Archived Information

Assessment/Accountability
School and District Accountability and Assistance

Panel Report
Compass School Candidate Review
Brighton High School-Boston Public Schools

Introduction

The Program

The Exemplary Schools Program is one part of the Massachusetts School and District Accountability System. The purpose of the Exemplary Schools Program is to recognize and celebrate improvement in Massachusetts' schools, and to disseminate information and encourage networking and sharing of ideas, effective practices, and models for success. The program is intended to provide a means for the schools to share their expertise with other schools in the state.

Based on the School Performance and Improvement Ratings issued in January 2001, and continued and/or significant improvement on the 2001 MCAS test results, the Department identified 175 schools that exceeded their expectations for improvement. These schools were invited to apply for consideration as candidates to serve as 2002 Commonwealth Compass Schools. Of the 84 schools who chose to apply by submitting information on the initiatives they have undertaken to improve student performance that they think have had the most positive impact on their results, seven high schools, eight elementary schools, and three middle schools were selected as finalists and scheduled for an on-site review to determine their willingness and capacity to serve. Data and information gathered from the applications and the review process of these schools will be published in a report this fall.

Schools selected to serve as 2002 Commonwealth Compass Schools will receive special recognition and a $10,000 grant to support the participation of their administrators and staff in information sharing and dissemination activities over the next year.

The Report

This report summarizes the findings and analyses of the visiting team based on their April 29, 2002 site visit review of the Brighton High School. The report will assist the Commissioner in determining which schools from among those visited will be designated to serve as Compass Schools in the state's new Exemplary Schools Program.

The review panel evaluated data and written information on the school's performance and improvement efforts, including the school's application to serve as a Compass School. The panel then visited the school to meet with school leaders, staff, parents and students and visit classrooms in order to answer the following two key questions:

1. Is this school using effective improvement initiatives that could be replicated in other similarly profiled schools?
2. Are the conditions in place for this school to serve as a model of effective practices and successful improvement initiatives?

The panel's responses to these two questions frame the report. In the process of answering these questions, the report focuses primarily on the initiatives that the school identified in its application as having had the most positive impact on student performance.

The findings and conclusions presented here are the product of analysis, discussion, and observation, and are based on the evidence made available to the panel before and during their visit. A list of panel members who participated in the Brighton High School review is provided in Appendix A. A detailed schedule of the panel's activities is provided in Appendix B.

Brighton High School Profile

Brighton High School is one of 21 secondary schools in the Boston Public Schools. It serves grades 9-12. The school enrolled approximately 1,143 students in 2001, and the school reported that 53% of the students were Black, 34% Hispanic, 8% Asian, and 5% White. For 42% of the students, English is not the first language (FLNE) as compared to the state percentage of 13%. Twenty-five percent of the students are Limited English Proficient (LEP). Seventy-three percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, nearly three times the State average.

The school attendance rate for 2000 was 83.5, a decrease of 2.7% from the preceding year. This attendance rate is below the district (91.9) and the state (93.9). The 2000 retention rate was 11.5 as compared to the district (6.1) and the state (2.5). This is an increase from the retention rate of 1998 (8.8). The three-year retention rate of 11.6 is 13th highest in the 134 schools in the Boston Public Schools. The drop out rate is 12.5, more than three times the state rate of 3.5. No in-school suspensions were reported in 2000, but the rate for out-of-school suspensions was 15.6 as compared to the district (3.7) and the state (6.1). The 3 -year rate of 16.1 for out-of-school suspensions for Brighton High School is third highest in the Boston Public Schools. The exclusion rate for 2000 was 8.8, down from the preceding year (10.3). The 3-year exclusion rate (8.3) is the 6th highest in the Boston Public Schools.

Staffing

Brighton High School's staff includes one headmaster, two assistant principals, five department chairs, three guidance counselors, four housemasters, one long-term substitute, one nurse, two school psychologists, 74 teachers, and two teacher leader/curriculum facilitators. One special education teacher is not certified in the area of assignment, and waivers have been extended for the following teaching assignments: four math, two bilingual education, one social studies/social science, one chemistry, one general science and one special education. Of the entire staff, 20 hold multiple certifications, one has a Ph.D., and 68 have Master's Degrees. Thirteen teachers have worked in the school for 15 or more years, and fifty-one of the staff have worked in the school for five years or less, although some represent a wide range of prior teaching experience.

