WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Cali Crossley Show the start of a new school year typically means new beginnings for the students new clothes new teachers new friends. But this year also marks new beginnings for many of Boston's underperforming schools. The state has given the city unprecedented authority to overhaul them infusing schools with fresh ideas by way of new teachers and leadership with the assistance of grants these turnaround schools have three years to shape up before the state says ship out. This hour we check in with Stephen dreich the new principal charged with rehabilitating Blackstone Elementary School which has some of the worst test scores in the state. From the classroom we hit the comedy clubs with comedian Roy Brown Jr. and we top it off with local made good. Shining a spotlight on Rick ADLER The man behind Dorchester is boys and girls music clubhouse mixed city kids from the schoolhouse to the clubhouse. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying the head of the

Palestinian Authority is deciding whether to keep negotiating peace with Israel the Jewish state decided to let a moratorium on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank expires. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had threatened to pull out of talks if Israel started building again. But as Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris Abbas now says he won't make any quick decisions. Too Nice looking at a press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Abbas said he would discuss the settlement issue with Palestinian negotiators on Wednesday and with the 22 member Arab League in Cairo next Monday about said after those meetings we may be able to clarify our position on Israel refusing to freeze settlements scenes of Jewish settlers pouring concrete for a West Bank kindergarten where shown in France and around the world Monday the ban on settlement building expired at midnight on Sunday and Israel refused to extend it. President Sarkozy echoed U.S. calls for Israel to maintain the construction freeze the ban that has been in place for eight months should have been upheld said Sarkozy to give peace negotiations their best

chance. For NPR News I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. NPR has learned that one of the lawyers involved in the prosecution of former Senator Ted Stevens has taken his own life. We have more on this from NPR's Carrie Johnson. An attorney for Justice Department prosecutor Nick Marsh says that marsh committed suicide over the weekend. Marsh had been under scrutiny for more than a year for his role in the failed prosecution of Alaska Republican Ted Stevens. The Justice Department walked away from the public corruption conviction of Stevens after the attorney general identified problems with evidence sharing in the case. The trial Judge Emmett Sullivan named a special prosecutor to investigate whether the government team broke the law and the Department launched a separate probe by ethics watchdogs at the Office of Professional Responsibility. A report by the special prosecutor is due within weeks and Marcia's lawyer Bob Luskin says he thought Marsh would not be charged with any wrongdoing. But the strain of such a long and high profile investigation apparently was too much for Marsh.

Carrie Johnson NPR News Washington. Southwest Airlines is buying out air travel the 1.4 billion dollar deal gives Southwest access to more small markets as well as greater exposure to existing ones such as New York. Tom Parsons of Best Fares dot com says he thinks the merger will create an extremely effective airline that will put a lot of pressure on so-called legacy carriers. I think overall we're going to see a very. Very strong low cost airlines have been able to serve a hundred U.S. cities. And that's an amazing number. Some of the legacy airlines don't go to 100 U.S. cities. The acquisition was announced about a week after Continental Airlines and U.S. corporation merged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down 30 points at last check. This is NPR News. President Obama says while he strongly supports teachers unions he says sometimes unions are also resistant to change when things aren't working. In an interview with NBC the president says he believes the worst performing teachers have

got to go if they don't show fast improvement. The president also says he's all for having a longer school year with us continuing to rank lower than other advanced nations in education. The president says higher standards have to be set and achieved by students and teachers alike. In an election in Venezuela voters stop President Hugo Chavez from winning total control of that country's congress. More from NPR's Juan Forero. President Chavez had told his followers that they needed to hold onto at least one hundred ten of the one hundred sixty five seats in the national assembly. But his allies won fewer than 100. That means that the president will have to negotiate with the opposition to win key reforms. In 2005 the opposition boycotted the last congressional elections that gave the president total control. And lawmakers in Congress have since rubber stamped laws and appointments. The president's foes characterized the vote as an important complement because Chavez has total control of the military the state oil company and the courts.

The president though has remained resilient after nearly 12 years in office and he's likely to run for re-election in 2012. One Ferraro NPR News. NATO's forces in eastern Afghanistan have launched air strikes into Pakistan saying they were acting in self-defense. The military alliance says about 50 militants were killed. I'd Lakshmi saying NPR News in Washington. Support for NPR comes from the Annie E. Casey Foundation promoting lifelong family connections for children and youth in foster care on the web at 8 ECF dot org. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Calla Crossley Show. My guest Steven Shrike is the new principal of the Blackstone elementary school and Boston south in the school one of 35 in the state is designated as a turnaround school meaning it has three years to improve before the state steps in.

