Classical+High+School+2010

=Title: Classical High School - Providence, Rhode Island, USA= = __Motto__- "Certare, Petere, Reperire, Neque Cedere" = "To Strive, to Seek, to Find, and Not to Yield"

__Mission Statement__- Classical High School, a demanding college preparatory examination school, serves a diverse community and provides its students with the means to achieve high standards in a rigorous learning environment. Classical encourages its students to pursue academic, artistic, athletic, and personal growth so they will experience success in colleges and universities, and will demonstrate excellence in leadership within the community.

=Introduction= Classical High School was founded in 1843. It's a public exam school in the Providence School District, in Providence, Rhode Island. Classical was started as an all male facility but is now co educational with students from both the male and female categories. It has been rated "High Performing and Sustaining" by its performance in 2005 on the New Standards Reference Exam, placing it third highest in the state (wikipedia). It serves students in grades 9-12 and was one of the only public schools in Rhode Island to receive a distinguished 'Great Schools Rating' of 10 out of 10. The school sits at 770 Westminster Street right next to Central High School. The students of Classical High School have always succeeded in academic contests, band and basketball among other things.

=Community Background= Being located in on of the largest metropolitan areas in the Northeast, Providence, Rhode Island is a community that suffers in an economic aspect. Numbers show that the community has an average household income of $36,298 opposed to the national average of $50,007 (US census, 2008). More than twenty percent of families are living below the poverty level. Compare that to less than ten percent of the US living below the poverty level. Looking at these facts it is evident that Providence is poverty stricken to say the least.

Given that race is commonly associated with poverty, it's important to note that nearly forty percent of the population are Hispanic, and fifteen percent are Black/African Americans. Surprisingly, less than half the people are white which is significant because the average for Rhode Island is nearly 75 percent. In short, Providence is certainly a diverse place.

Fig. 1: Race Breakdown


 * || Providence || Rhode Island || US ||
 * White || 48.5 || 74.3 || 74.1 ||
 * African Americans || 14.5 || 12.3 || 12.4 ||
 * Asian || 5.7 || 4.4 || 4.3 ||
 * Hispancic || 37.6 || 15.1 || 14.7 ||
 * American Indian || 0.9 || 0.4 || 0.8 ||

 The children of Providence, Rhode Island reveal some very shocking statistics. In 2000, there were 45,277 children living in Providence, Rhode Island. Of those, over 50 percent lived in single parent families (rikidscount, 2000). In addition, 40 percent of the families with children are living below the federal poverty threshold (rikidscount, 2000). Keep in mind that the national average for families with children living below the federal poverty level is 17 percent. Almost 10 percent of teens in the community are neither in school nor working for a living. That's one in every ten teens. Another statistic that catches the eye is that 6 percent of the children live in households where the grandparents are financially responsible for their grandchildren (rikidscount, 2000).

=District Summary= The district of Providence, Rhode Island is very interesting. The district has 24,494 students with 1,699 teachers which is clearly a less than favorable ratio. Of the schools in the district, 5.7 percent are public charters, 80 percent are other public schools, .3 percent of the kids are home schooled, and 14 percent attend non-public schools. The student breakdown is also something to be noted (see fig. 2). In the district, 22 percent of the students are African American, 6 percent are Asian, 59 percent are Hispanic, 1 percent are Native American, and only 12 percent are White (infoworks, 2009).

Fig. 2: Student Race Breakdown


 * || Rhode Island || Providence ||
 * African || 8.9 || 22 ||
 * Asian || 3.1 || 6 ||
 * Hispanic || 18.4 || 59 ||
 * Native American || 0.7 || 1 ||
 * White || 68.9 || 12 ||

With such a diverse student breakdown, its almost expected that students would receive bilingual education services, however 85 percent of the students in the district are non recipients (infoworks, 2009). One statistic that stands out as something good is that 8 percent of the students in the district are bilingual opposed to the 1.4 percent in Rhode Island (infoworks, 2009).

