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New Publications Chronicle Real-Life Stories of High School Reform in Ohio

Posted on: Thursday, 31 August 2006, 09:00 CDT

CINCINNATI, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Karlisa Jones didn't get off to a good start at Dayton Early College Academy. But with the help of an adviser, she found her focus and passed a comprehensive progress review, the first step toward taking college classes along with her high school courses. "My biggest goal is to go to college and finish," she says, "because no one in my family has gone to college without dropping out."

Paulette Dewey has taught school for more than 25 years. When Toledo Early College High School opened in 2005, she traded everything she knew for the chance to be part of the new approach. "There isn't a morning when I wake up dreading the day," she says. "I feel so much more effective here than I ever have in my years of teaching."

Henri Buford entered Euclid High School in 2003 as a freshman with nearly 2,000 classmates. Two years later he was a student leader helping run the new Business and Communications School, one of six small high schools on the Euclid campus. He says the small school model is "a different approach" to running a school. "It involves leadership by everyone ... Students get an equal voice."

Two new publications from the Cincinnati-based education philanthropy KnowledgeWorks Foundation record these and dozens more real-life stories behind one of the country's most ambitious efforts to reinvent failing urban high schools.

Told by freelance writers who observed the schools firsthand throughout the 2005-06 school year, the stories in the "Every Student Deserves a Legacy" series capture the reality behind the statistics, reports and debate to reveal how two new approaches to high school education are touching lives.

"Change on this scale is hard won," says Chad P. Wick, president & CEO of KnowledgeWorks Foundation. "But the remarkable truth is that even in the face of so many obstacles, a contingent of heroic pioneers is pushing change forward. These hard-working, visionary and stubborn few are reinventing high school. Their stories are glimpses into the thousands of moments, hundreds of decisions and countless interactions that are change in progress."

The KnowledgeWorks Foundation programs covered in the report include the Ohio High School Transformation Initiative (OHSTI), a statewide effort to transform Ohio's large, anonymous, urban high schools into smaller, personal schools with a rigorous, relevant curriculum centered on relationships. OHSTI has converted 15 of Ohio's large, struggling urban high school campuses into 52 smaller high schools, helping about 25,000 underserved students.

The Early College initiative has established six new high schools where students who normally might not be considered candidates for college can earn a high school diploma and an associate's degree or up to 60 hours of college credit.

These new approaches have begun to show results. Of the 15 schools taking part in OHSTI, 13 have improved their rankings on the state report cards since 2001-02, the year before work on the small schools conversions began. Five sites have moved up two levels on the report cards and two have jumped three levels, moving from ratings of academic emergency to effective. Attendance is up on 13 of 15 the small school campuses over that same time period. In addition, students and teachers report closer relationships and higher expectations, two hallmarks of smaller schools.

Most early college high schools do not receive state report cards, but anecdotal evidence is encouraging. At Dayton Early College Academy, students as a group have earned more than 1,000 hours of college credit. By their fifth semester some students had already earned 45 college credits -- the equivalent of a year and a half of full-time college. Lorain County Early College had a 98 percent passage rate on the Ohio Graduation Test this year, and the percentage of students achieving advanced or accelerated designations was above the state average in every area but science.

Both initiatives receive additional support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ohio and U.S. Departments of Education, and other partners. The Gates Foundation also helped fund the Legacy reports, which will be released nationally to educators, policymakers, parents and others interested in education reform.

The publications are available free at the KnowledgeWorks Foundation website, kwfdn.org.

Learning by Degree: Real-Life Stories from Three Early College High Schools features Toledo Early College High School, Dayton Early College Academy and Lorain County Early College High School.

Small Moments, Big Dreams: Real-life Stories from Five Redesigned Urban High Schools features Libbey High School in Toledo, Brookhaven High School in Columbus, Cleveland Heights High School, Euclid High School and Lima High School.

KnowledgeWorks Foundation is Ohio's largest public education philanthropy. KnowledgeWorks Foundation provides funding and leadership for education initiatives throughout the state and is focused on creating and improving educational opportunities. The Foundation is committed to sharing knowledge gained and lessons learned with others in Ohio and across the nation to help inform public policy. Learn more about KnowledgeWorks Foundation at http://www.kwfdn.org/.

KnowledgeWorks Foundation

CONTACT: Emily Hedrick of KnowledgeWorks Foundation, +1-513-929-1132

Web site: http://www.kwfdn.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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