Resurgens...Atlanta Retreat

Atlanta Retreat

“Any genuine teaching will result , if successful, in someone's knowing how to bring about a better condition of things than existed before.” John Dewey 

The motto of Atlanta is Resurgens,  resurrecting in English.  This past week, 19 presidents of Cristo Rey Schools from across the country met for a spiritual retreat at the Ignatius Retreat house in Atlanta.  This was the first one in the history of the network and I can assure you it will not be the last.  Our network began in 2002 but the idea was born in Chicago in 1996.  I have been deeply involved since October, 2000.

In the urban school "business," secondary schools seem to be the ones that give most trepidation.  Many charter management organizations shy away from high school.  There are plenty of exceptional exceptions such as the Match School in Boston and High Tech High in San Diego and plenty in between the coasts most notably the Noble Street Schools in Chicago and an exciting newcomer in the Catalyst Schools with their first year school, Maria Catalyst.  There are many more great examples, these are among the ones that I have visited.

The singular focus of Cristo Rey schools is to provide high quality educational resources to an urban population who has been left with little or no opportunity besides the occasional bright spot in a particular public school.  So, in my mind, Cristo Rey schools are providing the service that once was provided by public schools in our cities.  The economics of the Cristo Rey model is really the genius behind the whole idea.  

But why am I in Atlanta at a Jesuit retreat house with 18 other pioneers?  "The man behind the curtain" is my answer.  The Wizard of Oz is familiar to all.  The great success of our schools on so many fronts...college acceptance, persistence and graduation rates are well above national averages...the work experience that all our students receive is unparalleled and giving them something that even their elite private school counterparts can't get...all of this is not unlike the Emerald City.  When the Wizard is revealed we hear, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"  I am in Atlanta to get back to what is the essence of the driving force behind all Cristo Rey schools...the Gospel!  Sometimes along the way, I think all of us need that to be resurrected within us.

Oh no!  Immediately hackles go up...church and state...prosthelytizing...anti-Catholicism...anti-religion...on and on.  When the surgeon who performs your by-pass with tremendous skill and success...do you question his motivation for becoming a doctor, do you wonder what religion he is?  Do you begrudge him if he does the sign of the cross before operating?  Our schools came as a response to the Gospel...the Samaritan did not care that the beaten man was Jewish and that their ideologies would make them enemies, he responded to another person's great need.  That is what we are doing.

So in Atlanta we got back to those roots...we shared our common experiences...we shared our fears and our successes.  We will all return to our schools today and get back at it.  I will return with a deep confidence that we are not alone in this bold adventure of urban secondary education...we have each other, we have our students and families, we have our supporters and friends, and quietly behind that curtain we have God.  Peace!

Jean Paul Sartre: by any means necessary

Today I was priviliged to hear Rev. Otis Moss who worked closely with Dr. King, who presided at the wedding of Rev. Moss and his wife, deliver a talk at the City Club. His theme was the need for a strong central city...without that the rest of the area will collapse. One of the factors (he name seven or more) that will help build a strong city is public education. I couldn't agree with him more. I would like to change the typical view though. The term, public school, today means a school that are supported by local, state and federal government that do not charge tuition.

The speeches of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. were a part of my childhood. My brother, Bill, attended the rally in Washington in 1963 and heard the "I Have a Dream" speech live! When I was accepted to attend Georgetown University in the fall of 1969, the country had suffered the loss of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy and Vietnam was consuming our nation. The freshmen reading list including the Autobiography of Malcolm X. I remember seeing a picture of Malcolm X in Life Magazine holding a gun with a caption of "By Any Means Necessary!" I must admit I was scared by that pronouncement. I read the book and began to get a glimpse into a world I really did not know.


34 years later I had left my position as principal of Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland which I had held for twelve years, and I was driving down Superior Avenue on Cleveland's East Side. I was scouting out the neighborhood which was going to be home for a new school we were starting. I noticed painted in Day Glo orange on the slats of a cyclone fence the words: "Revolution is the only solution." Lord, I thought, I was back in the urban maelstrom of Lima, Peru! I must admit that scared me too. This time, there was no book to read--in a way we were writing our own. Five years later I have begun to get a glimpse into a world where slogans such as "By any means necessary" and "Revolution is the only solution" arise from the people.


"I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary." — Jean Paul Sartre, Dirty Hands: act 5, scene 3. 1963

Jean Paul Sartre perhaps puts this whole question into a larger context. Malcolm X, two years later says this: "We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."— Malcolm X, 1965.

