23 Oct 2009
School is one of four in Dallas ISD named a Blue Ribbon School
DALLAS—At the School of Health Professions at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center, students, teachers, and administrators take very seriously the district's purpose of graduating all students college and workforce ready.
Throughout the school's classrooms and labs are constant reminders of the colleges and universities that offer the careers students are learning about. Starting in the ninth grade, the students learn what it takes to go to college in their chosen career path, and they take dual credit courses to accumulate college credit hours.
The best part, however, of the programs offered at the School of Health Professions is that students in many of the career clusters accumulate enough hours and practical experience while in high school to obtain certifications that allow them to work when they graduate.
The school has a 100 percent graduation rate and most of the students pass the TAKS at the commended level, said principal Myrtle Garner Walker, beaming as she discusses the school and the achievements of her more than 550 students.
Walker has a lot of which to be proud. Not only is the School of Health Professions consistently categorized as exemplary, but this year it also was named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education, an honor accorded to three other schools in the district.
"When we announced it, the kids just erupted," Walker said. "It was very exciting because of the additional message that no matter what background you are, you can be successful."
Unlike other schools at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center, the School of Health Professions doesn't require applicants to perform in the 80th percentile to be accepted. The school's minimum requirement is the 40th percentile, which opens it up for more students across the district, Walker said. Of course, many of the students who are accepted are at the top of their class in middle school, but all students are expected to succeed at the same level once they are accepted.
"We want kids who want to get in here and are willing to work," Walker said. "Once we have them here, we mix them together and expect them all to take college prep classes. We help them meet the challenges."
The school offers tutoring before and after school, during lunch, and on Saturdays. Students who do not pass the TAKS at the commended level get extra tutoring to work on their weak areas.
What makes the school unique, though, is not just its emphasis on science and the health professions. It is its hands-on approach to education. Several of its clusters—dental lab, dental assistant, medical biotechnology, food management and dietetics, medical lab, medical assistant, hospital administration, emergency management technician, nursing assistant, veterinary assistant, and therapy careers—offer students the opportunity to become certified.
Students who are in the dental assistant cluster, for example, get to practice in the school's dental clinic, which serves students from area elementary schools. Students in the clinic, led by a teacher from the Baylor College of Dentistry and by a Dallas ISD teacher, help perform cleanings, extractions, and dental exams. If they are in the cluster for their junior and senior years, they will have enough practice time in class to take state exams to become a registered dental assistant.
"Some of our students take it, pass it, and then work as dental assistants while they go to college," Walker said. Last year 13 students took the exam and passed it.
The nursing assistant and EMT programs offer similar opportunities.
Walker attributes part of the school's success to the support it receives from the community. The 15 members of its advisory board, which includes most of the area hospitals and colleges with health careers programs, help recruit students, put together workshops, update the curriculum, and chip in whenever the school has a need.
"Some of them have adopted some of our students and paid for them to take their [certification] tests," Walker said.
For Nola Rae Smith, who teaches health care science to ninth-graders and basics of pathology to 11th-graders, the key to the school's success is that teachers believe in their students, school administrators believe in the teachers, and the students believe in themselves. And they all work together to succeed.
"I tell my ninth-graders, teamwork makes the dream work, and that's true here," Smith said.
"Dallas ISD students are showing improvement on college readiness indicators…and (the district) has shown improvement on Broad Prize indicators. Among the comparison Texas urban districts, only Houston ISD slightly outperforms Dallas ISD."
-National Center for Educational Achievement
December 2008