Getting 100 percent of a school's students into college is incredibly simple. I should rephrase that: The key strategies are simple, but the deeply emotional and personal work it requires is incredibly hard.
I know this first-hand because 100 percent of the first senior class at Gary Comer College Prep, a 600-student high school that I—and an amazing team of people—founded on the South Side of Chicago in 2008, was accepted to a four-year university this year.
...When you look at the problems affecting under-performing schools and districts across the country—which includes the vast majority of schools with similar demographics to ours—you will find opposite practices: anti-merit-based inflexible hiring and firing practices, lowered expectation of adults and students, and wavering, ever-evolving priorities.
America's educational system has inherent barriers that prevent most schools to focus as purposefully as they should on the key elements I've listed. At the root of the gridlock is the political and economic influence created by unions that stops the system from moving nimbly toward what we have seen work at any high-performing organization, including schools.
Although I am deeply saddened and angered that this gridlock prevents other schools from using these proven and obvious strategies, what I love about my work is that I am able to forget the politics and just run a great school. I love being able to prove what is possible through my students' accomplishments, and I hope others take notice and build their own high standards for schools and students.
Please continue reading at:
http://www.good.is/post/how-one-chicago-school-got-every-low-income-student-to-college/