Principal Anthony Smith Helps Taft Technology High School Do A Complete Turnaround

Ten years ago, the graduation rate at Cincinnati's Taft Information Technology High School was 18 percent. It was considered one of the worst schools in Ohio; parents didn't want to send their children there.

Since then, thanks to dedicated principal Anthony Smith, the same staff of hard-working teachers and a unique partnership with the local phone company, the school has undergone a complete 180, ABC News reports.

Today, the school has taken its "failure is not an option" motto to heart. Ninety-five percent of the students graduate. And not a single one of the free phones and laptops given to students who kept a 3.3 grade point average (by Cincinnati Bell, the city's local phone company) has been taken back because the student fell behind.

WATCH:

Comments

[poochie7060]

10:46 AM on 03/25/2011

Let's face it, the promise of some sort of reward is a motivator that continues throughout life. Whether it's providing these kids niceties they would not normally be able to afford in exchange for academic performance, excelling in a field of study in college that will enable us to pursue our professional dreams or simply trying to make ourselves attractive to a potential partner. It's all about something that inspires you to excel. Whatever the motivator, I'm happy this turned out well for all involved.

[cymarie1964]

02:12 PM on 03/23/2011

Leadership and accountability from administration, teachers, parents and students is awesome when it all comes together. To get to the same place in other schools and districts, we need to build relationships between all of the aboved mentioned groups. Education works only if we all work together.

[poeticjustice4all]

11:40 PM on 03/21/2011

Well, so much for the nonsense from teachers about blaming "bad parents," stupid students and poverty.

[GlennWatson]

08:45 AM on 03/22/2011

So much for firing all the teachers

[samenames]

12:13 PM on 03/22/2011

Yep, total nonsense. Because kids who come from poverty, or have "bad parents", or have a lack of motivation can fix those things all on their own. It's not nonsense and I'm saddened by your lack of empathy. These students were given opportunities that are provided to middle class students - tutoring, people who motivate them to do better, and technology. It's when you identify a student's or school's needs and address them that students can succeed. It's also made blatantly clear in this example the power that a strong administrator can have on a school.

[GlennWatson]

09:07 PM on 03/22/2011

To be fair its also nice if the principal has control over which students get into the school and he can give all them all laptops and cell phones.

[PharmerJoshua]

10:30 PM on 03/21/2011

First off, HuffPo, at least spell the name of the city, CINCINNATI, correctly in your "Read More" tags. This is absolutely embarrassing for you.

Second, the school had outside help from the business community, an actual successful company with helpful volunteers. To suggest that the teachers were responsible for the entire turn around is completely false. You had helpful volunteers that also kept teachers more accountable than what was previously occurring.

Third, I don't care what motivates the students, as long as they learn and become productive and happy members of society. Money is not evil.

Until government gives up the monopoly on public education, unfortunately stories like these will be the exception, not the rule.

[mrskorn]

01:45 PM on 03/27/2011

Then you cannot blame them for the total failure either. Good grief, you still want to trash the teachers, even when the school succeeds.

[Gus Stephens]

07:20 PM on 03/21/2011

I'm happy for these students, but they shouldn't be motivated to perform well in school for cellphones and laptops. In the real world they aren't always going to recieve these things as rewards just because they performed well. Motivation shouldn't be materialistic.

[GlennWatson]

08:46 AM on 03/22/2011

Actually they will be motivated in the 'real world" by material things.

[Kmj Reg]

02:01 PM on 03/21/2011

I knew the comments I'd find on this article. Yes it's totally impossible that a minority school with a minority principle and minority teachers can turn the school around. They had to have fudged the numbers. Proof? The proof is that they're black and have a good school , that's all the proof you need! /sarcasm

[iowamiddleguy]

12:06 PM on 03/21/2011

Folks - it is not just one principal who turned around the school - the business and local community stepped in too! You can have the greatest principal in the world, but without other supporting factors they will not be successful. Here you have a great leader in the principal, you have a businessman who donates his companies money and provides time off for his employees to show up and tutor, you have people in the local community who are parents who are supportive of the change efforts, and you have teachers, teachers who care. transplant this principal to a school without those factors, or a rural community with no businessman to help provide excellent incentives and it does not matter much ....

kudos to the school and principal and it is yet one more of many examples on how to turn around a school. kudos for the teachers who chose to work there, after all it is (sarcasm) just a part time job..... and kudos to the kids who have bought into it and who are performing better in school!