Stevens Reich welcome. Thank you I'm very happy to be here today. Before we dive into the conversation listeners we want to hear from you. What kind of reform would you like to see in your school. How would you rate the quality of education that your kid is currently getting and teachers how do you feel about the latest push from the state and federal government to overhaul schools. We're at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. That's 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 and you can also weigh in online on the callee Crossley Show Facebook page. So Stephen's right. Just today President Obama whom as you know has been a driving force behind the school reform movement nationwide had some comments to make when asked about you know how are we going to reform our public schools and he said this historically when we first set up the public school systems across the country we were leaps and bounds ahead of the vast majority of countries around the world. This is just not true anymore. They have caught up and in some cases they're suppressing us

especially in math and science. So that's President Obama's take. You're right at the heart of the matter heading up one of the thirty five turnaround schools. How do you respond to what President Obama has said and are you experiencing that right where you are. Absolutely I mean I firmly believe that the quality of who we put in front of children each day is of utmost importance to accelerating growth in academics for our kids there's nothing more important than who's in front of our children and the sense of urgency in the urban schools in the sense of urgency in my school is significant when we have students who are reading multiple grade levels behind who are falling behind not only their peers across the world but also in the city across this nation. We have to have flexibility in who we put in front of children each and every day and we need the best the brightest the most talented of teachers. The work is difficult it's challenging it's also different than the work.

That teaching required 10 20 30 years ago and so I could not agree more. I could not agree more that we have to find and recruit talented teachers and if it's not working for our kids we have to look at it with a look at staffing very differently than we have before. Well you are in fact doing that as the head of one of the quote unquote turnaround schools. And you've really have an opportunity to do a fresh start. So I want our listeners to understand what that means exactly. You just got there a few months ago and when you got in what did you have to do. So we I was appointed in March and then I had an I had a few months to make decisions about who we were going to retain and on the staff who we thought was the best match for the school and the students and the needs and looked at a lot of data did observations of teachers interviewed teachers had conversations with teachers. And then at the end of April had to make a decision about the staff we were retaining. And then after that decision was made and we had this the staff returning staff identified and some folks we asked to stay chose not to and they went to other schools in

Boston. Let me pause there and say that part of turnaround means that some of those teachers must go. That's correct that at least 50 percent had to go and we went closer to about 80 percent. In the end but nobody lost their job because the teachers that we asked to leave were teachers who had tenure in the system. And so they found positions in other Boston schools. And then from April until the summer until even August we were hiring and we scoured and when I say we had a team of people that I brought on with me early on that helped. In this process administrative team and we went to great lengths we worked with an organization called teach plus that helped us recruit teacher leaders from all over the country we have folks from Memphis from California from North Carolina. We went to other Boston schools and we found teachers who wanted to come and join the work we went to other big urban districts in Massachusetts such as Brockton and Springfield and we also looked at Teach for America so we have teachers from Teach for America and then from the Boston Public a new

teacher program called Boston teacher residency program. So it's a really vast array of talents that we brought into the school. And I think we've got a team that has the right kind of expertise and and and experience to do the work that we need to to turn around the school. As you say in three years. This is Stephen strike my guest today and he is the new principal of the Blackstone Elementary School one of 35 designated turnaround schools in Massachusetts. He's doing some of the hard work that is required to be a turnaround school. Not the least of which was to release at least 50 percent of the teachers that were there. Now I want to come back to that because you've stated many times didn't have anything to do with the quality of those teachers. You had a vision and a plan overall that they did not fit in would you explain that. Yeah I mean our big foundational part of the work in turning around the school was teaming and by that I mean that we I knew having been a principal in Boston the war couldn't rely on one person or a few people that had to rely on a

critical mass of teachers and staff to own this work and to make change in a school. Too often people think it's a hero principal or a few teachers. That doesn't happen at all it leads to his burnout and you know unsuccessful aspirations that people have going into a school. So we were looking for people who were willing to work collaboratively to think critically about issues and complexities not only in their classroom but at the school as a whole and that looks at academic performance for children beyond just their classroom looking at where are the gaps are for our students. We have four we have three year olds all the way up to 11 and 12 year olds in the school. And people who also were willing to be reflective about their practice who are willing to ask the hard questions weren't afraid to give feedback to me as the principal and giving feedback be part be part of the solution and want to take on the solution because they have you know they have aspirations to be leaders not just leaders in their classrooms but to be leaders within the school. And those are the types of teachers who are trying to bring to the Blackstone.

Now when you reached out to some of those those teachers that you thought could work collaboratively. What did they say to you. What how did they approach this challenge. Well I think a lot of them said this is exactly what they were looking for they were a lot some were frustrated where they were that they didn't have a voice in some of the school wide practices in the school wide policies and wanted to be involved and they wanted to be part of the solution in turning a school around. They were I think this is this is cutting edge work I mean it's not work that exists in many places and and Massachusetts is a bold leader in this in this in this turnaround work and trying to change the culture in underperforming schools and for teachers for educators who don't necessarily want to leave the classroom because they have a passion for teaching and working with children. But at the same time I want to be involved with the most cutting edge of policy and be part of shaping policy for not only the rest of the Boston public schools but the state and nationwide. This was an exciting opportunity for them to be a part of.

