Another 3 high schools shaking things up
“Bored, Stressed, Tired” – that was the description of high school students in the headline of a piece I read recently in a national publication.
True for many high school students, I’m sure. Some of that comes with being teenagers. But there is some small but noteworthy momentum in efforts to change the high school experience — to make school, among other things, less boring, less stressful and more energizing.
I wrote last week about Milwaukee Vincent High School, where there is some hope that an emphasis on agricultural and food careers may increase the number of students on track for long-term success.
This week, the focus is on three other high schools I’ve visited recently that are working to find more effective ways to raise the bar for students.
Messmer High School
There are two things that make Jim Piatt particularly worth listening to. One is his penchant for straight talk about problems. The other is his willingness to tackle those problems.
That was true when I first met Piatt eight years ago. He was then principal of Brown Deer High School and part of an administrative team that took a strong stand on closing achievement gaps between black and white students.
In 2013, Piatt became president of Messmer Catholic Schools, which includes a high school and two kindergarten through eighth-grade schools.
Messmer has strengths, including a generally stable operation and a decent state report card (“meets expectations’). And Messmer has weaknesses, including declining enrollment and low percentages of students who are rated as proficient in math and reading.
Piatt is leading a push at Messmer that recognize the realities of its students (there are not many who are on track for college success), the reality that the school’s efforts have not brought the desired results, and the realities of Milwaukee today (a city with few remaining middle-class homes).
That means a big push for getting more students on track for careers in trades or industrial jobs that do not require four-year degrees but offer opportunities.
Many schools push STEM programs, as they are called. Messmer strikes me as particularly serious about it, and new space it is opening (replacing an outdated swimming pool) for such programs is a big sign of that.
“We’re re-bending the institution to emphasize skilled employment as a co-equal with college aspirations,” Piatt said.
Piatt is also calling for more honesty about student abilities.
“We’ve been complicit in a system that isn’t helping a lot of kids,” he said. Students too often have been given passing grades when they really haven’t achieved the knowledge they ought to have.
One thing that particularly aggravates Piatt is grades of D.
“The D’s are even worse than F’s,” he said. An F is honest about a student not passing. “The D’s perpetuate the lie” that a student can pass.
So Messmer is adopting a policy in which students will be given a grade of “N,” as in “no grade,” in some courses until they can earn at least a C. They will be given help improving, including summer programs. More may need five years to complete high school. Some may leave Messmer. But Piatt said the school has to take its commitments around educational success seriously.
The new initiatives are a gamble, especially if enrollment declines further. But Piatt said students are eager
about the STEM offerings. And the hope is that a stronger stand on what it means to pass will end up making school more rewarding to students.
Dottke High School, West Allis
Dottke was the West Allis-West Milwaukee district’s alternative high school for years. Several years ago, district leaders expanded the school’s goals to welcome a broader group of students who wanted “project-based” learning.
With 190 students currently, the school has a much less structured feeling than a traditional school — a lot more time for kids doing things like building tables, a lot less sitting and listening to teachers. Students pick projects they want to work on — bicycle repair, a music room, aquaponics or, a current one, developing a better way for the Milwaukee County Zoo to load coal into the engine of the train that circles the grounds.
“I know we are onto something here because students and adults enjoy coming to school and are having fun together,” Principal Greg Goelz said in an email after my visit. “School should be fun!”
Some people would debate how much fun should be a priority. But engagement is good and drudgery is not. Dottke clearly has a lot of the former and not much of the latter.
Pathways High
A charter school with about 100 students, located just north of downtown Milwaukee, Pathways aims for “a lot different sort of vibe” than a conventional school, said Kim Taylor, one of the adult leaders.
Students get involved in broader community issues and programs, learning is generally built around projects, and there is a strong emphasis on relationships, both among the students and between students and staff. The climate is informal, warm and individualized. The school wants a diverse student body, and about 30% of students are from the suburbs.
This was not intentional for me, but I’ve written last week and this week about high schools in four different streams of Milwaukee area education: a Milwaukee public school, a private school in the voucher program, a charter school and a suburban school. And there are more examples of schools that are aiming to connect better with students and to raise their overall levels of success.
Unfortunately, the problems of student success are great, and the push for finding fresh ways of doing better is still not that sweeping.
Which leaves me wondering, if there was more willingness on the part of school leaders to aim higher, would there be fewer of those bored, stressed and tired students?
Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.