BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney says a plan to close and redesign five schools -- including three of the district's nine high schools -- is proof huge high schools don't work.
Cincinnati Public Schools officials should follow the lead of other districts nationwide that have successful high schools on a much smaller scale, he says.
Enrollment at CPS' high schools ranges from 1,000 students at the School for Creative and Performing Arts to 2,200 at Walnut Hills High School.
"The traditional high school is just too large and impersonal an environment," Mr. Mooney said.
"It's like an assembly line, where you go to different teachers for different subjects, and the classes are a mix and match every period," he said. "That tends to invite the worst tendencies of teen-agers to either spend a lot of time socializing or having conflicts. We need to minimize conflict and create a more personalized, intimate, family sort of environment."
Cincinnati Public Schools leaders unveiled a school re- design plan Friday that calls for revamping failing schools and putting in new staff, leadership and curricula. Taft,
Withrow and Woodward high schools, along with Clifton and Parham elementaries, were targeted for overhauls.
District leaders admit the district's high schools don't work. At a September school board retreat with Superintendent Steven Adamowski, they lamented poor achievement and high truancy and dropout rates, and vowed to overhaul the system.
Officials implemented a team-based schools concept -- in which teams of teachers work with students for several years -- to foster familiarity and boost achievement. In most high schools, such "teaming" occurs in ninth and 10th grades.
But besides keeping students and teachers together longer, high school programs should have a focus, Mr. Mooney said. "For some kids, a general education is not enough motivation," he said.
He suggested breaking the high schools into smaller "academies."
The district also should create some free-standing, smaller high schools such as Clark Montessori in the East End, which enrolls fewer than 400 students, he said. Union leaders aim to appoint an internal committee this week to research high school restructuring, he added.
But one school board member doubted that shrinking school size would solve achievement woes.
"I don't know if it's that simple," school board member Lynwood Battle Jr. said. "It doesn't appear to me that small high schools and small classes will be the silver bullet. It's the program, the quality of instruction and the willingness of students and parents to be involved. You just have to have the right combination."
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