It should be noted that that turning around that the reform that you're putting in place at that school is not just focus on the teachers or even on yourselves you extended the day to school day and you've updated the curriculum there are other moves you're making that has that have to go hand in hand with the overall vision of working with the teachers and new teachers. Yet we've taken steps we've tried to engage families through home visits. We've we're trying to be innovative about some of the practices in terms of making sure that teachers are working more collaboratively and doing a lot more team teaching. We're moving to we're trying to design a schedule around children not around adult needs which has been often a history in and some of public schools is that the schedule is comfortable for adults. But we're creating a schedule that works for children and that we feel will give them the type of support they need to to grow. And we have an extended day were looking at afterschool programs that are better aligned to our work and we have funding and resources to make that happen in our school. Callers

we are in the midst of a national public education reform led by President Obama's Race to the Top program and his Education Secretary Arnie Duncan. And locally we are looking at turnaround schools and where they're going with Steven Reich today who is the principal of the Blackstone elementary school. So what do you think about all of this is can reform work. Can you turn around an underperforming school. And what has been your experience where at 8 7 7 3 a 170 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 and on the Kelly Crossley Show Facebook page. Now we've talked about your vision and what you plan to do from here on. You have quite the challenge though. This was an underperforming school. The impasse scores were low. You know it's a tough you've got a tough population even though the Blackstone school isn't what I would call one of the best. Never hoods in Boston in the south in 90 percent of your students are in living

in poverty and a lot of them don't speak English. So this is tough no question we have a challenge and there's you know there's this is not for the faint of heart to take on this challenge but at the same time there are schools in Boston and there are schools nationwide that are making gains and students are achieving that fit our profile. And so I'm not willing to make that an excuse and I think unfortunately when I talk to a lot of some staff that were at the school before I heard a little bit of that that that there are families in the poverty and the in the neighborhoods they live in and you know we have 25 percent of students live in East Boston. And while those are challenges I will admit that. We are we've seen success from I've seen success from my own colleagues in Boston public schools with similar profiles of schools and the Nationwide we see and we hear stories of schools that have made gains for exactly the same type of population that we serve so it just means we have to work a little harder and it means that we have to be a little more strategic about the work we do.

All right we have a caller Kevin from Boston Go ahead please. I was fine. I just want to say you know I think the work you do is fantastic. I do have one slight disagreement with your opening statement of hiring the best and the brightest. Well you know you can change just like many of us have attended you know college and have upstanding brilliant professors who couldn't teach. And I really think what you're focusing on are outstanding professionals who can relate to the students you know who may not necessarily be the brightest minds but are the ones who are going to be able to instill that information into the students and get them to come away with a better understanding of what's trying to be instructed. And I'd like to hear your comment. Thank you. Thank you Kevin I think you make a great point actually I when we when we hired the staff we did we observed I believe about 80 percent of the staff the ones we had a chance to in fact we had some people teach in front of children at summer school

because we wanted to make sure as you say Kevin how they relate to children and you know being able to perform well on tests in college or to perform well on standardized test doesn't necessarily translate to effective teaching. But watching people teach children and our children and that's what we did is we made sure they were teaching. Our children summer school and then I also took my show on the road and observed as many teachers as we could and for exactly what Kevin points out which is we want to make sure that they have the ability to lead a group of children manage a classroom and to demonstrate some of the strategies that are most effective so I can agree more with that comment. All right. Stephen I just want listeners to know that you yourself seem perfect for the job. You're a young guy 34 years old. You speak Spanish. You have been a principal before and you have also been out of the classroom during the kind of academic work that allows you to

be observational about schools and come away with some information about what works and what doesn't. So. Seems like this was a perfect fit for you. Well it's nice of you to say I owe the Spanish to my mother who's a Cuban descent and made me speak in Spanish at home and and I and she made me at least. She answered me even when I spoke in English in Spanish but I think I've had I've been fortunate to have a lot of good experiences both in academia but also in Boston public school and I've had great mentors. I've had great leadership. With this our current superintendent and I feel that they have prepared us to do to do the work. And having had the opportunity to see I was in a very small school than a bigger elementary school. I think this is not a job that a first year principal could take on and I'm excited to have had all those experience leading up to this to be able to take on which I think is the most complex work so far in my career and you know I'm I'm excited for the for this this opportunity.

All right. I'm Kelly Crossley and we're speaking with Steven strike he is the new principal of the Blackstone Elementary School in Boston south end. It's one of the 35 turnaround schools in Massachusetts and listeners we know that education is a hot button issue issue. So let us know what you're seeing in your schools and what you want out of reform. We're at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 that's 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 8 9 7 8. We'll be back after this break stay with us. But the. Support for WGBH comes from you and from mass concerts. Young at Heart chorus bring their unconventional covers of rock punk and other modern music to Berklee Performance Center on Thursday September 30th and Friday October 1st. Tickets available at Ticketmaster dot com and from the New England mobile book fair in Newton. For 53 years. New England's independent bookstore. The New England mobile book fair find them online at any book fair dot com. That's an e-book fair dot com.