MCAS Results

Brighton High School "Met" improvement expectations in Grade 10 ELA and "Approached" improvement expectations in Mathematics, for Cycle 1 (1998-200), and the overall improvement rating was "Approached" expectations.

The percentage of students in the Failing/Warning category between 1998 and 2001 decreased from 77% to 42% in ELA, an improvement of 35 percentage points, and from 96% to 58% in Mathematics, an improvement of 38 percentage points. Brighton High School has demonstrated overall improvement between 1998 and 2001 with the percentage of students scoring in the Proficient and Advanced Categories increasing from 0% to 18% in ELA and from 0% to 12% in Mathematics.

Panel Responses to the Key Questions

KEY QUESTION 1: Is this School Using Effective Improvement Initiatives that Could be Replicated in Other Similarly Profiled Schools?

The work and operating climate at Brighton High School reflects a clear mission statement emphasizing connected and personalized teaching and learning. A whole school improvement plan (WSIP) incorporates that mission in the implementation of Nine School to Career (STC) Competencies representing the constellation of skills in which mastery is expected of graduates. The headmaster has refined a framework for school restructuring, successfully pursued multiple community partnerships, used personnel and time wisely and built an authentic, school-wide sense of collaboration to implement the two key initiatives of Literacy Across the Curriculum and Math Connections, a literacy- based math curriculum.

Brighton has successfully configured a complete schedule of small learning communities (SLC) established common planning time (CPT) for each of the SLCs, formed planning and policy committees with specific, decision making authority and produced a comprehensive, goals-based system of professional development, using a combination of staff skills and external resources.

A. Which improvement initiatives have had the greatest impact on student performance results?

The initiatives of literacy across the curriculum and improvement of math instruction are supported by both instructional and organizational practice. All teachers meet in CPT three times a week as interdisciplinary teams. Common planning time is identified by interviews and documents as the essential factor in implementing a standards-based curriculum, developing a core of best practices and assessing student work. It takes place in one of the five small learning communities: Grade 9 Academy, and four career-related pathways of equal size for Grades 10-12 (Health Professions; Business and Technology; Law, Government and Public Service; and Media Arts and Communication).

In math, ninth-grade students receive eighty minutes of instruction daily and tenth grade students are assigned double instructional blocks. Two days of after-school MCAS instruction is offered. The school's department staff, Instructional Leadership Team and math coaches from the Boston Public Schools supply varied aspects of professional development. Professional development in math instruction includes access to five District-level sessions of training in Math Connections, meetings with the math coach to share successful strategies, and coaches modeling lessons and training teachers to use the graphic calculator. Teachers were trained in an internet-based MCAS tutorial (TESTU) for tenth and eleventh grade students. This tutorial was described by students to the Review Panel as an exceptional MCAS prep tool that can be continued at home for those with internet access. Teachers have compiled and analyzed past MCAS questions for distribution. To provide linkage between "experienced" and new Math Connection teachers, there is an information exchange about students and classroom approaches.

In literacy, Writer's Workshop was inaugurated in grade 9, and school-wide writing assessments are done in the fall to obtain baseline data and establish performance standards. The instructional leadership team (chaired by a professor from Boston College) and the headmaster worked with facilitators to detail literacy strategies that both enrich instruction and serve MCAS preparation. This collective work resulted in a literacy handbook provided to the Review Panel, Strategies for Teaching and Learning, a compilation of activities and promising practices aligned with study skills, reading comprehension, critical thinking and writing skills. The strategies and their sub-skills have informed teaching practice across content areas. More than forty teachers have participated in a twelve- hour graduate literacy course using this book as a frame of reference. School-to-career projects have been completed with direct relevance to community organizations focusing on literacy.

B. How did the school plan their improvement initiatives and put them into practice?

The District provides a specific template for all schools to follow in developing the Whole School Improvement Plan (WSIP). Literacy and math are the focal points for the citywide change effort and are examined through six essential that include: instructional focus, looking at student work, targeted professional development, best practice, aligning resources, and parent-community involvement. The district protocol requires the school to complete a self-assessment of its progress in each of the six essentials, recording progress along a continuum.

