A decade ago, Brockton High School was a case study in failure. Among the 4,100 mostly low-income students, one in three dropped out.
Then a handful of teachers decided to take action. They persuaded administrators to let them organize a schoolwide campaign to improve instruction with a focus on reading and writing.
Their efforts paid off quickly. This year and last, Brockton outperformed 90 percent of Massachusetts high schools.
A new movie, Waiting for Superman, portrays five small charter schools — most with only a few hundred students — as the way forward for American schooling.
But, the success of Brockton and other large schools, is featured in a new Harvard study, “How High Schools Become Exemplary,” which essentially busts the myth that small class size is a requirement for solving the educational crisis.
(READ the article in the NY Times)
It’s all about somebody caring enough to take action that’ll bring about that change ~
Congrats, Brockton, you’re doing great. Keep it up!