Talking access and inclusion, Boston Arts Academy headmaster shares secrets of success
March 2, 2010
Linda Nathan, headmaster of Boston’s only public high school for the arts, spoke at Lesley University yesterday, delivering an appeal for teachers to keep close relationships and advisement roles with students in need.
Linda Nathan signs books yesterday at Lesley
Nathan, who has run Boston Arts Academy near Fenway Park since its inception in 1998, urged the assembled Lesley students, faculty and visiting teachers to always be communicating with students and to never underestimate the damage lack of access to money, education and advice can do. Nathan is the author of The Hardest Questions Aren’t On The Test: Lessons From An Innovative Urban School.
In one anecdote, Nathan told of a graduating student who lost her position at a prestigious conservatory because she neglected to mail in a deposit check.
Nathan also said college admissions officers should be working to ensure students from poor and minority communities, as well as other students in need, have a smooth transition from high school to college.
“I want to do training for all financial aid people,” she said. “Because they don’t get it. And they need to know what the issues are.”
“It’s almost like I want institutions to go through the checklist and say ‘Let’s talk about all the things that could possibly mess up a kid,’” she said.
Boston Arts Academy enrolls 415 students to study art, music, dance or drama. Only 17 percent of students are white. Almost 60 percent come from low-income homes. Admission is based on an audition that requires not talent, but passion for the arts.
Yet with about 95 percent of graduates attending college, Nathan’s school has drawn considerable attention for its success. She attributes much of the achievement to an inclusive and community spirit at the school. There is no teacher’s lounge at Boston Arts Academy. And students take significant positions on advisory boards.
“We have a lot of places where kids have real power,” Nathan said. “Not make believe power.”
Nathan also urged teachers and administrators to ask “What does my school stand for?” At Boston Arts Academy, the answer is an acronym: RICO.
“It’s cockamamie to talk about competition or racing to the top,” Nathan said. “That language is offensive to me. School has to stand for something, to me.”
“For us,” she continued. “It stands for Refine, Invent, Connect and Own. And those words for us are what we stand for.”
Nathan, who also lashed out against federal and state testing and called for localized achievement standards, answered audience questions and signed her book.
Stan Trecker, Dean of The Art Institute of Boston, introduced Nathan and announced that Lesley has established a new four-year, full scholarship for one Boston Arts Academy student each year.
“Boston was late in coming to this realization that students deserved a high school dedicated to the arts,” Trecker said. “We’re thrilled that Boston put this in place and Linda has done a marvelous job ever since.”
Nathan’s lecture was part of Lesley University’s Centennial Year celebration.