BIN CHE
Chinese language teacher
Belpre, Ohio

“I really worry about…some students in our school…I think they need to work hard…They need to catch up with other generations in the world – like Asia.”

Hailing from a town of more than 3 million people outside Beijing, Chinese teacher Bin Che came to the United States on a foreign language teaching program. At first, he says Belpre, Ohio – a small town on the border of West Virginia – was not what he expected. Having watched many movies featuring American cities like New York and Las Vegas, Belpre – which sits on the banks of the Ohio River – seemed sleepy. But Bin says he made a lot of friends in his year teaching in Ohio, and learned a lot about American schools. Despite the energy of his students, Bin says he thinks they need to study harder to keep up with students in the rest of the world.

ROGER LEMLEY
Graduate of Belpre High School
Belpre, Ohio

“I’m hoping to be a Chinese interpreter… that’ll be kind of cool. And then I can work down in Washington with the Chinese Ambassadors, or I can go to China and be an American Ambassador. All kinds of stuff like that.”

A recent graduate of Belpre High School, Roger was a star student in Bin Che’s Chinese class. He loved the language so much, he says, that he hoped to study it in college. But even if he attended a state school, Roger says the cost was prohibitive. So, the 18-year-old decided to join the Marines. Just two weeks after graduation, he shipped off to boot camp in Paris Island, South Carolina. After that, he’ll attend the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, where he hopes to earn a degree in Chinese. Then what? Roger says he loves life in Belpre, and might return. But career opportunities in the town, which is feeling the pinch of globalization, are scarce. Even Roger’s mother, Lisa Fought, says her son would have a better chance at success elsewhere. “The way the economy is now – if you don’t have an education, you have nothing,” she says. “You have to have a high school diploma to even work at McDonald’s nowadays. And working at McDonald’s is not going to pay rent. It’s not going to pay your utilities.”

CHERESE CLARK
Principal, Pleasant Hill Academy
Cincinnati, Ohio

“Every child deserves the opportunity to come to school and learn, and to be in an environment where they can learn. And, I think that is my biggest role here as the administrator.”

It’s been nearly two decades since Cherese began her career in the Cincinnati public school system – first as a teacher, then as an academic coach, and – finally – as Principal. When she took over Pleasant Hill Academy two years ago, the school had been labeled as an “academic emergency.” In her short tenure, Cherese has helped the school climb to “academic watch,” and hopes for even more improvement in the years to come.

ANNE KUITTINEN
Finnish exchange student, junior year
Lewis Center, Ohio

“I’ve had pretty much straight A’s since I came here, except for the first quarter I had one B, a B+. But that was just because I was just getting used to the language and speaking it.”

How did Anne Kuittinen, a student from the small town of Espoo, Finland, end up in Ohio? Call it curiosity, and a desire to learn English – which the 16-year-old calls the “language of the world.” Although she already speaks some English – in addition to Spanish, Swedish and German – Kuittinen says she loves languages and hopes to use them in her career. Living in the United States, she says, proved to be a memorable experience. Anne became close with her host family, the Kiplingers, and continues to speak with them regularly. As for her school experience, Kuittinen says it was also an easy adjustment – perhaps a little too easy. Although she earned straight A’s at Olentangy High School, which is rated as excellent, Anne is now redoing her junior year at home in Finland. Why? Because the Finnish school system, which consistently ranks at the top of international tests of math and science, doesn’t accept credits from America.

NANCY JOHNSON
Fourth-grade language arts teacher, Pleasant Hill Academy
College Hill, Cincinnati

“Right now you’re up all night thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, what did I not cover?’ So the closer it gets to testing the pressure is tough.”

A teacher for 13 years in the Cincinnati Public School System, last year marked Johnson’s first at Pleasant Hill. Although the job is challenging at times, Johnson says she loves to teach and most nights, she goes home happy. The mother of one says she applied to Pleasant Hill because of its new teacher training program – called TAP – which allows her to spend 90 minutes a week with mentors reviewing lesson plans and strategizing. Last year, her hard work paid off – with nearly all her students passing the writing portion of Ohio’s standardized test, called the OAT.

