This week’s EdWeek profiled a Massachusetts high school, M.C. Durfee, and its march toward improved graduation rates and cultural renovation (http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/10/34suburban.h29.html?tkn=UMUFgg6gxdvwya%2BRnkRGMNAn7ARw5aeicTs3&cmp=clp-edweek). 

Frankly, their approach is nothing new to the education reform space; investigate data in key areas including attendance, dropout, failure, and year-to-year retention rates and begin to unpack noticeable trends across cohorts. More impressive are the Durfee HS turnaround recipe ingredients including interventions and strategies built from student feedback and based on knowledge about external student barriers to success. As quoted by one school official, “the trick was pairing that (data in key areas) information with a close analysis of the norms and policies in the school and an effort to respond to students’ needs and interests.” Durfee HS officials spent time listening and learning from student input and built solutions that honored the balanced between Durfee HS student education and home and life needs. Intervention examples include alternative delivery mechanisms for credit-recovery and alternative class schedules. 

Additionally, access to school is critical; if students are unable to get to school, there is no opportunity for instruction. In the case of Durfee HS, school officials dug deeper into attendance rates to uncover many families were struggling with affording busing options. The district took measures to subsidize busing costs and over time, attendance increased. 

Real innovative school reform strategies will be borne from the practice of investigating data in key areas and coupling findings with additional context to really address students’ core obstacles. The consequent strategies should reflect the constellation of levers that must be pulled in concert to really make the kind of dramatic change our schools need.