Mariner High School has reeled in a $400,000 federal grant to continue work aimed at making the big campus seem smaller.
The Department of Education money will help the school, which is south of Everett, keep its focus on changing from a comprehensive campus of 2,100 students into six smaller academies averaging fewer than 400 students.
Although the academies are beginning their second year, the process of changing goes beyond structure and organization, said Brent Kline, the school’s principal.
It takes time to change the culture of a school, he said.
“It’s a slow process, and we’re making sure it is a thoughtful process,” he said.
Much of the money will be used for training aimed at helping teachers work closer within their individual academies. It will pay for a training coordinator and for another coordinator to oversee seniors’ culminating exhibitions, which include long-term projects demonstrating student work.
Kline shared information about the grant with the Mukilteo School Board on Monday night.
“The focus is going to be on teaching and learning in the classroom,” said Judith Murdock, executive director of secondary education for the Mukilteo School District. “They want to examine students’ work, developing standards of practice within the academies and targeting the (training) to meet their needs.”
For instance, it will allow groups of teachers to continue a practice of meeting off campus to share student work, comparing and critiquing what they believe is good work and why.
It also provides time for several teachers to get together to discuss ways to help individual students who may be struggling.
The Department of Education grant will help the school continue work started with a Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation grant.
In 2001, Mariner was one of 16 high schools to be awarded a Washington State Achievers Program grant, which included three main parts: redesigning high schools, making students aware early on that they can go to college, and providing scholarships. The scholarships represent a 13-year, $100 million commitment.
Mariner’s redesign efforts included breaking into six separate academies last year. The redesign work is funded by about $1 million of the Gates Foundation money over five years.
Behind the money is a philosophy that when it comes to high schools, less is more.
Each academy is supposed to provide a learning environment of no more than 100 students per grade level. By design, students may have teachers and classmates for more than one year, making high school seem more personal.
Last year, Murdock was principal at Olympic View Middle School in Mukilteo, which feeds 60 to 70 students to Mariner each year.
“I have spoken to some of the ninth graders that I had at Olympic View and they are very excited about the small learning communities,” she said. “They have spoken very highly of the model. They feel they know the teachers and people care about them.”
Tanaya Mayfield, 17, a Mariner senior who serves in an advisory role on the school board, predicted the move to smaller learning groups will help Mariner trim the dropout rate because students can have closer relationships with their teachers.
“I think it’s a really good program,” she said. “It gives more and more one-on-one time with teachers and students.”
She said it should especially benefit students who start in academies as freshmen, unlike upperclassmen who made the transition midway through high school.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
Schools grant
Two Lynnwood high schools will study the benefits of small schools, thanks to a $99,868 grant.
The one-year planning grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Smaller Learning Communities Program will be split between Lynnwood and Meadowdale high schools.
Smaller schools are more personalized and aid in safety and student achievement, supporters say. The grant money will help the two Lynnwood schools plan how they would put the philosophy into action.
The schools could then apply for a follow-up grant to implement their proposal.
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