In with the New School

Atlantic High sees other schools embrace its academy model

By Christina DeNardo, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 28, 2006

With 2,400 students, Atlantic High can seem more like a small town than a high school.

Students run across a campus spread over 44 acres trying to make it to class before the bell rings, passing hundreds of others along the way.

For freshmen accustomed to smaller classes, fewer teachers and a smaller workload, today's mammoth high schools can shake even the toughest. Add the stresses of adolescence and greater independence, and it's no wonder that some students lose their way in ninth grade.

But when Atlantic opened its new school in August 2005, it welcomed back more than 500 black Delray Beach students previously bused to schools in Boca Raton, including many who struggled academically. To meet the challenge of bringing all its incoming freshmen up to grade level, Atlantic created a smaller atmosphere for its freshmen.

Rather than taking classes with hundreds of different students throughout the day, they would attend many of their classes with the same core group of classmates and have many of the same teachers throughout high school.

For years, students in the school's International Baccalaureate program have attended classes in a different part of campus and with only IB students. Administrators wanted to create a similar model, although they could not create pure freshman academies because of differences in students' schedules. Instead, they separated freshmen from upperclassmen for major courses — English, math, social studies and science — and put as many familiar faces in those classes as they could.

Though the academies are not always pure — students say they don't see all the same students in their classes — the results were astonishing, officials said. Absentee rates, suspensions and retentions went down and student engagement and achievement went up. Despite the district's prediction the school would drop to a D, Atlantic maintained its B.

Now, several other high schools are using the model to engage students in their first year of high school and cut the drop-out rate. Palm Beach Lakes, Royal Palm Beach, Forest Hill, Boynton Beach and Glades Central high schools have created their own version of the academies. Atlantic High has even expanded its academies to include 10th-graders.

"The whole point is to break the school down and make it more personal," said Forest Hill High Principal Mayra Stafford, who is putting students in all grades into academies. "Some kids rise to the top and everyone knows who they, but there is a vast majority of kids we are completely losing and nobody knows who they are."

All teachers in the academies share a common planning period to discuss concerns about specific students. If Jimmy is falling behind in social studies, his math teacher will know. By talking to other teachers who share the same students, teachers get to know students better. And that rapport is crucial, educators say.

Thousands of new schools or schools-within-schools — 400 or fewer students — have been launched nationwide during the past few years. Many are stand-alone schools created from scratch. Others were formed by dividing big schools into several small learning communities or academies. The idea is to have as many eyes looking at students, to catch them when they fall.

In Palm Beach County, the graduation rate has increased slightly during the past five years as the district has added career academies to give students vocational skills, but 30 percent of students still don't graduate. High schools are banking on the academies to bolster achievement and keep students in schools.

It worked at Atlantic High in the 2005-2006 school year: 3.7 percent of students failed ninth grade, compared with the district average of 10 percent. Absences also went down, with freshmen missing 3.15 days, two days fewer than the district average.

Though research shows that smaller learning communities can improve academic achievement for most students and decrease dropout rates, critics say that implementing those that can yield substantial progress is difficult. Like Atlantic High, many schools struggled to schedule students in the same classes. Teachers also require a lot of professional development to work together and coordinate lessons.

When academies are not pure, some students don't know the difference. Those that do say they make a huge difference, although they are not sure they like getting the same teachers again.

Freshman Michelle Singer likes not having upperclassmen in her classes and said it helps with the transition from Carver Middle. Many of her classes are also in the same area of the school, helping her get comfortable with the large campus.

"It's kind of the same as middle school," she said. "We're not stuck with all the older kids.

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