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- Manual High School - Denver, Colorado - CO | GreatSchools
What else can we learn from the Manual experience? The Gates Foundation has recognized that strict autonomy for schools at a single conversion site impedes rather than facilitates effectiveness. That is a lesson learned. At Manual, rigid adherence to the values of autonomy mandated by the foundation resulted in blocked access to gym facilities on the first floor for students on the second and third floors; lack of access to a media center on the second floor for students on the other two floors; and inadequate access to textbooks, since class sets of books were divided into thirds and distributed to the three schools, even though class sizes did not shrink.
School autonomy was, for the external partners, nonnegotiable. But democratic processes and collaborative relationships are not characterized by nonnegotiables.
Research has demonstrated over and over again the intractability of school districts. Although the specific challenges vary with each school and district, the underlying factors are largely predictable. Yet we should not attribute this intractability to a lack of commitment or will on the part of those who have devoted themselves to working in such districts.
They face pressures and constraints unappreciated and often unknown by intermediaries. But that promise can only be fulfilled if reformers demonstrate a genuine and lasting commitment not merely to the reform, but also to the schools, districts, and communities in which they are involved. As external agents, we are guests. Unless we take seriously the circumstances in which district leaders operate—the pressures, legal constraints, and prior commitments—we will be unwelcome guests.
And if we are unwelcome, our efforts will inevitably fail. Many of the conditions that hindered the successful implementation of small-school reforms at Manual in Denver persist in similar reform efforts nationwide. So it is worth examining—seriously and nondefensively—how external agencies insinuate themselves into the lives of schools and districts, and how they can promote their visions and implement their objectives in ways that build cooperation and collaboration, rather than contention and divisiveness.
Support from entities like the Gates Foundation and its intermediaries, in concert with district commitment and effort, is the most promising vehicle we currently have for transforming schools, particularly in urban districts.
Can such organizations practice the values of reflection and responsibility that characterize the rhetoric of the small-school movement? If so, there is hope that we may actually learn, from our experience of the past five years, how to overcome the perennial challenges of school reform. All Topics. About Us.
Group Subscriptions. Recruitment Advertising. Events and Webinars. Leaders to Learn From. Current Issue. Special Reports. EdWeek Research Center. EdWeek Top School Jobs. EdWeek Market Brief. Menu Search. Sign In Subscribe. What Went Wrong at Manual High? Reset Search. By Gary Lichtenstein — May 16, 8 min read.
Share article Remove Save to favorites Save to favorites. Gary Lichtenstein. He is the founder of Quality Evaluation Designs, a consulting firm specializing in education research, and has served as a consulting professor at the Stanford University school of engineering and as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver college of education. He lives in Bluff, Utah. Thank you for subscribing.
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Manual High School (Colorado) - Wikipedia
Joe Sandoval led the school for the —11 school year, until administrators of DPS could find a principal for the school. For the —12 school year, the principal selection committee chose Brian Dale, [5] former principal of Bruce Randolph, to lead the school.
Dale was asked to leave Manual High School in , after a dramatic drop in test scores and overspending on the experiential learning program model that was implemented.
Don Roy took his place [5] as the interim principal while a new one was selected through an intensive process informed, in part, by the Thought Partner Group, a committee of Manual alumni, community members, parents, and stakeholders.
The result of this process was the selection of Nick Dawkins to lead the school starting in the fall of Manual High School graduated its first senior class in since re-opening.
With Manual's graduating class of the school showed renewed preparation for making students college-bound. Manual High School has made a commitment to leave no T-Bolt behind and to do "whatever it takes to ensure that students stay in school and are prepared for success in college, career and in life.
In , Manual High School had about students, 60 percent of whom were Latino and 30 percent of whom were African-American. Many academic offerings are available at Manual High School, and concurrent college coursework is also available to some students. Manual High School's athletic teams are known as the Thunderbolts or T-bolts. A magazine, BOOM! Jump to content Navigation. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file.
Download as PDF Printable version. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Go to top. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. More Read Edit View history. Public high school in Denver, Colorado, United States. This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. February This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. This program was a success for the first three years, and helped Manual to post the third-highest growth in test scores in the city [5] and top the district as its highest performed Title I high school.
However, after three years, Stein left the school in [8] due to frustrations with a disagreeing supervisor [5] and bureaucracy issues, especially regarding autonomy and funding.
