Our urban students deserve more...

Model Secondary Schools Project

About Us

Phone: 206-953-3078

E-mail: rm@modelschoolsproject.org

About the Model Secondary Schools Project

                                                                                                  

Linda Keller and Ron MacDonald are co-directors of the Model Secondary Schools Project.  In the past seven years we have worked with urban school districts across the country to startup schools with a strong focus on meeting the education needs of urban students. This partnership began with the creation of an online school in the state of Washington (our home), followed by work with urban school teams in public school districts to create eight new small urban public high schools with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Currently we are working with the Rochester City School District in upstate New York to convert two comprehensive high schools into seven high performing small high schools.  This involves working with school teams and the school district on issues related to leadership, instruction, school operations and technology.

 

Our background and experience includes many years of:

teaching,

school administration,

technology planning and implementation,

personalizing instruction to meet the needs of students,

assisting school teams in improving their operations, instruction and performance

facilitating long and short term planning and organizational development for teams of administrators and teachers.

 

We are experienced in working in the politically charged climate of urban schools, and in assisting schools with a history of failing performance.  We are proud of the results we have seen as school teams we have assisted organize their efforts and uncover their capability to bring success to their students.

 

As educators, we are firm believers in and have had the opportunity to personally experience the potential of students and educators to demonstrate high performance when attitudes and improved communications improve the conditions and climate of urban schools.  Our role has been to help teams of educators come together around their common purpose, to provide the facilitation, resources, information, training and technical assistance needed to reach for heightened visions and expectations.

 

In just a few years, three of the schools we have worked with have risen to the status of models for others. Tech Boston Academy, Detroit Technology High School and Global Media Arts High School in Rochester, New York, have each demonstrated substantial improvements in school organization leading to student performance far surpassing other schools in their communities.  Among the first question always asked is “Where did the students come from ?”(meaning were these students selected for their ability to succeed).  The answer is no, these are students from low income urban communities assigned to the school by the district or selected at random using a lottery.   What do these schools do differently?  A few things:

Teachers and administrators are committed to doing whatever it takes to help every student become successful, no matter what their prior history.

The school is tightly organized around a clear vision for the pedagogy they will utilize to support students.

The staff works together as a collaborative professional community building as rapidly as possible their own capacity for doing even better.

Students are given personalized assistance in reaching for higher academic performance.

The schools have intentionally created a climate of success, respect and responsibility.

Both students and teachers have substantial and ready access to technology.

 

 

We believe this experience and our skills are of significant help in restructuring schools to meet the needs of urban students.

To contact us: