tv [untitled] March 19, 2012 9:30am-10:00am EDT
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need several years of data to confirm a lasting improvement in academic achievement. we're continuing to gather data on other critical outcome, things like graduation rates, dropout rates, discipline, attendance and other ind sis. it's very much a first look at the initial results of sig. it's encouraging to see rigorous research in cities like philly and new york is finding rekons stut ood schools can improve a school's performance and substantially boost graduation rates. they are doing so districtwide, not in isolated pockets of success. as we all know, scale is so important to this effort. it's equally heartening to hear that there has been a big drop in the number of high school
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dropout nationwide, especially since 2008. all tolled, nearly 400,000 fewer students attended high school dropout factories in 2010 than just two years earlier. what are the secrets to success? in the sig program, schools that boost achieve meant share two common elements. first they have a new dynamic lead who are is deeply committed to the students and surrounding community. i'm talking about extraordinary principals like roy sandoval who works at a high school on an indian reservation. every morning he gets up really terl and drives two and a half hours to his school.
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the second thing that turn around schools have in common is they have teachers and adult who is share relentless focus on improving instruction both through collaboration and through the use of data. all four of the modilies give professionals in the school the resources they need to be ambitious teachers. they increased learning time, will youing more improved teacher valuation system. but the road to success is not the program itself. it's the focus, it's the passion, it's the commitment of practitioners that drive success. contrary to a lot of the predictions that were made about sig, the program has helped to spur innovation in the field.
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>> st. paul, minnesota has implied a peer-to-fear observe system. in ontario high school in oregon, teachers are making better and smatter use of kek ji to improve instruction in real time. in las vegas, cynthia marleau u used sig funds to institute a tutoring program which added an our time at the end of the school day. reading and math proficiency. >> smift hired a new stem coach and bait a specialists to give kid meaningful full back and daily catching. >> weekly assistments monday now
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students are -- at the heart of all these suckes are school leaders provided about the prospect for change. it's what motivates them, gets them up everybody morning and keeps them working until late at night. they know that school! is a difficult, difficult thing tho chang but they also believe all children must be given an opportunity to fulfill their academic and social potential. as within school put it, teachers at successful turn around schools feel like they are part of something big. let me give you an example of being part of something big. one of our panelists you'll hear from, carol smith, will talk a
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moment about how the sig program has worked in her district at roosevelt high school. two years ago it was ruled one of the worst schools in the state. but since the sig program, it's had a jump up to 14%. just as telling and important, roosevelt's educators have fostered a new believe among students about what's possible for them. last summer the students per foor formed. >> in cities like st. louis and portland, maine, local unions are looking to improve and
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strengthen school turn around efforts. they're collaborating a with management. a final barrier to turning around schools is that parents are supposed to fight change in neighborhood schools. sometimes parents do cling to the familiar but we're finding at that parents and community organizations are in many cases actually helping to drive change and to enhance learning opportunities. community engagement is crucial to successful turn arounds and as dennis points out, you can't spell partners without parents. that's one reason our administration has announced "together for tomorrow", to foster and expand community engagement in low-performing schools. together for tomorrow is already under way at six demonstration sites around the country. working with the white house and the corporation for national and community service we'll be
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expanding this severity to foster more community partnership to advance school improvement. in the end none of us can do this work alone. promoting a community culture where educational improvement is everybody's responsibility is our national mission. it does take a val eng. children only get one chance to get a quality education. as dr. martin luther king said, we it patriot for equal opportunity education to be realized. this is the civil rights challenge of thissen racial. -- of this issue. it's a daily fight for social justice and together it is a fight we will win. thank you so much. [ applause ]
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now i'd like to bring out the real stars of the show who you doing the hard work. carole smith, as i talked about, is the superintendent of the portland public schools. then we have a fantastic turn around school here in d.c., luke moore high school, which is an alternative high school with a charismatic and hard driving principal. we have rose smith, a teacher there and daquan smith, a senior there. f i could ask them to come ou real start of the show, high school senior daquan burley. i could not have done this in
