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Kevin, what a Great article and Big difference you are making!
Please drop me a FRmail and tell me how I can get involved in supporting the Geo Foundation’s education outreach mission.

Well done sir -

RE:
“Commentary
It’s Time For High School 2.0

Students at the 21st Century Charter School in Gary, Ind., are earning college degrees while attending high school. (CBS News)

KEVIN TEASLEY
5/05/2017

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Are we “doing” high school right these days? Is it enough to say we have improved our schools by offering more electives, more AP courses, IB classes, and STEM programs? Is that impactful enough, or at all?

These are inputs, not outputs, and they are no guarantee to students that they will get a job or get into the college they want to attend when they graduate. So, again, are we doing high schools right, today?

As the issue of school choice heats up, this is a question that needs an answer. If the choice is between two schools that aren’t making a difference in the lives of low-income, at-risk youths, what’s the point?

It is a question we had to confront at our own charter school in Gary, Ind. Gary is a proud city in the shadows of Chicago that has been hurt by the decline of the steel industry. Nearly 80% of the local school district’s population is qualified for the federal free-lunch program and less than 15% of all homes in Gary report any college degrees.

In 2005, with poverty on the rise in Gary and an invitation from local leaders, we started a college prep charter school in Gary. We believed in our students going to college and thought that if we counseled them long enough, took them on college tours, showed them how to apply for loans and scholarships, showed them the value of a high school diploma, college degree, master’s degree, etc., that eventually all our students would catch on and graduate on time, and go to and complete college.

Not so.

It turns out, we were speaking a foreign language to most of our students. They came from homes void of college experience, let alone degrees. Our students didn’t believe they were going to college so they weren’t even trying that hard in high school. Adding more AP courses, more foreign-language teachers and more science classes wasn’t going to change that.

We knew our students were smart, and because we weren’t bound by rigid public school rules we were able to try new approaches. So we made a deal with our students. Take the college entrance exam, pass any portion of it, and we will cover your college tuition and textbook fees, and provide transportation. Our staff agreed to provide support so that students succeeded in their college classes.

At first, only a few took us up on our offer. They succeeded, and their success started to spread. In 2013, we had our first student earn his Associate of Arts Degree while in our high school. In 2014, we had three more students earn AAs. In May, we will celebrate five students who have achieved this goal and one student who has actually earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Purdue University — while in our high school. She is the first in Indiana’s history to do this. (A clip from CBS News about one of these students is below.)

We are focused on outputs, not inputs, and everything we are doing could and should apply to schools across the country.

In fact, we do this in Colorado Springs, as well. Our Gary school has 900 students. Our Colorado school has 320. Our two schools in Baton Rouge are elementary schools, and when the time comes for those students to go to college, we want to have a GEO high school operating in that state for them to attend. No matter the school size, our plan works!

Our 43 Gary seniors will earn an average of 17 college credits before graduating in May. Our 13 Colorado Springs seniors will earn 34 credits, on average, when they graduate, and two will earn an Associate Degree.

Both schools do this with the same dollars every other public school in their respective states receives from state and federal sources. But while traditional schools get K-12 results, we are getting K-14 and sometimes K-16 results — with K-12 dollars.

Our partnership with local colleges saves valuable dollars and allows us to more directly benefit each of our students. Our students earn certifications in auto mechanics, yet we don’t have a garage; the local community college does. We have students earning general education college associate degrees (equivalent to the first two years of college at a four year university), yet we don’t have professors on our campus; the community college does.

Instead of hiring multiple foreign-language, arts, science and math teachers, and building a bigger campus — the things you typically see at any traditional high school — we restrict our staff and building and focus on preparing our students to pass the college entrance exam. Once they pass the college entrance exam, we enroll them in college courses that count for both high school credits and college credits. And we insist on our students taking college classes on a college campus.

This aspect is extremely important as our students need exposure to the college atmosphere — they need to see college isn’t a scary place and that they can do it. This builds confidence for them and gives them the strength and belief to be able to complete college while with us or soon after they graduate from our school.

We believe students need to earn actual college credits — and experience college classroom culture and real career training and certifications — before they graduate from high school. That is what our success has taught us. And when we open the doors to the community college, whether we have 900 students or 320, all of our students enjoy the entire catalog of college course offerings.

I’d like to say it’s easy, but it isn’t. It takes discipline and out-of-the-box thinking.

With today’s increasing demands on state budgets across the country and the increasing demand for college and career-trained high school graduates, we need to expect more and get more from our nation’s high schools. It is imperative that we encourage high schools to embrace sending students to college. And it is vital that we encourage high schools to remove barriers to students — the costs and challenges of tuition, textbooks, transportation and schedules — so that more students can take advantage of community and four-year universities.

This is “school choice on steroids.” Students can choose courses that meet their individual needs. We meet our nation’s output goals of college and career-ready high school graduates. And we don’t break the bank either.

That’s what we call doing high school right!

Teasley is president of the Indianapolis-based GEO Foundation.”