Cohort 8
New Orleans
Principal, Grades 6-8, SciTech Academy
“We are here for the children. If they are not growing, getting smarter and internalizing the path you lay before them, then you may want to assess the path you are on, adjust and continue pushing forward.”
When Heather Lechner arrived at SciTech in 2009, the school was a traditional, low-performing district school where less than 20 percent of the students where on a “college-ready” track, and violence was common. New Orleans was in its fourth year of recovery after the storm. The educational landscape in the city was in transition as some schools moved from traditional to independent charters.
She was undeterred about the challenges she faced and went about assessing the current academic and behavioral performance of the students, surveying the teachers, and crafting a plan to turn around the culture and academic performance of the school.
After only two years at the school, there are two major successes tied to the two areas that were her first priorities.
Culture
During year one 95 percent of Heather’s energy went into reacting to behavioral explosions, fights, refusal to meet the academic expectations and acting out against staff, teachers and administrators who set these expectations. After year one, SciTech became a charter, and Heather and her staff now have the autonomy to craft what their own cultural expectations and employ teachers who are like-minded. All members of the school community know the cultural expectations and actively strive to ensure that the environment remains positive and constructive.
Academic achievement
At the beginning of Heather’s first year, less than 20 percent of the students were on track for going to college, only 15 percent of eighth graders were eligible for high school and zero were accepted to or attended a high-performing high school in the city. At the end of last year, approximately 43 percent of students were on track to go to college, 55 percent were eligible to go to high school, and 10 were accepted into or attended a high-performing high school. There was an average literacy growth in the middle school of 1.7 years per year. Eighty-five percent of the middle school staff returned to their positions or remained in the organization working in another capacity.
