01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 23, 2005

Over time, schools -- especially typical, public secondary schools -- have become impenetrable fortresses. The community outside most comprehensive, urban schools building has little relationship with the students and no influence on the inner workings of the school. Schools pay for isolation with a lack of community support, a dearth of outside resources and by doing without mutually beneficial relationships with other institutions.

For example, you would think that Paul Sproll, the impressively articulate head of the Art and Design Education Department at the Rhode Island School of Design, would be a yummy partner for the Hope High Arts Academy. Indeed, his department has been trying to partner with Hope since early in 2003, but as he puts it, "We're just a trophy partner."

Like a "trophy wife," world-renowned RISD is an impressive bauble on the school's arm, but not allowed to be a truly engaged, intellectual peer. Sproll says: "We need to imagine what a real working partnership would be. What gives me hope are the vignettes of possibility -- the end-of-year dance concert and student-written monologues, for example. But I would much rather be invited to a meeting about schedule, assessment, standards or curriculum."

Similarly, Gregg Betheil, senior vice president at the National Academy Foundation, had been trying to give technical assistance to Hope's Information Technology Academy, another of the school's small learning communities. "In our mind, we haven't left. But we're trying to avoid the politics right now. The [Hope] teachers are frustrated with having to commit and constantly recommit to new plans. We work in 627 academies in 40 states, and there's a high school like Hope in every state -- big, impersonal, not the first choice for most kids. If I were responsible for getting Hope's academy to be successful, I would start by pulling together partners. A number of available partners have never been asked to participate, but a variety of contributions from different partners would be a very important first step."

Partnerships with outside institutions can help build unique, attractive educational opportunities. Cities such as Pittsburgh, redeemed certain dismally performing schools by enlisting the help of partners such as the Pittsburgh zoo, the National Geographic Society, Carnegie Mellon University and others who helped the schools create popular, high-functioning magnet programs.

Such partner institutions need to be at the table -- on the school-improvement team or working with curriculum -- to bring their real-world expertise to help create programs that transition kids into the world of work and careers.

Not every school needs to be a magnet, but all high schools need community partners, if only to remind everyone of the realities that govern life beyond high school.

But the power of partnering doesn't stop there.

Sproll says of Hope High, "The non-arts teachers [math, English, science, etc.] were really interested in the power of the arts to engage." This is hugely important at a school with a 52 percent dropout rate. "Significantly lacking, however, is a clear vision about what this school could be. What makes the arts at Hope any different from any other school that has an arts program? On one pass, we can always take the kids through what, say, fashion designers do, but there's a process and a methodology to design that we can teach kids to apply to other areas of their lives. Art is about making meaning and meaning is about ideas. If we do it right, hopefully we'll have a more informed citizenry who can read the aesthetic landscape. How has that been created and what does it say to us? What specifically in the work suggests that meaning to us?"

Typical high school teachers don't talk like this, but surely some of them would thrive in the process of learning how to pass on meaning-making skills to kids, using their own language of math, social studies or English literature.

Betheil says, "Our academies are not about workforce preparation, but about how to engage kids. Whether it's a career theme or the arts, we don't care as long as the kids and partners are engaged. Kids apply to be in an academy only based on a vague interest. But when the theme is useful, it's used as a hook. It brings kids to school. Only about 60 percent of our grads are in IT after college. Actually, our industry partners are impressed that as many as 40 percent actually went into computer science, but that isn't the point. Holding on to the kid is."

Personalization is a huge issue with the NAF in general, and with Bethiel. "There are a lot of small schools that are just big schools in drag. It's just the same impersonal education with fewer kids." High schools often implement academies and theme programs to reduce their dropout rates. Such programs are popular because they offer a more engaging education, both because of the more personal, small-school atmosphere and because students can see the purpose of math, reading, science through the lens of a grownup world. Academy students still must pass their state tests and schoolwide end-of-course exams no matter how they learn math and English, but partnering with an outside agency can develop a stronger, more interesting flavor than the plain vanilla of general education.

However, such a non-trophy partnership assumes that the school has the freedom to develop their relationship. And here's the rub. Sproll says: "The [Providence] district needs to make up its mind. You can't have partial site-based management. They blow in the wind. It appears at one time that the school would have more freedom, but then the district pulled back. So the biggest struggle of the partnership is that we're still very much outsiders.'

What's especially sad about the particular instance of Hope's poor partnering is the extraordinary community resources that happen to lie right outside the doors of the building. Its walking-distance neighbors are RISD with its terrific museum, Brown University, the historical society, the Everett Dance Company and more.

Too many schools are reluctant to give community partners -- never mind parents -- strong voices on their governing councils or committees. As the Rhode Island commissioner of education eyeballs making state-mandated changes to Hope High -- changes which will hopefully serve as a template for other lacklustre Rhode Island high schools -- he should consider how to strengthen the role for outside partners. Some communities badly need help dismantling the fortress fiefdoms that underserve their students.

Julia Steiny is a former member of the Providence School Board; she now 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 [at] cox.net or c/o The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.