01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 29, 2006

To a merely polite, "How are you?" Brian Abdallah, principal of Roosevelt Middle School in New Bedford, earnestly replied: "We're not in crisis, and the reason we're not is that we handle all crises immediately. Immediately. Because we have a lot of them."

Sheesh. Intense.

Granted, the building is a spiffy oasis of orderly newness in an old working-class neighborhood, in a city with some tough neighborhoods and the occasional shooting. About 82 percent of Roosevelt's kids are eligible for subsidized lunch and 11 percent are English language learners. The population is very transitory, so the school must get as much learning into each kid as possible. The staff will be held accountable for whoever takes the MCAS tests that year, no matter what the challenge or how long they've been there.

Granted, in the first round of No Child Left Behind accountability, Roosevelt was among the first schools in the state to be designated low-performing -- on track for the shame and disruption of being restructured by the higher-ups. Eighty-seven percent of the kids failed the math MCAS. At the time, Roosevelt was an old junior high in a dilapidated, depressing facility.

But in the fall of 2001, the school reopened in a sparkling new facility, with a lot of new staff members -- many bailed out rather than endure failure -- and with Abdallah as the new principal. An administrator in a variety of schools in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, he came with a lot of experience and some very strong opinions.

For example, Abdallah is a great fan of the middle-school model as recommended by the Carnegie report, "Turning Points," so Roosevelt is divided into three "houses," or schools-within-schools. Within each house, teacher teams work with specific kids. Each house has it's own school improvement team, about whom Abdallah says, "The teachers are empowered to make decisions on their own teams with parents and students. They can decide whatever they want, as long as it is not in violation of any school, state or federal policies."

He believes so strongly in teacher autonomy that when the district told him he had to cut a million dollars from his budget, he put the issue before the teachers. They gave him a surprising directive. Cut what you must, but preserve our three priorities -- the administrative structure, the middle-school model and core academics.

At Roosevelt, core academics includes English language arts separate from literacy, which focuses on reading skills. So music and foreign language had to be kicked to after-school clubs. Bilingual was gone. Consultants were gone. And so forth.

The middle-school model includes common-planning time, teams, houses and strong to personal attention to the kids.

But to me the most surprising priority, which was actually the teachers' number one, was keeping the enormous administrative staff -- seven administrators for a building of 900 kids. But that's what makes the place so high-functioning. The kids are not the only challenge, after all. The building has high teacher-turnover -- and with the Boomers retiring, Abdallah assumes this will continue -- so Roosevelt is often a training ground for novices. New teachers need on-going support and guidance so they can be maximally effective and confident in supporting and guiding the kids.

As a result, the school takes great pride in its improving MCAS scores and having pulled themselves off the bad-schools list. Roosevelt is a New England League of Middle Schools "spotlight" school, and conferences often invite the staff to describe their unusual organization.

Besides Abdallah, each house has an assistant principal. Right there, that's a lot for 900 kids, but to boot, residing on each floor is also a curriculum supervisor -- three in all -- who specialize in and oversee the content areas for the school as a whole. But they are also available to their house as an added administrator if need be. Together the content supervisor and teachers study the student data and brainstorm how to overcome obstacles. The novice teachers were effusively grateful for the guidance and help they were getting.

Abdallah believes the only way for schools to have ongoing professional development for teachers is to get them to go out and become experts themselves.

"Everyone needs to step up to be a leader. Everyone has to be an expert in something. There's no reason why we can't call on a teacher to take over the Effective Teacher Meeting," their in-house training that meets every sixth common-planning period.

Furthermore, each floor has a "student success center" staffed by a guidance person.

No wonder they can manage a crisis.

Roosevelt has, in effect, a structure of nested supports -- supports to teachers so the teachers are maximally effective supporting the kids.

Rhonda Fitzgerald, sixth grade English, literacy and science teacher, says "I'm pretty sure we work harder than many other teachers, but it's worth it because the kids are successful. Our kids are very motivated to learn, so we do everything we can to adjust to the needs to the student."

Guidance counselor Louise Murphy says, "I like that we are treated as professionals. We are expected to act like professionals, so we do. Unfortunately, many teachers just don't look at themselves that way."

"We're the phoenix rising from the ashes," crows Abdallah.

Next week we'll look at how Roosevelt uses William Glasser's "Choice Theory" to manage its school climate, because it's not just the grownups who are taking on increased responsibilities.

Julia Steiny is a former member of the Providence School Board; she consults and writes for a number of education, government and private enterprises. She welcomes your questions and comments on education. She can be reached by e-mail at juliasteiny@cox.net or c/o The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.