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Saving the School Reagan High School’s incredible comeback will be spotlighted this month at the Texas Book Festival. Story By Rachel Merriman When Reagan High School faced an academically unacceptable rating from the Texas Education Agency for the fourth year in a row, Principal Anabel Garza knew
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keeping the doors open would be a difficult task. During her first year as principal, she’d raised TAKS test scores considerably, but not enough to achieve an acceptable rating from the state. It was 2009 and the education commissioner had given her one more year to bring the school up to federal standards, or it would be forced to close. Michael Brick’s book, Saving the School, is the dramatic story of that critical year, in which the goal appears to be simple: Get kids to pass the TAKS test so the school could remain open. That goal turns out to be more difficult than it seems, and readers are soon introduced to the many underlying reasons students are struggling to pass. Some rarely come to class because they’re working to earn money for their families. Others have difficulty understanding the test questions because English is their second language. Many have parents who are absent for one reason or another, which means they often aren’t home to cook them dinner and enforce homework rules. Garza knew how to fix Reagan’s problems because she’d seen all of them firsthand. She began her career with the Austin Independent School District on the Eastside, teaching Spanish before going on to be an assistant principal at both O’Henry Middle School and Pleasant Valley Elementary. After becoming a finalist for a position as a principal 16 times and being told each time she was “just not the right fit,” she had finally conceded to search for a job in other districts when the job at Reagan opened up. Even though she had never been the principal of a large high school, much less one with the problems Reagan had, she was hired in July 2008. “Sometimes, what you don’t know helps. You don’t know that you can’t do it. … We worked together as a team, and it was do or die. Everybody was very dedicated to what our goals were,” Garza says, reflecting back on that time. From the very beginning of her career, Garza has been determined to do one thing and one thing only: help kids. Putting kids and their needs first, she says, is the most important thing of all. Sometimes, their needs are basic ones, such as clothes to come to school in. A lot of them just need someone to listen. “There is nothing more important in the day than when a student opens their mouth to talk to me,” Garza de-
clares. “If you don’t talk with them or give them a springboard for whatever it is they’re saying, they’ll find someone else who is interested. Oftentimes, it’s the wrong people.” If kids don’t show up to school, it’s likely they’ll get a knock on their door from Principal Garza herself. She routinely rounds up truants with the help of her assistant and seems to relish in the fun she has on some of these outings. She’s fended off a dog with a broom to get to the front door and even staged an elaborate fake kidnapping scenario at a bus stop, all to get kids who needed to be in school in her van and come back to campus. “We stopped at the bus stop and [the missing student] was sitting there, and I said, ‘Just pretend we’re kidnapping you and scream really loud! I’ll push you in the van, and we’ll scare all these people at the bus stop,’ ” Garza says in a low whisper, leaning in close enough to reveal the mischievous glint in her eyes. “The kid has fun, we have fun and they go back to school.” Making sure kids were coming to school was only half the battle that year. With the TAKS test looming, Garza turned her focus to student learning. Instead of concentrating on all the problems afflicting Reagan, she kept it simple by eliminating student distractions to make sure they were learning effectively. By throwing off the blanket of the one-size-fits-all model and teaching to and focusing on individual students’ needs, teachers were able to identify the learning gaps students arrived with and fill them as quickly as possible. “That’s been the mission since then, knowing our kids, knowing what they need and coming back with a plan to help them as best we can because it’s high school already,” Garza says. Without spoiling too much of the story, Reagan made the numbers and rebranded as an early college high school just last year. Students now have the opportunity to earn college credit so they can graduate early. When they graduate, they’re fully prepared for college and able to pursue the career of their dreams. It’s a complete change from just a few years ago. “If you go there now, you see that kids are intense in what they are doing. … The culture is different. The kind of student we have is just different,” Garza remarks. While there isn’t any doubt Garza played a large role in the monumental changes that took place at Reagan that year, those changes wouldn’t have been possible without the supporting characters in Saving the School, the teachers who carried out Garza’s kidscome-first philosophy. Readers with fond memories of playing sports in high school will admire Coach Derrick Davis, who pays for team uniforms with his own money and unites the whole school with the Raider football and basketball teams.