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CSUN SED 610 - Creating Excellent and Equitable Schools

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ASCD https://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.45...1 of 9 10/31/2008 8:02 AMMay 2008May 2008 | Volume 65 | Number 8Reshaping High Schools Pages 14-21Creating Excellent and EquitableSchoolsLinda Darling-Hammond and Diane FriedlaenderThe right design features and policies can promoteexceptional high schools on a broad scale.A business maxim holds that every organization is perfectlystructured to achieve the results it achieves. We could say thesame of schools. And when outcomes are particularly problematic—as is true for many largeurban high schools that lose most of their students before graduation—attaining substantiallydifferent results in our schools will require more than just teachers "trying harder" withintraditional bureaucratic constraints. Such a shift typically requires new organizational structures.Some high schools that have made those changes offer an education that not only helps studentsachieve academically but also can dramatically transform students' life prospects. Take the case ofJames Williams.1 As a young black male moving from one low-income neighborhood in SanFrancisco to the next, James faced the kind of challenges that lead many young people to drop outof school. His mother, who experienced health problems, was out of work for several years andstruggled to raise a family on her own. Although James was raised around drug use andalcoholism, he never succumbed to gang violence or street life and always wanted to go tocollege.However, college seemed like a far-off dream. James could not get into any of the college-preparatory high schools in San Francisco, so his mother decided to enroll him in a new small highschool—June Jordan School for Equity. The school combined a college-preparatory curriculumorganized around social-justice issues with highly personalized instruction and a strong advisorysystem. With two other young children to care for, James's mother could not easily attend parentconferences, so June Jordan teachers went to her home. James's advisor provided emotional,academic, and even financial support to help him get through rough patches when his family faceda number of hardships.James developed a passion for writing as a result of the school's continual emphasis on writing andinquiry. Now a freshman at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he is considering a major inliterature or writing. He noted,June Jordan got me ready for a four-year college. … we had a lot of help, and peoplehad our backs at June Jordan, but they also made sure that we were able to take careof ourselves when we needed to. … My life is just beginning, and it was a great thing tohave June Jordan to start.High Schools for EquityJames's story reflects those of many other students attending one of five California high schoolswe recently studied that have beaten the odds in supporting the success of low-income students ofcolor (Friedlaender, Darling-Hammond, et al., 2007). The schools—Animo Inglewood Charter HighSchool (Los Angeles); Stanley E. Foster Construction Tech Academy (San Diego); June JordanSchool for Equity (San Francisco); Leadership High School (San Francisco); and New TechnologyHigh School (Sacramento)—are located in California's largest cities and are nonselective in theirASCD https://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.45...2 of 9 10/31/2008 8:02 AMadmissions, yet they have graduation and college-going rates significantly higher than the stateaverage. A majority of the student body in each school is composed of low-income students ofcolor.All five schools have developed innovative settings and practices that offer distinctiveopportunities for learning. For example, Animo Inglewood offers a rigorous college-preparatorycurriculum coupled with strong academic supports to ensure that all students meet highexpectations. Animo's equally high expectations for its teachers are reflected in its intensiveprofessional development model based on that of the National Board for Professional TeachingStandards. Construction Tech Academy integrates academic study in college-preparatory courseswith applied projects and internships in construction, engineering, and architecture.June Jordan School for Equity provides its students with a project-based college-preparatorycurriculum infused with social-justice and civic-engagement themes. Students participate incommunity-service internships and complete portfolios of their work that they present inexhibitions. Leadership High School focuses on creating community leaders by infusing the corevalues of critical thinking, effective communication, and personal and social responsibilitythroughout their college-preparatory curriculum and portfolio assessments. Staff members alsotake considerable time in professional learning communities to analyze student work and otherdata with the goal of ensuring equitable outcomes for all students.New Technology High School offers fully implemented interdisciplinary, technology-intensiveproject-based learning that is completed in self-directed small groups. Students supplement theirlearning at New Tech High, as they do at the other four schools, by taking several classes at thelocal community colleges.These schools are, in many respects, anomalies in the current landscape of secondary education:All of them send 80 to 100 percent of their students to higher education, exhibiting college-goingrates more than twice the state averages for the kinds of students they serve. Equally important,these schools engage students in intellectually stimulating, relevant, and personalized learningthat empowers them to contribute to their communities and learn throughout their lives.The High Schools for Equity study, conducted by the School Redesign Network at StanfordUniversity in collaboration with Justice Matters Institute (Friedlaender, Darling-Hammond, et al.,2007), describes the school practices that support this extraordinary student success. The studyalso focused on the policies needed to develop and maintain such schools on a broader scale sothat they become the norm rather than the exception for students of color.Successful—By DesignThe 20th-century factory model remains the pervasive model for high schools in the UnitedStates, especially in cities. Factory-model schools were designed to process a great number ofstudents efficiently, selecting and supporting only a few for "thinking work" while tracking othersinto a basic-skills curriculum aimed


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CSUN SED 610 - Creating Excellent and Equitable Schools

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