I always find these sorts of stories inspirational, even if they are from the Washington, DC schools. -ML Teacher's Joy Propels Students to Strive Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 11, 2000; Page B01 John F. Kennedy High School is usually an outcast when the talk turns to academic excellence among Montgomery County schools, its test scores too low, its students too challenged. Yet Kennedy has made educators in one of the nation's best large school systems sit up and take notice this year. Largely because of the efforts of one young teacher and dozens of students who heeded the call, this very diverse school in the working-class reaches of Silver Spring is the setting for a story of academic inspiration. This fall, 147 of its students enrolled in advanced placement biology, a number that makes every other school in the county pale by comparison. More than twice as many students are taking the rigorous, college-level science course at Kennedy than at any of the 22 other high schools in Montgomery County. The school used to get only enough student interest for one class of AP biology every other year. Now five classes are filled. "The kids are showing that they're willing to try," said Jill Garrison Dean, who started teaching at Kennedy three years ago, fresh out of college in rural Pennsylvania. "I don't expect them all to get an A. But they're pushing themselves. They're trying, and they're becoming successful." Dean's enthusiasm has not gone unnoticed. "What Jill does is dispel the myth that kids won't take these hard courses, and she does that in a big-time way," Montgomery Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said. "She's dispelled the myth that kids at Kennedy take low [level] courses and that people have low expectations for them." In recent years, Montgomery schools have been on a mission to raise the number of students enrolled in honors and advanced placement courses. This spring, 4,626 county students took at least one AP test, a 32 percent increase from 1999. The proportion of black and Latino students enrolled in those courses, though, continues to lag behind that of white and Asian American students. And that's another reason the experience at Kennedy, a school of 1,400 students that is nearly two-thirds black and Latino, has drawn Weast's praise: The AP biology classes reflect the school's diversity. "It clearly demonstrates that our kids have the ability and the willingness to learn," Principal Sheila Dobbins said. Of Dean, she said: "I think anybody who would have had her as a teacher would have excelled at AP biology." Yet the most important praise comes from Dean's students. "She's a big inspiration. It's challenging, it's tough, but she makes it fun," said Ana Varela, a junior who took the class partly because her older brother had taken it. In fact, she said, he is now a biology major in college because of Dean's motivation. "She explains things really well, and it's not boring," said Mariden Lord, a junior who during a recent class was sharing a microscope with Ana Varela, looking for bacteria in a tiny sample of dirt. In fact, it was the students themselves who played a big role in attracting so many of their peers to take the class this year. Hoping to increase the number of sections of the class from one to two, Dean and last year's students went to other science classes to recruit. "It was really the kids in the class last year. They were key," she said. "A teacher can go in and give reasons why kids should take a class. But when the kids said, 'It's AP, but we love it,' they sold it. They were fantastic." Said senior Jackie Johnson: "She really hyped up the class for us and said it would be really challenging, but fun as well. Sometimes, I think teachers don't motivate students enough. She does." Jayson Wilkinson, a junior on the track team, got to know Dean last year because she is also a track coach. "It's challenging," Wilkinson said of the biology course. "But she helps along the way." Dean accepted a job offer from Kennedy three years ago largely because the school, which has one of the highest staff turnover rates in the county, offered her the opportunity to teach the higher-level class, a prime assignment that in other schools would not be open to rookie teachers. The school's SAT scores last year hovered at 958, compared with the countywide average of 1093. A full 72 percent of students failed the Algebra I exams in January, compared with 64 percent countywide. And 1 in 5 students came to the school or left last year, a mobility rate that only complicates the job of educating students there. Dean credits administrators at the school with offering support and resources. And she praises fellow teachers Donald Walker and Matt Jones, both of whom were drafted over the summer to help with the added workload. The three teachers have been staying after school to offer help to students who need it. "We've gotten students who want to drop it, and that's usually because they feel overloaded," Walker said. "For the most part, every student that we have has the capability to perform. It's our job to motivate them." Dean said the experience has been, in many ways, as challenging for the teachers as it has for the students. "A lot of our students are first-time AP students who need a lot of support," she said. "So, they're pushing themselves, and we're pushing ourselves as teachers." The teacher said she's not predicting that there will be enough student interest next year to again offer five classes of AP biology. But she is confident that the school will continue to have a strong program. Despite the negative comments she heard about the school before agreeing to work there, she said she has enjoyed her stay and intends to remain with Kennedy. "I have found that this is a good fit," she said. � 2000 The Washington Post Company ---------------- This is the ISTA-talk mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a message to <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or visit the following URL: <http://www.ista-il.org/about/mail_list.html>.
