By Deziree Garrick
In 2015 East High Schools graduation rate was at 30 percent and as of June 2020 the graduation rates at East had risen to 78 percent. We are going to take a look into how the University of Rochester helped our failing school as an Educational Partnership Organization. To help us understand East High’s journey, Dr. Joanne Larson explains the UR-East EPO. Let’s start with the obvious, what is the “East EPO”? “Educational Partnership Organization is a legal status in New York State; it is one of the five options for failing schools in NY. The University of Rochester is the educational partnership organization as well as the receiver,” answered Dr. Larson, who is not only a full professor at the Warner School of Education, but also a co-teacher at East High (Critical Literacy and Hip-Hop). With the University of Rochester as East High’s educational partnership organization, naturally changes were imminent. What were some of the changes made at East? Well, “there was a complete overhaul of the curriculum being taught, as well as how students were being instructed; also every East staff member had to reapply for their jobs and agree to the UR-East EPO plan if they wished to remain at East,” Dr. Larson explained, and went on to say that “distributed leadership, restorative practices, and Family Group were also key implementations.” Distributed leadership is when not just one group of people have a say in important decisions. Take the Governance Council for example: students, administrators, parents, teachers, and school union representatives are all present in the decision making at East. Longer class periods and Family Group were changes that were necessary to ensure that no student would feel ignored or unnoticed. The UR-East EPO has seen many positive outcomes that students may not take into consideration. For example, “Going from 3,000 suspensions to less than 500, the shift from seeing students as a behavioral problem to being valued and important, and also the students no longer see graduation as something only a few students can obtain, but they now can actually see themselves graduating,” said Dr. Larson. She went on to talk about how the sense in school pride has increased tremendously, as well as student accountability. Back in the 2015-2016 school year students never cleaned up after themselves, or they used profanity openly without regard to the adults surrounding them. Now students will make sure that they are throwing their trash away, or they’ll say “don’t speak to her that way;” the school climate has genuinely improved from having the University of Rochester as an Educational Partnership Organization. Dr. Joanne Larson describes the “East Experience” as “absolutely transformative in research life, an amazing learning experience. The East Experience is about relationships and truly valuing each other. It’s exciting!”
5 Comments
12/22/2020 07:31:25 am
Good use of the interview you did for this article, Deziree. And the statistics you shared added to the article's impact. I am curious to hear more of your perspective - weren't you part of that entering 7th grade class the first year of the EPO? What changes have you observed over the past six years?
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Deziree Garrick
12/22/2020 08:26:03 am
Yes I entered seventh grade at East back in 2015, the changes from my perspective are absolutely amazing! I have witnessed the evolution of Family Group, way back in 7th grade(2015-16) FG was scheduled at the same time for both East Upper school and Lower school, and I seen the shift to a separate time for each schools designated FG time. The teaching styles has really helped, especially the Learning Targets. In my 7th grade science class we would write all three targets in our journals, and as a senior in HS I know right the learning targets for the classes that I know they will be helpful in. Take Calculus for example: I may not write the target down, but I will often take a picture of the target so that I know what skills I should be proficient in at the end of the lesson. Back in seventh grade as a “tween” I heard a lot of inappropriate language and saw inappropriate actions, but I can say that as I grew and my schools community grew, we have honestly improved the overall student community. Students are still using profanity, but they are cognizant of who is around them, and they know they every teacher has a different comfort level when it comes to various topics of conversation. Also teachers and Administration at East have grown soo much in the last six years. I remember when I was in my first three years at East and most teachers/adults had this “I’m right, because I have a degree”. When I’m reality all they were doing was belittling us students based on the fact that they had achieved Higher Ed and we were just HS kids. And I honestly don’t know if it was the students going off on the teachers because of their biases, or if it was the PL’s that teachers went through, but there was a shift in most of the teachers. They became more understanding of students, and their tones changed when they addressed students. I could probably go on for days, but the most important change that everyone observed was the Family that’s was created within East. I can tell you that no matter how much East students bicker and fight, we will come together to defeat whoever speaks bad on East or a member of the East Family. We bleed purple and gold! And we are definitely #Allin@East!
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12/23/2020 07:10:28 am
Thank you for this response, Deziree. It could probably be an article unto itself! I appreciate hearing a student's perspective on the changes. And as an East alumnus, I am happy to see the school moving in a positive direction!
Lynn Girven
12/22/2020 10:41:10 am
I love this article and how instrumental the EPO has been in redefining East. I also love that Brady has commented as he was a force in getting a debate team on campus. Sadly we are forced to take a 2 year hiatus. You would have loved it and I wonder if we can come up with some kind of virtuql debate?
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12/23/2020 07:14:15 am
Thank you for the compliment, but I'm pretty sure I do not deserve any credit for the debate team. Was there another Brady involved with that?
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