Iris Toyer, co-chairman of Parents United and mother of a sixth grader at Stanton Elementary School, said she thinks that overall the plan looks good on paper. But she expressed concern about the availability of necessary funding to support the effort.

"My concern has to be: ‘Will the school system be able to afford the changes they’re proposing in the reform plan?’" Toyer said. "Will parents and students get what they are promised? I want this to work, but it takes resources."

Anacostia, Eastern and H.D. Woodson have been selected by Superintendent Paul L. Vance as the first three high schools out of 17 in the District at which the reform plan will be implemented in the upcoming school year.

Darlene Allen, president of the D.C. Congress of Parent and Teacher Associations, said she sees the reform effort as a "plan in progress" and hopes that the three high schools chosen to begin the transformation will serve as pilot schools. She said this way the students attending them will see their performance as a positive role model that will eventually spread to the other 14 schools.

"I [and the PTA] am hoping that it is a comprehensive approach and that we have a plan that touches on each grade level simultaneously," Allen said. "It would do a disservice to the other students if only one grade was being reformed. We would still have kids in [other grades] that didn’t benefit from this special reform plan."

Allen said she hopes that the effort will be able to be carried out with adequate resources so that progress can be seen.

William Wilhoyte, acting assistant superintendent for high schools, said the three schools were chosen for immediate transformation because of low student achievement, low attendance and graduation rates, and a need for instructional leadership, professional development, and parent and community involvement.

Arthur Curry, the school system’s director of career and technology education, said this fall students attending Anacostia, Eastern and H.D. Woodson can expect some aspects of the reform plan to be in place. He said double class periods of algebra and reading in the ninth grade, "partners" working with the schools toward professional development, and literacy coaches to work with all the teachers will be instituted this year. In addition, all 10th and 11th graders will be required to take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) to prepare for college entrance exams.

"The high school experience needs to give students the opportunity to explore," Curry said. "Our mission is to develop inspired learners in dynamic types of schools."

The three schools are the beginning of an extensive, long-term senior high school reform plan that will focus on curriculum, professional development, climate and school culture, and assessments and evaluations. Those areas for improvement were identified last year by a "blue ribbon" panel of education experts, charged by Superintendent Vance with recommending major changes in the way D.C. high schools are operated.

"Eventually we all have to go out and work, and we want to make sure [the students] have the skills that are necessary," Curry said.

While Toyer and Allen expressed high hopes for the reform effort, at least one other parent activist dismissed the plan as "offensive." Susan Gushue, a former PTA president at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, said she believes city officials have mismanaged education and youth services in the city and she does not understand the idea of "investing an extremely limited amount of resources in only a few places" by targeting only three schools for improvement.

"I think [the plan] is way too little, way too late," Gushue said.

The reform plan requires each grade level to adopt a specific focus. At the ninth grade level, the focus will be on building a strong academic foundation. Tenth graders will be focused on team building. Leadership and learning will be the focus of the 11th grade, and 12th graders will be prepared for postsecondary success.

Julie Mikuta, District I school board member, said another part of the reform plan will be to introduce an academy model in the high schools, which will involve several career-focused programs. She said the ninth and 10th grades will have rigorous academic work to make sure the students are grounded in the basics.

Mikuta, who co-chairs the school board’s committee on teaching and learning, said the academies will allow students to focus on their field of interest and also provide an opportunity for some students to receive certification in an area by the time they leave high school.

The reform effort "is geared toward giving [students] more relevancy in their academic program," Mikuta said. "It will give them a choice of either going to college or into the workforce."

Schools officials said 10 different academies to be created at the high schools will be focused on career fields that researchers expect to show growth in employment opportunities. These fields include agriculture and natural resources; arts, media and communications; business and finance; construction and development; health, wellness and science; hospitality and tourism; public service; sales, service and entrepreneurship; technology, engineering and manufacturing; and transportation.

Curry said all students will be exposed to basic content courses and their elective courses will reflect academy fields.

"We are trying to create a student that is balanced, a student that is educated and a student that has many opportunities as they graduate from DCPS," Curry said.

Mikuta said teams from individual high schools have put forth a lot of effort toward determining how the academies will function at each school.

"This is not a quick fix," Mikuta said. "It’s a huge investment and ongoing project, and I hope there is the ability to follow through to completion."

Copyright 2003, The Common Denominator