In the Name of Change

[Maria Lam]

In my first year of teaching, the Philadelphia Teaching Fellows had graciously placed me in an urban, large, and run-down school. True to their mission statement, the Fellows dropped me into a ring of fire, a school that made Philadelphia’s persistently violent list for six years in a row. West Philadelphia High School, in its 110 years of existence, had gone through bouts of success and failures, but in 2006, the community deemed the school as one of the worst in the city.
This is not to say that I went into the school blindly, but news helicopters circling the school on a daily basis, period bells signaling bloody fights, students setting daily arsons, and a rapidly diminishing student population were a little more than I had expected. How was I, the community, and most importantly, the students, going to survive many more minutes, periods, and days like this?
Needless to say, I survived. Actually, in hindsight, I came out seeing a school completely transform. But while I was teaching there, those two years were more about survival than change for me. Now, as I enter my fourth year of teaching, I realize the possibility of changing my new school for the better is there. My time at West Philadelphia High School had given me an accelerated model of how certain conditions in a school can be rectified. Through analyzing the steps that West Philadelphia High used to reform its school, I hope to try and change some of the problems at the school I currently teach at.
I begin from the end, through noting the results that occurred in 2007. The principal was removed mid-year in 2007 and a new administration was brought in for the next school year. This included a new principal, new vice principals, a new budget, and new expectations. To my surprise, the changes were drastic. Rather than just having a person dubbed, “Leader of School Climate Control” we saw climate change. The students painted the school colors outside. Tangible rules were posted on the corners and followed. Yelling at people was changed into speaking in a civil manner. Gradually, positive climate change contributed to the school’s culture change. In school and classroom held meetings, more students expressed how the arsons were embarrassing and a hindrance to learning. Fights were mediated through counseling with parents, teachers, and students, rather than ignored. School police were asked to treat the students less like criminals, and more like human beings. As a result, teacher and student attendance improved as a testament to the positive growth. Just a year ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, “School staffers have been pushed, slapped, and struck with objects. Students have pulled staffers' hair and sprayed them with fire extinguishers” whereas now, the same paper reported the school’s upturn.
I was in awe when watching this change occur. How did a school of such low standards, statistics, and morale, complete a transformation of such great magnitude? Was it all in the new administration? Was it the mediation? Was it the new teachers? The answers came with a combination of changes. When identifying West Philadelphia High’s school culture in 2006 and then 2007, using an article titled, “Improving School Culture” West Philadelphia High went from “cabaret culture” or a school that is “all show, no go” to “family culture” where “the most important element is concern for each other, and staff commitment to students and their culture is common”. Identifying school culture is important because you then know where to begin. Since West Philadelphia High School had a cabaret culture, we knew that we had to stop being a spectacle for the news. We needed positive media reports to change public and private perception. This also meant that the school was not a place for individual performers. Everyone would have to work in unison so that a more real and humane atmosphere could be created. The essential cultural changes that came at West Philadelphia High involved three important steps: concern, control, and action.
The school began its changes by listening to everyone’s voice. Through informal and formal surveys, the new administration unveiled the concerns of the janitor, school police, lunch aides, local businesses, parents, teachers, and students. Each person’s concern was acknowledged, documented, and prioritized. In an article titled, “School Characteristics That Influence Student Attendance” by Julia Wilkins, she describes how the collaborative atmosphere is central in developing a sense of community and this is how the school was able to assess its concerns while allowing everyone to take part in its reform. It started the school on a new common ground, shared sincere concern for the school.
Then, everyone was given the power to change. Whether the change was to come in the form of school police’s positive greeting at the metal detectors, or having students respect their textbooks, or giving time for teachers to hold department meetings, everyone partook in improving the school in whatever way they knew best. Now, this is an atypical procedure at many schools because most schools are run using a “top-down” model. An article titled, “Great American Schools: The Power of Culture and Passion” notes that democratic principles are usually absent from schools. Yet, it is when everyone contributes to a school’s change that they feel invested in their role. By having a school community where everyone’s needs are respected and valued, the school feels less hierarchal and more consensus-based.
But voicing concerns and feeling empowered was not enough to change West Philadelphia High School. Action and hard work had to accompany ideas and missions in order for the true transformation to take place. One article by Kurt Clausen noted that this process can be tied to the metaphor of “tending a garden”. A school must constantly be cultivated. For our new administration, this meant that the classrooms were given their equipment, for the school police, this meant that disciplinary rules were in place, for teachers, this meant that they used whatever means necessary to teach the students, and for the students, this meant being responsible and learning. Each person played their part in conjunction with the others, and in this way, the school was able to affect change.
I left West Philadelphia High School feeling like I had just witnessed a miracle. As a Teaching Fellow, I had believed in change before as part of an idealistic graduate’s dream. When I had actually experienced this school’s transformation, I realized that positive school culture is something that can be achieved. Now, when analyzing the school I currently teach at, I identify its culture as the “Little Shop of Horrors” or a place where “tension and stress are abound. People view it as a prison.” The administration feels pressured by statistics and the need to standardize American education. Teachers feel diminished by the administration because they are unable to express their intentions and creativity in such a rigid setting. Students sense this tension and want to escape the “prison” does not consider their needs. I think that steps for positive change will have to involve a similar process that West Philadelphia High School took. My school also needs to head towards a “family culture” and I believe that by allowing everyone to voice concern over these restraints and then trying different plans for change by meshing standards and creativity, the school will begin to feel less like a prison and more like the haven that it should be.