Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership a game changer for city schools, now a model for others

SPRINGFIELD — Nearly a decade after a state and local partnership was created to radically remake eight underperforming middle schools, Springfield schools today have rebounded and become a national model, recently attracting groups from across the U.S. to see the success for themselves.

This spring, a group from Georgia spent a whole day visiting Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership schools to find out how they operate, and to observe students and teachers in several classrooms that are part of the zone.

Educational leaders and community activists from Colorado, Delaware and Indiana are scheduling visits to find out if they could replicate Springfield’s success in their own home school districts.

Why the national interest?

Since the start of the Empowerment Zone, the districts schools have reversed course on former negative trends, with high school graduation rates now up by 37%.

Under the management of the Zone Partnership established in 2015, the city’s graduation rate — rising from 62% in 2014 to 85% in 2022 — is now closing the gap with the statewide graduation rate of 90%.

Meanwhile, data shows that the percent of 11th and 12th graders completing advanced coursework increased from 27% in 2018 to 64% in 2023. And nearly 80% of the zone’s schools have made substantial progress in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, data shows.

Also, over the last five years, the percent of school leaders of color has grown 160%, and educators of color have grown by 54%, better reflecting the student body’s ethnic makeup.

From struggling to striving

Governed by a private nonprofit collaborative composed of the Springfield Public Schools, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education along with the Springfield Education Association union, the empowerment zone is turning struggling students into striving ones.

Colleen Curran, co-executive of the partnership along with Matt Brunell, noted that the zone’s reach increased not too long after its start.

“Within 18 months, we added the High School of Commerce, the first nine-through-12 program in the zone,” she said. Curran noted that John J. Duggan Academy, one of the original zone schools, has since expanded to include grades nine through 12.

There’s no such thing as “‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to education,” Curran said. “We believe that schools should have the power to make their own decisions tailored to their students’ unique needs.”

That school-level empowerment is a major key to the model’s success, she said. Examples include decisions to create new specialized schools designed to better meet student needs. The fledgling Polytech Early College High School, within the Chestnut Middle School building, is one of those schools.

High-speed lane to college

Discovery High School Executive Principal Declan O’Connor said students start taking college courses along with high school requirements beginning in ninth grade.

Now in its third year, the school’s 187 students have collectively earned 1,400 college credits, O’Connor said.

Under the “wall-to-wall” early college model, students take college classes through a collaboration with Worcester State University, Western New England University, and Springfield Technical and Holyoke Community colleges, where they can earn at least six credits a semester.

Students can choose to defer graduation for a fifth year, or they can apply credits earned toward a bachelor’s degree, O’Connor said, adding that the money saved is a “game changer” for students from low-income families.

Discovery also has adopted a “pathways” model, in which students participate in internship experiences in one of several technology-centered majors, including cybersecurity, mechanical engineering, optics and photonics, interactive media, biotechnology and IT engineering.

What the kids say

During a recent group interview at the school, four juniors — who had all just returned to the Chestnut campus after spending the morning taking classes at local community colleges, said they were excited about becoming the first school’s first graduates, while acknowledging there were bumps along the way.

“I failed my first college course,” said 17-year-old Sonny Casano, who now has almost 30 credits.

“I failed, too,” said 16-year-old Yamilex Arroyo Montanez, who is now closing in on 27 college credits. She said she feels at home at Discovery and likes being part of the “tight-knit” class of 60.

“Lightning struck in sophomore year,” Casano said. “That’s when I got serious. I made up all my work, watched my peers, and said to myself, ‘This is a big opportunity, I’d better get on board.’”

Casano said the atmosphere at Discovery started feeling more like family. “We began to take ourselves seriously because the teachers treated us like adults,” he said. adding, “We’re college kids now.”

‘They can do this’

Farrika Turner, Discovery assistant principal and co-founder of the school, said, “We learned a lot that first year. We realized the students needed more support, so we added a helpline and a learning coach who helps teach them how to be college students. That means managing their workload and handing in papers on time. They can do this,” she said.

Erik Moniel, 16, learned about gaining college credits back in middle school while in a Zoom class during the pandemic. He had already selected Central High School for ninth grade.

Now, Moniel said he hopes to earn an associate degree and get a job dealing with lasers and fiber optics by the time he graduates. Casano, also drawn to fiber optics, hopes to get a job when he completes his studies.

For Izabella Martinez, 17, the accelerated pace at the school was a selling point.

“I’m a good student, but I don’t like being in school, so I liked the idea of speeding up the process,” said Martinez, who now has almost 30 college credits and is eyeing a college major in molecular biology.

