Brookline High racing to close MCAS gap

Dan Devine

Massachusetts education leaders had reasons to celebrate last week: the reversal of “two years of flat performance” on the 2007 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests and increased percentages of students scoring “proficient” or “advanced” — the top two categories of MCAS scores — in every grade, on every test.

But with every positive educational announcement comes an inevitable negative: repeated reminders of a persistent achievement gap between white and minority students.

The talk is constant, and Brookline High School (BHS) Headmaster Dr. Robert J. Weintraub is sick of it.

He’s sick of the two words. “Achievement.” “Gap.” He spits the pair out like they’ve gone sour, following them with two of his own:

Repetitive. Demoralizing.

He’s sick of the violent reactions the words induce, like one he recalls following a conversation with an African American staff member at BHS.

“I asked him, ‘How does this tsunami of coverage about low test scores for blacks and achievement gaps make you feel?’” Weintraub says. “He slammed his hand on the table and said, ‘It’s embarrassing. It’s horrible that that’s all you hear about the black community, because it’s not even the whole picture.’”

Weintraub and the rest of the staff and students at Brookline High — a public school home to about 1,850 kids, about 10 percent of whom are African American, half coming from the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program — are doing a lot more than just talking.

In fact, they may be drawing up a blueprint for how to eliminate the gap for good.

According to the 2007 MCAS results for individual schools and districts released last week, 74 percent of African American students at BHS scored advanced or proficient on the 2007 English exam and 67 percent scored in those categories in math — numbers that may not seem particularly impressive when compared to advanced and proficient scores for BHS pupils as a whole (89 percent for English, 87 percent for math) or for the school’s white students (93 and 89, respectively).

But when you look at the scores for black BHS test-takers just three years ago, the sea change is evident — in 2005, just 32 percent scored advanced or proficient in English, with 36 percent accomplishing the feat in math.

That works out to a 131 percent increase in the amount of African American BHS students earning top-shelf scores in English, and an 86 percent leap in math — all in the space of just three years.

At a time when minority students in many other schools are still lagging behind their white peers, how is Brookline High making such massive strides toward eliminating racial disparities in MCAS achievement?

“I honestly think that the African American Scholars program has a lot to do with it,” says Weintraub.

About 60 students are part of the program, a gathering place for the school’s highest-achieving black students — kids with no lower than a B-minus average in high-level courses. The students meet frequently in peer groups and with the program’s director.

Focusing on the best and brightest is critical, says Weintraub, because the best way to transform a school’s culture is to make it a place where kids are respected, not denigrated, for their intellect.

“What [these kids] are all about is enrolling in high-level courses, working hard, doing well and getting high grades, and obviously moving on to high-level colleges,” he says. “The goal is not only to help these kids do even better, but also for them to be role models — to establish a core of elite African American scholars as a model, not just for the other African American kids, but for all kids.”

Sure, that’s great in theory. But how do you get a bunch of teenagers to believe that the kid who aces every test is a better model than the one with NBA hops and a wicked jump shot?

“You give them information, and you continue to give it to them over time,” says Weintraub. “You say to them, ‘Well, there are maybe 1,000 professional athletes in the country, and that’s great. Did you know that there are 20,000 African American lawyers, and 20,000 African American dentists, and 20,000 African American doctors out there?’ You have to transform their aspirations, in a sense.”

And if that doesn’t work, there’s always the bottom line.

“You can’t be looking toward a future as a professional athlete as a way to make money in this world,” he says. “The message is: athletics are great, but don’t go near planning on your future as a professional athlete as a way to make money. It’s just not going to happen, whereas it’s very possible to enter any of the professions if you’re a successful student.”

Weintraub acknowledges that the program’s focus on only the highest-achieving black students has ruffled some feathers in the neighborhood.

“There was some noise about, ‘Why don’t you serve all kids?’” he explains. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, it’s not like we’re not serving all kids — we’ve got all kinds of programs that serve all the kids,’” including the Brookline High School Tutorial, where all kids can get daily tutoring in a variety of subjects from the school’s regular teachers at no charge.

Part of the problem in pushing a program that aims to give additional attention to talented pupils, Weintraub continues, is the dominant perception that schools should focus more on those who are struggling.

“We’re faced with problems, right? And high-achieving kids don’t represent a problem, so they don’t get the attention. That’s a big deal,” he says. “Schools focus on problems, and so they’ve always focused on the kids who are underachieving … The high-achieving kids go along, they’re quiet for the most part, and they just do well. They don’t get the extra special attention.”

But at Brookline High School, they do.

“We’re going to change that. These are the kids who are going to be the leaders of our country. We’re going to transform the way we talk about achievement,” he says. “Now we’re going to talk about African American scholars as exemplary citizens and as leaders of our country and of our world. It’s time to do that. It’s time to transform that paradigm.”

And time to lay that gap talk to rest once and for all.

Without a catch in his breath, Weintraub speaks words that would send most administrators to the deck in a heap: in one, maybe two years, there will be no difference in educational achievement between whites and minorities.

The bar’s being lifted, and every BHS student is going to rise above it.

“I do believe that, because I think what we’ve conquered is the stereotype threat, the rumors that black kids can’t do well on these tests. And I think that’s huge,” he said. “The seniors and juniors have made their mark. They’ve eliminated the gap, to a large extent. Now, they have to work with the sophomores, the freshmen, even the eighth-graders — that’s the message. ‘We did it, you can do it.’

“I think there’s a huge message nationally here,” he said. “The message is: This is important, you can do this, and we’re going to help you do it. And we’ll celebrate your accomplishments. … The achievement gap at Brookline High School is something that’s history right now. Watch. It’s over.”