The District mandated the first school-to career effort in 1994, establishing the Health Careers Academy at the school. Given the autonomy to develop plans beyond that initial requirement, Brighton priorities created two additional school-to-career pathways over the next two years. As part of a system wide reform mandate in 1997, a school change team set the direction for a whole-school pathway implementation plan. Buy-in was ensured with the engagement of staff, parents, students and community. The Annenberg Institute, Private Industry Council, Center for Collaborative Education and Boston Public Schools central office personnel were part of the planning process. By 1998, the school had its full complement of four STC pathways and a year later added the "self-contained" Grade 9 Academy as a way of making the high school transition a more progressive process. Students make their own pathway choice on the basis of course information and objectives furnished to them in the ninth grade.

School-based governance and instructional committees each work from a clear and distinct charge. The School Site Council shared with the Review Panel its management roles of endorsing budget, seeking grants, completing official documents, adopting new school programs and serving on the principal's interview Committee for new hires. Focus groups with teachers and administrators confirmed that the Instructional Leadership Team (principal, teachers, administrators, teacher pathway facilitators, department chairs and coaches from each pathway) are a key decision-making body at Brighton, with the improvement of teaching practice as its central responsibility. They manage data analysis, set curriculum direction, assess the strengths and challenges of the instructional program and collectively determine levels of accomplishment in each of the "six essentials."

Focus groups and individual interviews with teachers substantiated that teacher facilitators are the communication link between best practices discussed at ILT and the work done during common planning time. Pathway teams, individual teachers, administrators and community members submit written responses to questions for each essential in the WSIP, thus providing widespread faculty input. All focus groups referred to a unified school community, adeptly led by a principal who has crafted specific, ambitious learning expectations, skillfully articulated to everyone, using collaborative mechanisms. The work done by the ILT and School Site Council is credible because they are inclusive groups with true authority, communicating effectively with their "constituencies."

The leadership report articulates two cornerstone initiatives in the restructuring process: (1) the impact of CPT on students and teachers, and (2) the STC focus. This perception was verified in our meetings with parents, students and teachers who report that the relevance of school-to-career has cultivated a "real world" sense of education. Staff surveys reflected the emphasis on project-based learning as a key link to "real world" learning. Interviews with the headmaster and staff indicated that the concern with student alienation has been positively addressed by career-connected courses, job shadow opportunities, internships, after school-summer jobs, and guest speakers from industry clusters who have extended classroom learning to the workplace and community. Coalitions have been formed with higher education. A strong professional development partnership with Boston College, funded through Title II, results in BC professors offering seminars and workshops for staff. Writing projects and math coaching have been implemented with Boston College and Boston University as partners.

The school considers the whole child in its character education program that teaches and reinforces (in its discipline systems) honesty, caring, family, trust and respect. The parent focus group spoke very positively on the outreach of the school to parents and the genuine concern for their children. Additionally, one weekly CPT period is designated for Case Management. This forum enables teachers, administrators and student support staff to have intensive conversations about their students' academic or behavioral status. Panel members observing a Case Management session affirm its benefit in formulating interventions and plans for at risk students. In interviews, students acknowledge the value of the close relationships advanced by the small learning communities. The remaining two CPT meetings engage faculty in professional discourse about exemplary practice and analysis of student work.

Brighton High School monitors the impact of its initiatives with an array of assessment approaches. Assessments of responses to open-ended writing prompts are conducted three times a year. The Standardized Reading Inventory is administered to ninth-grade students, and the school maintains English/language arts cumulative writing folders that follow students through their four years at Brighton. A key question rubric in ELA is utilized as a standard tool for students to assess writing skills and the school participates in citywide mid-term and final exams. The Instructional Leadership Team examines student work samples to define and demonstrate best practice and STC work-site evaluations are conducted. The school also gains insight from the "repeat business" generated by siblings' attendance at a school with a recognized school-to- career component. The teacher survey (narrative) in the Compass application reflected the use of rubrics to assess student work, and this practice was substantiated through focus groups with students and teachers, as well as reviewing work that had been placed on bulletin boards within each of the SLCs. The school adjusts curriculum or instructional methodologies as they examine student performance data or in response to staff commitment to increased academic rigor.

