Four years after shattering the mold and converting into six separate academies, Mariner High School is seeing some positive signs.
Michael O’Leary / The Herald
More students are going to college.
More are taking honors and college-level classes.
Teachers are getting more training, and 98 percent of them want to stay the course.
Yet, school leaders and researchers for the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested more than $1 million on the restructuring and on student scholarships, say the school has more work to do.
“We have made good progress,” said Jennifer Mantooth, a member of the Mariner faculty since 1974. “Are we where we want to be? No. Have we passed the top of the mountain? I think so.”
In 2001, Mariner was one of 16 high schools in the state chosen for a Gates grant. In return, the school in south Everett pledged to change how it operates.
The Washington State Achievers Program has 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.
Behind the grant money is a philosophy that when it comes to high schools, size matters, and the smaller and more personal, the better.
In a report last summer, researchers for the Gates Foundation said Mariner had demonstrated “a common focus” on improving student achievement. However, the researchers were concerned with the number of students “crossing over” to take classes outside their academies and with a lack of small-school identity within each academy.
To improve “will require establishing more small-school autonomy, clarifying what the schools stand for and identifying ways to reduce crossovers,” the report said.
Mukilteo School District officials say it takes time to change the structure and culture of a large high school.
“We are just beginning to see the impact of our effort,” the district said in a February application to extend the Gates grant.
“For true impact, we must look deeply at who our students are, what we want them to learn, what we will do if they do not learn and how we will respond if they already know what we expect them to learn,” the district said.
Mariner officials point to encouraging numbers:
* Students selecting honors courses nearly tripled to 850 this year from 292 in 2003. The school also increased to 500 from 275 the number of college-level Advanced Placement slots in the same time period.
* The number of students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test jumped to 145 this year from 96 in 2003.
* Students receiving Gates scholarships are generally staying in school. Out of the 166 students awarded scholarships in the last five years, 133 are still in college. Mariner will have its scholarship allotment this year increased to 75 from 50 because more students – 177 juniors – went through the application process.
Principal Brent Kline said the school is steadily improving.
“It has been a long road,” Kline said. “But it has been worth it.”
Seniors Tony Dao and Mwila Mwila remember thinking as freshmen that the academies would never gain steam.
Both are college-bound, with Dao planning to study business and Mwila planning to study physics with an eye on aeronautics. Both are in the Academy of Leadership and believe the academies are paying off.
They describe close relationships with teachers who have learned their individual strengths and weaknesses and push them harder because they are familiar withtheir abilities.
“It helps you improve on what you are not good at,” Dao said.
“I have the same teachers again and again and again,” Mwila said. “They get to know you. You get to know them. It helps get you over the anxiety. I’m not scared to come in and talk to my teachers.”
As Dao and Mwila near graduation, Amber Friendly and Felicia Hutchins, both 14, are just finishing their first year of high school. Both are in the Quest Academy.
Friendly was disappointed when she was placed in an academy away from her friends, but she has warmed to the small-school structure. Her grades have been solid, and she has earned academic awards.
Her teachers have encouraged her to run for the academy Senate, something she can’t imagine would have happened in a large school.
“I’m just more focused on my work,” she said.
Hutchins doesn’t miss the large-school structure, either.
“I don’t think I’m missing out on anything,” she said. “I think I have everything in this academy that I need.”
Teachers report that they feel more connected both to their peers and to students. Instead of a school of more than 70 teachers, they are in academies of about 15 teachers each.
“I was a lot more isolated before,” said Neil Jaeger, a world history and Spanish teacher in the Academy of Leadership. “I was doing my deal, meeting the district curriculum the best I could. Now, it’s a lot easier to teach. There is a cross-fertilization of ideas that is going on here.”
Janet Wheeler, a French and English teacher in the ICAT academy, said the switch has given teachers a chance to learn together. Teachers in the academies meet monthly to discuss students who are struggling.
“What is going on in the classroom is deeper and much more significant than it was before,” Wheeler said.
Mariner has a unique set of challenges. Enrollment has grown by nearly 200 students in four years. Mobility is high. During the first semester of this school year, 450 students withdrew, while 438 other students enrolled.
When the Gates scholarship money disappears in four years, the school hopes to have a strong alumni association to draw on to replace the funding.
Kline, the principal, said there is one more advantage: student ownership.
“I don’t think we would have stopped to listen to kids as much,” he said.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@ heraldnet.com.
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