GUADALUPE MEDINA
Second-year student, Metro High School
Columbus, Ohio

“(In) most schools you just sit down and read a book, but here you’re like actually hands-on, making videos, and actually doing like real-live stuff.”

She’s only 16 years old, and Lupe Medina is already taking college-level classes at Metro, a unique public school outside Columbus. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Lupe hasn’t yet decided on a career path, but is considering biomedical engineering. Next year, she’ll be enrolled in courses at Ohio State University.

DeJANE DANIEL
First-year student, Metro High School
Columbus, Ohio

“It’s hard sometimes, though, because in a normal school you have a C, you can pass, but here you have to have an A. Sometimes that gets annoying, but at certain times, you know, you want to brag. You’re like, “I got an A in everything,” and you can literally say that because you have to.”

At Metro, she’s studying Chinese, American literature and algebra II/trigonometry. To get to and from Metro, she takes two public buses – a commute that consumes four hours of her day. DeJane says she’s not sure what career she will pursue, but that taking college classes before she finishes high school will help her to decide what’s right for her. And the earlier she decides, she says, the brighter her future looks.

SCHOOLS:

Pleasant Hill Academy
In the diverse College Hill area outside Cincinnati, Pleasant Hill Elementary is part of a federally funded pilot program to improve teacher quality, called TAP. At this high poverty school, each teacher spends 90 minutes a week with a “master teacher” to help improve his or her lesson plan. “I have seen some of my veteran teachers blossom,” says Principal Cherese Clark. Teachers are also eligible for a bonus for improving students’ outcomes. Part of the evaluation is based on test scores on the all-important yearly state test, the OAT, used for NCLB reporting. To help improve student success, Pleasant Hill also offers on-site mental health services through a program called Ready To Learn. Principal Clark says these services are important in low-income schools.

“A number of them are in foster care,” says Clark. “We have some children that are from homes where they’ve suffered abuse. There may be drug abuse going on in the home. They need assistance and guidance and support here at school.”

Belpre
Belpre High School sits in Ohio’s rural Appalachian region on the border of West Virginia. About 40 percent of the kids in the Belpre School District are economically disadvantaged, and only a quarter of its high school students go on to study at four-year colleges. Belpre has experienced the transition of globalization firsthand with factories closing and jobs moving overseas. The town faces serious financial strains because of a change in the tax structure. Remaining factories, such as two plastics manufacturers, were granted tax breaks by the state legislature, resulting in a serious shortfall for the school district. The district’s superintendent, Harry Fleming, applied for a state grant to bring in a Chinese language teacher to the school, hoping that he could give the students something that would help them get jobs. “Mandarin is the one of the most widely spoken languages in the world,” says Fleming. “We know the growing economy in China is probably going to play more and more of a role in our society. It seemed like a good thing to pursue.”

Metro
Metro High School is an alternative public high school focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). It was founded by the Ohio State University, a research and development company, Batelle, and several Columbus area school districts. Interested students apply and enter a lottery from 16 school districts. The school is diverse and about 40 percent of its students are low-income. There are no bells, lockers, or blackboards at the school, which started three years ago. Each grade has about 100 students. The curriculum favors hands-on learning in all disciplines. Each student is expected to master a subject before he or she moves on, allowing the student to take as long as is needed until he or she learns the material. Students can finish their requirements and begin taking college classes while still in high school. Principal Marcy Raymond says being different, flexible and fostering collaboration is imperative to helping students learn. “Every kid can learn,” says Raymond. “I don’t think there’s anyone here that can’t do that if given the right strategies and the right amount of time. We say we are a small school with a big footprint.”

Metro has run into opposition from officials in surrounding districts who argue it should be considered a charter school, and that students who want to attend it should pay tuition. This conflict is an example of just how tough it is to innovate within the existing school system.

