At the end of a long school day at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School, twilight descends.
A slight blond boy slips into Sara Balk’s empty classroom. His book bag and binder are overflowing with stray papers. He throws his hooded sweatshirt casually over a chair.
“Miss Balk,” he asks, voice barely above a whisper. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course,” Balk smiles.
It’s past 5 p.m., and she’s been at school since well before students arrived at 7:35 a.m. But she patiently stops grading papers and helps the boy puzzle through a math problem.
His questions answered, the boy turns to leave. He forgets about the sweatshirt until he’s reminded, then returns for it.
Balk is glad he has it. During a cold spell earlier this winter, the boy was arriving at school with no hat or coat.
This moment between Balk and the boy is just another teacher-student encounter, one of thousands that happen each day at the 1,500-student urban high school. But this exchange is possibly a bit warmer than most.
That’s because Balk is a teacher in the school’s Lincoln Center – a school within a school where students and teachers spend extended school hours together and get to know one another in a small-scale setting. The bonding is important in a school where 70 percent of students live in poverty.
ADDED HOURS, EXTRA EFFORT
Lincoln Center students – just over 200 freshmen and sophomores – attend school until 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. That’s nearly 12 hours of extra learning time each week compared with the Lincoln population as a whole.
Then there are two weeks of summer school. And Lincoln Center students also come to school two Saturdays a month – usually for three hours at a time – for more study time, field trips and enrichment opportunities that Lincoln kids might not otherwise have a chance to experience. Through Lincoln Center, kids have been to local museums, colleges and plays at the Pantages Theater.
Altogether, Lincoln Center students receive more than 500 hours of additional academic support throughout the year, says Greg Eisnaugle who, along with Pat Erwin, serves as co-principal at Lincoln.
“This isn’t rocket science,” says Erwin.
Giving students more time on task, a broader range of experiences and pairing them with dedicated faculty members who percolate enthusiasm produces results. Eisnaugle brought the idea back from an education seminar at Harvard two years ago. Erwin says the extended school day concept is becoming popular back East, but he doesn’t know of many other local schools using the idea.
And those results? Take a look at student attrition rates, for example. One set of data from Lincoln compares the number of ninth-graders enrolled in January of their freshman year to the number of them still enrolled as sophomores the following September.
From January 2009 to September 2009, Lincoln Center lost about 5 percent of its students. But Lincoln as a whole lost 17 percent. At the city’s other major high schools, student losses ranged from 10 percent at Stadium High School to 15 percent at Foss High School. Students can, of course, leave their high school for a lot of reasons – they may move out of the city, for example. But buried within those statistics are students who simply give up and drop out.
In addition to asking more time of students, Lincoln Center also asks more academically. All students enroll in honors-level English courses – teacher Amy Lavold’s sophomores read Herman Hesse’s allegorical novel “Siddartha,” among other books. Students study algebra and geometry. Many enroll in college-level Advanced Placement classes, which offer the possibility of college credit after passing a rigorous exam.
But Erwin emphasizes that Lincoln Center isn’t skimming the cream of the crop for students. There’s no limit on the number of students who can join Lincoln Center. If kids want in, Erwin says, Lincoln Center welcomes them.
“We have kids who are autistic. We have kids with behavior problems. We have kids who haven’t passed a class in middle school, along with others who have done really well,” he says.
“To get into Lincoln Center, we don’t ask for transcripts, a portfolio or letters of recommendation,” says Eisnaugle. “If you are willing to do the work, we will take you where you are.”
PROMISES TO KEEP
Lincoln Center started with freshmen in the 2008-09 school year. This year, a new crop of freshman arrived. The goal is for kids to stick with the program through four years of high school. Students and parents who choose to participate sign a contract committing to the extended hours and extra days – and to a four-year stint in Lincoln Center.
Extended school hours and revved-up academic expectations caused some behavior issues during the inaugural year. Some teachers jokingly refer to last year’s after-school chaos as “Lincoln Center boot camp.” It was difficult, at first, getting kids to focus on studying.
But this year, says Erwin, the freshmen are watching the settled-down sophomores and using them as role models. The after-school hours are much calmer as a result, he says.
While the Lincoln Center experiment is still fairly fresh, it appears to be paying off in terms of student retention, better grades and other improvements, according to preliminary data from the school.
