|
Andre Cowling, principal, Harvard School of Excellence:
I was here a few times before Harvard turned around and it was disturbing. The building was in total chaos. It was OK for the kids to get up and walk out of class when they felt like it, to talk back to the teacher. It was troubling to witness. I don’t like chaos or noise. The only thing I want to hear is the chatter of minds. I wanted to restore order. There was no order. I let students know if there’s a problem, I’ll walk you home to your front door. I’ll show up at 8 at night to see your parents. I’m going to see someone who cares for you. We hold students accountable. We hold their parents accountable. Our parents know that we are in their corner. We are not around the corner.
The parents tell me the police used to be at the school almost every single day. After the turnaround, the beat officer said he thought that they had closed the building because the police never received calls. The police never have to come to this school anymore.
We’re seeing the academic gap lessen every year. Before the turnaround, 28 percent of students were meeting the state standard. In the first year of the turnaround, 40 percent met the standard. Our goal was just to get order in the school, and we found that we were able to start teaching.
We visited a lot of suburban and successful out-of-state schools. I wanted to see what were the differences in our schools. We sweat the small stuff – kids wearing uniforms, no trash on the floor or outside, no kids chewing gum, no cell phones in school. We sweat the small stuff to get to the big stuff.
What makes Harvard special is the staff. They really care about the kids sitting in front of them every day. We have staff members who, if I would let them, would work seven days a week. |
