The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

YES Prep teachers visit a school in the UK and have profound thoughts

December 06, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

We (Explorers Lindsey Windham, Sarah Murphy, and Sarah Hampson) spoke through an intercom into a two-way mirrored office before we ushered ourselves through an automatic door and then into the front office. The inside of the office and the school’s hallway was glassy and bright, pristine and utilitarian. British hospitality meant we were granted almost immediate audience with the Academy’s vice principal, an older gentleman who assured us he had much to do but could spare a moment to tell us about his work with London students.

We found ourselves in this moment almost a week after arriving in London, England, for Thanksgiving Break. Our proximity to this local “Academy” school was due to the fact that we stayed in a quiet suburb called Putney – about 20 minutes southwest of London proper.

Each morning on our short walk to the East Putney tube station, we passed this school – a modern, 4-story building made primarily of blue-green glass that rose over a grassy courtyard amidst old-world, residential dwellings. On the mornings when we were up before the first bell, the students, on their way to the Academy and primly outfitted in their emblazoned blue blazers, peaked our curiosity.
After a few conversations with some of our new English friends about English state (public) education, we had come to a tentative conclusion that this Academy was our version of a charter school. Since we were all wondering what it was like and how they ran their school, we decided to try to go inside and talk to the principal.

We were right about the charter school equivalent. An Academy school in the UK is independent from the local education authority but is publicly funded and usually private sponsored. We learned that Academies were legally created by Tony Blair’s Labour Party government in 2000 and were intended to address low academic achievement within English schools. This particular Academy in Putney serves boys and girls ages 11 – 18, just like YES Prep, so we expected to hear that this school was something of an international partner in addressing educational inequity. We were extremely surprised to learn the following:

1. Students entering in Grade 6 are “set” into “ability bands,” and travel in bands separately through the curriculum. They enter these sets through a non-verbal reasoning test taken upon admission. The Vice Principal became defensive when I mentioned tracking and assured me my perception was wrong and that this just wasn’t the same thing. This was corroborated by our British friend’s insistence that if a child in a lower set showed potential, he or she would be promptly reassigned. We weren’t convinced.

2. Only twenty percent of the Academy’s students go on to University. When I asked about why this percentage was so low, he responded, “Many are just not Uni materal. They’re just not capable.” We sat, incensed, and explained that YES Prep “also admits students with an incredible range of ability levels, starting off, but we believe they are all capable and deserving of a university education. ALL of them receive acceptance to a four-year college or university before they graduate.” He didn’t blink before saying that this was “impossible. I just don’t see how that’s possible. We have students coming in on a grade two or grade three reading level in grade six or grade seven. Some of them just aren’t college material.”

Our hearts sank, broken. We were shown out of the school after being given some application literature, which contained the school’s mission statement. It “will be characterised by a combination of high expectations and standards, innovative thinking, and a broad and generous view of supporting young people.” They advertised high expectations, but, simply put, didn’t have them.
The next morning as we walked by a cabal of blazer-clad Academy students, we could barely face the fact that what we had seen of the reform movement in the UK didn’t have the high expectations that it claimed. It was hard to see students so bright and eager go to school in a place where they were limited by the expectations of the adults leading them.

It was a truly eye-opening moment that reenergized our faith in YES Prep’s core value of achieving social justice and belief that every child deserves an excellent education. It also reminded us that there is an incredible amount of work to do – not just in our classrooms at home and abroad – but in changing the mindsets and prevailing ideology of educational leaders around the world. We have a lot of hope for the students of Putney because we believe in the students at YES Prep. We hope one of them will go to Oxford and start YES Prep London so that every child in the UK can have the same opportunities.

Lindsey Windham
Sarah Murphy
Sarah Hampson
 

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