Making academic excellence the norm

Darryl Finkton: "It's all about whether you think you can do it or not." (Also read: More students taking AP tests, Indianapolis Star, Feb. 10)

A lot has changed at Decatur Central High School in the past two decades.

“Many of our people are the first generation to get through high school,” says Advanced Placement (AP) coordinator Renee Knoop, who came to Decatur in 1987.

”There has been the perception that: ‘Our kids can do high school, but they can’t do the upper-level courses.' ” AP courses failed in the 1980s at Decatur, Knoop says, because there was no support system to enable students to succeed.

Decatur decided to try the idea again in 1999 after a teacher proposed an AP calculus course. Three years later, a Lumina Foundation grant gave the program a boost, and today, teachers say increased rigor in the classroom has created a culture of excellence, student test scores are rising and interest in AP classes has grown significantly.

Knoop views Decatur’s attitude toward AP and academic excellence as “a paradigm shift.” In 2002-03, 23 students enrolled in two AP courses – physics and calculus. After adding AP Latin the following school year, 57 students enrolled in the AP program. This year, the school will offer two more AP courses.

Lumina Foundation Program Officer Jill Kramer says the grant aimed to see “if a modest amount of money, $30,000, could increase the number of students successfully earning college credits while in high school. The strategy seemed to work.”

Since then, the idea to promote AP, International Baccalaureate (IB) and dual enrollment courses has expanded to public high schools throughout Indianapolis — Lumina Foundation’s home base — under a program called Advancing Academic Excellence.

The Foundation has distributed grants in the $20,000 to $30,000 range to 14 public schools to promote college-level curriculum options for all students. Schools use the money to train teachers, provide professional development opportunities, subsidize exam and tuition costs, and provide supports for the students enrolled in the courses.

“This program has just been a godsend,” says Beech Grove High School Principal Harvey Warrner. “There’s a lot for students who are struggling — remediation money, for example, but for students with higher aspirations, we say ‘Leave them alone, they’re going to be OK no matter what we do.’ But I think by having this opportunity to say, ‘You’re very, very good, but let’s make you better,' that’s good for them.''

Warrner’s school used its AAE grant to fund Saturday labs, structured like college courses, where students can eat, drink and learn in a relaxed atmosphere outside the usual school hours. The grant has also paid to train teachers and to provide students and parents with information about how students can earn college credits from taking these courses.

“We are creating a culture of excellence,” says Judith Libby, North Central High School's AP and IB coordinator. Libby used the AAE grant to build upon a successful pilot program, in which average-achieving minority students are identified in middle school to enroll in honors courses at the freshman level. These students provide the pipeline of students to enroll in the AP and IB courses. The AAE grant provides supports such as extra tutoring sessions and encouragement for more minorities to continue on the honors track and enroll in AP and IB courses.

Darryl Finkton, a 16-year-old junior at North Central, planned to take AP classes in high school, but he worried that he’d be the only minority student in those courses. North Central encouraged a group of minority students to take more challenging classes. “They told us they would put us in a homeroom together – try to make sure we wouldn’t be in a class as the only minority,” says Finkton. Four years later, a combination of the two programs has proven successful at North Central because the number of minorities participating in these courses has doubled.

The real bottom line, says Libby, is that North Central is making progress with the Darryl Finktons of the world.

Finkton, the youngest of four children, went to 15 different schools before North Central. Once, he might not have been considered the typical AP student.

He’s now on the college track, with plans to study medicine and become a cardiologist. In the meantime, he’s encouraging his fellow students to push themselves and take AP courses. AAE has helped provide teachers and administrators with the tools they need to help students succeed.

“It’s all about whether you think you can do it or not,” Finkton says. “People think the classes are so hard they can’t do it, and then they try it and find out they’re better at something than they thought.”

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Making academic excellence the norm

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