Three years after getting rid of security guards, Orchard Gardens is safer than ever and students are blossoming.
Orchard Gardens was built in 2003 to be a school founded in the arts, a creative learning space, but from the beginning, the school was plagued with violence and disorder. By 2010, it was ranked among the bottom five public schools in the state of Massachusetts.
But Andrew Bott changed that; now, the school has one of the fastest student improvement rates in the state. One of the first grade classes was invited to the White House to recite Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in February of 2012, and in December the school was named one of eight pilot schools in the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ Turnaround Arts program.
Bott, the sixth principal Orchard Gardens has had, did a complete 180 to turn the school’s focus back to the arts: he got rid of all the security guards so that the money could be redirected to its original purpose—engaging students in music and art.
The move was questioned by his colleagues because of the severe safety issues the school had. Backpacks had been banned because teachers feared students would bring weapons to school in them. By replacing the security guards with art teachers, Bott was taking a huge risk, but one that paid off. While test scores are still below average, the overall grades are improving and students are more focused. Eighth grader Keyvaughn Little said he’s come out of his shell since the school’s turnaround.
“There’s no one particular way of doing something,” Keyvaughn said. “And art helps you see that. So if you take that with you, and bring it on, it will actually help you see that in academics or anything else, there’s not one specific way you have to do something.”
Photo:Office of Governor Patrick/Flickr
Very nice and I hope it sticks for them.
Art is doing something that has been done before, different. Putting one’s own stitch on it.
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that one. I find it fascinating that by putting trust back into the students by getting rid of security guards, and by not just trusting but encouraging their creativity, the whole school became more cohesive. It’s not a perfect system, but look how fast it took to turn everything around? This story makes me so happy and so hopeful.
This is beautiful, and I think the final insight is brilliant. There’s an article running later today by a sports coach, Wendy Lynne, that talks about how geniuses see the world as full of opportunities that I’m strongly reminded of in Keyvaughn’s observation.