The Nativity School of Worcester
The Nativity School
of Worcester is a model for all schools. It has its limitations, but it also
has a pedagogy viable for children from Worcester’s working class
neighborhoods. It strives to be “A Place Where You Can Be Good”, a place where
children are removed as much as possible on a daily basis from the temptations
of the streets and negative peer pressure. The School does this by requiring
participation in after school programs, Saturday activities, and summer sessions.
This method of
teaching works on several levels. The children have less distractions and
worry. Their main concerns can then be directed toward academics and the
positive reinforcements of peers and a highly motivated teaching staff. A part of this is due to the relatively low
class sizes which averaged no more 15.5 per class.
The Nativity School is a fully accredited private middle school and it
has an academic curriculum that includes language arts, reading,
mathematics, science, social studies, Spanish, and world religions and morality
as well as a Renaissance program that includes drama, music and art classes
that culminates in performances each semester.
It is a member of the
Society of Jesus School Association; it is not a Worcester Diocesan school or a
Worcester Public school. It is funded entirely by grants and donations. No
money comes from the College of the Holy Cross, even though the Nativity School
was founded through the efforts of the Jesuits from Holy Cross College. The
School’s tenth annual auction fundraiser is scheduled to take place on April
10, 2015.
The Nativity School
is located at 67 Lincoln St. near the intersection with Goldsberry St. The building was a former Girls Club
building. The Nativity School originally was located in All Saints Church on
Pleasant St. and it moved to the new location a couple a years ago. There was a
lot of speculation that it would move to the former Boys and Girls Club
building on Ionic Ave.: that did not come to be.
The School strives
to have a relatively low student to teacher ratio. These low ratios are an
important part of the teaching methods of the Nativity School. Seen below is a
breakdown of the number of teachers and their qualifications:
Total faculty/staff: 15
Lead Teachers: 4
Nativity Fellows: 8
Non-teacher
administrators: 4
Number of faculty
with graduate degree or in process of attaining a graduate degree: 100%
Adult to student ratio: 3:1
As a way of attract teachers the Nativity School has what
it calls the Nativity Fellowship. It is a program that offers the chance for
novice teachers to learn and practice their crafts and provide the students
with their knowledge. Some of the
benefits and incentives to the Fellowship teachers are
room and board, stipends and insurance, graduate degree programs,
transportation, Americorps Awards, and loan deferment.
For those readers who will be
future teachers, Joel Kent, Business Manager, is the guy to contact for more
information about the nativity Fellowship at jkent@nativityworcester.org or 508-799-0100 ext. 104.
When I worked at the College of the Holy Cross it
was emphasized that our work must be of a measurable quality. The same standard
applies to the Nativity School. It is not good enough for it to just say we
have sixty-two students in the program; the outcomes are also important. An
example of this standard evaluation is that for each graduating class at the
Nativity School the students came in at grade level and after four years each
class was above grade level. The graduating classes of eight graders were at
the tenth or eleventh grade level. Other “measurable” results of the Nativity
School’s pedagogy are one hundred percent of graduates were accepted into and
receive financial aid to attend private high schools and seventy eight percent
of graduates chose private high schools.
One hundred percent of the graduates have been accepted into four year
colleges or specialized post-high school programs.
No school is perfect. The statistics do not show the
retention rate of the accepted students. Some boys have dropped out of the
Nativity School. President of the School, Alex Zequeira, said that the
retention rate is improving. It was always above ninety percent and that it is
now closer to ninety nine percent.
There is an economic
ceiling for admission. All of the boys presently at the School are from a low
income social economic environment and are eligible for free/ reduced breakfast
and lunch. The tuition for each boy is fully covered by scholarship. Enrollment is limited to boys from Worcester.
The student body is composed of students from the following Worcester
neighborhoods: Webster Square,
Vernon Hill, Main South, Grafton Hill, Burncoat Street, Brittan Square/Lincoln
Street, Belmont Hill, Lincoln Village, Great Brook Valley, Plumley Village,
Columbus Park, Quinsigamond Village, Shrewsbury Street, Lake Quinsigamond,
Beaver Brook.
Presently the
admission policy for the School is limited to boys grades five through
eight. The President of the School, Alex Zequeira, explained that it is in the
middle school years that boys are most likely to be affected by the adversities
of an economic environment. The admission
is open to boys of all faiths. There are discussions among the trustees about
when to admit girls to the School. It is a disappointment that the admission of
girls has not happened sooner.
The student body is diverse with the majority
of the students being so called minorities.
The ethnic makeup of the student body is the following:
Hispanic/Latino:
44%
African/African-American: 35%
Caucasian/White: 11%
Other/Multi-Race: 5%
Asian:
5%
There is a dress code: the boys are required
to wear a dress shirt, tie and jacket. This reminded me of my years in
parochial school in which the same dress code existed. I grew to dislike
wearing a tie and only relatively recently began wearing a tie for my work. I
think the boys will develop this same dislike of ties, but this dress code will
allow them to see themselves apart from the adversity some must face daily. I
coincidently ran into the President of the Nativity School at Abbie Lee’s restaurant.
With him were students wearing a dress shirt and tie and a former student who
dressed more causally. Maybe it was my imagination, but I perceived ties and
dress shirts were not the clothing of preferable choice.
Of course it is not
possible for Worcester Public Schools to emulate the Nativity School or that
matter any private school. The Worcester Public School system has many students
and there are other impediments such as contacts and politics. I think that the model presented to us by the
Nativity School could be done in the Worcester Public Schools in a pilot
program, similar to the School for gifted children being set up in Doherty High
School. A middle school with a limited
student population chosen at random or by the criteria found in the Nativity
School could be set up in one of the Worcester public middle schools building.
Of course the students and their parents will have to agree to mandatory after
school programs, Saturday activities, summer sessions and a possible new dress
code.
There are many
people and programs that are helping children in somewhat an uncoordinated many
in Worcester. There is a need to coordinate those efforts and a Nativity School
model would be a possibly good way to focus those efforts. It would provide a real life way of
understanding what it would take to expand the Nativity School model to public
school. As one parent at the Nativity
School told me, the education her son received at the Nativity School is
something every child deserves an opportunity have.
