A distinguished professor of education from the United States and a former teacher at a transformed local high school both agree that working with community stakeholders such as churches, businesses and youth groups to develop programmes to respond to the people’s needs is critical to changing the output of underperforming schools.

They made the observations at a seminar entitled “Education for social and economic development: Toward a more equitable and just Jamaica in the 21st century”, held at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, last Thursday.

Professor Pedro Noguera, a professor of education from New York University, said ‘failing schools’ — wherever they are located — “lack the capacity to respond to the needs of their students” and noted that these schools were typically located in communities with high rates of poverty, unemployment and crime.

Relating a number of examples of schools that were able to overcome their challenges and perform at a high level, Noguera spoke about a public school in the predominantly poor African-American community of Bedford-Stuyvesant in New York in which 40 per cent of the students were homeless.

He said the principal forged partnerships with social workers, the YMCA, guidance counsellors and adult education programmes to ensure that up to four adults were in each classroom at the same time. Noguera said the principal also ensured that the school remained open until 6:00 pm each day, to coincide with the times the homeless shelters opened.

In another example of a New York school, a teacher got the students interested in science by developing a project to test soil contaminated by lead in their backyards. They even petitioned the city to address the problem by providing new topsoil for the gardens.

“Those children don’t see themselves just as thugs, they see themselves as scientists now,” he said.

Citing the example of a poor community in Florida which has produced more professional American football players than any other, Noguera lamented the fact that many Americans value sports over education.

“If we invested as much in education as we do in football, that community would be producing scientists,” he said.

Other recommendations from the professor include:

* regular assessment of students throughout the year instead of only at the end of the year;

* early intervention to address learning problems; and

* have the best teachers teaching the most needy students.

He said while computers can play a role in learning, “it’s the culture that sets schools apart, not the technology”.

Noguera also called on Jamaica to develop new schools catering to persons most in need of education, such as boys, teen mothers, persons with disabilities and incarcerated youth.

Dr Jacqueline Oram-Sterling, lecturer at Mico University College and a former teacher at Denbigh High School in Clarendon, spoke about how the school — led by then acting principal Joan Wint — starting in 1985 was transformed from a school of mostly problem students with poor attendance, to an institution of choice for students sitting the Grade Six Achievement Test in the parish.

Some of the game-changing moves made by the school’s leadership were its establishment as a centre for the UWI Open Campus; the use of its woodwork, agriculture, art and craft and welding facilities in producing products for sale to the community; the sharing of the plant by community groups; the beautification of the school; and the recruitment of a team of young dedicated teachers.

“She (Wint) had a vision of the school being the best. If it was going to be a remedial school, it was going to be the best remedial school. If it was going to be a vocational school, it was going to be the best vocational school,” Oram-Sterling said.

Today, Denbigh High — with a population of 1,500 students and 75 teachers — boasts its own sixth form and an expanded curriculum.

The seminar was one of a series of public conversations being hosted by UWI’s Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies as the country celebrates 50 years of nationhood.