B6 A fewsnow showers may linger through


the morning. Flakes will fly around all day long as winds roar from the northwest at 20 to 30 mph with gusts near 40 mph. Skies may begin to clear in the afternoon, but it will stay blustery with highs near 30 and the wind chill holding in the teens.


EZ SU


KLMNO


MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2010


News, traffic, weather. Now.


POSTLOCAL postlocal.com


Va. high school turns crisis into challenge t.c. williams from B1


walked inside. “Their eyes were rolling,” recalled parent Sharon Longabaugh, “but theywere smil- ing.” Inside the school, Maxey tried


to set newexpectations. At once a warm personality and a rule fol- lower, she is a presence in hall- ways andlunchhours aswell as at band concerts and parent coffees. Early in the school year, students hung a poster in her office, dub- bing it “Mama Bear’sDen.” ButMaxey said changewill not


be easy orwithout setbacks. “We’re learning to do some-


thing we’ve never done before,” she said. “It’s hard.We’re trying to fix the carwhenit’s going 45miles an hour.” FromDayOne, the school’s ban


on iPods, cellphones and hatswas newly and strictly enforced, even during lunch. Students were not allowed to wander the halls, and classes were to be taught “from bell to bell.” For 61/2


hours a day,


Maxey told students, “You’re ours, and when you’re here, it’s about learning.” Some students complained


school was like a prison. Others appreciated a newfound calm in the hallways. Jack Peisch, 17, re- called that during an initial as- sembly, Maxey said a few words, then stopped. “You’ll find I don’t like to repeat myself,” the teen recalled her saying. A hush came over the students. “I felt like that kind of set the


tone for this year,” Peisch said. “The wheels are moving in the main office, and last year they weren’t. . . . There’s a vibe. And there are definitely fewer fights.” Datawerenot available to com-


pare the number of fights from year to year. But teachers and other students echoed Peisch’s as- sessment. Some students said they see


academic change, too. “The teach- ers are better,” says Alexi Soto, 16. “They put the time into teaching us.” Said Juan Ramirez, 17: “There


are more opportunities to get your grades up.”


Learning blitz The demands of change are


keenly felt by teachers. Some did summer training. Each has de- visedaprofessional learningplan, collaborating on ways to improve andmeasuresuccess.Administra- tors and department heads ob- serve their classes. “I think it helps that the teach- ers feel supported,” says Molly


Freitag, a veteran social studies teacher. “They see the administra- tors’ long hours. It’s we’re-all-in- this-together.” Some of the faculty, though, are


skeptical of a shift in grading practices that allows teachers to giveamarkof “incomplete” rather thanaDor anF.The idea is togive students more time to learn. Much is left to teacher discretion, Maxey said. But she acknowl- edged “some think we are wrong on this and we gave away the farm.” Parent Nicolas Lataillade


praised Sherman and Maxey but said T.C. seems to be “two schools in one” — the equivalent of a private education for high achiev- ers, but a different experience for teenswho struggle. “If they really want to change,” he said, “they have to get closer to the students who are having the problems.” To help students pass state


tests, Maxey recently started a plan to “blitz” themwith prepara- tion and review. Day to day, there is a newfocus


onwriting. InCraigScheuerman’s culinary arts class, for example, students typically have not done written work. They have cooked. But one recent day, Robyn John- son, 17, was writing on her laptop after she’d spent nearly 90 min- utes on a gingerbread house. “The more they do things, the


better they are going to become,” Scheuerman said. In Mark Eaton’s AP English


class, writing has always been a mainstay. But now there is a


stronger emphasis on revising. His new motto: “There are no greatwriters.There are only great rewriters.” JacquelineAncess, a scholar on


secondary school reform at Co- lumbiaUniversity, saidtwostrate- gies are key in high-poverty high schools.One is topersonalize edu- cation, ensuring each student has an adult advocate to help with problems. Another is to empha- size writing, high-order thinking and other “college readiness” skills. “There are plenty of studies out


there that show these methods work,” she said.


A place for help With the federal aid, T.C. Wil-


liamsgot41/2 newcounselingposi-


tions and an assistant counseling director to help with student achievementplans.There are also ninenewmathandEnglishteach- ers, as well as consultants to help in such areas as teacher training. Part of the cafeteria, behind


glass doorways, has become a math and writing center. Peer tu- tors and teachers rotate in and out. About 300 students have sought help on English papers, lab reports and college essays. Many are also dropping in with math questions. “The ideais totrytoreachthese


kids before they get to the point where they are ready to give up,” said teacher Jennifer Loftus, co- director of thewriting center. Franklin Reyes, 18, recently handedherapaperwithsmoothly


