Can Portland's Roosevelt High turn itself around? New focus on great teaching raises hopes
Published: Saturday, December 18, 2010, 10:15 AM
View full sizeRoosevelt High English teacher Jacque Dixon helps freshmen Mackenzie Castro (left) and Courtney Zerkel write poems full of metaphors as a holiday gift for someone they care about. Nine in 10 freshmen are passing English this year, an improvement from last fall, after the school doubled time spent teaching math and English and worked to improve teaching techniques.The odds are stacked against them. A new study that tracked 2,000 low-performing elementary and middle schools found less than 1 percent transformed into above-average schools within five years. And, as a $2 billion Gates Foundation initiative proved, high schools' problems are more intractable than those for younger students.
All of which makes the newfound energy and hope at Roosevelt more noteworthy: Teachers say they're teaching better, students agree,
Roosevelt High by the numbers
700 enrollment
77% qualify for subsidized school meals
31% Latino
30% white
23% African American
9% Asian
4% Native American
$7.7 million federal turnaround grant
45% or more Class of 2009 dropout rate
40% sophomores reading at grade level, spring 2010 (state average, 77%)
32% sophomores doing math at grade level, spring 2010 (state average, 74%)
89% freshmen who got a C or better in English first quarter, up from 81% last year
80% freshmen who got a C or better in math first quarter, compared with 69% who got a C or better yearlong last year
30% decline in behavior referrals compared with first quarter last year
About 87% Students who attended school 90 percent of the time first quarter (goal was 90%)
About 30% Students earning a C or better in every class first quarter (goal was 90%)
Sources: Roosevelt High, Oregon Department of Education