On the next talking people out of truly desperate situations GARY NASH spent 30 years as a hostage negotiator. He tells us the defusing a crisis starts with establishing trust projecting sincerity and on rare occasions you have to lie. New book is called Stalling for time. Join us for the next FRESH AIR. This afternoon at two on eighty nine point seven. WGBH. At WGBH dot org. You can help pay for the programs your community depends on. You can reduce fundraising. You can help the thousands on paper in administrative costs and you can do it all for just five dollars a month with monthly installments and automatic membership is the easiest and most efficient way to maximize your gift to public

broadcasting. Learn how far $5 each dot org. Why is a nine point seven. Because the way some Kenyans run barefoot may be better for their bodies than running shoes in the world. On the new eighty nine point seven WGBH radio. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Calla Crossley Show. We're talking about education reform with Steven Reich. He's the new principal of the Blackstone school in Boston south in listeners parents teachers and students. What are you seeing in Boston schools. Give us a call at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. That's 8 7 7 3 0 1. Eighty nine seventy. The subject is education reform. You can also weigh in online on the callee Crossley Show Facebook page. And Steve is right we have a lot of callers so I'm going to go to Renee from Boston Go ahead please.

RIDOUT Yes go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. I like to know the numbers. That the black kindergarten through fourth grade the peaches have to service and daily buy them now. OK thank you very much for the call Renee. Go ahead Steven. Well it's by by the contract we have the largest numbers in kindergarten are 22 for an up to second grade or 20 to students and then third fourth and fifth is up to 25 students and can go no higher than that. However that's one of the things our work we're trying very hard to do is to to maximize the amount of adults we have in each classroom so that the ratio of students to adults increases because as you I think I infer from your question that those numbers are too high but we're working strategically to use our resources so teachers have more support in their classrooms to better serve the students that they had before them. All right let's take another call. Linda from Staten teaching. Go ahead please.

Yes hi thank you for taking my call. My Been listening to your program here and it seems that it's all about the school. Well in my family and my bringing up my bringing up my children and now my grandson I find that school starts at home and that is I think it's up to parents to get the ball rolling by reading to the children by spending time with them so they. Learn their letters they learn how to do simple math problems. It isn't all up to the school. I think I'm correct. So the sponsibility isn't being maintained because I know of a letter going to school and I know you know when they enter the school. All right Linda let me let our guest respond to that. Go ahead Steven. There's no question that the involvement of the family is crucial to our work. But I think at least for our the population we serve many of our families don't speak English. Many of them have trouble and rightfully so getting to school because they live across the tunnel. So we're doing we need to do more on our end to better connect families and educate them about how they

can better help at home. We're trying to do more in East Boston for the 25 percent of our students that live there. Their parents want to get involved they're all very well-intentioned families. But the logistics make it very difficult and that's I think also I think it is on us to do a better job of connecting and engaging our families. Now for your own personal experience how is education changed if you think back to the time that you were in school and were inspired to go into education. Well I think more than anything we're actually looking at student performance on a regular basis on a 6 to 8 week basis we're looking at seeing where kids are. That wasn't the case before it was just a lot of it was the look the feel how schools look to the eye. But we were and were really weren't peeling back the layers to see which kids are actually making gains and which kids aren't and school has worked for certain kids has always worked for a certain population of students. However it doesn't work for everybody and by looking at data and looking at performance and assessing where children are we can look we can look throughout the year on a

regular basis and adjust what we're doing to make sure that we have fewer and fewer kids falling through the cracks. All right let's take another call. Kim from Boston Go ahead please. Yes. I was curious why your guest thought it was hard to teach and it seemed like it was a general. But even if it's not particular to Boston turn around schools. But why do you thought it was harder to teach today than it was 10 to 15 years ago. I think the expectations that we are being asked of I mean teachers are being asked to do a great deal now in terms of making sure that they reach all earners making sure that we're active we have children who are coming to school with greater and greater needs each year. And the onus is you know teachers need increased support because the amount that our sins are coming to school with presenting with when they arrive to school is much more significant than ever before. And then we you know the microscope is on schools to perform and to show growth and

that wasn't what have the needs of the students now. Well we have students many some who have never gone to school before when they come to school. Students who are arriving to our school many of our students whose first language is Spanish in the case of the Black Stone many students who you know that are students who are maybe not involved in programs outside of. School some who witness a lot of trauma in their lives. And I think that those numbers have increased over the last few years so as teachers their teachers are wearing more hats than they ever have before. And I commend all the very talented teachers that we have across the system and I frankly having taught in the suburbs earlier in my career I would stack up any teachers in Boston the great ones in Boston with any teachers anywhere in the state of Massachusetts. Now you brought up languages several times in this conversation and one of the things that the former principal said on her way out and I think Maria Ruiz Allen said is that the underperforming in terms of the scores came from the difficulty that that she had

and other teachers had there to try to teach kids the content while also teaching them the language at the same time. So it's really a double whammy because if you don't can't you know. Deal with the language then it's hard to get the content into the little head so how are you going to work around that. Well that's one of our priorities as a school is to really focus on English language development and to take every step we can. The strategies we use in all our classrooms regardless of whether it's a science classroom or one of our sheltered English immersion classrooms whether it's at the in the gym that every day that instruction is done in a way that promotes the language and that develops children's language. And there are ways to ensure that that happens having students talk to one another. How we use pictures to be connected with different objects. The use of academic language which kids are not necessarily hearing at home. Those are things that all our staff whether you're the custodian or whether you are a classroom teacher need to be familiar with when you have so many students in the school who are developing language.

