Urban Community School

In a hallway at Urban Community School, there is an array of silver stars hanging from the ceiling that represents the high school graduates the school has sent into the world.

What’s more impressive is that the school has provided high-quality education to near west side families under extraordinarily adverse conditions. Eighty percent of students here are low-income, yet they go on to attend some of Cleveland’s finest high schools.

Since1968, when a group of nuns created a new, independent school to serve the near west side neighborhood, Urban Community School has proved an anchor for Ohio City by providing a great educational option to neighborhood families without other choices.

“At the time, the nuns felt that the Catholic schools were not addressing the needs of the neighborhood,” says Tom Gill, Director of Advancement for UCS. “The near west side was more diverse than the traditional Catholic population attending the schools. The nuns stepped forward and said, ‘We want to open our doors to everybody.’”

At the core of UCS’s success is the notion that all students can achieve academically if they are provided high-quality, individualized instruction and early childhood programs.

“We’re a case study for why early education matters,” says Gill. “The growth of a kid here who starts at age three versus one who starts in fifth grade is just tremendous.”

Now, as the Ohio City neighborhood slowly gentrifies and new, high-quality charter and public schools emerge to serve the growing population base, Urban Community School is changing too. Thanks to an anonymous $5 million donation, UCS will soon break ground on an addition to provide a sorely-needed, state-of-the-art middle school.

“We’ve expanded our early childhood programs and already grown from 430 students to 471,” explains Gill. “Once the addition is built, we will eventually grow to 600 students.”

The addition, which will jut out from the rear of UCS’s campus on Lorain Avenue and West 50th, will create a customized educational environment for preadolescents. Some of the features slated for the new building include spacious classrooms, nooks for collaborative learning, a cutting-edge science lab and a student commons.

Near West Intergenerational School

When students at Garrett Morgan School of Science on Woodbine Avenue wanted to organize a prom, it helped that they had a secret weapon when it came to fundraising. The families who attend Near West Intergenerational School, located in the same building, lent a hand by collecting donations for a school-wide dress-down day.

“One parent donated twenty five dollars on the spot because she was so impressed with the Ambassador program,” says NWIS Principal Debbie Fisher, who notes that the fundraising drive has so far raised $125 towards Garrett Morgan’s prom.

The Ambassador program pairs high school students at Garrett Morgan with elementary school students at NWIS. The Garrett Morgan kids help the younger kids through the metal detectors each day, and tutor them in science throughout the school year.

While this type of collaboration is not unusual for the two schools, what is unusual is having two separate high-performing schools within the same public school building. CMSD sponsors NWIS, which was created by a group of Ohio City parents and the founders of The Intergenerational School, located near Shaker Square. CMSD is collaborating with NWIS and other schools as part of a new approach to charters.

NWIS started last year, and it would have been rated Excellent by the State of Ohio if its test results had counted then. This year, the school goes up to fifth grade, and it has expanded to offer two more classes. Despite being new, the school is nearly full.

“The spaces filled up quickly, and we now have a waiting list for some grades,” says Fisher. “Having a strong local parent community made enrollment so much easier.”

The next step for NWIS, whose student body reflects the diversity of the surrounding neighborhood but also draws students from Westlake and North Royalton, is to find a building that will allow them to expand. Nearby Kentucky School is a possible option.

“Parents are drawn to the small class sizes and wanting something different,” says Fisher. “We’re a safe school and we have high standards for every single student.”

New Tech High School

Erin Frew, Principal of New Tech West, recalls the daily routine at her high school: she sat at her desk and took notes while a teacher lectured from the front of the classroom.

Yet today, she says, these teaching methodologies are obsolete. Instead, students must learn to work independently and solve problems on their own to excel after graduation.

“This is not a traditional sit-and-get,” says Frew, who founded New Tech West as part of the Cleveland Municipal School District’s portfolio of new and innovative schools in 2009. “Students here work in teams to solve problems and present solutions.”

Proof of the method’s effectiveness is evident in the results. New Tech West was rated “Continuous Improvement” by the State of Ohio during its first few years, and Frew expects the school’s results to go up by about six percentage points this year.

The New Tech model, which originated in California and is shared by 100-plus schools across a national network, is to provide every student with a computer to use at school. This not only facilitates project-based learning but also provides students valuable, real-world computer skills, including digital media such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash.

The long-term goal is to help prepare students for college as well as today’s workforce. “We’re preparing kids to be excellent members of the community,” says Frew, who invites near west side residents to consider tutoring or volunteering at the school. “They’re going to graduate and be ready for college as well as a future career.”

New Tech West, which is one of three New Tech schools in CMSD, is located on the campus of Max Hayes High School at the corner of West 45th Street and Detroit Ave.