James Madison High: a school for winners; by instilling a sense of pride in students, teachers and parents, a principal restores a New York high school to its former glory

American Education, Nov, 1984 by Norman Fisher

The use of heterogenenous groupings has been most successful in foreign language instruction. We attribute the success to the fact that, unlike other disciplines, youngsters begin foreign language instruction without the need to have mastered previous concepts, as is true in other disciplines. All youngsters enter foreign language instruction without prerequisites and must go on to complete a three-year sequence. Our success in foreign language instruction is demonstrated by a passing percentage of more than 90 percent in French, Italian, and Spanish on the New York State Regents Examination. Many of our Level 1 Classes are taught with a Mastery Learning Model which enables youngsters to learn the language at their own rates. This program is based on the concept that most students can raise their level of achievement when given corrective feedback and/or enrichment materials during the learning diagnostic test prior to the formal test. Our success in foreign languages has encouraged us to introduce new offerings in Hebrew and Latin. A Foreign Language Apprentice Teacher Program has been implemented at local intermediate schools where our youngsters earn independent study credit while serving as tutors and assisting the lower school teachers.

The guidance staff meets with each student at least twice a term to review appropriate selections for our heterogeneous program. A paraprofessional is assigned to make telephone calls prior to the school day, beginning at 6:30 a.m. when parents are still at home, to arrange a meeting if the youngster is doing poorly or has poor attendance patterns.

An evening conference is held the first Thursday of each month, when the guidance staff invites parents to discuss problems they may be having with their youngsters. Parents are offered opportunities to exchange ideas with guidance staffers and to share common concerns about their youngsters' performances.

The guidance staff includes the deans, and unlike the traditional model of a dean's office in which the primary focus is to deal with disciplinary infractions, it has been a department that tries to be preventive rather than punitive. Our deans have been taught to be sympathetic listeners and to ensure that every youngster receives a similar response for the same infraction. In addition, only one dean remains in the office during any given period, while the other deans and school security officers are highly visible in our corridors, the student lunchroom, and in front of our school building. The number of suspensions has decreased dramatically from 199 in 1980-1981 to 96 in 1983-1984. In a recent junior high school students were harassed at a local video arcade, the youngsters chose to run the few blocks into our school for assistance. Although this is only soft data, it certainly is rewarding to know that a school that had witnessed racial disturbances two years before is now viewed as a sanctuary by some youngsters.

The support services and the recognition that everyone gets a "fair shake" at Madison are the key factors for our decline in the number of discipline problems.