3 schools targeted for state takeover

In the state's most aggressive crackdown to date on chronically struggling schools, Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll is calling for a state takeover of three schools with persistently low test scores.

Driscoll, who criticized the schools for their lackluster attempts to improve student achievement, will recommend the action to the Board of Education at today's meeting. The board will vote on the schools' fate next month.

The move, the stiffest possible under the state's school accountability system, would designate a Springfield vocational high school and middle schools in Fall River and Holyoke as ''chronically underperforming." That label, if the board approves it, would allow a state takeover, meaning that the state could remove the principal and require the district to increase spending at that school.

The state began identifying low-performing schools five years ago, warning schools that they would be slated for takeover if they didn't show improvement on their test scores and other measures in two years. Last year, the Matthew J. Kuss Middle School in Fall River became the first one taken over.

The move to take over three additional schools follows growing calls to overhaul failing urban schools. Governor Mitt Romney proposed last week to give superintendents more power to dismiss the staff at low-performing schools and suggested other measures.

The three schools, which Driscoll identified in a memo to the board, are the Henry Lord Middle School in Fall River, the Dr. William R. Peck Middle School in Holyoke, and the Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical High School in Springfield.

Driscoll targeted the schools for various reasons, among them poor math scores, low attendance, uneven teaching quality, and lack of consistent leadership.

Education leaders said the move highlighted the state's increasing willingness, more than a decade into its education reform effort, to take drastic steps to ensure that schools improve.

''The state has been tracking schools' progress for some time and knows there are many instances of persistent underperformance, but they haven't often taken the ultimate step," said Paul Reville, executive director of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, a Cambridge think tank. ''Clearly, this shows they are willing to do it."

Driscoll's recommendations for the three schools stem from reviews conducted this spring. In his memo to the board, Driscoll described the schools' shortcomings, including their inability to reach the state average on MCAS performance in the different grades in their schools.

At the Henry Lord Middle School, where ''performance in math is far below state targets, . . . improvement strategies have not produced necessary results," he wrote. Less than 5 percent of the school's eighth-graders were proficient in math on last year's MCAS, and less than half of the seventh-graders were at that level in English.

Driscoll, who was unavailable for comment yesterday, said that Peck Middle School in Holyoke failed to demonstrate ''significant improvement," and he wrote that ''staff recruitment and student retention pose continued challenges." At Peck, 66 percent of sixth-graders failed the state math exam last year.

At the Putnam High School in Springfield, ''the quality of teaching across the school is uneven, and changes in teaching practices are happening slowly," he wrote. At Putnam, according to state records, 40 percent of sophomores failed the English MCAS in 2004, and 46 percent failed math.

''I think it's premature to make this determination," said Joseph Burke, superintendent of Springfield schools. ''I don't think the data supports it. The amount of improvement that school has shown in the last three years is worthy of giving them another shot."

In 2002, 91 percent of the sophomores failed math, so the school district has cut its failure rate dramatically, he said.

Holyoke Superintendent Eduardo Carballo said the stigma of being called chronically underperforming would make it harder to bring top teachers into urban schools.

Still, Carballo said he welcomed the state's help. ''There's some disappointment, but we know we're going in the right direction," he said. ''We just need more time."

Nicholas Fischer, the new superintendent of Fall River schools and a former associate commissioner in the state Department of Education, said strict accountability and high expectations are needed to improve historically poor schools.

The state has identified 32 schools as underperforming in the last five years. Of those, four have been singled out for takeover and labeled chronically underperforming. The schools are subject to close scrutiny and progressively stricter oversight if they do not show steady gains.

Since the Kuss Middle School was taken over last year, a state-hired educational consulting firm began working closely with faculty. The consultants helped teachers improve their methods and raise expectations for students, said Nancy Mullen, the new principal at Kuss, whom the school system appointed.

The city of Fall River fired the previous Kuss principal in October 2004 after learning the state planned to take over the school. Kuss did not go through a complete overhaul, but the school district did fire some teachers, said Aimee Bronhard, a Fall River School Committee member.

''I think the state needs to look deeper than test scores," Bronhard said. ''I'm disgusted by the whole situation."

Today, Driscoll also will recommend removing Mt. Pleasant Elementary School in New Bedford from the list and keeping on two other schools, the English High School in Boston and Academy Middle School in Fitchburg.

Jose Duarte, headmaster at English, said the school would redouble its efforts to improve. ''There's a strong desire to get out from under that label," he said.