Last Ranked: What Next for Mount Pleasant High School?
Monday, May 09, 2011
A June, 2002 analysis by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) suggested that Mt. Pleasant High School was “proceeding toward improvement of student results.” Nine years later, the Providence school finds itself at the bottom of GoLocalProv’s ranking of the state’s public high schools.
The numbers are stomach-turning. A 56.6 percent four year graduation rate. A dropout rate more than double the state average. Just 32 percent of 11th graders read at proficient level and only 2 percent are proficient in math.
All reasons why RIDE recently counted Mt. Pleasant among the state’s persistently low-achieving schools. Now a stakeholder group consisting of parents, teachers, students, and representatives of social-service, health, child-welfare, and workforce-development agencies is being asked to select one of four potential reform models that will drastically change school climate.
An Obligation To Students
The models include: Turnaround, which requires a new principal, replaces 50 percent of the staff and offers extended learning time for students; Restart, where the school reopens under new leadership, such as a charter management organization; Closure, which requires all students be moved to higher achieving schools; or Transformation, which could result in a new principal and includes incentives for teachers who increase student achievement and removal of those who do not.
A decision on which model the school will pursue is expected to come this month and the Providence Public School Department (PPSD) says it is committed to turning around its failing schools.
“We need to move quickly to get this done,” PPSD spokeswoman Christina O’Reilly said. “We have an obligation to the students that are there now.”
Mother: Nothing Changes
But parents still have doubts. Watching her son play baseball last week, a mother told GoLocalProv she wasn’t surprised by the school’s low ranking. She said she likes that her child is safe when he goes to school, but that the building is not conducive to learning.
“This school is in such a nice neighborhood,” she said. “All these nice houses and RIC is up the street. But the high school is falling apart.”
She said she isn’t sure about which school intervention model she supports, expressing doubt that any of them will work.
“I have friends that went to high school here,” she said. “It was not good then and it’s that way now. Nothing changes.”
Turning It Around
It’s going to be difficult to create change overnight at Mt. Pleasant. Nkoli Onye, Executive Director of Providence High Schools, says with over 1,000 students, the school is one of the largest in the city and many students are learning English as a second language. She told GoLocalProv that in her 12 years In Providence, first as a teacher and now as an administrator, the schools has had “five or six principles,” making continuity nearly impossible.
Still, Onye remains optimistic. She praised the school district for implementing aligned curriculum across the city and said common planning time for teachers can truly make a difference. She said Mt. Pleasant has a administrator and a guidance counselor for each grade level, which allows students to become more comfortable with the school’s leadership.
“We have a laser focus on instruction and a laser focus on curriculum,” Onye said. “We’ll see gains.”
She said it will take help from everyone.
“We really need parents to be involved. We need the support of the community and we need the city,” Onye said.
It’s All Talk
But for parents who have heard all of the rhetoric before, skepticism remains the norm. Because at schools like Mt. Pleasant, No Child Left Behind is just another broken promise.
“I’ll believe the school is improving when I see it,” the mother said. “Until then, it’s all talk.”
For a downloadable, printable version of RI's Top High Schools 2011, with the full chart of rankings and summaries of key articles, click here.
Related Articles
- RI’s #1 School: East Greenwich High School
- RI’s #9 School: Westerly High School
- RI’s #2 School: Narragansett High School
- RI’s #10 School: Classical High School
- RI’s #3 School: Exeter-West Greenwich Senior High School
- College Admissions: Why School Rankings May Help You Get Into a Better College
- RI’s #4 School: South Kingstown High School
- CHART: RI’s High Schools, from #1 to #51
- RI’s #5 School: Barrington High School
- RI’s Top High Schools 2011: How We Got the Rankings
- RI’s #6 School: Middletown High School
- RI’s Top High Schools 2011: Who Moved Up, Who Moved Down?
- RI’s #7 School: Lincoln Senior High School
- RI’s Top High Schools 2011: The Link Between Schools and Home Values
- RI’s #8 School: Toll Gate High School