All right. We're at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 eighty nine seventy. The subject is school reform we're speaking with Steven Reich. He is the new principal of the Blackstone elementary school and he is charged with turning around the school in three years. Let me go to another caller. Ted from Boston Go ahead please. Hi I am wondering what you think about the benefits of extending apology. And then the school year for another month vs. the last. Small businesses that make their income. Some are overpayment and they can start administrate. It's really worth having kids in school for another month in the summer. What do you think Steve. I absolutely do think it's worth doing I commend the districts that have done that throughout the country. But I do think it's as you get your question talks about some of the partners in the businesses that that make profit from summer programs I think we need to do a better job of partnering with those organizations because summer programs or extended day can't just be about more academics and that's it. We have to look at how

enrichment blends in with that as well and so outside providers can be a part of that solution. But I do think that extending the school day and having top quality instruction for kids all throughout the year balance with actual enrichment opportunities in the arts and sports programs is really critical because there is a fair not a fair amount there is significant backsliding that occurs during the summer vacations for students. Let me ask. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame billionaire has just offered 100 million dollars to the new Newark schools to you know assist in school reform there. Now some of the criticism comes from folks who say well that's great. We'd love to have that money but it will not help if you give it to people they do the same thing they've been doing all along. So I'm wondering what you think about that gift. I know you love to have it and whether you would agree that there is something different has to happen in order to maximize a gift like that or any resources you may have. Yeah absolutely I think just throwing more money at the issue is not going to solve the problem. I will commend

the state of the Massachusetts Department of Education because when we wrote our grants for our turnaround funding the three year funding that the Blackstone received just over 2 million dollars for it was a very rigorous process and really forced us to think to push and push us to think differently about what we what we're going to do and how we're going to make a difference over the next three years for our students. And I think that's the kind of process. And there's intense monitoring that will happen walk through that the building oversight by the Boston Public Schools as well. That has to accompany any money now that's certainly not the same amount of money that the Newark public schools received but any type of funding you know too often we just throw money at the problem and nobody's really thought strategically and help people accountable for a fort where there's an intense amount of accountability with this funding which is unlike anything I've seen before. So often you know you know you can't see right away when change is actually happening. So you've got three years to do this. At the end of the first year

for you what will look like success specifically. Well I think we need to we need to show gains in student performance already in the middle of the year. I mean we need to look at our baseline I want to I should say growth. We want to see what our baseline performances were which we're doing right now as we speak and then see gains in January. So there's there's. And what again little Aynesworth I mean you see students who are coming in low risk I'm sorry high risk and performing at very low levels on some of our internal assessments and then being closer and closer to closing the gap so that the by the end of the year they're at at proficiency levels for their grade. It also is more than just performance academic data look at looking at climate data we have climate data from the school on how students perceive the school how parents perceive the school. Surveys are really important to capture. And I want parents to feel like one thing I've heard from parents is they feel feel very disconnected from the academic program at the school. They many of them didn't know how their students were doing or they found out way too late and they were informed that their child was going to be. Repeating

the grade at a point where it was too late to do anything about it. And so for me it's making sure that parents are communicating to us yes we know where our students are and we also know what to do about it. We know we know what programs are available and that's that comes with us aligning our after school programs and our services to kids and that they feel confident that the school is doing something to address it and then they have some tools in their back that they can use at home to better support the work so those things are really critical. Based on what I've heard from parents when I came into the school we are speaking at a time when there is a movie documentary coming out called Waiting for Superman which apparently it hasn't arrived in Boston yet is a sharp critique about the systems that are in place to try to teach public school children and how they're in fact are being failed by most of the school systems. And apparently it's quite an emotional piece so I I put that in the background to ask you how do you feel emotionally. I mean this is a no is a big challenge but at the end of the day as we say you look at these

little faces and this is it for them you've got to make an impression on them. And it's got to be meaningful so that they will feel confident enough to continue the rest of their life getting what not only what they need but what we need as a nation. I mean this this and I did see the Oprah where they Waiting for Superman was featured and I it was an emotional piece of my wife's an educator we watch it and for me it's more real than ever before because I have a child I did this eight month old and it never was as real to me. I used to always say I want I want to be able to say I can put my child in every class and I didn't have a child when I said that now I do have a child and it's you know education is one of the I think the virtues of the values we have as a democracy and all too often in the movie portrays is that it becomes luck of the draw it becomes a lottery which students get good education and which ones don't and I that's just doesn't resonate with me doesn't strike is as American. And I think we have a real I I applaud the superintendent in Boston because I