Joe Sandoval led the school for the —11 school year, until administrators of DPS could find a principal for the school.
For the —12 school year, the principal selection committee chose Brian Dale, [5] former principal of Bruce Randolph, to lead the school. Dale was asked to leave Manual High School in , after a dramatic drop in test scores and overspending on the experiential learning program model that was implemented. Don Roy took his place [5] as the interim principal while a new one was selected through an intensive process informed, in part, by the Thought Partner Group, a committee of Manual alumni, community members, parents, and stakeholders.
The result of this process was the selection of Nick Dawkins to lead the school starting in the fall of Manual High School graduated its first senior class in since re-opening.
With Manual's graduating class of the school showed renewed preparation for making students college-bound. Manual High School has made a commitment to leave no T-Bolt behind and to do "whatever it takes to ensure that students stay in school and are prepared for success in college, career and in life.
In , Manual High School had about students, 60 percent of whom were Latino and 30 percent of whom were African-American. Many academic offerings are available at Manual High School, and concurrent college coursework is also available to some students. Manual High School's athletic teams are known as the Thunderbolts or T-bolts. A magazine, BOOM! Jump to content Navigation. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version.
On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Go to top. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. More Read Edit View history. Public high school in Denver, Colorado, United States. This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. One lesson that might be learned from the Manual experience is that when external reform agents are pitted against a district, the district inevitably wins.
Or, more precisely, no one wins. To gather meaningful lessons from Manual, we first must see the experience as a failure of the reform process itself. Many have commented, for example, on the hasty implementation of small-school reforms at Manual. Once the plan was adopted by the Denver school board in April of , a mere four months were left in which to create three small schools within Manual, hire principals for them, and work out myriad resource and facilities issues.
There also was the challenge of informing and involving parents, students, community members, and, of course, teachers in major decisions having to do with developing and implementing school themes and curricula.
Why the haste, one might ask? Every element of the reform was affected by that short timeline. In addition to working out the intricate details of implementation that small-school reform necessarily entails, time is needed for intermediary staff members and district personnel to come to understand the expectations, constraints, and pressures operating on each side. There must be time for the unfolding of a participatory process at the school level, and for the development of collaborative working relationships between school personnel and the district staff.
If the external funders and intermediaries had made that time available at Manual, they might have prevented the collision of the small-school reforms with ongoing district reforms. What else can we learn from the Manual experience? The Gates Foundation has recognized that strict autonomy for schools at a single conversion site impedes rather than facilitates effectiveness.
That is a lesson learned. At Manual, rigid adherence to the values of autonomy mandated by the foundation resulted in blocked access to gym facilities on the first floor for students on the second and third floors; lack of access to a media center on the second floor for students on the other two floors; and inadequate access to textbooks, since class sets of books were divided into thirds and distributed to the three schools, even though class sizes did not shrink.
School autonomy was, for the external partners, nonnegotiable. But democratic processes and collaborative relationships are not characterized by nonnegotiables. Research has demonstrated over and over again the intractability of school districts. Although the specific challenges vary with each school and district, the underlying factors are largely predictable.
Yet we should not attribute this intractability to a lack of commitment or will on the part of those who have devoted themselves to working in such districts. They face pressures and constraints unappreciated and often unknown by intermediaries. But that promise can only be fulfilled if reformers demonstrate a genuine and lasting commitment not merely to the reform, but also to the schools, districts, and communities in which they are involved.
As external agents, we are guests. Unless we take seriously the circumstances in which district leaders operate—the pressures, legal constraints, and prior commitments—we will be unwelcome guests. And if we are unwelcome, our efforts will inevitably fail. Many of the conditions that hindered the successful implementation of small-school reforms at Manual in Denver persist in similar reform efforts nationwide. So it is worth examining—seriously and nondefensively—how external agencies insinuate themselves into the lives of schools and districts, and how they can promote their visions and implement their objectives in ways that build cooperation and collaboration, rather than contention and divisiveness.
Support from entities like the Gates Foundation and its intermediaries, in concert with district commitment and effort, is the most promising vehicle we currently have for transforming schools, particularly in urban districts. Can such organizations practice the values of reflection and responsibility that characterize the rhetoric of the small-school movement?
If so, there is hope that we may actually learn, from our experience of the past five years, how to overcome the perennial challenges of school reform. All Topics. About Us. Group Subscriptions.
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