>Interestingly, reading from that report of Americas best high schools, is a school listed as #30 in Nashville, College readiness 87%. “where the roof leaks, kids eat lunch in the hallways, and rats sometimes raid the vending machines.” “That hasn’t stopped the students from learning or getting into Ivy League schools such as Harvard.”
One major challenge all of the nation’s best public high schools are facing is how to continue to challenge students despite budget pressures. Although the federal stimulus money has helped many school districts retain teachers who otherwise would have been laid off, many schools are finding it difficult to renovate—or even maintain—their older buildings. At Martin Luther King Academic Magnet High School in Nashville, No. 30 on the list, students and faculty have found ways to achieve in a 1930s-era building in which the roof leaks, kids eat lunch in the hallways because the cafeteria is too small, and rats sometimes raid the vending machines. “All of Nashville should be concerned that we are educating the best and brightest in a broken-down building,” says Shunn Turner, principal of MLK high school.
That hasn’t stopped the students from learning or getting into Ivy League schools such as Harvard. “With all the amazing teachers, students, counselors, and staff, there was no need to focus on why the lockers didn’t open half the time or why the soccer team changed outside,” says Jake Rudin, an ’09 MLK graduate who currently is a freshman at Cornell University. MLK schools College readiness 87%.
Can’t help but notice further on report – Ridgewood schools college readiness 56.0% not even in top 100list. Conclusion: one can’t put fault on the buildings from keeping kids from excelling in academics.
