All jazzed up on the North Side

When Shabaka McKey decided to leave the engineering field a few years ago to teach, he wanted to work with underprivileged youth in a school where teachers were leaders and administrators listened.

McKey looked at several schools but gravitated to the engineering learning community at Patrick Henry High, a north Minneapolis school where 72 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced meals -- a sign of widespread poverty -- but 80 percent go on to attend two- and four-year colleges.

Still, that statistic didn't emerge overnight. More than a decade ago, a strong core of faculty loosened the hold that gangs, fights, rampant truancy and other symptoms of poverty had on Henry and it gradually became a place where students flock to teachers after school for help with homework or simply to talk.

"Henry is a place that runs on energy," said Tom Murray, a Henry teacher whose job includes several administrative duties. "The honest to God's truth is that the reason why we're succeeding with our kids is that we have good people here [like McKey] that have worked hard and connected with them."

In an era where schools, whether in affluent suburbs or working-class cities and small towns, are increasingly chided by state and national leaders for leaving low-income students behind, Henry High stands out.

Recently, the North Side school was recognized by two magazines -- U.S. News & World Report and BusinessWeek -- as one of the top high schools in the state, along with Edina High School and the Math and Science Academy charter school in Woodbury.

It's one of more than two dozen schools that participated in a pilot project in 2005 that led Gov. Tim Pawlenty to propose an intense summer mediation program for eighth-graders who didn't meet state testing benchmarks as part of his Teacher Transformation Act.

District and school staff members credit strong teacher-led mentor initiatives, ongoing staff training, a 22-year-old International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program, strong extracurricular and after-school tutoring programs, a Hmong liaison, an emphasis on praising students' positive behavior via the school's website, and families who have attended Henry for generations.

"Some people think every North Side school must be bad, but there's nothing wrong with Henry; it's a good school," said Marcus Parks, an 18-year-old senior whose older sister attended Henry.

An outsider's trip to Henry's two adjacent cafeterias recently revealed hundreds of mostly Asian and African-American faces engaged in upbeat chatter. No arguments. No fights. A calm welcome to the often-stereotyped North Side.

But remaining "a good school" isn't easy. Henry teachers frequently work long days that are filled with far-reaching efforts to help students.

McKey sells sports drinks during lunch to help promising but cash-strapped students pay for college application fees and to support the robotics team and a new black student group.

During a recent advisory session, he distributed grade reports from the most recent quarter to about 15 students. He's known several of them since he arrived three years ago, and worries about students who may not graduate on time.

"Some of you have screwed up," McKey said about the low marks he spotted on some of the grade reports. The already quiet room fell silent.

Henry's weekly 45-minute advisory period earned it a spot in a statewide pilot from 2005 to 2008 called Lighthouse High Schools that focused on strategies to improve student achievement and ease the transition between middle and high school, and from high school to college. It influenced the governor's proposed summer program.

Henry teachers use the class period to develop better communications strategies with students and their families to reduce the number of students failing a course. During the three-year period, the percentage of students failing one or more classes fell from 58 to 50 percent. Still, much work remains to reduce that number further.

"We're seeing more schools looking at advisory [periods] as a way to create relationships," said Karen Klinzing, assistant education commissioner.

As the district anticipates a $28 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year, Henry is concentrating on training the staff to implement the IB Middle Years Program into the ninth- and 10th-grade curriculum and aligning the program with offerings at the district's middle schools. When the budget cuts were announced, district officials made it clear that the cuts won't sidetrack efforts to increase academic rigor.

"We really want to accelerate learning with our students," said Brenda Cassellius, associate superintendent. "There's this feeling of urgency we have to really get them prepared."

Patrice Relerford • 612-673-4395