think she's taken some bold steps to really think differently about public education we have charters have done a lot and they've shaken up the landscape in Massachusetts but I think Dr. Johnson in Boston is trying to be as bold as possible and to push as much as he can to ensure that it doesn't become a lottery and it doesn't become happenstance in what in certain schools kids will receive good education that we we ensure that this that the system be about children and not about adults and I said that earlier. But I think too often public education has been about adults and not enough about children. Is this the moment sometimes you know you get the one moment and if it if you don't grab hold of it at that time it doesn't come again for many many years. Some are saying that that this all the stars are lining up for a very serious public education reform not only here in Boston but nation what do you believe that. I think so too I think absolutely and I think one of the things this movie has done is to uncover a lot of what's happening in urban schools in this country unfortunate lot of parents who attend

urban schools don't have the social capital and the access to navigate the system and to also to to to push and to to surface some of the issues that many many parents with means and many parents and a lot of suburbs of Boston would never stand for would never ever allow for their children. And it's not because our families don't care. It's just that they it's the lack of it lack of knowing I don't know how the system works. And I think this movie is really surfacing a lot of this and I hope a lot of families get to see this because the expectation level that parents bring can help improve schools throughout and I do think it's a watershed moment I hope it's a watershed moment because you know it's the work that I try to do and I know a lot of my colleagues each day that we want to make sure that regardless of what classroom in our school whatever whatever classroom a child is assigned to they or are going to benefit and will not be a last year for them. And. We're coming to the end of this year which is just a few months into the

school year and you're going to feel good about what what's already happening there. I feel good about the start it's obviously challenging when you have a lot of new staff and it's challenging for parents and kids because the systems are different but I love I love the feeling in the school I love the vibe that's come with a lot of new ideas and the buzz that's common and kids have already commented that they've noticed they they've noticed that things are different they look different they feel different. And I think they're being pushed in ways they never have been before and some of the fifth graders are very clear in articulating that that they're I said they've said you know I'm getting a lot more homework than I ever have and my teachers is a little stricter than ever before and we're you know we're we're making sure that this is a meaningful year as they head off to middle school. Well Stephen's right I can tell you don't fool around. We've been talking about education reform with Stephen strike. He is the new principal of the Blackstone Elementary School in Boston south in. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me it's been a pleasure. Up next it's our regular Monday feature local made

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up to the present. Reserve your copy now for a sustaining gift of $7 a month at WGBH dot org. This is eighty nine point seven WGBH Boston NPR station for trusted voices and a local conversation with FRESH AIR and the Emily Rooney show. The new eighty nine point seven WGBH. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Kelly Crossley Show it's time for our regular Monday feature local made good where we celebrate people who bring honor to New England. My guest today is Rick Adler. He's a graduate from the Berkeley School of Music and currently serves as the music clubhouse director at the Blue Hill Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester. Rick Adler welcome they were having. This is just an exciting program because we're doing sort of all kids in schools and interest you then at the Boys and Girls Club since you were volunteering there as a student

at Berkeley. So tell me about those first days and then how you transition from being a volunteer to the music clubhouse director. That's what you know of it. The first couple weeks Blue Hill boys and girls were really amazing. A good friend of mine Paul. He was doing the work study program there and at the time Berkeley was sending down kids to different schools and after school programs but there's no real focus about what these Berkeley kids were doing. So Paul invited me down to kind of see what was going on and I saw he had this little room and there were two drum sets a computer like Pro-Tools was in there but there was no they didn't have idea how you teach the kids or how many kids you would have. So we basically started hanging out and playing drums. We don't know what Pro Tools are you know recording music that's how we do all the dancing and stuff like that. So at one point I remember doing drum lessons probably within the first two weeks I was in again I was hanging out just kind of playing with these kids and a fight broke out outside of our room and I got all freaked out thing a while his you know the exact and the director operations are going to

throw us out of here. And I remember Daphne Griffin who's now she's at she's the executive director there saying we've never had because the why is that if Boston Center you can family say thank you. She said We've never had kids fight to get into a room right. Like I have kids in the hallway or just kind of showing our They don't want to go in the room. But we've never had kids fighting to get in so they said there's something going on here that's cool you guys have something that's working. So to figure out what kids should come in. We had them write essays so we didn't there was no limit you could write two sentences you could write two pages but why do you feel like you should do music you know why do you wanna play drums or why you don't play guitar. And the kids wrote some really good you know heart wrenching essays and we took those kids we had about 20 I think and started teaching and it was just a lot of fun they hired me that summer and I worked in their summer program and really got to me the kids at Blue Hill in the community the community is great I will talk about that later but Dorchester is awesome you know. Do you remember what some of those kids wrote in those heartfelt essays trying to get into that room.

