[EDLING:64] Massachusetts Acts to Save the Country's First Public High School

[Harold F. Schiffman]

April 28, 2007
Massachusetts Acts to Save the Countrys First Public High School
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON, April 27 (AP)

One wall at English High School here holds old black-and-white photographs
of young white men in high starched collars and V-neck varsity sweaters.
Another wall is covered with a mural spray painted in graffiti like an
inner-city overpass. English High was founded in 1821 as the United States
first public high school, and its graduates include J. P. Morgan and Maj.
Gen. Matthew Ridgway from the Korean War. Today, its student body, dressed
mostly in baggy jeans and do-rags, is one of the most diverse in the city,
and one of its lowest-performing, too. Most schools that scored as poorly
on standardized tests as English High School would have been shut by now,
Superintendent Michael Contompasis of Boston said.

I would have closed English, if it wasnt English, Mr. Contompasis said.
Instead, the state has moved to salvage English. The school will be placed
under state supervision next year, enrollment will be reduced to 800
students from about 1,200, and many union-negotiated work rules will be
suspended to give more power to the headmaster and allow longer school
days. English High is 48 percent Hispanic, 45 percent black and 5 percent
white.  Almost 20 percent of its students are recent immigrants in an
English-immersion program. The school is open to students from all over
the city. But unlike some of Bostons most elite public schools, it has no
entrance examination.

Educators say the troubles are similar to those of other urban public
schools with large numbers of poor youngsters and immigrants. The school
has failed year after year to meet federal benchmarks set by the No Child
Left Behind law. Last year, 74 percent of 10th graders failed to show
proficiency on the language arts section of the state examination required
for a diploma, and 73 percent fell short in math. Charles Glenn, dean of
the School of Education at Boston University, said the problem for English
and other large city schools was that more elite public institutions took
away the best and brightest. The inevitable effect is that kids who are
academically able or families who have their act together to look for the
best schools tend to get drawn off, Mr. Glenn said. The challenge for
English is catch up to that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/education/28boston.html