Erwin would like to see the model extend to middle and elementary schools. And if other city high schools are interested, he’s willing to share what he’s learned with them.
Kids like the extra challenges, too. Eventually.
Sophomore Keenan Grayson admits he was a bit of a slacker in middle school, getting by with the minimum amount of work possible.
His mom made him sign up for Lincoln Center.
“I came for the summer, three weeks before school started. I didn’t like that,” he says. “I didn’t like Saturdays.”
He says he started throwing temper tantrums.
“I was trying to get kicked out of Lincoln Center,” he says. “But they refused to kick me out. They thought I had potential.”
Once he realized that “they” were right, he started working to bring his grades up.
Linda Tran, also a sophomore, entered the program with best friend Samantha Romero. Although Linda was an A-student in middle school, learning wasn’t always easy for her. Vietnamese is her first language, and she had to master English to succeed in school.
She remembers the first time the dismissal bell rang at 2:05 p.m. All the other students got to leave, while Lincoln Center kids stayed behind.
“The first couple weeks when the bell rang I wanted to go,” says Linda. “But as time passed by, it just seemed like a regular day.”
And Fridays – when Lincoln Center kids go home at the same time as everyone else – now feel like a half-day at school, she adds.
She likes the intimate feeling she gets from the school-within-a-school.
“Lincoln Center is like a big family,” she says. “You know everybody.”
Lincoln Center students take their commitment to an extended learning experience seriously.
“Once you sign the contract, you’re in,” says freshman Corey Evans.
He likes pushing himself to excel in school, even though he estimates he does double or triple the amount of homework some of his friends at other schools have.
But as the oldest kid in his family, he wants to set a good example for his younger siblings.
The extra work is something students also get used to. Eventually. And they know why they’re working hard.
“They expect everybody to go to college,” says Keenan.
Parents are fans, too.
“What attracted me to it was all the help coming with it,” says Karla Harris, whose daughter Da’Tay is a Lincoln Center sophomore. “All the extra incentives, the college prep help, the testing help.”
As an African American, she is also grateful that Lincoln Center’s student body is ethnically diverse.
Amanda Smith likes that Lincoln Center gives her daughter, sophomore Charmane, the social activities of a large high school but the academic feeling of a small academy.
“The teachers care,” she says. “They have a really great attitude.”
TEACHERS: THE BEST OF TIMES
Lincoln Center students have an hour after school when they can participate in sports, clubs or other activities such as drama or yearbook with other Lincoln students. There are also special after-school activities operated by Metro Parks.
But at 3:30 p.m., Lincoln Center students gather for a fortifying 15-minute snack time, then spend more than an hour studying until 5 p.m. With teacher guidance, students can get help with homework, read or work on projects.
The added hour pays off in more completed assignments, say teachers.
Science teacher LeeAnn Love has been teaching at Lincoln for 20 years. She says her time with Lincoln Center has been the highlight.
“It’s the best I’ve seen at Lincoln,” she says. “The sense of community and achievement is like nothing I’ve seen before.”
Lavold, who has been teaching for 17 years, says she joined Lincoln Center because of its progressive bent. She likes that the extended day model the school uses is based on solid research.
“I didn’t want to be a spectator doing what’s right,” she says. “I wanted to be an agent of change.”
Social studies teacher Travis Davio says Lincoln Center has created a culture of risk-taking for both educators and students. And he sees that as healthy.
“Students are not afraid to make mistakes,” he says. “We model by making mistakes, being open to that.”
Nate Gibbs-Bowling, who teaches a college prep class, cites an example of student growth. One boy explained the parts of a molecule by using examples of atoms hanging around each other “like friends hanging out together in the neighborhood.”
“Am I a nerd now?” the student wanted to know.
Maybe. But making academics cool is part of what Lincoln Center is all about, says science teacher Jenn Holm.
Lincoln Center’s nine teachers earn some extra pay for putting in extra time – $25 to $47 per hour, depending on their experience level. All told, the school district spends about $75,000 annually on Lincoln Center, including the pay. It spends an estimated $25,000 for the summer program.
But Lincoln’s co-principals are convinced it’s worth it.
“The teachers will all tell you that this is the hardest work they’ve ever done,” says Eisnaugle. “It’s exhausting – and exhilarating – because you see the results.”
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
