses at Clark free
of charge while they attend the school, which is in the Main South area.
Qualified UPCS students
are also eligible for tuition-free scholarships to Clark University when
they graduate.
“The overriding
thing is the relationship among teachers, students, parents and the community
at that school,” Mr. Caradonio said. “There is a culture at
the school that said if you come here, you will learn.”
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