In the district of Providence, $15,451 is spent on each student. Surprisingly that's roughly $1,000 more than the state average for Rhode Island. Of that money, 45 percent goes to instruction, 20 percent goes to instructional support, 10 percent goes to operations, 10 percent goes to leadership, and the remaining 15 percent goes to other commitments. This breakdown of spending is somewhat questionable compared to the breakdown of the average spending for the state. On average the state will spend 55 percent on instruction, 15 percent on instructional support, 15 percent on operations, 5 percent on leadership, and 10 percent on other commitments (infoworks, 2009).

Fig. 3: District Proficiency


 * || Poverty || Non-Poverty || African American || Asian || Hispanic || Native American || White ||
 * Grade 6-8 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Math ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Proficient || 27 || 36 || 27 || 47 || 26 || 17 || 38 ||
 * Non || 73 || 64 || 74 || 53 || 74 || 83 || 62 ||
 * Reading ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Proficient || 40 || 44 || 44 || 51 || 36 || 33 || 52 ||
 * Non || 60 || 56 || 56 || 49 || 64 || 67 || 48 ||
 * Grade 11 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Math ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Proficient || 11 || 23 || 9 || 25 || 10 || 0 || 37 ||
 * Non || 89 || 77 || 91 || 75 || 90 || 100 || 63 ||
 * Reading ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Proficient || 54 || 60 || 51 || 69 || 50 || 64 || 78 ||
 * Non || 46 || 40 || 49 || 31 || 50 || 36 || 22 ||
 * Non || 46 || 40 || 49 || 31 || 50 || 36 || 22 ||

=School Analysis= From the chart above you can see that the district is straight up awful in regards to their test scores. However, Classical High School produces some of the top students that come out of Providence Rhode Island. Two years ago, they graduated 100 percent of the senior class (ride.ri.gov). Fig. 4:


 * Year || Grade || Native American (Male) || Native American (Female) || Asian Pacific (Male) || Asian Pacific (Female) || Black (Male) || Black (Female) || White (Male) || White (Female) || Hispanic (Male) || Hispanic (Female) || Total ||
 * 2008-09 || 12 || 0 || 2 || 8 || 16 || 20 || 23 || 39 || 53 || 32 || 63 || 256 ||
 * 2008-09 || TO || 0 || 2 || 8 || 16 || 20 || 23 || 39 || 53 || 32 || 63 || 256 ||

When you look at the student reports of their perceived school climate, you notice that the numbers are respectable, but could definitely be improved. The scale was set at 1-5 (1 being never and 5 being always) and each indicator was given an average score based on the students responses. The average score for the topic 'teachers provide support' was a 2.9 on the scale. The average score for the topic 'students show commitment' was a 3.6. That shows the students are very motivated at Classical High School. They want to do well. When asked about the general quality of school life, the students gave an average response of 2.9.

The teacher reports of classroom practices was calculated on a similar scale. The value was 1-7 (1 being never and 7 being daily). The school received a score of 4.6 when asked if mathematical concepts and reasoning are integrated into lessons. The teachers gave the school a rating of 4.4 in regards to students using calculators as a part of the lesson. Classical received a 4.7 in regards to students being taught problem solving and decision making skills. The highest score of 5.3 was given in the category of students having choice of tools to complete assignments.

=Conclusion= Providence, Rhode Island is inevitably lacking in an educational aspect. The chart depicting district proficiency (fig. 3) shows that exactly. There are only a few categories of people that had a proficiency above 50 percent. The rest were a majority non-proficient. That says something about the schooling in cities. Perhaps the problem lies within the students. Obviously they are a diverse group of students but just because they are diverse doesn't mean they should be performing so dreadfully on tests. Classical has a fairly diverse population of students yet it graduated 100 percent of its class in 2009. The question here is what is making the kids at Classical do well as opposed to the students who attend another high school in the city.

A key indicator of why the kids at Classical are doing well is the SALT survey reports. The students themselves gave the school good ratings. From the charts you can tell that the students are in a good environment where they feel committed, supported, and welcome. This proves that despite the students coming from a heavily poverty stricken city can indeed succeed if they are put into a school that makes them feel wanted. The point where students feel that they are not in an environment that they like, is the point where they fall away from the pack.

=References= www.wikipedia.org www.census.gov www.rikidscount.org/matriarch/default.asp www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2009/default.asp www.ride.ri.gov