From AP to POTUS, a Landmark Year at North

President Obama’s visit to North in September marked the beginning of a landmark year for the high school.

Last week the state’s annual Advanced Placement Index was released by the University of Iowa’s Belin-Blank Center, a measure of how well Iowa high schools provide students with the opportunity to take college-level AP courses. North came in at #4.

Some context is in order, a visit to the recent past and the year 2010, when North High School was targeted to receive a federal School Improvement Grant. At the time there was plenty of room for improvement, too much in fact.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT GRANT BEGINS CHANGE
The School Improvement Grant (SIG) program was approved by Congress and signed into law by the President in 2009. Administered by the U.S. Department of Education, it provides additional support and focus to help turn around schools identified as persistently lowest achieving.

When a school receives SIG funding, it must then implement one of the following four federal intervention models:

• Turnaround Model: Replace the principal, screen existing school staff, and rehire no more than half the teachers; adopt a new governance structure; and improve the school through curriculum reform, professional development, extended learning time, and other strategies.
• Restart Model: Convert a school or close it and re-open it as a charter school or under an education management organization.
• School Closure: Close the school and send the students to higher-achieving schools in the district.
• Transformation Model: Replace the principal and improve the school through comprehensive curriculum reform, professional development, extended learning time, and other strategies.

So North had been “identified as persistently lowest-achieving.” The district opted for the Transformation Model. Matt Smith was hired as the new principal and rode in from Texas like a new sheriff in town; a charismatic, energetic, positive, no-nonsense one.

“I am so excited to get the school year started so that we can begin what is going to be an incredible educational journey full of enthusiasm, creativity, and dedication,” Smith said as the 2010-11 school year was about to begin. “North has a proud tradition of excellence in all endeavors and we aim to restore this reputation.”

SEEING CHANGE FOR THE BETTER
And things started happening – amazing things.

Mike Vukovich was Smith’s deputy from the start. When Smith joined the district’s central administrative team (he’s now the Chief of Schools) three years later Vukovich replaced him as principal in a seamless transition. By then the Polar Bears were on a roll. Morale and expectations and student achievement had taken off.

Ben Graeber was teaching journalism, reviving a dormant newspaper and yearbook program. He oversaw publication of the first 3D yearbook in the state.

“I taught at North from 2001-2004 and it is amazing to see the school culture today versus where we were,” says Graeber, now a School Improvement Leader there.  “Students are proud of their school and of their accomplishments.  This was not always the case.”

One of the perks enabled by the SIG was implementation of a 1:1 laptop program. Every student was issued a computer. The districtwide push to increase access to AP coursework in all five of the home high schools started to resonate, especially at North. Challenge yourselves, students were encouraged, you’re up to it.

Amber Graeber is the district’s Advanced Placement Coordinator. “This is a fundamental issue about the worth and value we place on every child,” she said last week after the latest AP Index came out. “That is why open access for AP is important.  Sure, college success is a huge issue – and we know taking more rigorous coursework in high school helps prepare kids to be more college and career ready. But…it’s about more than that. It’s about saying that our schools will not mirror the inequities of our communities.”

Signs of success in the “transformation” began popping up everywhere at North. A building remodel was completed. The school’s Junior ROTC program started collecting medals at regional and national competitions. The academic decathlon team became competitive at the state level. Arts programs flourished. Northside Night was established as an annual musical celebration that galvanized the entire community feeder pattern. The boys’ basketball team made a magical run to a conference title. North broke into the AP Index for the first time, coming in at #28.

2015-16 MARKS A MILESTONE
By the time the 2015-16 school year began all roads, it felt like, led to North.

In September President Obama came to see for himself, the first time a sitting U.S. president had ever visited a DMPS school in session. When a student asked “why North?,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who was with his boss that day, said “There are lots of lessons other schools could learn from the progress you’re making.”

Later in the year biology teacher Jean Schwendau was named the Midwest AP Teacher of the Year. Robert Nishimwe, who will be a junior next school year, was appointed by the governor to represent Iowa students on the state Board of Education. Even the football team, then the girls’ basketball team and, right on cue last Friday night, the baseball team all snapped long losing streaks.

And, of course, don’t forget the number four ranking on the Iowa AP Index. North didn’t even make an appearance on the AP Index until 2013. Three years later the school is among the best in Iowa for offering AP courses to students. In fact, North along with another DMPS high school, Roosevelt (ranked #2 on the index), are the top two schools in the Des Moines metro for making college-level courses available to students.

Looking ahead, the only direction the compass needle ever points now, North is one of six district schools (the only high school) that will pilot implementation of the Schools for Rigor instructional model in 2016-17, setting an example that all of the others will follow in the subsequent two years.

The transformation is just about complete.