I do. Yeah you know some kids talked about how they looked up like Alicia Keys and they want to sing a song or one guys talk about how singing is his passion and he was like 11 years old this kid and singing is my life and it's the number one thing I want to do and if I can't make it well that's okay I can try somewhere else but I really love what you guys are doing like he wrote this at 11 years old really crazy or there was another kid who faced a lot of challenges at home and he wrote a essay to saying geez I'd like to make beats. That was it that was his whole essay and he said you know we're going to get a shot and that was the whole point was we were able to kind of level the playing field here's all these kids that wanted to try or at least have the opportunity and they can now have it in a kind of a small way. So how does the music clubhouse work now now that you've become really official in that. A program there with five employees I mean you're really going great guns. Yeah it's a really big program so we offer we're open from 12:30 to you know with the Blue Hill boys and girls. And we offer lessons on guitar bass drums

piano and then you know my favorite area is the studio where we teach kids how to make beats and how to record and mix down songs and all that and we are really lucky Berklee College of Music sends down three work studies for us so they work 10 to 15 hours a week to work said he's just a kid who goes to Berkeley that gets to teach. So instead of working it was corny like McDonald's instead of being a McDonald's Megan minima weighed 675 they get a pretty good wage to come down and make a difference. They're doing it in an area they love already. Music. Yeah exactly. So they're getting you know they're learning how to work with kids and they can teach and they can play their music and you know Jim Acosta who's the director of Community Affairs at Berkeley is is really awesome and anything we need support wise you know finding really good kids at Berkeley they come through and we've had some awesome works that he's really got from Indonesia who he is a bass player and he was all the R&B and the lessons he would do these kids was crazy. And here is like people are all curious all white like white lies or acts and funny and and even on

that. So he did bass lessons and he could do these hip hop lessons and all that but then he also died but where he was from. So we bridged a lot of gaps you know it's a very diverse room. I want to play a little bit of the music that the kids have recorded as a part of the music clubhouse. And this is a piece called Blue Hill. The group is Blue Hill shuffle and it's from the group's studio. And here we go. I wanted to. Ask you. That's adorable and what our listeners should know is that you had no background in rap before

so this is a whole new area for you. Yeah you know yeah definitely I mean I grew up a little bit. I remember that actually on the first cassette I ever got was to park all eyes on me but then when I was a boxer or for those of the uninitiated I knew she had a go at it and Berkeley Yeah you know you go into it was all like Latin music and jazz music so yeah it was a total flip you know when I was a blue who was you know like their soldier boy everyone knows who soldier boy is right now and well most people do know that he's a rapper by going after him in the Berkeley world you know he's considered a joke right and even then I was like How do you know he's not very good. But then I went to the club and watched how it related. And it wasn't it was just it's fun music. I really understand pop so much better now in hip hop and now that's my world I love rap music. One of the young students had to teach you rap by the way just so you could be able to to be able to incorporate this in the kids lessons. I love that story. So in the creative process you take them through every aspect of it so they the kid who said I want to learn how to do beats they go into the studio and then give us a little bit of the

creative process where we could talk about a little shuffle that song Personally I thought was the corniest song that we'd ever made I think it's OK and it's turned into Yeah this is a big hit which is really crazy. What I did there's a program is called a reason reason 4.0 which Berkeley teaches you know it's students and like I know I at the time knew a little bit about it enough about it so we were able to turn the program on and show the kids I hears the drums. Here's how you put a drum beat together and here's how you find these little saxophones and then this is we wrote that song two years ago actually. And let's point out none of these kids have any musical background. Zero. Yeah I mean so they start from zip to get to this point. They start from what they hear on ninety four point five right. I just drew you know there are like the record you know it's surprising because a lot of them know what their parents listen to. So they know the Michael Jackson catalog better than me. You know if they are like well you put a Stevie Wonder song on and there were no. And then one of the name of it there was no even looks like he does. You could put it on in the video yeah Superstation of that drum beat Oh come on we play that all the time. And the kids will know that which blows

me away. OK I want to give our listeners another chance to hear some of this is called Wake Up And this is another track from Studio heat. I love that last line like Burger King I do know I'm not gangsta rap we should say. I mean it's like a gangster. Yeah it's a lot of ways and big bass and yeah that song tells you everything

that's it's so honest and pure That's what I like it's very. We had Prince Charles Alexander was a faculty member of Berklee and he worked with Bad Boy Entertainment the 90s so he engineered the torys be edgy puffy Alecia Keys. I remember him listening to one of the songs on the CD and say his reaction was wow. Do you have five more of these like he was named our guy to hear that from him. He's a legit dude so that gave me chills a little bit. We have something go on here we can make honest music that really works. You've attracted some other celebrities Run DMC and the drummer from Aerosmith. Yeah right. MC That was unbelievable he came down and he spent six hours with us and he came in the studio and did this whole song. This was awhile ago so this I mean my teaching chops were that good and producing shots were that good and and so young fresh was a kid that was mentioned in the article he did the song with DMC and DMC was genuinely I think he was blown away with what we had the equipment and the song we made and he was just so laid back and so fun it was so cool to have The Legend

of hip hop. I mean Rev wasn't there but the MC like I was that's all right. I want to know what you think now when you hear about schools cutting out music because obviously even in this very small program we are seeing kids who are hungry for this even if they're not planning to be musicians. What does that say to you about what music can do for kids in there in terms of their personal growth. That's a really good question and I don't have any of the data I got. There's always a general stereotype of our music getting cut and whether it's true or not I don't really know. I'm sure it is getting cut. But I like that. I think I said it before we level the playing field. There are some stats about private lessons in the suburbs around like $50 for a private lesson which is crazy first off but there's no way the kids in our community could pay for that right. So the fact that for 20 you know six year old the 12 year olds pay $25 a year to come the boys and girls or teams only pay $5 for the year. So hypothetically you could pay $5 and have

