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High school success starts in small groups

Whether teens stay on track for graduation may depend on their ninth-grade environment.

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published August 1, 2005

	[Times photo: Michael Rondou]
	Toney Bradley, left, teases his son London, 14, a Lakewood High School freshman, as he struggles with a combination lock during Class of 2009 orientation on Thursday at Lakewood in St. Petersburg.

ST. PETERSBURG - As an eighth-grader at Azalea Middle School, Samantha Gerke ruled. She had lots of friends and was able to maintain decent grades with little effort.

That changed when she entered Dixie Hollins High School and became a little fish in a very big pond.

Some days she didn't feel like going to school. More than once, she thought of dropping out.

Her saving grace was a program for ninth-graders called Cornerstone that the St. Petersburg school piloted in 2003, the year she arrived. Funded by a federal grant, Cornerstone provided a safety net for Samantha and 639 other students making the transition from middle school to high school.

Samantha and most of her original classmates will return to Dixie Hollins on Wednesday as juniors on track to graduate in May 2007. Several, including Samantha, will serve as Cornerstone mentors for incoming freshmen.

Samantha's case illustrates a point many educators have been making for years. Of all grade levels, ninth-graders are most at risk for accumulating absences and dropping out. They require extra attention.

"We need to catch them early," said Pam Hatton, the Pinellas project manager for smaller learning communities. "Research shows that schools ... that have adopted a ninth-grade community are seeing that those kids are staying in school."

A recent study by the International Center for Leadership in Education discovered a common factor in schools best able to keep students on track for graduation. All have segmented their populations into smaller groups to create the illusion of a smaller school.

The center's findings jibe with U.S. Department of Education research that indicates students in small schools behave better and are less likely to drop out than students in large schools.

Since 2000, more than 350 U.S. schools have taken advantage of federal grants to create houses or academies that mimic the personal feel of a small school. Their ranks include four schools in Hillsborough County and 11 in Pinellas, where the average high school serves 2,100 students.

The Pinellas schools all have diverse populations, low test scores and large numbers of discipline problems. And all have similar goals: to improve by 10 percent the number of students meeting basic performance levels on state and local assessments and to increase by 15 percent the number of students prepared for college or careers.

Creating small learning communities, especially for ninth-graders, is more complicated than simply breaking a school into smaller parts, said Catherine Fleeger, the assistant superintendent in charge of Pinellas high schools.

"People think of small learning communities and say, "I'm going to create small out of big,"' she said. "But I can create a small setting and it can still be an impersonal setting. The small learning concept, if it's going to be successful, means we have to give more personal attention to students."

The Cornerstone program at Dixie Hollins High put freshmen in one of two hallways close to a part of the campus designated as the Cornerstone lunch area. The students took a critical thinking course to teach them organizational and study skills.

At Pinellas Park High, ninth-graders in the Freshman Forum learned to use a daily planner and explored study strategies. They were mentored by older students and worked with Sean Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.

The two schools will continue their efforts this year with their share of a $2.7-million renewal grant. Most of the other schools that are part of the Smaller Learning Communities program will join them in offering ninth-grade communities.

The programs will have some elements in common - a core team of teachers who work with the students, a dedicated part of the campus in which the students attend classes, and a course that introduces students to career, personal and academic development skills. But each school had autonomy in designing its program, Fleeger said.

Gibbs High School, for example, bought textbooks for students who are reading below grade level. A major emphasis will be helping low-performing students improve their reading comprehension and fluency.

Lakewood High School's program will follow a "village-type" model that will rely on parental and community involvement. Its motto, "Now is not the time to let go," was coined to remind parents they still need to keep tabs on their children's attendance and homework assignments.

Ninth-graders at Osceola High School will have their own assistant principal and guidance counselor. They will be matched with junior and senior "spirit guides" who will answer questions about everything from academics to where the restrooms are located.

Students at Boca Ciega High will follow education consultant Willard Daggett's "rigor, relevance and relationships" model, which stresses challenging coursework delivered in a way that shows students the connections between success in school and long-term career plans.

"When my kids graduate, I want them to be as equipped as they can be to enter fields that are relevant to them," said Boca Ciega principal John Leanes. "We've been educating kids for the future based on our past, and it just doesn't work anymore."

Some students may balk at being monitored so closely, said Stephen Bayless, a music teacher who will oversee the ninth-grade community at Gibbs. But teachers need to get to know them in order to help them.

"Students have changed," he said. "Society has changed. Schools must fill a lot of voids that used to be filled by the family."

Not all of the schools will create small learning communities for ninth-graders. Dunedin High, for example, is developing four communities that will incorporate ninth- through 12th-graders.

"If you don't build a safety net all the way through Grade 12, they'll get the support in ninth grade and then it dies out after that," said principal Paul Summa. "I'm looking to build in every house resources that support all students. No matter when they come in, the support will be there for them."

Regardless of the form ninth-grade communities take, success should look the same at all the schools, said Fleeger, the high school superintendent. Early results from Dixie Hollins and Pinellas Park high schools appear promising, but the full story won't be told until the first round of students - Samantha's class - graduates.

"That will be a very large goal, and hopefully, a direct result of putting in these ninth-grade communities," Fleeger said.

--Donna Winchester can be reached at 727 893-8413 or winchester@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 1, 2005, 00:58:09]