Olentangy
Olentangy is the fastest growing school district in the fastest growing region in the state of Ohio. It is an affluent school district whose schools are consistently rated excellent. Olentangy High School offers 15 Advanced Placement classes and many electives. More than 90 percent of its students go on to higher education. And the district has just opened a new high school, it’s third. Principal Mindy Farry is proud of the school and its students’ success. “We’ve got just a bevy of academic courses, as well as other things students can dabble in, whether it’s fine arts or performing arts, or industrial technology,” says Farry. “We have mentorship programs. We also have a special needs department and intervention specialists working with some of our special needs students. There’s a little bit of a spot for everyone here, so they can get whatever they need to get them prepared for college.”

As goes Ohio, so goes the nation.

It’s a political truism – one with evidence in more than half a century of Presidential contests. Since 1960, every elected President has won the state. But Ohio’s political history is not why we chose it as the main location for “WHERE WE STAND.” Instead, we chose it because – as much as one state can – it seemed to best represent the American educational experience. Ohio is the most densely populated state in the Midwest, and its geographic diversity – which ranges from the more affluent suburbs of Columbus to the rural, economically-strained swathes of Appalachia – makes for an extremely varied school system.

In addition, Ohio’s political and educational leaders are putting a major emphasis on improving that system. Specifically, they want to prepare Ohio’s students to compete in a global economy.

According to the Ohio Board of Education, “The future of Ohio’s economy depends on the ability to develop a world-class work force and changes are needed within the (K-12) education system to be successful in this endeavor.”

It’s an aggressive approach to education – but one that’s producing results. In the past 20 years, the state’s schools have risen from a ranking in the middle of the nation, to 7th. Student test scores have improved by 25 percent, and the number of fourth-graders who passed the state reading test has almost doubled to 80 percent.

OHIO – Quick Facts:
It has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country: 7.2%, compared to the national average 5.7% (July 2008)
Number of local school districts: 614
Number of schools: 4,012
Number of students: 1,839,683
Number of charter schools: 316

Foxfire Center for Student Success – In East Central Ohio, Zanesville is representative of the many designated economically transitional and at-risk towns in the Appalachian Region. Unemployment remains above state and national rates, 8.1 percent, and the average annual household income is $27,900.

Foxfire alternative school was started in 2000 by the assistant principal and a group of teachers at Maysville High School in Maysville School District. The program was designed for those students at Maysville that were struggling to fit into the traditional school environment. “These kids weren’t coming to school because they had to work to support their families, but they’re still good students,” said Maysville superintendent Monte Bainter. “We had all kinds of programs established for kids but certain students never fit into them.”

Starting as an offshoot of Maysville High School, students were offered evening classes instead of suspension or after school programs. That first year, 12 students participated. This year’s enrollment is at 207 students aged 16-22. Students apply, or are referred, to Foxfire from the surrounding Zanesville area. The targeted students include working teenagers, dropouts, would-be dropouts, pregnant teens and teen parents (2007-2008 student population included 30 teen pregnancies and 92 with children), and youth on probation or coming from the juvenile justice system. Students come to class in shifts, with the option of choosing from three four-hour slots in the day. They are required to either work or participate in community service for 15 hours per week.

The school’s mission stems from a Core Values system: Caring, Honesty, Teamwork, Discipline, Character, Work Ethic, Accountability, Commitment, Respect and Loyalty. “Having an environment where we teach and reciprocate respect, accountability and caring with the students has had the biggest impact,” said teacher and Director of Student Services, Austin Lewellen.

In part of creating a supportive and encouraging environment, the curriculum is a Project Based Learning program. The students enter the program at different levels of learning and different credit needs for high school completion. With project based learning, each student works at her own pace. Each project is set to fulfill state standards based on the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), so after a student has completed it she receives a grade and earns the appropriate number of credits.

Cornelius Murphy, 19, a former Foxfire student, said the project based learning is beneficial to kids’ learning process. “For English I took the Tupac Shakur project class. Having class projects on subjects you’re familiar with makes the kids interested in doing the research, following through, and writing on the topic. With the hands-on interactive learning projects, a lot of us need that kind of teaching to learn.” Murphy enrolled himself at the school when he was 17, and at a 9th grade reading and math level. He feels the flexible school schedule was vital to his graduation. “Foxfire works because it’s for kids who don’t do well in a regular environment, for whatever reason. It gives students a chance to work, pay bills, pay for childcare, and learn a trade to help after graduation.”