[JerryJH]

11:46 AM on 03/21/2011

Extrinsic rewards (phones & laptops) used to get the students through high school... I'm curious how this might play out for these kids in a few years when no one is offering them the same kinds of rewards. I'm not necessarily condemning it, but I'm not convinced this is the best strategy for making independent, productive, self-motivated members of society.

[deanleto]

11:06 AM on 03/21/2011

notice, did not have to fire all the teachers....

[dandan1]

07:47 PM on 03/20/2011

There are so many ways to juice those numbers.
1-Change school boundaries to include wealthy neighborhoods and dump poorer neihborhood.
2-Make sure that the kids who drop out are registered to a charter school before they leave (call it a "transfer")
3-Outright fudging of numbers.
Those are just a few but there are a lot of ways that schools do this. It is statically improbable that schools get "turned around" it is FAR more likely that there are shenanigans.

[Lynn Brown]

08:49 PM on 03/20/2011

please offer one piece, one little piece of evidence that anything you say applies to this instance. I'll wait.

[dandan1]

01:52 AM on 03/22/2011

look at the vid, he seems to be admitting that he got rid of the at risk kids. Yes that is a form of juicing the numbers. If you give ANY principal that power they could do that, just kick them out at the first sign of trouble or inability.

[Fran Jaime]

09:34 PM on 03/20/2011

it's also far more probable that you are an i.d.i.0.t, dandan1

[dandan1]

12:23 AM on 03/22/2011

rewatch the vid and listen to hear if he says he had the authority to get rid of any student he wanted to get rid of. I could swear I heard that.

[dandan1]

02:02 AM on 03/22/2011

start at 1:13

[RocheTm]

07:37 PM on 03/20/2011

Careful now, don't want to enrage the blame the teacher folks. Stop giving examples of teachers of a failing school turning it into a school full of minorities that can beat the real Americans on tests.

[AmigaMan]

08:56 PM on 03/20/2011

Yes. It is time to STOP blaming teachers. Blame administrators and politicians that do NOT know how to teach students. Yet, these people implement screwed up curriculum that just does not work for teachers or students.

[garystartswithg]

09:41 PM on 03/21/2011

you obviously worked in education -- it takes a special kind of reptile to be an administrator. i don't know why more people in education aren't more vocal about the corruption in the upper ranks.

[GlennWatson]

07:12 PM on 03/20/2011

I am suspicious. There must be more to this story. I suspect the principal has some power to control the student body composition that others do not have. I have no evidence for this assertion but I bet I am right.

[Lynn Brown]

08:54 PM on 03/20/2011

Hopefully you are equally suspicious of the preconceptions and assumptions that lead you to your conclusion. Not knowing the man, or the school, I cannot say definitively that all is as it seems. But reading the link, and viewing the video, it certainly seems plausible. And based on my own experiences in NYC High Schools, I can confirm that the teachers of significant impact know their kids, listen and pay attention to them, value them, and exhibit it in ways both affirmative and demanding. Makes sense to me.
So be suspicious. I support skepticism. Be sure to apply it to your own conclusions, especially when drawn upon an admitted lack of information.

[poeticjustice4all]

11:42 PM on 03/21/2011

Sad.

[GlennWatson]

08:43 AM on 03/22/2011

So you think in such a short period the school went from best to worst due to a slogan, some phones and laptops and tutoring. OK then.

Don't you thing this situation belies your idea that teachers should be fired.

[GlennWatson]

08:44 AM on 03/22/2011

Whoops, I meant worst to best.

[MerryW]

07:06 PM on 03/20/2011

Well done Principal Smith, and kodo's to your staff too. How wonderful for these kids.

[bruisers]

06:36 PM on 03/20/2011

Not one example of how the school turned it around. Wow, tutoring twice a week! That must have done it! Really bad piece of reporting.

[MerryW]

07:03 PM on 03/20/2011

clink the links in the story

[Laura Hayes]

05:51 PM on 03/20/2011

Its the teachers who turn schools around, not some business trained leader.

[AmigaMan]

08:55 PM on 03/20/2011

Exactly.

[deanleto]

11:08 AM on 03/21/2011

and it was the "same" teachers...