The Annual Fund

December 10, 2009

Dear Friend,

Every year in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 10,000 students drop out of high school. James was one of them. The following is an excerpt from a letter he wrote to the Boston School Committee on behalf of BDEA when our funding for this year was cut by 24%.  James’s letter was one of 22 such appeals written by alumni in an authentic grassroots movement asking for our funding to be restored.

Boston Day and Evening Academy changed my life. I have never been to a school where the atmosphere was so community-oriented and the teachers were so helpful and committed to your growth as a student. If it were not for BDEA I probably would have gotten my GED and gone to a vocational school afterwards, if that. Instead I have a high school diploma and am at a four-year college . . .taking steps to ensure a smooth transition into graduate school, which I'll be attending directly after I graduate.

Before attending BDEA I was a student at a local public school. You could say I was a bright student since an exam is required for entrance, but intelligence without proper motivation is nothing.  While there, I was never asked what my aspirations were, nobody ever seemed to care, not even me; I was completely unmotivated. . . . My student number, 827032, defined me - I was just one in a sea of over a thousand faces. I needed more than this exam school could give me; I needed a better sense of who I was and where I was going and the teachers there were unable or unwilling to help.

Boston Day and Evening Academy was recommended to me by a friend of the family, and my decision to go there was one of the best decisions I ever made.  The teachers and administration knew who I was from the very beginning of school.  I felt strange when Ms. Alvarez first said “Hello, James”; it made me feel like more than a number, which was a warm, yet unfamiliar feeling.  Teachers helped me recognize my career goals through personality testing, introspection and career guides; taught me how to express myself clearly through expository writing and to write a standup research paper; and  how to derive the formulas to figure out the volume of everyday objects such as spheres, cylinders and more complex shapes. This was a big difference from my previous schools which emphasized memorization and never explained how certain formulas came to be.

I am currently enrolled in the Computer Science program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.  I am a member of the Honors program, which requires at least a 3.2 GPA which I am well above.  I am involved in various extracurricular activities on campus  . . . and getting ready to fill out applications for UMass Amherst, one of the top 20 computer schools in the nation, and the McNair Undergraduate Research Opportunity, a 2-month summer program that helps students like me prepare for graduate school through relevant research and GRE preparation. . . .

If you were to walk into a classroom at BDEA today—or tomorrow—or next week, you would witness all that James describes above.   At BDEA, every student receives an individualized learning plan, which begins with an assessment of where they stand academically, socially and emotionally when they first walk through the door.  By the time a student enters first trimester Seminar, a program begun last year to help curb attrition, he or she is already a part of the BDEA family. Seminar has proven successful both in retaining students past the critical first six months of adjustment to an alternative program, and in making our students understand and become comfortable with the finer points of experiential education and competency-based systems.

What James and the other alumni were able to describe in their letters, is not just that the school worked for them, but why it worked for them. Before enrolling at BDEA, they were each lost in their own way, and in finding the right school, they were able to discern what had not been working at their other schools.  Parents say the same things, as articulated by Jessie’s mom:

My daughter, who was a junior in high school in the fall of 2005, had become frustrated with what she described as an environment “where learning was not taking place.”  She asked for, and I gave her permission to leave that school. . .She subsequently chose to apply to BDEA because she felt that they listened to their students.  “They listened to me, mom!” she said. “They wanted to hear what I had to say.  They weren’t just interested in feeding me information.  Instead, they wanted to have a dialogue, a conversation, because that would help them understand how I learn as a student.”

My daughter is now a student at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.  She plans to major in Education and Neuroscience.  Her tenure at Boston Day and Evening Academy made her comfortable with the idea that it is OK to think outside of the box, and that each student brings a unique perspective to topics that are discussed in class; and that by sharing different perspectives, students are able to teach each other something new. . . .

The environment at Boston Day and Evening Academy, where students attend because they want to be there. . .because they see value in the time they spend there, lends itself to a community within a community.  The time students spend at BDEA counts.  The lessons they learn at BDEA count.  . . .”

In “Making the Connection”, a report by the Massachusetts Graduation and Dropout Prevention and Recovery Commission released in October of this year, the commission listed its recommendations and strategies for dropout prevention, intervention and recovery, including:

    •Targeting interventions to individual students, such as increased adult attention and supervision, increased academic support, wrap-around services, and advisories;
•Connecting school to college and career by providing internships, career explorations, and mentoring programs;
•Active recovery that includes reaching out to dropouts and providing them with support and alternative pathways to graduation; and
•Providing alternatives to traditional high schools that may feature benefits such as small class sizes, coaches or case managers who provide increased support, competency-based instruction, and access to social services.

BDEA does all of this and more.  We work with all students to help them for a year beyond graduation through our Transition Year program; we help students learn how to make healthy eating choices, and work with boys and girls in single-sex gender groups to facilitate conversations that lead to healthy decision-making.  We have weekly classes at the Museum of Science, and whole-school Thanksgiving dinners, and our first official Alumni organization.  Our students learn to be leaders by participating in Student Government and in the exchange with Hudson High School on the subject of breaking stereotypes and building community.  Our students represent their school with perseverance and hope and pride whenever they take the stage at Haley House during a coffee house event, or when they usher at graduation, or visit a college with Ms. Samp or Ms. Morgan.  Our students have resonant, strong voices and they use them to explore who they are, where they have been and most importantly, who they want to become.  

As Jessie so eloquently put it, everyone at BDEA listens when our students speak, because that’s what educators do.  Yes, there is plenty of questioning back and forth, but true to our mission as a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools, we abide by the strategy of “teacher as coach” helping our students to use their minds well, which allows them to become engaged in their learning right from the start.  This ownership is authentic, and it is what compels students to take a long, hard look at their future and to step up.

It has been a great start to the 2010 academic year here at BDEA: 40 students have graduated in two of our four annual ceremonies; we reaped our largest crop of vegetables yet from our two gardens; our new art studio has become a hub for student exploration; the New Repertory Theater brought Animal Farm to our stage; and our MCAS scores have met state targets.

Jessie’s mom has the gift of cutting to the chase, so I quote her again: “I implore you to consider, on the highest level, their need for funding.”  She is talking about our need to cover the $3,500 funding gap per student between what we receive from the city and what we provide to our students:  all the strategies recommended by the state commission, which we already provide and exceed.  

At a time of year when those of us rich with family and friends and resources give thanks for our blessings, we ask that you consider helping the students of BDEA fulfill their dreams of receiving a diploma and preparing them for the road ahead.  Please consider a donation to the school to help bridge the funding gap between public school allocation and the real cost of not just a good, but a great education.

With appreciation and best wishes for a joyous holiday season,

 
Beatriz Zapater, Head of School