New Haven Tries to Capture Baltimore's Anti-Drop-out Mojo

First of two parts.
BALTIMORE—Darren Farmer spent four years as a high school dropout, hanging out on the streets of East Baltimore and serving time in jail. Now he’s back in class at the W.E.B. DuBois High School. New Haven’s school reform team followed him there to find out the secret to what brought him back inside.

Farmer (at right in photo), who’s 20, is part of a new wave of dropouts returning to Baltimore City Schools—and staying there—as the city undergoes an aggressive effort to transform its schools.

The district made national headlines last fall when it announced it had slashed its dropout rate by 56 percent and boosted its graduation rate by 10 percent over three years in the poor, urban district. The news gained national headlines in part because unlike in other places, the progress took place without leaving black males behind.

When New Haven school reform czar Garth Harries heard those results, he shot an email to his friend and former colleague, Baltimore Superintendent Andrés Alonso. He asked how Baltimore did it. Alonso invited him to come down and see for himself.

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