Worcester schools, Eagle Hill celebrate 10 years of ‘amazing’ partnership

Walter Bird Jr. - Worcester Magazine
At first blush, the town of Hardwick and city of Worcester could not be any different. One has right around 3,000 residents; the other just south of 200,000.
From left: Shelby Farland, Melissa Mangolla and Cathryn Chviruk of Elm Park Community School, and Millie Palma of Gerald Creamer Center participate in a teambuilding exercise. Photo courtesy of Shayla Beley

At first blush, the town of Hardwick and city of Worcester could not be any different. One has right around 3,000 residents; the other just south of 200,000. One lies on the edge of Worcester County; the other is called the Heart of the Commonwealth, because it is pretty much smack in the middle of Massachusetts. One, according to the 2000 Census, was mere percentage points away from being an all-white community; the other has seen a growing number of minorities, many of them immigrants, making the city almost the poster child for the country as a melting pot. One has an elementary school, with middle and high school students attending a regional school one town over in Barre; the other has more than 40 schools and in excess of 23,000 students. What, then, could the second largest city in New England, possibly learn from a town a fraction of its size? Quite a lot, it turns out.

Hardwick has something of a well-kept secret - at least here in Massachusetts - in its midst. Eagle Hill School has, for about the past 45 years, been among the leaders in education when it comes to students with learning disabilities. It is a boarding school that has welcomed students from 24 states across the country and around the world - seven countries, in fact - in grades 8-12.

About 10 years ago, the school's Board of Trustees realized it could help other school districts by sharing its expertise in dealing with learning disabled students. In particular, the school wanted to concentrate on urban schools. With Worcester as a relatively close neighbor, the school's Headmaster, Peter "PJ" McDonald, reached out to then-Mayor and School Committee Chair Tim Murray, who would go on to be lieutenant governor, with the idea of expanding its teachings. In short order, a partnership was born - and an ambitious initiative launched in hopes of providing urban school teachers a whole new way of connecting both with students and themselves.

That was in 2004. Earlier this month, the Eagle Hill Institute for Teacher Training, under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Foley Miller, wrapped up its 10th year collaborating with Worcester. Participants take part in lectures, team-building exercises and work together in small groups. Roughly 1,000 teachers have gone through the program and, to hear them tell it, the commitment - participants spend an entire week on campus, residing in the school's dormitories - is well worth it.

"For me, it has been fantastic," says Cheryl Krajewski, a special education teacher at Worcester East Middle School now in her second year with Worcester Public Schools. "I live in Rhode Island and I know no one. You get so much support by talking to other people. I think this is the best program."

Le Sandra Diaz is another participant. A Spanish teacher at Forest Grove Middle School in her first year as a contracted, full-time teacher, Diaz is a former probation officer who took it upon herself to obtain her teacher's license. She started as a substitute teacher in Worcester, was hired as an instructional assistant here, and last year was placed in the classroom, where she taught half the year. This summer, she says, she was offered a full-time teaching job. In addition, Diaz says she is just three weeks away from earning her master's degree in English as a Second Language (ESL) online from Grand Canyon University.

"I did not want to come, I was not happy," she says of taking part in the Eagle Hill program. "By the third day, I was like, 'This is cool.' They really force you to go out of your comfort zone."

The idea of the program, put quite simply by program facilitator Eric Stone, is to convince teachers to "buy into the fact that they don't have to be these mindless automatons."

Through the Institute, Miller adds, teachers are taught how to make connections with students, with themselves and with administrators.

"Teachers are very educated people," says Miller, herself a graduate of Doherty High School, adding teachers often feel left out of the decision-making process when it comes to education."We get to the point where we don't think of ourselves as professionals, anymore. In any other field, any organizations doing research are made up of people in that field. We get told [by teachers] the people making the decisions are not in the classroom. We want [teachers] to have a different discourse with educators. They are smart people and have good ideas. They should be able to share those ideas."

At the same time, the Eagle Hill program teaches disability theory, how to interact and connect with students at different levels of learning and understanding.

"Nobody," Miller says, "learns the same."

Early on, the program was offered to other urban school districts, including Boston, Fitchburg and Springfield. That, however, was when money was included in the state budget. Now, only Worcester takes part, courtesy of a $100,000 grant from the Newton-based Highland Street Foundation, which was established in 1989. The cost per participant is about $1,500, according to Miller, and each receives three graduate credits for Worcester State University (WSU). The program is all-inclusive: lodging, food and materials are provided. The program is available to teachers in their first three years in the Worcester school system; many have already taught in other cities and towns. It is not mandatory to take part in the Eagle Hill program, but teachers in their first three years must choose from some options, including Eagle Hill, as part of their professional development. The program runs for a week, from 8 a.m. to about 11 p.m. each day.

The participants and Eagle Hill believe the proof of its success is in the pudding. According to Miller, the Worcester schools' Human Resources Department has reported that 90 percent of the teachers that went through the program over the years are still teaching - many of them still in Worcester.

That, says Eagle Hill's Assistant Headmaster for Academic Affairs Mike Riendeau, "is stunning." New teachers in an urban district do not typically last long, he notes.

"Over the first three years, half of them are gone," Riendeau says. "For Worcester, the numbers are turned on their head."

The feedback, statistically and anecdotally, has been "amazing," according to McDonald, who joined Eagle Hill in 1993.

"Literally, principals and quadrant managers can tell who has and who has not gone through the Eagle Hill training," he says.

Shawn Baillargeon is among those who took part in this year's program. The former manager of a diesel engine repair business, he says he will be instructing a new program in diesel technology this fall at South High Community School. It will be his first year as a teacher.

"My wife's a teacher," Baillargeon says. "I see what she gets rewarded out of it. She loves it. Plus, the private sector was getting stagnant ... It's something you can be proud of. I don't think I've ever been so scared, but coming here ... I'm not so nervous now."

Reach Walter Bird Jr. at 508-749-3166, ext. 322 or by email at wbird@worcestermagazine.com. Follow him on Twitter @walterbirdjr and find him on Facebook. Be sure to visit worcestermag.com every day for what's new in Worcester.
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