studio access for 365 days. That's crazy so I like that we we can like fill that gap of bridge that gap you know. I'm talking with Rick Adler he is the director of the music clubhouse at the Blue Hill Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester and our local made good on a rainy this Monday. I want to know how that young student taught you to write and teach rap. He was kind of like a spokes person of like what was what was hip you know right here at the time I met him you know like you're kind of hip you know. I'm like OK now I'm ok maybe when I first came in and I have a square but fresh just kind of showed me what was up and this is what he introduced me to Drake and if the listeners know who Drake is he's probably one of the biggest things going on hip hop and he's changing the way people listen to rap music. It's a little more emotional now and so the fact of this 13 year old kid is the one who is listening to this new Drake. You know he told me all about it and

or what's going on with the Gucci man or Jay-Z or Kanye was my personal favorite. He just opened the doors to me and I spent every single night. Why is this cool what what is it about this 16 bar verse that he's saying what's what's going on here that sounds really good. People always misinterpret rap music I mean just the general public right. It's gangsta rap that if I'm not going to get well they're right about that because that's the reality they face right. So the fun thing for us is the kids. When you listen to the whole CD they're being totally honest about what they do so like that song Wake up is about get up brush your teeth. There's another song violence about what the kids have experience in their neighborhoods and we get a chance to let them kind of be kids you know. All right here's another. This may be an example of what you're talking about here's another piece from super. It's called Super Hero and it's a song from the group studio heat. Listen.

To what. He said. OK. I love that if they can save the we're also can you that. I love the first empowerment right there in a song. Now your musician has we've made clear you're a drummer. What is it done teaching these kids and learning from them to enhance your own musical skills and talents. It reminds me about what music does for you. You know like you and this isn't the fault of Berklee but when you're getting grades on your lessons in the projects you do it takes away from the honesty of music I feel like and watching the kids write superhero for example and they made that hook was when they perform it and dance it reminds you why music is fun and why music is real and why it is the universal language about everything and it's given me a deeper appreciation for music. You know I mean I love what my job is. I love it. You know today's Monday morning I look forward to Monday

morning I think even said that Globe article. And that sounds corny but to be able to share that and share that with kids too and to see how good they are. It's awesome you know it's anything is possible like that Kevin Garnett when he said that in a way like we all take that very seriously. Kevin Garnett wondering so now like week studio he's all these kids. We could do anything and. What will happen with this these recorded songs from studio where are you hoping to take that. Hope for the Grammys. You know I think I know you know I used to kind of jokingly say that is a dream but now the way things have been taking off I mean how hard these kids work is unbelievable and you know people are really starting to notice which is crazy I mean Boston has done so much for us and really all say I give a lot of credit to boys and girls of Boston right like I have to support them. They have given me all of this freedom and to kind of run with this and work with our kids and and develop them I mean at the very least at the very least even if we don't do the Grammys or whatever the kids are going to learn a lot of leadership skills and they get to learn like what like

give me some example of good I mean one I always teach for kids is when you meet somebody right like I always shake hands I contact Hi my name is Rick KELLEY It's nice to meet you Cali. You know stuff like that. And then having them ask a lot of questions and work at that too. Like that's that's the big stress is fresh blowing up because he works really hard so now 10 11 12. They see that now they want to work really hard. So you come in make sure your homework is done so your mom doesn't yell at me that you're just happen all day. You know I don't think I do now because if my mom got heated if I didn't do homework got out of my mom you know she she did a lot for me with music and. Now it's I feel very fortunate to be in the middle of this you know to support these kids and give them this chance. And then I get to make music for a living and you know personally I don't do anything on the side anymore this is this is my life a studio. And for the students who have gone on from working with you how have you seen them change a little bit from this experience.

Blue Hill Blue Hill you know there's a lot of kids who will come back that are they'll go to college like I have I have a couple who are freshman right now who still text me about what songs they're listening to or they'll ask me what's going on in a studio. You have any new hits. And I love that I like kids always come back on their vacation and want to come back in the studio you know or they'll want to work with the kids. And I love that that means everything if you have kids coming back to you from college they want to continue working. That says a lot. So yeah it's everything about the club you know. It's really great. Well I can say is I'm just at a music club house and a director like you back in the day. That would have been pretty interesting though I have no musical talent. Nice voice though. My guest is Rick Aguilar the music clubhouse director at the Blue Hill Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester Rick Adler thank you so much for being this Monday's local made good. Thank you. You can keep on top of the Calla Crossley Show at WGBH dot org slash Calla Crossley follow us on Twitter or friend the Calla Crossley Show

on Facebook today show was engineered by James pick and produced by Chelsea Marrs and a white knuckle beat and Abby Ruzicka. This is the Calla Crossley Show where production of WGBH radio Boston's NPR station or news and culture.