crafted paragraphs. “This is great!” Loftus said. He blushed. She gave him a


chocolate bar. Last year, Reyes struggled in


math, but now it is one of his favorite subjects. “I want tomake good grades and pass 12th grade,” he said. “I kinda pulled myself together.” Still, challenges remain. Math teacher Gary Thomas


praisedMaxey’s commitment but said more systematic efforts are needed to reach teens who falter and fail. “There is a lot of stuff swirling around, and a lot of mo- tion,” he said. “I just don’t want [the administrators] to confuse activitywithprogress”—andthen be disappointedwith the results. In mid-December, Maxey gave


students a readout on the first quarter. There were 900 students on honor rolls, she told them, but too many absences and low grades. She talked about how hardit is to improve a school,how sacrifice is needed for success. Thensheplayedthemasnippet


from the Disney movie that has defined T.C. for the outsideworld. In the scene, a coach played by DenzelWashingtonleads the just- integrated football team on an exhausting run that ends at the edge of aGettysburg cemetery.He talks about the need to pull to- gether. She asked themto imagine the


scene was not about football but about academics. For a minute, she recalled, the roomwent quiet. stgeorged@washpost.com


EVY MAGES/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


Student Danielle Tibbs, 15, approaches Principal SuzanneMaxey during lunch duty. The school has undergone a lot of changes in the past fewmonths, and there are fewer hallway fights.


Teens sought as critics of young-adult literature


review from B1


hit, “I felt happy to have contrib- uted to its fame,” Kavya said. “You kind of feel like you’re helping the author succeed.” Locally, the review program,


begun in 2007, is called Bethesda Teen Reads. Kathie Weinberg, teen services librarian in Bethes- da, said that when she submitted an application to launch the group, she thought: “What a won- derful opportunity for kids to see brand-new books before they are published.” Students ages 12 to 18, with parental consent, may join. Re- viewers come to the library to peruse two bookcases reserved for scores of advance copies that usually arrive several months be- fore publication. Many days, Weinberg sees


teens sitting on the floor near the bookcases, paging through possi- bilities to review. The students choose as many


as they can fit into lives busy with school, homework, sports and clubs. The teens e-mail Weinberg


their reviews, and she sends them along. Every month, she also uses the reviews to come up with her group’s nominations for best teen books of the year, a teen-generat- ed list organized by the library services association. Teens throughout the country vote ev- ery year, and winners are an- nounced in October. Jadie Stillwell, 12, said that she


kept hearing from a friend about newbooks that she could not find in stores. Then, she learned about the


program, which gave her not only advance access to new titles but also a few community-service hours required for school. Opinions are not a problem for


Jadie, either. “I have high stan- dards,” she said. For her, it means a lot to know “editors will read it andmaybechangesomething in a book.”


Some teen reviewers say they


imagine editors at desks in New York reading their critiques. Some say they imagine authors thinking about what they have to say. “The kids in this area are in-


credibly articulate,” Weinberg said.“Somekids’ reviewslook like a masters’ thesis.” Still, the dream that motivates some reviewers is the possibility


of an even wider audience: Per- haps one day, their words will grace a book’s cover or inside pages, as part of a promotional blurb, or be posted on a publish- er’sWeb site Weinberg said publishers have


called to praise the writing and enthusiasm of the teen reviewers. They also pay close attention to what teens say about book covers —whether they appeal to them or seem mismatched to the story. One cover, for example, fea-


tured a white girl in a story about an African American girl. Teen reviewers objected, ashadlibrari- ans and others. “They are very forthcoming in


their concerns,” Weinberg said. “They are very sophisticated con- sumers, and they also are very willing to say, ‘This book needs work,’ or ‘This book needs an editor.’ ” Every once in a while, Wein-


berg arranges for an author to meet the group. Last month, through a contact at Politics and Prose Bookstore & Coffeehouse, she landed a visit by sportswriter John Feinstein. One day in mid-December, 14


girls and five boys from the group gathered to share opinions.Many agreed that teen books can be dark. There are main characterswho


were abandoned as children, abused by parents or die in car accidents. There is historical fiction


about the French Revolution; the Johnstown, Pa., flood; and Anne Frank’s world in hiding. “I used to try to find the happi-


er books,” Lily Cantor said. “Itwas a challenge.” Lily, who attends Westland


Middle School in Bethesda, said her love of reading has intensified since she became a reviewer. She said she has read “a lot of cool authors.” Plus, reviewing has a certain


cachet, she points out. Some girls show off designer


clothes, Lily said. She shows off books. “I get to flaunt the books to my friends,” she said. One day, she walked into a


bookstore and spotted “Jane,” a modernized version of “Jane Eyre.” Lily had read it before the wider public probably knew it was coming, she said, which was “just sort of awesome.” stgeorged@washpost.com


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