The self- monitoring process was exemplified during the Panel's interview with the headmaster. The guiding questions he posed about the school's community, academic and business alliances concentrated on how the partnerships were developing, how students were being mentored and what is happening for students because of these connections. This is representative of how the larger faculty also goes about its business. The Case Management period was seen by Review Panel members as a thorough exchange of information, analysis and decision making, focused on what's right for students. A final and telling tribute to the STC focus is the 81% of the 2001 graduating class (up 11% from 2000) matriculated into post-secondary education programs.

C. Does the school think these initiatives can be successfully used in similar schools? Why?

Eighty-five per cent of the students travel great distances to attend the school and represent the largest low-income high school population in the city. In spite of its challenges, the Brighton faculty is strong in its belief that the restructuring practices leading to improved student learning are replicable in similar schools. The school has worked from a district curriculum and assessment framework to fashion its own change models. Superintendent Thomas Payzant named BHS an Effective Practice school in recognition of a well-documented improvement plan, judicious allocation of resources and production of home- grown improvement strategies emerging from highly collegial structures and procedures. On the basis of interviews and observations the Review Panel concluded that this is a motivated and optimistic staff because they see the student performance payoff in the following initiatives

• A curriculum sequence focused on academic and skill development.
• Academic competencies embedded in the school-to-career model, giving students an overview of performance expectations.
• Emphasis on project-based, student centered work
• A sequence of work-based experiences for juniors and seniors.
• Improvement of math instruction through comprehensive professional development, implementation of Math Connections, varied student tutorials, discovery-based teaching and sound MCAS preparation.
• The collaborative development of the literacy based staff publication, Strategies for Teaching and Learning as a key resource for incorporating literacy techniques to all content areas.
• An organized character education program, and guidance curriculum as classroom delivery models and the Case Management component of CPT aimed at improving school culture and supporting at-risk students.
• The headmaster's perseverance in establishing and strengthening community, business and academic partnerships.

KEY QUESTION 2: Are the Conditions in Place for this School to Serve as a Model of Effective Practices and Successful Improvement Initiatives?

Although it was acknowledged in administrative and staff interviews that Brighton has built on a foundation of reform started by the previous administration, the school's transformation in three years under the current headmaster has been notable and would serve as an exemplary model for change in an urban high school. Retirements have caused substantial turnover in the last few years. Rather than becoming an unsettling factor, it has been used as an opportunity to unify the staff around a mission that is readily expressed by adults and students alike. There is a harmony and ease on the faculty because they have internalized the linkage between flexible, viable schedules, benchmarking curriculum to high standards, rich professional development, time for reflective practice and academics that are germane to students. The Brighton literacy, school-to -career and small learning community initiatives have been observed by many high schools and the staff is eager to continue discussion about their work to improve student learning and performance.

A. Do leadership and staff have a shared understanding and use a common language to describe the changes/initiatives that have led to improvements in teaching and learning?

There has been a coalescence of staff created by the network of initiatives and the activities designed to sustain them throughout the school. Language arts, science and social studies teachers have trained with literacy coaches to address comprehension and writing strategies. The approval of a standard, staff generated rubric has consolidated the thinking about assessment in all curriculum areas, and teachers have participated in workshops for looking at student work. New staff describes a mentoring program that has accelerated their adjustment to the school, while veteran teachers delineate a values shift toward more professional dialogue, particularly in department and CPT meetings. Consultants have helped staff to "norm" meetings and learn the essence of effective communication. Communication between administrators, teachers, the Site Council and Instructional Leadership Team binds the school together as it moves forward in its work.

The WSIP format calls for the school to include references for English language learners and students with disabilities. Specific initiatives have been launched by the Bilingual Language Assessment Team to analyze MCAS writing performance and adopt techniques to improve open-ended responses. The Special Needs Department examined the needs and strengths of each student to map a profile of strategies and modifications recommended for improved literacy performance. These procedures have permitted equitable access to the general curriculum for both groups. Observations in both special education and bilingual classes substantiated that teaching is clearly linked to the general curriculum. The percentage of LEP students scoring in the advanced and proficient categories on the 2001 ELA test was more than double that of district schools.

