Partnership Principal Steve Warmack

     When Steve Warmack became principal of St. Louis’ Roosevelt High School seven years ago, he was stunned.

     “When I walked into the building, I realized there were major changes which needed to be made,” he recalls. “I was stunned at the depths the school had sunk. Our challenge was to re-float the ship.”

     A lot has happened in those seven years under Steve’s leadership and with a staff that has become committed to improvement. Now, Roosevelt High is no longer taking on water.

    The key to improvement is a staff development program where all teachers are placed on a professional growth team that meets for one hour every day. During this time they discuss teaching strategies, look at their classroom activities, and review each other’s work. The staff is using Robert Marzano’s book, Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, as a guidepost for its reform efforts and working with three local universities that provide resources.

               Four goals have been set:

•Improved student academic achievement through the use of research-based instructional strategies,

•Use of the data to tailor specific instructional strategies,

•Improved relationships between staff/student, staff/staff, staff/administration, and staff/parent, and

•Literacy in all content areas.

     Signs are appearing that the 1,700-student, 9-12 comprehensive high school is succeeding. Yet, the road to improvement had one major bump. Two years ago Roosevelt High was declared academically deficient by the state.

    “That got people’s attention, and staff members took a hard look at themselves,” Warmack said.

    With renewed commitment, the school is demonstrating success. Last spring, state test scores shot up, and Roosevelt High was commended for its improvement by the State Superintendent of Schools at the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals conference this fall.
   
     In addition to test scores, Roosevelt has demonstrated other major accomplishments. It recently won its first Academic Olympics competition among district schools.

    Students at the Roosevelt Communications Career Academy last year designed, scripted, and produced a 12-minute animated video, “The Importance of Clean Air,” for the Environmental Protection Agency. The video includes tips on how to maintain clean air and is being distributed by the EPA to middle and high schools throughout the country. The Roosevelt student primarily responsible for the animation has received a full scholarship to the Chicago Institute of Art.

    Believing in small learning communities, Warmack and the Roosevelt staff have also developed a Teaching Career Academy and plan to institute a Business and Technology Career Academy next year.

     With a diverse student population, Warmack finds new challenges at his school all the time, and that’s what makes the job interesting for him. Roosevelt has a tremendous cultural mix with students from more than 23 nations, including many who had escaped political and religious persecution in mid-Eastern and African nations.

     Activities have also been put in place hold students and parents accountable for learning. Facing a high rate of truancy among freshmen, four years ago a program was designed where a juvenile court judge comes to the school every two weeks to meet with ninth graders who have been truant and their parents. Counseling is provided the families, but if there is no improvement, the parents can be subpoenaed to city court. Attendance has improved from 75 to 89 percent.

   “Every day’s a new day at our school, and this environment is one of excitement,” Warmack says. “As a principal, I’ve learned to be a tap dancer.”

     He believes that teamwork is the key to being an effective school leader.

    “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit,” he states.

    Vision is essential for effective leadership, according to Warmack, and that means “not seeing things as they are, but as they will be”

    “My biggest challenge is changing the culture of the school, getting teachers to see that students are not destined to a life of failure because they come from a background of poverty,” he said. “The job of the principal is to set the tone, involve all parties and share decisions. With that approach, there’s no limit to where this school can go.”

More information about Roosevelt High School can be found on the school website, http://www.acumen-corp.com/rhs/.