Outside-the-box education

The power of zone leaders to create smaller high school models, like Discovery, flows from the zone-wide autonomy “to think outside of the box,” Curran said.

Two other zone schools — Springfield Honors Academy and Aspire Academy, both in wings of Commerce — were born from that kind of creative thinking, she said.

Honors Academy Executive Principal Grace Howard-Donlin, and Principal Dena Cooper, said students who seek admission to the school must understand that they will be required to begin taking Advanced Placement classes in their freshman year.

“The idea is not to accept honors students, but to make honors students out of them once they get here,” Cooper said, noting that there is no test to seek admission. “Students don’t have to be number one in their middle school classes. They just have to be willing to do the work.”

“The staff helps students pace themselves while instilling in them a can-do-mentality, coupled with tough love,” Howard-Donlin said, noting that the students rise to the challenge.

The Honors Academy, founded in 2021, offers 17 different AP courses, ranging from STEM disciplines like science and math to liberal arts class like English and history. Students in the school’s first graduating class will have, on average, four to five AP credits when they get their diplomas, Howard-Donlin said.

Two of this year’s graduates have received full scholarships — one to Boston College and the other to Oberlin. The scholarships are given to students who are the first in their families to attend college.

Rallying around different kinds of learners

Aspire Academy has an entirely different focus than the honors program. The program enrolls 66 students who had failed to complete high school.

Tiffany Carr, principal and founder of the academy, now in its first year, said the school was designed to meet the needs of “over-aged and under-credited students, who weren’t succeeding in other schools.”

For many of the students — currently ranging in age from 14 to 19 — poor school attendance has been a problem, Carr said. “There’s not one issue stopping them from attendance,” she said. “It’s a bunch of little issues.”

“For example, some had family obligations like bringing the younger brothers and sisters to school, making it impossible for them to get to school on time,” she said, adding that the students are capable of doing the work.

Aspire uses a hybrid approach to education, she said. Teachers are available online to chat with students and help them with self-paced studies, and students can also take traditional classes. “If they need, they can attend an in-school English class,” she said.

Classes are not confined to the school year, she said, so school is in session during vacation breaks and the summer months.

The school’s goal is to help students “gain additional credits to put them on a career pathway,” Carr said.

To accomplish that goal, Aspire has formed a partnership with Springfield Technical Community College to help students become certified nurse assistants, putting them on a course to a job when they graduate.

Visitor greatly impressed

Jonathan Leon, who was part of the visiting team from Atlanta, Georgia, that came to the area to learn about the model, said he left impressed with the collaborative spirit, culture and climate across the entire system.

“The empowerment zone stakeholders — from teachers unions to parents and community to elected officials — are all working together,” he said. “To hear about the sacrifices each made to serve kids’ interest illustrates how we can work towards positive student outcomes.”

Leon said there were lessons learned that could serve the city of Atlanta, such as collaboration across titles and positions to make change happen more quickly.

He said, “The culture and climate in schools was top-notch: Teachers, students and teachers engaged in the content, loving logic and structures to support student success, and ultimately leaders in buildings motivating staff and students toward success.”

Work to be done

Brunell, meanwhile, pointed to the change the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership has made to the operation of schools in the city over the last decade.

“They have intentionally started and improved schools based solely on the individual needs of students and families, including launching schools for populations as diverse as newcomers and overage students, as well as providing early college for all students. And they have done it all with the voices of families and educators front and center,” Brunell said.

Like other schools, the empowerment zone is facing the current challenges in education, such as meeting students’ mental health needs and boosting literacy skills following a decline due to the pandemic.

The empowerment zone is not resting on its laurels, though, Curran said. “The one thing that is constant is change,” she said.

Facts about the zone

• Over 5,000 students study in Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership schools, which is part of the Springfield Public Schools. Overall, about 23,700 students are enrolled in the district.
• In 2015, 100 percent of empowerment students were in schools in the bottom of the 10th percentile in the state. Latest data shows 50 percent of students are in schools above the 10th percentile in the state, and nearly 25 percent of students are in schools in the 20th percentile or higher in the state.
• Since 2017, only three schools serving grades six through 12 in the state have exited underperforming status. Two are Springfield schools: Chestnut Middle School and Duggan Academy.
• Over the last seven years, the single highest improving school in the state was Chestnut Middle School.
• In 2022, two zone schools have higher graduation rates than the state average: Springfield Honors Academy at 99 percent and Duggan Academy at 96 percent.
• The High School of Commerce’s graduation rate has increased from 47 percent in 2017 to 86 percent in 2022.
• Empowerment schools have received $3.5 million in federal and state grants for programming.

Sources: Springfield Public Schools; Springfield Education Zone Empowerment Partnership