One of Massachusetts’ public high schools has a 97 percent graduation rate and a dropout rate of less than .02 percent (3 out of 1,323 students).  It ranks among the highest percentage of students scoring advanced or proficient in the 2011 MCAS assessments (97% in Language Skills; 85% in Math; and 91% in Science.)  The school valedictorian is headed to M.I.T. this fall and over 70% of the senior class is on its way to college.

Weston?  Wellesley?  Brookline High?  Newton North?   Actually, the school posting this incredible set of outcomes is Shawsheen Technical High School in Billerica.  Shawsheen is a vocational high school producing the next generation of skilled craftsmen and talented technicians for local private employers all through the region.  And these kids know how to read and count! 

What’s the secret to Shawsheen’s success?  Recently, I asked Charlie Lyons, the school’s superintendent.   This is what I learned.

Shawsheen focuses on “relevance, rigor, and resources.”   Its courses, which include much of the standard fare of any high school - English, math, science – also includes courses with practical applications for the world of work.  Students can see how doing well in school can help them do well in life.   The school’s curriculum is rigorous and maintains high standards.   Students have different access points to that curriculum and the school uses high quality assessment tools to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each individual student in both academic and vocational courses.  After assessment, the school’s faculty applies this information to strengthen each student’s strengths and deal with each student’s weakness.  

To assure success in this realm, resources are deployed strategically.  Shawsheen has class sizes of as little as 6 students to a teacher for students with a demonstrated need in reading.  (High performing students are taught in classes of 22 to 1.)  Students of similar ability are grouped together so that students work with curriculum materials that best fit their needs. 

I asked Superintendent Lyons how his teachers are motivated to do such a good job.  He told me that teachers are selected on the basis of high qualifications.  Political influence plays no role in teacher selection.  The school pays its teachers well and measures student improvement for each teacher and shares this information with the teacher’s peers.   The goal is constant improvement in the teachers’ craft.  

All of this is done under union contract.   Mr. Lyons has negotiated all teacher contracts for the past 20 years and has built mutual respect between the administration and local union leaders. Review of teachers by their peers was negotiated so that teachers that are not performing up to par are either counseled to improve their teaching or let go if their performance does not improve.   As long as the union believes there is due process and professional intent, the union is on board.   In the last ten years, Mr. Lyons can remember only one grievance filed by the union against the administration.

Shawsheen is a standout on another pressing matter in the Commonwealth.   Next year is 7^th year in a row without an increase in health care insurance premiums.  

Working with its Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and Blue Cross, Shawsheen has negotiated preferred rates for certain medical procedures.  A yearly health claims assessment report from Blue Cross helps the school administration and its faculty to find ways to minimize claims.  The report provides feedback on hypertension, cholesterol levels, and pre-diabetes indicators.  Over the years, the school has worked to help its staff stay healthy.  It built a state of the art gym for faculty.  It has Zumba dancing classes every Wednesday after school.  It has developed an aggressive program to reduce smoking by its teachers and administrators.   It has helped reduce stress in part by building a day care center for its staff where twenty-nine children are now cared for while their parents work.   It has contracted with Weight Watchers for a weight reduction program.  So far thirty-seven faculty have participated and collectively they have shed 500 pounds. 

Cutting down on tobacco use, keeping physically-fit, reducing stress and extra pounds have all meant fewer medical insurance claims and kept medical care inflation to zero percent.  

If this were not enough to suggest Shawsheen has a lot to teach us about making our schools even better,  Superintendent Lyons crows about his school’s athletic prowess.  Shawsheen athletic teams have incredible winning records in lacrosse, baseball, softball, and track … because the spirit of the school is “to always achieve.”

With my Charlie Card Senior Pass, I can still ride the T for 60 cents.  At the Kendall Square Cinema, I save $2.00 over the regular ticket price.  Amtrak gives me a 15% discount on most trains if I merely show my ID.  Wendy’s will take 10% off my tab for a quick burger and golden fries.  Best of all, the National Park Service issued me a “Golden Age Passport” for a token $10 fee that provides a lifetime free pass to all National Parks, forests, and recreational areas. 

And here in Massachusetts I am particularly blessed for when I come to pay my Massachusetts state income tax, I don’t have to pay a cent on my Social Security earnings no matter how much other income I might have from wages, interest, dividends, and capital gains. 

All of this comes to me for one simple reason.  I am more than 62 years old.

Back in 1959, such senior citizen discounts might not have been such a bad idea.  The poverty rate for those 65 and older was 35 percent, more than double the rate for those aged 18 to 64.  Today, however, the poverty rate for seniors has shrunk to less than 10 percent, only two-thirds the rate of younger adults.  According to the Pew Research Center, between 1967 and 2010, median inflation adjusted household income rose by 27 percent for those whose oldest member was 35 or younger and 48 percent for those age 35 to 44.  But for those 65 and older, income more than doubled (+109%).

That today’s seniors are doing so well relative to others is due to a number of factors.  Increases in Social Security have raised many low income seniors out of poverty.   Older folks are staying in the labor force longer and continue to earn wages, some because they need the dough, but many others because they otherwise would be bored to death.  Baby boomers, now turning 65 at a rate of 10,000 a day, had the great fortune of buying homes when they were cheap.   As such, they not only had good incomes, but now have a tidy nest egg to boot.  Those in the older generation who went to college often graduated with little or no debt as tuition and room and board were much more reasonable a few decades back.  Today two-thirds of graduating seniors in the country start off with college debt that averages more than $25,000.

All of this means that the gap in net worth between seniors and youngsters is growing exponentially.  According to the Pew Research Center, those aged 65 and older head households where the median net worth was nearly $171,000 in 2009.  Those younger than age 35 had net worth of less than $3,700.  And this wealth gap has increased dramatically since 1984 because the net assets of seniors has increased by 42 percent while the net worth of the younger generation has declined by 68 percent.  Even the meltdown in financial markets had little effect on seniors.  Those 65 and older saw their net worth decline by 6 percent between 2005 and 2009.  Those younger than 35 experienced a 55 percent loss in wealth; those 35-44 a 49 percent loss.

Simply put, those who are now senior citizens are part of the richest generation of Americans of all time and it is unlikely that younger generations will ever have the same incomes or the same wealth.

And yet we continue to shower our seniors with discounts while younger folks have to pay full fare.   This is a demographic twist on the growing tradition in the U.S. of the “rich get richer ….”

There’s nothing wrong with offering discounts or free passes or giving out some tax breaks.  But we should be more careful about who gets them.  Some baby boomers can certainly use them because they have not benefited like others.  But I am much more concerned about those who are following our generation.  Somehow, they need the discounts more than we do. 

It may be hard to means-test everyone before we offer them a free ride or a cheaper one, but every time one of us geezers takes advantage of a discount, try to remember how tough it is on the younger generations coming up the pike.