B. How effectively do leadership and staff articulate the connections between specific changes and improvement initiatives they have implemented, and the gains made in student achievement?

Common themes emerge from the Compass application, school documents and interviews that attribute gains in student achievement to Brighton's chief change initiatives. Leadership and staff refer to increased opportunities for teachers to prosper professionally from the skills of their colleagues. They allude to the power of STC to elevate learning from a theoretical base to "signature projects" developed by pathway teachers, coupling student interests and skills to the workplace. The WSIP cites the experience of Law and Government pathway students receiving training on the reading and analysis of legal briefs.

In teacher focus groups, the staff agreed that the small learning community concept permits teachers who share the same students to plan connecting activities, utilize rubrics as an instrument for teachers' evaluation of student work and assess the impact of particular teaching strategy to the student work produced. With coaching, ownership of literacy goals has widened the use of response journals to interact with text and graphic organizers to prepare students for writing assignments in all subjects.

C. Is there a school wide focus on, and sufficient investment in, continued improvement of student performance?

Both the student and teacher handbooks begin with an image of the Nine STC Competencies as keystones for graduation, framed by the school. The individual skill elements (communication and literacy, organizing and analyzing information, problem solving, using technology) are at the heart of the school's overarching academic initiatives. The team skills, (acting professionally, interacting with others and understanding all aspects of the industry) are the anchors for pathway success.

The promising practices handbook, Strategies for Teaching and Learning, not only captures the full range of the targeted academic competencies, but also symbolizes the ambitious way the school commits to teaching literacy and its applicability across all subject lines. The Review Panel saw many examples of handbook competencies in rooms and hallways, with a pervasive focus on reading, writing, problem-solving, projects and assessment instruments. This was also the case in English, math and biology classroom observations where the prominent characteristics of the lessons were challenging objectives, critical analysis of the material and substantial student-teacher interchange.

D. Does the school appear to have the capacity to host site visits and to participate in various activities to share effective strategies and practices with other schools in the state? Does the school leader and involved staff communicate effectively both orally and in writing how and why it carried out its strategies for improvement?

Brighton High School has been used as a restructuring model for many school systems throughout the country. Teams have also visited from Argentina, Venezuela and Ireland, spending time in classrooms, CPT sessions and learning about the school-to-career component.

There are clear communication channels among stakeholders, a planned attention to fostering a humane, respectful environment, and the sustained development of effective instructional practice. The Compass application accurately reflected practices and a culture that could be replicated in similarly profiled schools.

The headmaster and staff were exceptionally accommodating to the Review Panel. The visitation schedule was well developed and provided the flexibility for the Review Panel to see some unplanned activities that we learned about during the course of the review. This was an upbeat and gracious staff, appreciating the guidance and support that is grounded in the headmaster's vision of what it takes for students to learn well. The Panel's findings confirmed the staff survey beliefs that there is a well-defined plan to improve student performance, an effective, appropriate curriculum, a clear flow of information, many worthwhile forms of remediation and tutorials, and regular, meaningful meetings about students.

E. Are there any reasons why the school should not be used as a Commonwealth Compass School?

There is no reason that Brighton High School should not be used as a Commonwealth Compass School. The major improvement initiatives have been internalized by faculty and institutionalized in program, practice and policy. Clarity of purpose is effectively sustained by inspired leadership and a genuinely collaborative school culture.

Appendix A
Team Members

Dr. Karen Angello, Coordinator, Consultant, MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Malden, MA
Nick Feldman, Consultant, SchoolWorks, Beverly, MA
Robert Boule, Quadrant Manager, Worcester Public Schools, Worcester, MA
Mary Fischer, Director of Reading and Language Arts, Arlington Public Schools, Arlington, MA
William McGowan, Administrative Apprentice, Lowell Public Schools, Lowell, MA
Edward Winter, Teacher, Revere Public Schools, Revere, MA

Appendix B
Compass School Panel Review Visit Schedule

All activities take place at the school.