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high school. you're way ahead of me. you're a senior now. i'd love to hear what the school was like in the first couple of years before the turn around and what the environment and what the culture is like now. >> well, the first couple of years, me being so young, when i came i was 14 years old and everybody else was all older than me. so my first year there i was young. so a lot of stuff was new to me. like couple of dudes was in there -- not dudes but kid was in there -- >> a couple of dudes, that's okay. [ laughter ] >> like i wasn't really used to it. like they was smoking, gambling. >> in the school? >> in the school. i tried my best to stay away from it but it was all around so it was kind of hard. but after a couple years when the new staff came, there wasn't none of that. everybody was shut down. >> are schools taking education
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more serious now? >> yes, sir. >> what's the difference sp. >> i think it's the teachers. the first couple years, most of the teachers didn't care. if we didn't do the work, they'd pass us anyway. now they make us sit in the children and do it right or we can't leave. me being on the basketball team, they won't let me play in the game unless the work was done right. i didn't like that at all. >> how long you have been teaching at look moore? >> seven years. >> it's an alternative school, often students have struggled. why did you choose to work there and not another school? >> well, i feel it's my duty not only as a product of a d.c. public schools but also a former resident of the city to give back to the students what i received when i was in school. had teachers that cared, i had teachers that motivated me, i
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had teachers made that feel as if i matter nd and that i did have stake in my own future. i feel it's my duty to give that back to my students. that's i didn't continue to work at luke moore and be fulfilled by it. [ applause ] >> walk me through. you've been there self-en years, before and after the sig program pfs what were things like before and since then? >> we had a very, very low attendance rate. we had students who would come to us disengaged, academically and socially. now that we've had changes -- which was difficult. but we now have students who come to school because they want to be there and because they can see the light with regard to graduation and being able to
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move on with their lives. those students now have an opportunity to not only come to school and feel a sense of pride and be encouraged in their economic and social standing but they can also their diplomacy ma. >> what we do because change is hard and change can be threatening and thurp there before. were you scared of it? how much did you resist it? walk me through sort of mentally your thought process walking into this? >> well for my personally, i had to feel empowered myself. i had to tell myself, yes, i can do this, i do make a difference at the end of the day. though i'm not able to reach all of the students in my classes, i've been able to touch a few. seeing them graduate, go to college and successfully go out
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into the world of work makes all the difference. >> what do you think about this young man? >> this is my teddy bear. i've soon him gro into a fine young man. he has now he wasn't just in class to just get a grade. he realizes the skills he's learning are going to make a prettier and successful future for him. and i am happy for him as he graduates this june. >> and i'm going to open it up to the audience. if you have any questions, i'll come to you next. but you had roosevelt high school again, one of the lowest per forming schools in the state. not one that tinkering was going to make a difference. walk three through what you guys
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did before. just one year a long way to go but pryy remarkable progress in one year. walk me through how you got here from there. >> roosevelt was one of the lowest performing in the state. we used the sig opportunities to bring it back as a motified calais. this school year this year had a 14-point gains in graduate rate, a 28 percentage point decrease in discipline referrals and the big one i would call out is an increase in 5% of students achoosing to choose our school.
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we have an energy going on there right now where students are opting back in and choosing their neighborhood school, which is really exciting. key factors, we have a really dynamic principal, who is a structural leader. she stands leadership. so colleen williams, she has totally build an, in that place and what model was fron p frozen. we had teacher, administrator and district in choosing the mod l and identifying what strategies were going to be used pand writing the as well as on going implementation. there was a deep, relentless focus on instruction.
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part of the strategy is coping. as part of this that roosevelt piloted a new teacher evaluation tool, which at this point we've now implemented across the district so that's a story unto itself but it's transformed our relationship with our teachers union and how we work together with our teachers union as well. the last thing i'd call out is partnership and it's been huge. this has been partnership with our faith community, with the business community, with universities who are helding to rebuild a college going culture as and noa combination of all those thing, it's a different place than it was.
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you feel a student energy there that is palpable and exciting. >> this change is really, really hard. it founds fan advertised being. and looking back, is this more than you anticipated. what was your expectation coming into this if could you think back a year ago? >> it was into the a forgone conclusion that we would even apply for the grant. just deciding to go forward and apply for the grand was a deep conversation with our union and teachers and an administration at the school about whether this was an opportunity and whether it was going to be jumping through hoops. we did an anazing process where the union leadership sat with a small teacher and explored the valuation different options.
