This is the third time the Brookline Education Foundation has given this leadership award. The first award went to Bill Grady, who directed Opportunity for Change, a high school program for teenagers with academic problems. I volunteered in that program and I saw firsthand the extraordinary efforts he made to help those children grow and adjust.
The second award went to Barbara Shea, who transformed the Lincoln School - a school with a history of low performance - into a center of academic excellence.
To gather information and impressions about our third award winner, I spent two hours during vacation week visiting with Bob Weintraub in his office at Brookline High School. It was one of the most exhilarating interviews I ever experienced. When Bob Weintraub talks about his students, his teachers, his parents, and his role as Head Master, he gets caught up in his own excitement. For a moment, I thought I was Superintendent again interviewing a candidate for the head master position and I almost caught myself yelling out loud -“You’ve got the job”.
How could you not be impressed with an educator who tells you he never had a bad day in his sixteen years as headmaster; who can’t wait to get to BHS so he can have fun interacting with students, teachers, staff, parents and the community; who gets his high from these interactions.
When we talked about leadership, and the characteristics of great leaders, he offered his formula- “You work with all your stake holders to arrive at a collective vision; you encourage and assist the stake holders in carrying out that vision; and then you miss no opportunities to thank people for their efforts -both large and small”.
When I asked Bob to talk about significant programs that have made a difference - he mentioned two - the BHS Tutorial Program and The African American Scholars Program. Both programs are unique. One program changes the paradigm for Special Education and the Scholars Program changes the approach to educating African American students.
The BHS Tutorial Program utilizes the services of two high school teachers from the Math, Social Studies, World Language, and Science Departments who work with ten students four times a week in a tutorial setting providing content-based instruction.
For two years, the high school ran a pilot tutorial program for forty students and compared the results with forty other students whose academic profiles were almost identical who were taught in the Learning Center. All eighty students had diagnosed disabilities. The research conclusions were dramatic. According to Dr. Thomas Hehir of Harvard, “Students in the tutorial program made better progress than those in the Learning Center…. Many of these students have needs that can best be served within regular education and the Tutorial Program is an innovative and impressive attempt to do just that.”
Beginning in 2005-2006, supported by the research findings, the Tutorial Program was expanded from forty to two hundred and ten students. When this transforming program began there were two hundred and forty students in the Learning Center; today, only one hundred and sixty students.
The African American Scholars Program focuses on preparing its students to become, in the words of Dr. Weintraub “exemplary citizens and leaders of our country and of our world”. The program’s mission is to assist the scholars to achieve higher GPAs, higher scores on standardized tests, increase their enrollment in honors and AP courses, gain admission to the National Honor Society and get into leading colleges and universities. It achieves these goals by recruiting African American students in grades nine through twelve with a GPA of 2.7. The students are provided with a mentor and participate in year long activities and curricula designed to encourage academic success. Students attend twice weekly seminars which focus on adjustment to the high school, SAT prep, and are provided academic support and preparation for college. They attend a monthly speakers series featuring African American intellectuals and community leaders. Parental support and involvement is a key part of the program. The Scholars also visit the elementary schools and talk with African American students, encouraging them to achieve.
The results are stunning. The English/Language Arts MCAS scores in 2005 went from 32% advanced and proficient scores to 74% in 2007- a 131% difference and the Math MCAS scores went from 36% in 2005 to 67% in 2007- an 86% difference.
As I was leaving his office, I turned to Bob, still turned on by our two hour conversation and said,” We would have made an exciting team”.
Although I won’t be able to satisfy my fantasy of working with this inspirational national figure in secondary education, I can however recognize his many contributions to BHS by presenting Dr. Robert Weintraub with the Robert I. Sperber Leadership Award on behalf of the Brookline Education Foundation.
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