Carnegie Grant Proposal Summary

District and Middle/High Schools. The Worcester Public Schools serve approximately 26,000 students. There are four large comprehensive high schools, two alternative high schools, two combination middle-high schools, a vocational high school, and a small middle school "satellite" program with a concentrated academic focus, as well as four large middle schools in the district. They house approximately 9500 students; 35% are second language learners, more than 46% are minority, and 41% qualify for the federal lunch subsidy.

The majority of these schools face the structural and human issues common to urban secondary schools. They are large, serving between 900 and 1500 students each. In most, traditional forms of tracking still prevail. There is the explicit and accepted separation of Advanced Placement and Honors courses, but also more subtle distinctions in multiple sections of “algebra,” some of it challenging, some a watery substitute for the real course. Innovation has moved at an uneven pace: The middle schools have a short history of team-based organization (influenced by the Carnegie "Turning Points" philosophy), with some heterogeneous grouping—but less than originally envisioned. Such practices have been adopted at the 9th and 10th grade levels in two of the four traditional high schools.

Challenges and opportunities:The core systemic issue for Worcester secondary 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.

The most recent statewide (MCAS) test scores offer stark evidence of the disparity. Students of low-income families scored below any other group on both the English Language Arts and Mathematics tests. The average scores of Hispanic and African-American students exceeded the averages based on income, though they were well below the overall district mean. The performance curve shifts dramatically downward for all students tracked below the Honors or Advanced level.

While the issues of poverty cannot be denied, the data indicate that we can make headway on the engagement, expectations, and resulting achievement. Attendance is a critical factor in achievement for all groups—when it is low, achievement inevitably suffers. In small, personalized schools such as the University Park Campus School, in which there is a strong community identity and base of support, attendance, and resulting achievement rates are high. The system-wide dropout rate is down from a high of 13% ten years ago to 8%, below the statewide median of 9% for urban communities. This decline reflects the success of programs such as the Comprehensive Skills Center in engaging and supporting students. At the same time, it remains a full 5% above the overall statewide average, and even farther away from the standard of 3% set by the state accountability system.