 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Pedro Noguera is a professor of education at Harvard University. This paper published in In Motion Magazine June 2, 1997.
This article is published by In Motion Magazine as a series of linked articles which can be downloaded in segments. All sections can be reached from this page, or readers can follow from one section to another. The portrait of Dr. Noguera is by freelance photographer Kathy Sloane (kataphoto@aol.com).
Part 4
Separate and Unequal: The Re-making of East Side High School
Located in a densely populated urban community in northern California, East Side High School had long served as a repository for students regarded as too difficult for traditional high schools. Though officially designated a continuation high school, in the 1960s and early 1970s the school had once functioned as a less structured alternative school, providing smaller classes and a less regimented learning environment for students who had encountered trouble in larger, more impersonal high schools. In those days the student population was diverse, with respect to the racial and socio-economic status of the students, and the school curriculum emphasized the arts and creative writing as a strategy for tapping into the intellectual potential of its unconventional students. It was known as a "hippie" school, operated in accord with the counter culture values and aspirations of its teachers and kids who wanted and needed an alternative to the bells and rules of traditional schools. With fewer than 150 students it provided an intimate learning environment for those it served, and was widely regarded as successful, at least for the outcasts that it served.
By the late 1970s the school had changed. The white students from affluent families were no longer present, and the alternative curriculum which emphasized creativity and experiential learning had been replaced by one which emphasized remediation. The school had gradually become a dumping ground for students whose behavior, academic performance or attendance rendered them unfit, uneducable and undesirable in the eyes of administrators at traditional high schools. Likewise the faculty, which once consisted of talented idealists who functioned more easily in a less structured environment, had gradually become burnt out and cynical. Increasingly, the new teachers assigned to the school were distinguished only by their interest in a shorter teaching day, and by the fact that like the children they served, they too had been pushed out of the traditional schools.
By the mid 1980s, East Side High was little more than a temporary custodial facility for young people who seemed headed for futures of welfare dependency, prison and dead-end jobs. During my first visit to the school I saw classrooms with fewer than a handful of students present. (5) Bored and listless, occasionally filling out a ditto or resting their drowsy heads on their desks, they seemed more like students unhappily serving detentions after school, than students engaged in learning. Seated at their desks, reading magazines and newspapers or sipping coffee, their teachers seemed to be just as lethargic as the students.
On my first visit it seemed like all the action at the school was occurring outside of the classroom. Kids were gathered around cars in the parking lot with radios blaring. The distinct smell of marijuana hung in the air and kids could be seen openly passing joints back and forth after taking their turn at sucking deeply and holding in the smoke. Groups of students were clustered about engaged in animated conversation and various forms of play, while a group of boys hovered near the ground at the corner of the building over a pair of dice, occasionally bursting out noisily in response to their victories and losses.
This was a school in name only, and the fact that it served kids who had been labeled as nothing more than juvenile delinquents, unwed teen mothers, gang-bangers, drug users, and academic failures, made it possible for the school to remain in its miserable state indefinitely. An unwritten understanding governed relations between adults and students at East Side High: as long as the adults didn't challenge or raise objections about the behavior of the students, the teachers could come and go from work in peace. The live and let live philosophy of East Side assured that there would be few disturbances involving adults and students at the school, and for as long as peace prevailed, intervention from the district administration was unlikely. The fact that test scores were low, attendance abysmal, and few students graduated, did not generate much concern. (6) These were after all "high risk" youth, whose background of poverty and problems made it unrealistic to expect more than was produced.
East Side was also a segregated school, though not officially or openly designated as such, and its presence provided the district with a convenient means for dispatching students whose needs were perceived as too difficult to meet at a traditional comprehensive high school. In its official pamphlets the district described East Side High School as a specially designed alternative educational program for "at risk" students. Pointing to its smaller class size (16:1 compared to 30:1 at most regular high schools), the district took credit for providing a more expensive educational alternative for its neediest students. The fact that it was comprised almost exclusively of minority students (90% Black, 8% Latino, 2% Asian) in a district that took pride in its commitment to integration (42% white, 38% Black, 10% Latino, 10% Asian), was explained as an inadvertent form of segregation that could be justified because of the help and support that the school provided. Tucked away at the margins of this community and school district, East Side was a bit like a mad uncle who had been confined to the attic lest his crazy antics embarrass and bring dishonor upon a decent family.
All of this gradually began to change when a new principal was assigned to East Side in the Fall of 1988. Glen Peters was originally sent to the school to serve as its principal as a way of forcing him into retirement. Over the years Peters had earned a reputation as a maverick administrator and outspoken advocate for Black students. After 35 years of service as a principal and numerous battles with district level administrators over the treatment of Black students, his superiors finally decided that the best way to rid themselves of this gadfly was to dispatch him to East Side, where they hoped the combination of chaos and complacency would drive him to early retirement. Already 63 at the time of the move, Peters was indeed growing tired from the years of skirmishes with senior administrators, and saw the assignment as a brief final tour of duty before leaving his career in education.
However, Peters experienced a rejuvenation of the idealistic impulses that had originally drawn him to education when he arrived at East Side. Rather than becoming demoralized by the malaise that pervaded the school, his encounters with students led him to immediately recognize not only their many unmet needs, but also their potential for higher performance if provided the opportunity to learn and develop. Moreover, he saw in this marginal school an opportunity to re-create an alternative learning environment at the school, similar to what had been there before, but modified to serve this predominantly Black population of students. With a small enrollment (by 1988 there were only 112 students officially enrolled), and even fewer attending each day (less than 50% on the average day, less than 70% on Mondays and Fridays), he imagined the possibility of creating an alternative school that could serve the needs of students who had long been written off as unteachable and undesirable. The fact that the school was in effect segregated also represented an opportunity to Peters, for he knew that few objections would be raised by the district administration if he attempted to implement innovative educational changes that responded to what he perceived as their unmet need for cultural affirmation.
Though a visionary, Peters was also a realist, and quickly recognized that changing the school environment would be difficult if not impossible with the teachers who were working there. Since removing teachers is almost always an extremely difficult process, regardless of how poor their performance, Peters attempted to get around the problem by recruiting concerned adults to support and work with students at the school as volunteers. I was one of the first individuals recruited by Peters to volunteer at East Side. At the time, I was working as an official in a municipal government and Peters showed up at the office unexpectedly with a young man who was one of his students. He introduced the student, and informed me that he was a natural leader. His reason for showing up at my office was that he wanted me to encourage the young man to run for student body president at East Side High School.
As Peters spoke, I took my time studying the young man before me. He had three long gold chains draped over his neck, several large gold rings on his fingers, and a beeper attached to his belt. Based on his appearance I immediately concluded that the student must be a drug dealer, and I wondered why my friend wanted to see him become a leader at the school. However, after a few minutes of conversation it became clear to me why the principal wanted to encourage this young man. Not only was he articulate and intelligent, it was also evident from the confidence he projected that he was charismatic, and undoubtedly admired by his peers. In fact, I was so impressed by him that after our meeting I volunteered to work at the school.
Like Peters, I immediately saw the potential of the students and the school. Despite the disorder that prevailed, I liked the small size of the school and the easy going atmosphere. To a large extent, my interest was inspired by my recognition that I had once been a lot like the young man that Peters brought to my office. Though I had been successful as a student, I had seen my share of trouble in school. However, unlike him, I had the benefit of two employed and supportive parents, and the good fortune of not growing up during the middle of the crack epidemic. After that short first visit I was able to recognize enough of myself in that student and others to commit to working with Mr. Peters at East Side High School.
