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Remaking East: The Community's School

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In 2014, a Rochester high school was on the brink of closure. Since then, a partnership with the University has helped East High School to forge a new culture and commitment to revival.

There’s an ease about Shaun Nelms ’13W (EdD) as he walks the corridors of East High School. At a commanding height of six-foot-three, in his dark pinned-striped suit with his blaring red tie, he’s the face of reform in an institution that went adrift, the calm captain of a ship in rough waters.

When Nelms began his role as school superintendent two years ago, East’s projected graduation rate for 2015–16 hovered at around 20 percent—just one out of every five kids who’d started as a ninth grader in 2012 was on target to leave with a diploma in June 2016. By 2020, the New York State Education Department would expect the graduation rate to reach 80 percent.

As East navigates toward that distant target, it’s not just the state that’s watching. It’s hopeful East alumni, whom Nelms briefs and leads on tours of the school. It’s the nearby businesses and nonprofits that are contributing time, money, and expertise. It’s the city school district, and the local press corps that’s followed East’s long decline, as well as the emergence of the educational partnership organization—the University of Rochester—that agreed to manage the school, under revamped curricula, renegotiated labor contracts with teachers, and a host of new initiatives, crafted over a yearlong period beginning in the summer of 2014.

It’s now the beginning of year three—and some key numbers have started to move.

A major predictor of whether a child will graduate high school is if she passes the ninth grade. At the end of the 2014–15 school year, fewer than half of East High ninth graders did so. But in both years under the EPO, that number has climbed above 75 percent.

Meanwhile, suspensions and fights have dropped dramatically. More than 90 percent of students reported in a recent survey that they feel safe at East. Families have responded positively to new initiatives designed to support students socially and emotionally.

People who’ve worked at the school for years point to a discernable change in the whole culture and feel of the place. It’s less chaotic, says a social worker. The kids say “hello” more—and leave fewer messes in the cafeteria, a custodian observes. There’s less fighting, says a student. A teacher agrees. He hasn’t had to break one up in while—knock on wood, he says.

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Academic
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