DEL.ICIO.USATLANTA
Jackson High lures students with academies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Students in the fine arts program at Maynard Jackson High School recently pointed their toes and delicately bent their arms to copy the ballet moves demonstrated by their teacher.
Down another wing at the south Atlanta school, rooms full of students learned about information technology, which covers everything from Web page design to computer operating systems to developing software. Students who succeed here can earn college credit or certification that allows them to start working.
Hyosub Shin/hshin@ajc.com
Tiffany Mingo-Davids (left), a full-time dance instructor, teaches Layshon Williams, 19, during dance class last week.
Hyosub Shin/hshin@ajc.com
Allen Robinson,17, works on his the Olympic torch during the arts class at Southside High School.
In a third area of the school, students take engineering classes and other advanced lessons through an early college program. Students here can graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree from Atlanta Metropolitan College.
This year, Jackson High became the fourth high school in Atlanta City Schools to transform into smaller learning environments. The campus, formerly called Southside High, was renamed to commemorate the city’s first black mayor. A ceremony marking the name change takes place Thursday.
“We’re not the big, cold, impersonal high school parents remember from when they were teenagers,” principal Shirlene Carter said. “We’re personalized and nurturing. We’re giving our students interesting and challenging programs.”
Converted high schools contain different academic themes, similar to a university with distinct colleges. Jackson High offers three — information technology, engineering early college, and fine arts/media communications. Students pick an academy and spend their time with teachers and classmates in those areas. Each academy has its own math, English, science and social studies teachers, in addition to instructors tied to the academic theme.
Superintendent Beverly Hall hopes to reverse the system’s high percentage of dropouts and low graduation rate by providing students with personal and challenging experiences found in smaller high schools.
The themes serve as hooks to get Jackson High’s nearly 1,000 students interested so they attend every day.
“There’s no drama or anything because you get why you’re learning what the teachers are teaching and you feel like you’re getting some real skills instead of just memorizing what seems like useless stuff,” said Antavious Earls, a junior enrolled in the information technology academy.
Atlanta’s high school transformation began in 2005 and should be complete by the 2011-12 school year.
District officials have said it would cost about $60 million for all nine high schools to change. The money is coming from public and private grants, including $10.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Atlanta Education Fund also solicits money from area philanthropists and other interested groups.
Carter said the school still is working out kinks. One issue is when students enrolled in one academy want to take college-level Advanced Placement courses offered in another, she said.
Sophomore Jacquline Chapman wasn’t aware of any problems the school needed to fix. She was too busy sculpting clay as a student in the fine arts academy.
“I don’t know why they didn’t make these changes sooner,” she said. “Doesn’t it make sense that we’ll do better in school if we actually like what we’re doing?”
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