Education Week - September 28, 2016 - 14

for all students, Besett said.
Besett believes that all his students can excel and make it across
the stage at graduation, and his staff
members let the students know that.
In the past five years, the school
has added staff to help all students,
but with an emphasis on low-income
students and those of color. For example, HERO (Higher Education
Readiness Opportunity) counselors
work with 9th graders to help with
the transition to high school, including assisting with schedules and accessing tutoring if they are struggling.

"WE ARE SO REFINED
WITH OUR DATA,
I CAN TELL YOU
EVERY STUDENT
THAT DID NOT
GRADUATE ON TIME,
WHAT THEY NEED
TO DO, AND WHAT
PROGRAM THEY ARE
ENROLLED IN Extra Credit
[TO GRADUATE]."
The district added extra-creditPrincipal Dan Besett
Wilson High School, Tacoma, Wash.

earning opportunities. Teachers
also stay after school to help students who have failed courses or are
on the verge of failing. The school
monitors grades and credit-completion aggressively so there are no
surprises when senior year arrives.
"If you want to figure out the
key to why these schools are doing
well-from the top all the way down,
they all understand what this goal is,
and everybody is supporting everybody along the way," Besett said.
A districtwide focus on equity and
a belief that closing the gap was the
right thing to do for all students also
propelled administrators at Franklin

Education Week * September 28, 2016

High School, in Baltimore County,
Md., to tackle gaps in graduation,
enrollment in Advanced Placement
classes, and SAT scores.
That focus came as the school's
student enrollment went from majority-white to majority-minority,
which officially occurred in the 201112 school year. About 40 percent of
Franklin's students are white, 40
percent are black, 10 percent Hispanic, and 10 percent Asian.
Working with teachers, parents,
and students, the school was able
to begin narrowing some key gaps
between all students and AfricanAmerican students.
The gap in the combined SAT
scores for African-American students and all students at Franklin
fell from 110 in 2013 to 92 in 2016.
Those scores rose from 910 to 949
for African-American students, and
from 1,020 to 1,041 for all students.
Separately, African-American AP
participation rates still significantly lag
those of their white peers, but participation has grown from 9.6 percent in
2012 to 14.4 percent in 2016. (In comparison, 68 percent of white students
took AP courses in 2012 and 2016.)
Patrick McCusker, the school's principal, said Franklin High began "gingerly" on reducing the SAT score gap.
The school started Opening Doors,
a kind of open house for parents and

students to sell them on the importance of taking the SAT exams even
in those cases where students did
not immediately plan to go to college. Three years ago, the district
began paying for all students to take
the test to eliminate another barrier.
The school also targeted students
who took the PSATs in the 10th grade
and whose scores indicated that,
with some help, they could do well
on the SATs. Teachers were asked
to be more intentional about seeking out students who would be able
to pass higher-level courses to get
them enrolled in AP classes.
Franklin hopes that by 2020, participation in Advanced Placement courses
will mirror the school's demographics.

Shrinking the Gap
In shrinking an already-narrow
graduation gap, the school used credit
recovery, blended-learning opportunities where students take courses
online at their own pace and teachers
provide in-school direction and support throughout the school year, and
the monitoring of student progress.
Drawing on research on the success
of Chicago's 9th grade academies in
keeping students on course to graduate, Franklin High School also targeted incoming freshmen who were
at risk of dropping out based on their
attendance, grades, and suspension
data in middle school. About 40 to
50 students annually are invited to
school in the summer before they
enter 9th grade as part of Freshmen
Connection. Students are matched
with mentors and staff members who
follow them throughout the year and
pay attention to everything from attendance to how well they are doing
on tests.
Although the intensive support is
in the 9th grade, some measures stay
with the students throughout high
school. Most staff members continue
to mentor students. McCusker mentors two, he said.
While it is too early to see the results of the Freshmen Connection
effort, McCusker said that credit recovery and relationship building with
students and families have helped
shrink the graduation gap.
"Kids don't care how much you
know, unless they know how much
you care," McCusker said.
n

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Education Week - September 28, 2016

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