An Interview with Dr. Susan Szachowicz

An Interview with Dr. Susan Szachowicz Principal of Brockton High School An interview with dr. susan szachowicz nancy kleniewski Nancy Kleniewski How can we improve urban education and reduce the gap in academic success between students attending urban schools and those at suburban schools? Educational analysts and commentators hold many competing positions. One camp says that the problem is a lack of consistently enforced standards for student performance and recommends regular and rigorous standardized tests to identify “failing schools.” A second camp points to the unequal funding and curricular independence for the thousands of school districts in the U.S. and argues for a greater state and federal role in curriculum and financial support for public schools. A third camp identifies bureaucracy as the culprit and advocates for increased innovation such as small schools, pilot schools, school-to-work programs, and charter schools. A fourth camp argues that schools are being scapegoated for fundamental social ills such as poverty, racism, disrupted family life and urban communities, and the real solutions lie not in the schools but in changing the economic structures of the surrounding communities. For a snapshot of urban education at its best, we need to look no farther than to Bridgewater State College’s largest “feeder” school, Brockton High School. With over 4300 students, Brockton High is the largest high school in New England. With more than a third of its students not speaking English at home, it is one of the most diverse schools in Massachusetts. And with seventy-two per cent of its students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, its students and their families routinely experience severe economic challenges. Yet against these odds Brockton High School achieves astounding student success. In each year since 2004 it has been selected by the International Center for Leadership in Education as a National Model School. In 2006, it won the National School Change Award. In 2007, it graduated 249 John and Abigail Adams Scholars. And earlier this year, Brockton High received a Bronze Medal from the U. S. News and World Report as one of the top schools in the nation that best serve all students. The school’s philosophy is “high standards, no excuses.” How does a school defy its demographics and mobilize a low-income, highly diverse student body to achieve academic success? This is the question I posed to Brockton High School Principal, Dr. Susan Szachowicz (BSC ’75, ’81G and BSC Trustee) in early February. While I examined the dozens of photos, displays, and tributes in Sue’s office, she told me about her work and her passion for the school she leads. A lifelong citizen of Brockton, Sue graduated from Brockton High, did her student teaching there, and was hired immediately after graduation to teach history and social studies. After serving as department head, house master, and associate principal, she was appointed principal in 2004. Here are excerpts from our conversation. NK: How is Brockton High different from other large urban institutions? What are its most important challenges? SS: We are unique because of the focus on academic success and the celebration of academic success. We are the highest-performing urban high school in the state. The challenges we face are the same that any urban school faces. Our students deal with a lot of baggage from outside of school. 38% don’t speak English as their first language, and we have over 30 different languages spoken in the school. But the biggest issue I would have to say is poverty, kids being raised in poverty, across racial and ethnic lines. They are facing educational gaps, missing links all over the place. Many are wards of the state, foster kids, with so much stacked against them. School is a safe haven for many who don’t want to go home. The lure of the streets hurts even those who are smart and articulate. Sometimes I sit in disciplinary hearings and know if they were raised in your house or mine they would be applying to all of the best colleges. We can’t change their circumstances but we can help them face their challenges and succeed. NK: Brockton High has had a dramatic increase in student performance over the past few years. Can you share with us some of the indicators of that improvement? SS: On the MCAS, our improvement is occurring at a much steeper rate than across the state of Massachusetts. Our mantra is “Meet or beat the state.” In 1998, our failure rate for sophomores was 75% on the math test and 44% on the English Language Arts test. By last spring, we reduced the failure rates to 19% in math and 9% in English. But it’s not just about passing. We have had a tremendous increase in the number of our students scoring at the Advanced and Proficient level—we want them to be the best they can be. Also, Above, Adams Scholars. Below, Faculty pajama day. we offer many Advanced Placement courses, and 75% of our students pass the AP test with a score of 3 or higher (sufficient to earn college credit). This high rate of student success is the basis for the awards we have received. But the biggest change has been in the culture of the school. When I first started teaching here, the principal told the students, “You have a right to fail.” I was horrified. The students sensed that expectations were extremely low and guess what?—They met them. Now the culture says, “Welcome to Brockton High, you have no right to fail. Our obligation is to help you succeed. And we always celebrate their successes. Now the students know they are heard and respected. There is a new tone, and the kids are very proud of the school. NK: Who were your collaborators, and how did you introduce the changes needed to make this dramatic improvement? SS: When I was the history department head, we started looking at time and learning because of the Education Reform Law of 1993. It was like the hammer in education; it forced the changes in education across the state. The law increased funding but also made the schools perform. It made us change how we counted “learning.” Up to then, every minute that the students were in school and breathing, except for lunch, was counted as learning time. The law made us count only structured, meaningful learning experiences, not homeroom, not passing time between classes. We discovered that we were many hours short on learning time. I was on the state time and learning committee so the principal asked me to set up a committee at our school to change the schedule. So who do you get? I tapped my friends in the school to put together our Time and Learning Committee, and we worked out a new schedule for the school. That format was so Bridgewater Review june 2008 successful, we broadened our focus to deal with curriculum, instruction, and assessment in the school. Our committee, now called the Restructuring Committee, represented teachers and administrators, every department in the school, and essentially be (...truncated)