In 1994, James Monroe High School in the South Bronx had a graduation rate calculated by some to be as low as 15%. Its students came from some of the lowest-performing middle schools in the city. Supported by the Annenberg Challenge, a group of school reformers with close ties to the Coalition of Essential Schools were empowered to develop a group of small schools to replace the failing large school.

Fannie Lou is an outlier in terms of student outcomes for a free-lunch-eligible population, where many students enter over-age and almost all enter below grade level in math and English.

Statistics:

• In 2015, 90% of the students who entered Fannie Lou with 8th-grade test scores somewhat below proficient (Level Two) graduated in four years, compared to 81% of such students citywide.
• Of the students who entered with 8th-grade state test scores dramatically below proficiency (Level One), 62% graduated in four years as compared to 47% citywide.
• Overall, the four-year graduation rate was 66% and the six-year graduation rate was 77%, in contrast to 59% and 66% for a city-created comparison group.

District Policies

Fannie Lou is one of 126 NYC DOE PROSE schools (Progressive Redesign Opportunity for Schools of Excellence). The most recent teachers union contract created this program, which the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) website describes as follows: “for school communities where teachers want to take on the work of transforming their school communities, PROSE offers the ability to alter some of the most basic parameters by which our schools function — including the way teachers are hired, evaluated, and supported; the way students and teachers are programmed; the handling of grievances; and certain burdensome Chancellor’s Regulations.” Fannie Lou has used this opportunity to build peer observation into its teacher evaluation system.

State Policies

Fannie Lou belongs to a consortium of schools that operates under a waiver from the state’s high school testing policy. The only Regents examination required for graduation is English Language Arts. In lieu of the other four generally-required exams, students complete and present projects that are scored, using state-approved consortium rubrics.

• Students stay with the same teacher for two years to ensure that teachers know them well as people and as learners. In Division I (9th and 10th grade) students have one teacher for both ELA and social studies and a second teacher for science and mathematics. Those two teachers, plus a special education teacher, closely collaborate as they serve the same group of approximately 50 students for two years. In Division II (11th and 12th grade), students have a different teacher for each subject but still stay with some of the same teachers for two years.
• Ninth- and 10th-graders are grouped together, easing the transition for over-age entrants.
• The two-year curriculum in these grades is nonsequential and can thus be taken in either order. Similarly, 11th- and 12-graders take many of their courses in a two-year nonsequential curriculum. One benefit is that multiple teachers are teaching the same course in any given year and can collaborate on writing and revising curriculum and planning together how to cultivate student skills, understandings, and connections over a two-year period.
• Class periods of 60 to 105 minutes in the core subjects facilitate project-based instruction and individualization. Longer periods give the teachers who know students best the time to do academic intervention in a natural way without pulling students out.
• Students present digital portfolios of major projects initially to be promoted to Division II and then again as a graduation requirement.

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Across the curriculum, units are organized around themes with culminating projects that enable students to craft their own question and require substantial reading, writing, and revision. Teachers stress depth over breadth, encourage substantial class discussions, and make writing a routine part of class, even in math.

Interdisciplinary Approach

In Division 1, students take a two-credit humanities class taught by one teacher, combining English and history. Some units are thematic. For example, when students are studying and researching the Holocaust, they are also reading Night by Elie Wiesel. At other times, English and history may be taught as separate subjects but connected by a central question. A similar approach is used for science and mathematics.

Math

Teachers use materials developed by the Algebra Project at Harvard University. Typically, students come together around a shared experience in the physical world that guides a unit of study. In the words of a veteran math teacher, “Students have to move from how people describe the world to pulling out what are the features that are important for us to describe what we're describing, and then the abstract representations of the mathematics. From people, to features, to math.” For instance, students take a trip together, describe it in a “trip line,” and are guided to “mathematize” their experience in studying integers and vectors.

