The educational systems in the cities of Philadelphia and Camden New Jersey, were in dire straits before Mastery Charter Schools started up in the district in 2001. What started as a single charter school became a network of over 17 schools serving 10,000 students. Founded by school turnaround expert Scott Gordon Mastery has attempted to reform the most difficult of all schools, large urban high schools.
Gordon has polarized the education community in Philadelphia with his “no excuses” philosophy. Under this approach students are held to extremely high standards with no regard to what happens outside of school. The educational plan in his schools have been one of strict discipline, traditional teaching methods, constant drilling and practice, and a teacher teaching and lecturing to students model. School uniforms were adopted and Administrators were instructed to institute strict discipline policies, often handing out demerits for minor infractions. Safety at schools improved and several schools were removed from the unsafe schools list that the state of PA maintained
Many of the students entering these high schools read at the 5th grade level, so teachers embarked on a reading remediation plan, and taught skills for note taking, and focused on standards that the students needed to master.
At first test scores improved, but after a time they stabilized and stalled. While the rigid model did help improve student achievement, it did little to prepare students for life outside the doors. Feedback from students who had gone on to college was that they didn’t feel ready to exist in the real world.
“The high expectations and rigid rules weren’t enough to erase the trauma that has scarred many kids.” Mastery had been ignoring some of the socio-economic causes that were effecting students.
So mastery has embarked on a philosophical change, they brought in new curriculum, dulled the strict discipline system, sought community outreach, combined social workers with community support organizations, and started racial and “cultural context” programs. College became one option for the students, but Mastery created technical education programs, and a tract for student who would enter the military.
“We still believe there are no excuses for this country not to be able to provide a great education for every kid,” said Gordon. “That’s part of our job: to prepare our kids for the real world, and to recognize that there’s great promise in the world. It’s also a broken world.” Mastery has continued its model of bringing in great students, only now the focus is on recruiting and hiring teachers from the local school communities.
The jury is still out on whether the new model is working. While college enrollment increased in the year after the change, test scores have gone down. Gordon isn’t worried and insists that turning around a school is a long term play.
References
Mastery CEO Scott Gordon Aims To Revive High School Education In Philadelphia. (2016). Retrieved March 9, 2016, from http://www.parentherald.com/articles/32569/20160329/mastery-ceo-scott-gordon-aims-revive-high-school-education-philadelphia.htm
Garl, S. (2016). Education’s Mr. Fix-it. Retrieved March 9, 2016, from http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2016/0327/Education-s-Mr.-Fix-it
Making a Difference. (2016). Retrieved March 17, 2016, from http://www.masterycharter.org/
“Gordon isn’t worried and insists that turning around a school is a long term play.” It is nice that this turn around guru has the luxury of time. Time is not part of public school turn around plans, in our environment everyone wants to see results yesterday!
Very interesting article!
So in other words, his turnaround solution to turn around his charter was to turn it into something more like a ‘regular” school so students would be ready for the real world?
This is a neat suayrmm. Thanks for sharing!
Well here’s what I can say, at least Mastery is looking reflectively at his schools and the kinds of students its producing and not just at the bottom line/dollar. He is attempting to improve a school system, that for a long time, has just continue to suffer. Honestly, if the public/regular school system hasn’t been able to do it, why not allow charters to come in and try. I’m not for privatizing education, but… I am for educating kids. If this city needs Mastery Charter then so be it and good for him for adjusting the game plan to better accommodate students’ needs.