Since graduating last year, Murphy has been working as a State Nursing Assistant and plans to attend a community college for a degree in Radiology. He received his SNA certificate with help from Foxfire career counselors and teachers. “If I hadn’t gone to Foxfire, I’d still be at Zanesville High trying to get my diploma,” said Murphy. “I would never drop out. But, it would take me a lot longer to finish all the credits and graduate.”

The school has a comprehensive Career-Based Initiative in which the students are introduced to varied fields of work and college opportunities. Each student is required to make three college visits with a staff member. Also, each student must choose a field of interest, which may include the military, and is required to do a job shadowing in that field for a minimum of sixty hours during the semester.

In an area with few choices or jobs, many youth choose to go into construction because of its higher pay, or join the military. To help encourage young people into the workforce and post-secondary training, Foxfire’s Youth Build Grant enrolls at-risk/dropout youth at a local technical school to receive training in order to build government housing within the county. The students are paid minimum wage during their training and in the end can earn up to $17 per hour.

Principal Todd Whiteman has worked diligently to make an environment where students can accelerate and feel like they belong to something. “The biggest challenge is to take these kids and get them well so they can learn. A lot of them have poor health, they come from environments where violence, drugs, alcohol and sex are prominent,” said Whiteman. “Ninety-percent of the kids are referred from the juvenile delinquency courts. But our hands-on learning curriculum makes the academic skills relevant and interesting to them.”

Whiteman’s Core Value system is also implemented with the teachers. In just a few years, Foxfire’s retention rate rose from 40 percent to 100 percent. The staff meets every morning for thirty minutes to assess and collaborate on curriculum mapping. “There has been a noticeable rise in respect and support among the teachers,” Whiteman said. “Wellness is an important factor in our school. The teachers need to care about themselves and the students.”

Samantha Fleming enrolled at Foxfire when she was 16, pregnant, and with only 7 high school credits. At the time she was enrolled at a vocational school but never went because of bad morning sickness. In just one year she completed 15 additional credits, passed the Ohio Graduation Test, and graduated high school last May. “I would have dropped out if it wasn’t for Foxfire,” said Fleming. “The teachers treat us as equals and with encouragement. Teachers would send cards in the mail saying ‘Sam, you’re doing a great job.’ It was always a constructive and positive environment.”

A crucial benefit to students is the Care Team initiative implemented by Superintendent Bainter. The Care Team is a collaborative of representatives from schools, mental, physical and behavioral health, child protection, juvenile court, law enforcement and child development. Foxfire has a full-time social worker and nurse on staff, as well as a part-time drug and alcohol counselor. “The Care Team initiative flags kids at the elementary age,” said Bainter. “At the beginning of each school year every staff person picks a group of kids to build a connection with. Connecting with kids is positive for the kids and for the adults. If kids think you care about them, they’ll work hard to prove successful to you and to themselves.”

Samantha Fleming took advantage of, and was grateful for, the Care Team presence. “Every Friday we had the Parenting Class. We’d meet, pregnant or teen parents, and talk about pregnancy, labor, parenting, physical and emotional needs,” said Fleming. During the school year, Samantha worked part-time at her mother’s tanning salon. This fall she plans on studying Nursing or Cosmetology at nearby Zane State College.

One of the biggest challenges of many schools is meeting state requirements and assessments. But Foxfire’s system of teaching, learning and caring has helped overcome that challenge. In just two years the number of students that passed the state 10th grade reading proficiency exams rose from 36.4 percent to 75 percent. Each tested area for the OGT increased by 60 percent -242 percent. The school was recently deemed as Best Practice and model for alternative schools by the Ohio Department of Education. It also met all requirements for the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the state’s annual report card. And the class of 2007 had a remarkable 97.3 percent graduation rate, outpacing the state average of 86.9 percent.

Read a recent article in EdWeek, “Returning Dropouts Said to Face Too Tough a Road to Graduation.”