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we had the entire roosevelt sfaf while we sat and figured it out. i would say that's a huge piece of what the success has been is that school owning the strategies and feel being like they're driving what the work is that's going on, it's not being prescribed from someplace else. >> and again, what was your expectation going in? >> i didn't believe it was the kind we've seen. it's been transformational. >> open up the audience. any questions for any of our panelists. >> i guess we have mike here. do we have another one? start right here. i see two up front. hi, i'm a northeastern graduate
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and i'm curious to find what stereos types you were confronted with at your school and i'd like you to look at your cripple curriculum and tell me if you think it embraced your culture. >> well, me stereotypes, i really didn't pay attention to things like that because now i'm just trying to get an education mainly. but the curriculum it was pretty easy when we get things i didn't know but the teachs are made it kind of easy for me. they stayed by my side until i understood what i was suppose to. >> that stereotype piece is major for me. it can be emotionally dabell tating. especially when you're
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participating in system wide meetings, working at a school where people fail, you're working with a bunch of rejects. it's not a good feeling. we got to a point where we felt okay, that's what you think of us. let us show you what we can do. i feel like we've done that. with regard to our curriculum -- thank you. it is indeed rigorous. it is indeed challenging but we found that with having the higher academic standards, our students feel when they complete their courses of study or even individual courses they feel that they have earned it and that they've really taken new skills and strategies away that they can use in the future. so it has been embraced. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> i'm the s.t.e.m. director for dc public schools. i have to just say that twitter and e-mail is bursting with pride over both of you up here. we are so proud from d.c. to
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have you sitting up here with the secretary of education and with the superintendent. [ applause ] my question is about what next. so you're getting ready to graduate and you've obviously figured some things out that are working. so what next so we can take what you learned and really tell your story to other kids and make sure that other students not just in d.c. but across the nation can lift themselves up and learn from what you've done. so what do you think you want to do next to help us do that? >> well, i know for sure i'm going off to school. and i'm not sure. i mean, school first. college, hopefully i'll be going to north carolina central and then -- [ applause ] after that, i would like to come back and then speak again about
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my stories and my rough trials through high school and things like that. i'd like to talk. >> my good friend. >> i'm with america's promise alliance. i'd like to be ask a question to the port laund representative. you referenced community supports. there are many people in the audience today who represent non-profit organizations at the community level. what's the most effective way for the local non-profits to reach out and be supportive of these students and these schools that really need our help? >> so at roosevelt specifically, it's taken a number of different forms. we've got a non-profit that does what is the step up program where they're meeting us, providing like advocacy and tutoring but it's directly connected to the teachers and students and the work that's going on in the classroom. so there's a deep relationship
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in how they're supporting students' success in the classroom. we have some community schools that are present at roosevelt campus that are wrapping family and wrap around and family engagement supports. we've got a family engagement coordinator organizing with the community-based organization, cultural little specific community organizations, family nights. we've got south lake church that has wrapped its arms hugely around the school and is building an energy on the cam puts that you know, spans a lot of different kinds of activities. but they are a mechanism for individuals to support the school. and then the alumni association has been hugely engaged in as businesses in supporting roosevelt. and the university has engaged individual students with our students that those relationships carry on once the students go on to college. there's a bunch of really
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specific, but they've taken different shapes of figuring out where does the -- what the community organization or individual have to offer with what the school needs, that focus on what the school is trying to achieve. they're not random relationships. they're all focused on and what roosevelt is trying to accomplish are our students. >> alice thompson, detroit michigan. miss smith, can you identify for us three or four of your specific and salient changes that created transformation in your school? >> soapial actually draw you back to bob's presentation because we've done some things at roosevelt that we're also doing as a district. one of those is identifying is academic priority students coming out of eighth grade and moving into ninth grade and putting a special kind of emphasis on tracking the kids. we are tracking students being
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on track to graduate as they enter tenth grade. so having the appropriate amount of credit, six credits with a "c" or better. that predicts their graduation, on-time graduation at a five times greater rate than if they were not on track in tenth grade. we're doing everything we can to make sure that occurs. that's very specific. and he t and then the collaborative work amongst teachers i would say is a huge part of the collaborative problem solving that teachers are doinging about instructal practice and individual strategies to support individual students has been hugely powerful. >> hi, my name's amanda cusick. my question is about parent involvement and if that was part of your strategy. you mentioned the family engagement night.d
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wondering what those looked like. >> we've used culturally specific service organizations that already very relationships with families as a way of linking families with the school. we've got a broad definition of what it means to be engaged as a parent, both what you're doing with your student at home to support them academically in school as well as participating in what's going on at school. we've had a wednesday morning parent volunteer morning where parents show up in force at the school and are just a presence at the school. and we've got, again, an outstanding individual who organizes the parent engagement. she is hugely energetic and looks for the right ways how a parent can engage. >> i'm brian dias, americorp high school. i wanted to ask daequan specifically what did you find that you held on to and you were able to come out of these four
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years and if you saw peers that did not how were you parents assisting you to get to where you're at at this current moment. >> mainly i held on to a couple they were pushing me along a gre great. they held me a lot. my parents also pushed me and made me see beyond high school, there's greater life. i won't have to follow the crowd, be my own ledder, things like that. so i really thanked them a lot for that. >> good morning. my name is jim cantone. i just want to say give inspiration. get inspired. i think inspiring the potential so students achieve greater life
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outcomes is what i'm hearing here. my question is for daequan. daequan, martin luther king said intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education. whalg have you seen over the last several years at roosevelt school that will has -- how has it affected your character and the character of the school and what percentage of that has helped you thrive? >> 100%. 100%. it kind of matured a little bit since i've been -- before my two years. i really think because when i did my first couple of years, i really wasn't, you know, like in my mind, i already knew school wasn't for me like after high school. but when the new change that has
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come, i settled down, matured a little bit, started getting my head in the books, things like that. i say my character has matured 100%. >> so you are realizing, martin luther king's dream. i would like to encourage you to become one of the next presidents of the united states. [ applause ] . thank you. >> you can have my job first. >> good morning. i'm valerie sbhith bowes organization for volunteers, daquan, i'm very proud of you. i look back at myself and i think back, have flashback of me being an intern for senator strom thurmond. i'm from edge foild, north carolina, small town but we have a lot to offer. i would like to ask the audience, you know, are you all produced of sashaa
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