Reading and writiing work

BROCKTON, Mass. — A decade ago, Brockton High School was a case study in failure. Teachers and administrators often voiced the unofficial school motto in hallway chitchat: students have a right to fail if they want. And many of them did — only a quarter of the students passed statewide exams. One in three dropped out.

Then Susan Szachowicz and a handful of fellow teachers decided to take action. They persuaded administrators to let them organize a schoolwide campaign that involved reading and writing lessons into every class in all subjects, including gym.

Their efforts paid off quickly. In 2001 testing, more students passed the state tests after failing the year before than at any other school in Massachusetts. The gains continued. This year and last, Brockton outperformed 90 percent of Massachusetts high schools. And its turnaround is getting new attention in a report, “How High Schools Become Exemplary,” published last month by Ronald F. Ferguson, an economist at Harvard who researches the minority achievement gap. (Sam Dillon at NYT)

Follow the above linked text to read more. To download and read the report, How High Schools Become Exemplary, click here.

UND President Robert Kelley's reading tomorrow is postponed. Check back at this blog soon for an update.

We are LIVE today

The Grand Forks Central Literacy Committee members welcome you to our blog, officially LIVE today. The committee is working hard with teachers, administration, staff, and students to help students at Grand Forks Central High School become more literate.

We've got programs up and running as well as works in progress. One of our programs, Literary Lunches, begins today. Students will have the chance to eat lunch and listen to area celebrities read selections from works they've chosen.  Today's reader, Ryan Kasowski, is a co-captain of the University of North Dakota's football team and a Grand Forks Central graduate. The schedule of each week's readers is in this blog's sidebar.

Since the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year, we've had a word of the week. Each week's word is showcased in a Wordle poster; those posters are displayed in the building. Again, check out the sidebar. You'll find there a slideshow of our words.