Whole-DistrictSchool Reform

In June 2000, Carnegie Corporation awarded 15-month planning grants to ten urban school district-community partnerships nationwide. These grants are the first phase of the Schools for a New Society initiative launched by the Corporation in an effort to provide long-term support for the revamping of large comprehensive urban schools.

“Every student in America is entitled to attend a good high school in order to be prepared for the world of the 21st century,” says Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. “They are owed a high-performance education where much is offered and much is expected. We don’t expect instant success in turning around every low-achieving high school in each of the ten cities, but we are determined to help build the will that believes no student can be written off. To do less would be to abdicate the Corporation’s role as a leader in education reform.”

Although the participating districts have been actively seeking to redesign their schools, revamping efforts have been more successful in the elementary and middle schools. The challenge at the high school level is much greater, requiring new leadership strategies and a new and dynamic vision of the high school. A key component of this initiative is the partnership teams composed of school officials, teachers, parents and students as well as community stakeholders who are crucial to the success of a high school reform effort. These stakeholders include unions, college personnel, elected officials, business leaders, and leaders of community-based and youth development organizations.

“With this initiative, Carnegie Corporation will encourage and support the development of high schools for all students where there is effective teaching and learning, where students are invested in their own education and support their peers to achieve, and where there are clear pathways to higher education, careers and community participation,” says Michele Cahill, a nationally recognized youth development expert and educator who created the initiative and who will lead the Corporation’s long-term effort.

The ten district-community partnerships that received Carnegie Corporation planning grants are: Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public Schools Foundation, The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Public Education Fund, Houston Annenberg Challenge, Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation, Inc., New Futures for Youth Inc. (Little Rock), Portland Public Schools Foundation (Oregon), Health and Education Leadership for Providence, Linking Education and Economic Development in Sacramento, San Diego Foundation, and Clark University (Worcester).

Upon completion of blueprints for effective secondary schools, five of the ten partnerships will be invited into the second phase of the initiative that will fund implementation of the plans. Beginning in the fall of 2001, when the second phase is launched, Carnegie Corporation anticipates committing $40 million over five years in direct grants, which will require a one-to-one match from public or private funds.

In December 2000, Carnegie Corporation, along with Open Society Institute (OSI) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, announced another initiative—this one a partnership with New York City’s public schools—aimed at redesigning some of the city’s large comprehensive high schools that serve approximately 76,000 students across the city. The three foundations will make a five-year, $30 million investment in the initiative, known as the New Century High Schools Consortium for New York City, which aspires to help create effective high schools for all students and the implementation of small-school designs.

The consortium is targeting the lowest performing academic comprehensive high schools that serve students from low income neighborhoods and will back plans for both large-school redesign and development of small schools. The consortium expects to choose approximately ten large-scale high school redesigns and sponsor the creation of a number of new secondary schools serving grades 7 through 12.

“Small-school designs have a proven track record of helping all students achieve,” says Patty Stonesifer, president and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “A number of New York City high schools have successfully implemented small-school models and this partnership will help bring these innovations to scale by supporting both new small high schools and the redesign of large high schools.” Adds Gara LaMarche, director of U.S. Programs for OSI, “Far too many failing high schools crush the aspirations of poor students of color, and serve as conveyor belts for the criminal justice system, not for the opportunity that is their birthright. The good news is that we know how to do better, and in this New York City partnership, we will.”

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