feature stories
Collaboration was key in Columbus transition
May 25, 2006 5:24 PM
‘Everybody has a voice, everybody is included. If you can’t get teachers, administrators and students together, we can’t make the improvements we need to make this a successful school.’ — Christine Rowland, Columbus HS Teacher Center staffer
Each step in the reconstitution of Columbus HS as four separate, but equal academies has been scrutinized and debated in a “community conversation.”
“Everybody has a voice, everybody is included,” said Teacher Center staffer Christine Rowland, who has helped shepherd the transition. “If you can’t get teachers, administrators and students together, we can’t make the improvements we need to make this a successful school.”
The conversations began over a year ago at large Saturday sessions and continue at smaller monthly meetings during the school day in the Teacher Center.
The open committees don’t make decisions, but the give-and-take among the administrators, teachers and students at the table helps foster the consensus needed to make lasting change.
“When a school works together, you can see the difference,” said Columbus senior Stephanie Tolentino. “We have the power to change things.”
Bucking a trend, the Columbus community rejected themes. In the interest of equity, each academy was randomly assigned an assistant principal, teachers and students.
“We felt very strongly that no one should be singled out for special treatment,” said Columbus HS chapter leader Donald March.
On June 1, 2005, at the curtain-raiser for the new Columbus, current students attended a “Fair for the Future,” where they voted overwhelmingly to name the academies Unity, Justice, Equality and Liberty, and learned about electives and extracurricular offerings.
The response was tremendous. By day’s end, more than 1,000 students had signed up for dozens of clubs and teams, including 80 students for the knitting and crochet club and 90 for the student newspaper.
“These students were starved for anything extra,” said Rowland. “Their schedules had not permitted it for the previous two years.”
Mirroring features of the small schools in its building, Columbus’s 9th-grade classes are on the same floor, the 9th-grade teachers mostly have a single classroom, and the grade has a dedicated guidance counselor.
When a freshman is absent from second-period class, the school immediately calls the parent. The teachers on the same academy team use their professional assignments to meet weekly to discuss students while the 9th-grade teachers of each content area also meet weekly to compare notes.
The idea is that students will complete their basic high school courses within their academy, but branch out across academies for electives and advanced placement courses in their junior and senior years.
The early results of the redesign are promising. Ninth-grade attendance is up dramatically, but it’s too early to make the same claim about scholarship. While safety incidents have declined substantially this year for both the school and the campus, the freshman class of 430, which includes 101 special education and 82 ESL students, has been responsible for more incidents than any other grade this year.
Meanwhile, the community conversations, in which students are full and equal participants, continue to examine all facets of the transition.
Two students, the principal, four assistant principals and nine teachers participated in the Feb. 15 organization and structure committee sessions.
Should Columbus “annualize” its classes so students have the same teachers in the fall and winter semesters? Should the 9th-grade guidance counselor and teachers follow their students to the 10th grade? Should the academies institute block programming?
“The reflective process is critical,” said Rowland. “If we don’t reflect, we don’t adapt.”
