Brief description: 

Founded on a curriculum based on areas of local economic growth and designed with input from parents and the community McKinley High School is inspiring students to achieve in the troubled DC Public School System.

Subject the program is most concerned with:

Primarily technology.

Which part of the school system (e.g. elementary school, middle school, high school, all levels, special math/science school, etc.) the project focuses on:

High school.

Primary focus of the program (e.g. new curriculum, attracting or retaining teachers, classroom technology, community outreach, etc.):

A complete high school curriculum with a focus on incorporating technology related to areas of local economic development—communications and broadcasting, informational technology, and bioscience.

Community and business partners:

The school administration worked closely with the local community when planning and building the school.  They used feedback from parents and potential students to inform many policy decisions, including the uniform policy, and the inclusion of a junior ROTC program.

The school has also worked with a number of diverse partners, including the National Institutes of Health and the Carnegie Institute amongst others.

Higher education partners:

McKinley High School’s primary academic partner is Georgetown University.  The university has helped with curriculum design, and has also created partnerships for students to work on projects with Georgetown faculty and students.  (For more on a partnership program that lets students studying biology at Georgetown complete their senior project through teaching at McKinley, see: http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=24992 )

Community response to the program:

Initial community response was mixed.  During its first year of operation, McKinley had difficulty in getting full enrollment, in subsequent years, however, the popularity of the program increased as its successes became more apparent.  Currently, the school is praised by the community for being a safe and high-performing school.

Duration of the program:

Planning began for McKinley high school in 2000, and the school opened in 2004.

About the District of Columbia Public Schools

The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) System oversees all traditional public schools students in Washington, DC; the city also has a large number of public charter schools, overseen separately by the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB).  In 2007 the state and local functions of the Board of Education were limited to State functions and the DCPS local functions were placed under the executive branch of the city government.

An entirely urban school district, more than ninety-five percent of DC Public School students are minorities, and nearly sixty percent are economically disadvantaged, according to the District’s 2007 Annual Yearly Progress report.  In a district plagued with all the usual problems of inner-city schools, McKinley Technology High School, reopened in September 2004 after having been closed for seven years, has achieved success by focusing on its vision, incorporating real-world experiences, and listening to the community.

 Detailed Description:

History of McKinley Technical High School
The vision for McKinley Technology High School in Washington, DC is one of a high school that focuses on regional economic development and college/work place readiness.  At the outset, there was general agreement between the school board, the mayor and the various branches of government about the general purpose of the school, but there was limited communication between the people responsible for the vision of the school and those who were managing the construction and implementation.  The DC public school district already has a large number of charter schools, and there was some concern within the school board that creating a magnet school would intensify the charter school movement.  The Mayor’s Office was a significant advocate for the need for a technology- focused school that would compliment other economic development initiatives. The Federal City Council, a non-profit organization composed largely of business leaders, funded a headhunting organization to conduct the search for a school principal with the support of the Superintendent, further alienating the already disenfranchised school board. 

These mounting tensions nearly derailed the project and the mayor’s office backed out of the project in September 2002 (amidst a budget crisis and suspicions that one of its supporters had misspent hundred of thousands of dollars from the project), returning control to the school board.  The school was eventually completed, and opened in 2004, a year later than had been originally planned.

Defining the Vision
Meanwhile, Mr. Daniel Gohl, the newly appointed principal was involved in more tightly defining the program.  An important part of this visioning process was bringing together stakeholders including parents and businesses, the Army Corps of Engineers (who were in charge of construction) and governmental organizations, finding out what was important to them, and then translating that into policies, a curriculum and a school building all centered on the same idea of what success should look like.

A group of people, including Mr. Gohl and several members of the school board held meetings with the community, including higher education and local businesses.  The focus at the meetings was on informing people about the mission of the school, without overstating what it hoped to achieve or asking for specific commitments of time or money.  In finding partners for the school, the focus was on finding groups that were doing real work the students could be a part of. 

At the same time, the district also began work on curriculum development.  One of the first tasks was to assess the likely strengths and weaknesses of the incoming students by looking at middle school test results and seeing what skills students had, and what skills they often lacked.  With those in mind, the curriculum was designed to address common problems in student literacy and numeracy in the early grades in order to prepare students for higher-level coursework. 

Research had identified 3 main areas of growth in the DC area: bioscience, broadcasting and communications, and information technology, and these are the foundation for McKinley’s curriculum.  Students are introduced to these areas in their first two years, and they choose one on which to focus at the end of their 10^th grade year.  All 11^th and 12^th grade students are required to take two year-long courses in their chosen area; at the 12^th grade level, one of the courses emphasizes the social implications of the field.

The curriculum and policies were also formulated with input from the community, which led to some policies administrators might not have implemented without encouragement from the community—for example, there was a strong interest in including Junior ROTC as an elective, and almost 90% of parents favored having students wear uniforms.

School admissions are by application, but the admissions process focused on student interest more than on past academic performance.  Unlike several public schools in DC, McKinley does not have an entrance examination.  The process was designed to be completely transparent (see the application here), and used 6 criteria: attendance, GPA, a researched essay, an on-site essay, references and an interview to gauge student involvement and enthusiasm.  For its first year of operation, virtually all students who applied were accepted, but admissions have become more competitive since.  In its first year, McKinley High School had 100% minority enrollment, and continues to have an above 95% minority enrollment rate.

Outcomes
McKinley High School is now in its fourth year of operation, and has seen some astounding results: The class of 2008 had a 95% college admissions rate, and an 85% enrollment rate—including students admitted to Georgetown, Stanford and MIT.  In a district where, on average, only 26% of students test as proficient or better in mathematics, and 29% in reading, 57% of McKinley students tested proficient of better in mathematics, and 68% in reading.  Almost equally noteworthy: while economically disadvantaged students lagged behind non-disadvantaged students by large margins in both subjects across the district, at McKinley, the two groups performed at nearly identical levels.  (Figures from: http://webb.k12.dc.us/NCLB/index.asp)