The Worcester Education Partnership

Spring 2002

What is the Worcester Education Partnership?

The Worcester Education Partnership is a community-wide effort to foster youth development and educational achievement. Partnership members include Worcester Public School teachers, administrators and students, parents, youth service agencies, civic, cultural, and faith-based organizations, and local colleges.

How did the WEP develop?

The formation of the WEP was spurred by an invitation from the Carnegie Corporation to Clark University and the Worcester Public Schools to participate in its "Schools for a New Society" national urban high school reform grant competition. Clark and the Worcester school district were asked because of a strong record of collaboration on an innovative model of teacher preparation and the development of University Park Campus School, a model small school. The WEP was launched in the spring of 2000 for the purpose of examining, rethinking, imagining and planning a new model of secondary education. A basic premise was that deep and meaningful change could only be realized with the whole community acting together.

The Partnership, with Clark University's Hiatt Center for Urban Education acting as facilitator, subsequently earned a $250,000 planning grant from Carnegie. Following an intense fifteen-month planning period, a comprehensive district-community model and action plan for developing a new secondary school model were developed and submitted to Carnegie as a part of an implementation grant proposal. On October 11th, 2001, Clark, the Worcester Public Schools and the entire WEP were informed of their selection as one of seven partnerships nationally to receive $8 million five-year implementation grants.

Why focus on high school reform?

Nationally, urban high schools face a host of structural and human issues that affect the potential for student achievement, participation and growth. They are large, serving between 900 and 1500 students each. In most, traditional forms of tracking still prevail. The dropout rates are high, particularly for minority students. The core systemic issue for these schools is the stubborn disparity in student achievement - and the network of nearly habitual practices that sustain these disparities. The overriding factors in this disparity of achievement are family economic status, differences in student engagement and effort, and differential adult expectations.

What are the goals of the WEP?

1. To personalize the scale and context of learning
   • The Partnership aims to ensure that each student experiences the adult support and guidance necessary to develop and learn.
2. To equalize opportunities for development and learning
   • The Partnership aims to help every student discover her or his capability as a learner, participant and contributor in the community-so that each develops a sense of meaning, possibility, purpose and positive direction in her or his education and life.
   • The Partnership aims to ensure that each student has access to learning and the right balance of support and challenge to meet high standards of academic achievement
3. To create a system that sustains growth and learning over time
   • The Partnership aims to develop a system of continuous support, challenge and opportunity across the high school spectrum, with particular attention to transition periods (from from 8th to 9th grade; from 12th to college).
   • The Partnership aims to establish clear benchmarks for development and intellectual/academic achievement that span the grades 7-12 spectrum.
4. To establish a united community effort
   • The Partnership aims to create a total and seamless environment of support and opportunity--developing relationships and practices that join home, neighborhood, school and community in support of the development and learning of each young person.

What are the main ingredients of the WEP high school model and plan for change?

1. The WEP has developed a comprehensive and multidimensional model framed by five areas of change, each informed by "best practice" research, and each important to the others.

   1. Professional Culture and Learning: Small learning communities, collaborative professional cultures and student achievement go hand in hand. The WEP goal is to foster the development of professional cultures characterized by joint assessment of student work and a commitment to developing and sharing best instructional practices.
   2. Curriculum, Teaching, and Assessment: Teachers and students will focus in particular on best practice in promoting literacy and numeracy development across the curriculum, and on ensuring that all students are challenged and supported in meeting high standards in the core academic disciplines.
   3. Small Learning Communities: The development of small learning communities with high expectations will help ensure that support for student achievement is focused and personalized. The large high schools in Worcester will slowly convert to small schools or comparable personalized and accountable groups with a range of 200-400 students each.
   4. Youth Development: The WEP youth development philosophy emphasizes the importance of good health, vocational goals, cognitive engagement, personal/social growth and civic involvement in a student's development. The WEP will implement practices that ensure coordinated opportunities for students in all of these areas, both in and out of school.
   5. Family and Community Involvement: The WEP high school model is cast in partnership, with families, higher education, cultural, business, and ethnic communities, and youth service providers all contributing in different ways to an enriched and meaningful education.

   How can you get involved?

   There is every reason for a community member to try to get involved in the WEP and several ways to do so:

   • Contact the middle or secondary school in your neighborhood and ask how you might help.
   • Contact social, civic, cultural and educational institutions, ask if they are involved and how you might help.

   For information on . . .         Contact                                                        
   

   WEP Action Plan	Tom Del Prete, Hiatt Ctr.	(508) 793-7222
   School Restructuring	Jane Grady, WPS	(508) 799-3116
   Family Involvement	Lisa Perez, Hiatt Ctr.	(508) 793-7685
   District Literacy Program	Lisa Dyer, WPS	(508) 799-3193