Advisory

The schoolwide curriculum for advisory addresses study skills, health, safety, social issues, community service, “restorative circles,” and preparation for college and careers. The school works closely with College Access: Research and Action (CARA:NYC) on its college exploration curriculum.

Use of Technology

As principal Jeff Palladino explained in a Washington Post article:  “Using iPads to teach literacy to create asynchronous classrooms so students can read different books at their own pace and work on student-teacher-decided literacy goals has assisted us in giving students ownership over their reading. Transitioning from paper portfolios to digital portfolios has been very beneficial to students, families, and staff. Students are now able to have a collection of their best work throughout their four years of high school in one digital site. Students and families can access this work at any time; it is a powerful archive of student learning and achievement.”

College-Level Work

Two Division II teachers are trained in and teach courses designed by the City University of New York (CUNY) to prepare students for college-level reading and writing. Students also have opportunities to take college courses at New York University and Hostos Community College.

Teaching Reading to Secondary Students

Fannie Lou has created an iBook with text and video demonstrating how teachers diagnose and address their students' issues with decoding, fluency, and comprehension.  It can be downloaded for free here.

Division I (9th and 10th grade)

This is a schedule for approximately 25 9th- and 10th-graders who travel together all day. Their classrooms, including the gymnasium, are only a few steps away from each other so there is no need for passing time. Each student group has a different class-change schedule so there is never congestion in the hallway.

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Division II (11th and 12th grade)

Unlike Division I, students do not travel in cohorts, and they have a different teacher for each subject. However, like Division I, two grades are mixed and students stay with the same teachers for two years in a two-year nonsequential curriculum. Classes are held on a different floor so students from the two divisions never mix in the hallways.

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Because of a special waiver from the state, the school only gives one state exam, in English language arts, as a graduation requirement. Not giving state tests in science, social studies, and math has freed the school up to emphasize depth over breadth in content coverage and sustained effort and revision over timed tests. The main forms of high-stakes assessments are written projects and oral presentation of those projects. In addition to completing and presenting projects every semester in every subject, students must present and defend a portfolio to move from Division I to Division II. Graduating seniors complete seven “mastery” papers. Four of these papers, in math, social studies, science, and English, are judged with state-approved rubrics used by a group of schools called the New York Performance Assessment Consortium.

As the school has grown larger, due to overcrowding in the Bronx, some adjustments have been made to ease the paper burden on teachers and advisors — focusing less on documenting progress over time and more on mastery. However, recent digitization of the portfolio process has made it easier to collect and examine more work.

Most of the students who enroll in college immediately after graduation attend branches of the City University of New York (CUNY). The high school has an arrangement with CUNY for students to prepare for and take the CUNY entrance examinations necessary to place out of remedial courses while they are still high school seniors.

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Every student participates in community service and/or extended learning opportunities. An important student-run event is the annual “Peace Block Party” held in a park across the street from the school to oppose gangs and gun violence. In the words of one student, “Student government is the voice of Fannie Lou. Every time there’s an event here, they call student government to get the things done. We are a major help in the school.” The championship male basketball team, the subject of a New York Times article, has a 100% graduation rate.

Teachers have broad decision-making powers, particularly regarding curriculum and professional development. The NYC Department of Education’s 2015 School Quality Review for Fannie Lou Hamer concluded: “Teacher teams consistently engage in organized, collaborative work utilizing an inquiry approach that focuses on analyzing a variety of data and student work. Leadership structures provide teachers with opportunities to engage in instructional decisions. The work of teacher teams has led to improved teacher practices and progress toward student learning outcomes that are aligned to schoolwide goals. A distributive leadership structure engages teachers in instructional decisions that impact student learning."

Advisors meet several times per year with advisees and their familes to review student work, set goals, and develop strategies to ensure the best possible experience for the student. A full-time parent coordinator recruits new families, connects families to Children’s Aid services, school and parent programs, and events and reaches out to families to address issues and encourage involvement. Families are invited to participate in student portfolio presentations.