Avoiding the "Pobrecillos" Trap

University Park Campus School (UPCS) in Worcester, Mass., is no stranger to challenging statistics.

• 72 percent of their students receive free or reduced-price lunch.
• 80 percent are English language learners.
• 53 percent of the residents in the school's neighborhood are unemployed.

When UPCS formed in 1997, the small public school (grades 7-12) took on goliath odds. From the beginning, says school principal June Eressy, it was crucial for the school faculty to avoid the "pobrecillos" or "poor little ones" trap. Through a collaborative school culture, which refused to patronize students by lowering expectations, and an unflinching school focus on literacy, UPCS changed the community profile in its first year.

Eight years later, the students in who attend UPCS boast a 100 percent pass rate on the MCAS (the state graduation exam), close to a 0 percent dropout rate, and a most impressive 100 percent college enrollment rate.

A key component of the school's success is something Eressy calls "low-stakes writing." She explains that high-stakes writing, or writing only for a grade, limits students' ability to take risks and experiment with their authorial voice. Rather, Eressy and her faculty focus the curriculum on "writing-to-learn" activities that allow students to practice different writing styles and enable teachers to differentiate writing assignments. In 7th and 8th grade especially, class is parsed into two-and-a-half-hour blocks so students have plenty of in-class time to practice their writing and other literacy skills crucial to their achievement in the upper grades.

Daily writing has bolstered achievement at UPCS. As Maureen O'Leary Wanket argues in "Building the Habit of Writing" (Educational Leadership, September 2005), it "connects students with their emotional selves and core values."

You can explore writing's potential in your classroom at the 2005 Conference on Teaching & Learning. Attend Sue Beers' morning or afternoon ticketed session entitled "Reading and Writing in the Content Areas."

This report was based on the High School Achievement Forum's presentation entitled "The University Park Campus School in Worcester, Massachusetts," which took place at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., on September 14, 2005. Audio coverage of the event is available.