I cannot bring myself to advocating violence, in this regard I am a follower of Jesus, King, and Gandhi. However working for five years at E. 61st and St. Clair allows me to see the absolute futility of life without having the chance for a decent education. That chance has to be NOW!

What if we have some fun with that term and we say a public school is any school that educates the public. In Peru, all schools receive government subsidy. Even Catholic schools receive funding for everything save religion teachers and texts. The closest we have to this in the United States was the GI Bill. It could be used by the student to attend and pay for any college, public or private. In the end, the idea was that everybody could have the opportunity!

As Cleveland begins to develop STEM schools, magnet schools like the three at John Hay or Cleveland School of the Arts the chance for a quality and safe education rises significantly. My question now is quite simple, "What happens to the thousands of kids who can't get into those schools???" Why can't we have a much wider vision of education of the public and look to excellent schools already in existence to help with the severe lack of quality now? Perhaps they are charter schools or private schools that are not tuition driven that could help educate thousands more now. For me the best way to look at this is to ask the question from the family's point of view: "I have an eighth grader now, where can I send her in the fall of 2009 and be sure that the school is safe, effective and will have demonstrated student learning and success?" the answer cannot be, "We are working on it...give us time." That child today doesn't have any time. Here is an analogy which might bring to light the absolute urgency of this education crisis. Suppose avian flu broke out pandemically right now. Thousands of people needing medical attention all at once. Would not all hospitals be part of the solution? Even if in some there were rabbis, or Roman Catholic Masses going on, or Imans counselling? What if they had Saints in their names? Would it matter if at those hospitals you could get the needed treatment?

It is my belief that the urban education crisis is as urgent and deadly as the Plague. If we do not do something right now we will pay for it dearly in the decades to come.

This is scary...planets are aligning!

I had lunch today at Bo Loong (E. 40th and St. Clair) with three local urban educators. They too saw the present system of delivering education in urban areas as unworkable. Bill Gates called American seconday education obsolete a few year ago...at that time I thought, "Well, that might be an overstatement for effect..." Guess what...he was right. Urban districts are creating small really good schools within the system, but they are not sustainable...nor, quite honestly, that public.

Two possible new directions:

The Essential Schools movement (http://www.essentialschools.org/) have these common principles:

The Common Principles (abbrev.)
1. Learning to use one's mind well
2. Less is More, depth over coverage
3. Goals apply to all students
4. Personalization
5. Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach
6. Demonstration of mastery
7. A tone of decency and trust
8. Commitment to the entire school
9. Resources dedicated to teaching and learning
10.Democracy and equity

The Small Schools Movement have these factors as basic to a good school:

http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/

At the Small Schools Project, we define small schools as those that share a set of common characteristics:
They are small. Few effective small schools serve more than 400 students, and many serve no more than 200 students.
They are small. They are autonomous. The school community—whether it shares a building, administrator, or some co-curricular activities with other schools—retains primary authority to make decisions affecting the important aspects of the school.
They are distinctive and focused rather than comprehensive. They do not try to be all things to all people.
They are personal. Every student is known by more than one adult, and every student has an advisor/advocate who works closely with her and her family to plan a personalized program. Student-family-advisor relationships are sustained over several years.
They are committed to equity in educational achievement by eliminating achievement gaps between groups of students while increasing the achievement levels of virtually all students.
They use multiple forms of assessment to report on student accomplishment and to guide their efforts to improve their own school.
They view parents as critical allies, and find significant ways to include them in the life of the school community.
They are schools of choice for both students and teachers, except in some rural areas, and are open, without bias, to any students in a community. There are important benefits of small schools, including student achievement, personalization, cost effectiveness, safety benefits, and others.

These are just two views of a new kind of school. An analogy that was used to explain what happens when technology paradigms shift can really apply to present day educational systems...characterized as big, centralized, teacher centered (via unions), unacceptable graduation rates...on and on. When steam engines were introduced to the great sailing ships, it was very confusing to the sailors. Most steam engines were put on ships, but they kept the sails! Check out the picture above!

We are at a time now when we have to get rid of the sails and get the steam engine! Unfortunately, large urban districts think that adding sails, changing the size, color or shape of the sails is the solution...no, the solution is something so different that we may not recognize just what it will be...but whatever it will be, students will learn!

Blowing on the embers...

Five years ago, we formed a curriculum committee to write a new curriculum for our school. Headed by Karen Nestor, we did just that. Now, five years later, it is time to blow on the embers and get the fire raging again! Yesterday, I spoke to our teachers...I am not sure how it was received, but I was too excited about the prospects of recreating even a more effective curriculum and reigniting the school! We shall see. I will post some powerpoints used in the presentation.