WEBVTT

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>> Charles Thomas: My
name is Charles Thomas,

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and I am the principal here
at Crossland High School.

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We have had to convince
our teachers that we have

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to teach our children how
to be honors students.

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We have to teach them how

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to be AP [advanced
placement] students.

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We have to teach them how

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to be IB [international
baccalaureate] students.

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They haven't had those
experiences in the past,

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and if we don't teach them
how to be good students,

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they may never become
good students.

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But the bedrock belief is that
the children do have the ability

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to learn, and the only thing
that may have been missing

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or the only thing that might
be missing right now is the

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motivation to do the work.

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>> Classroom teacher, to
students: Excuses are?

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>> Students: Excuses are
monuments of nothingness.

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They are the bridges
that lead to nowhere.

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Those people who use these
tools are incompetent

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and masters of no one.

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>> Thomas: If a kid comes to
me and they are already reading

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on grade level, I want to
challenge them and I want

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to challenge them
as much as I can.

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So I have many ninth graders
taking honors classes.

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When they become tenth
graders, eleventh graders,

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and twelfth graders, if they
are still reading on grade level

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or if they are taking an
honors class, then I ask them

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to take an Advanced
Placement class.

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Right now, we have 1,400
students and we have

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over 700 kids taking
honors classes.

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I think that that
has become something

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that has become a badge
of pride for our students.

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At first, a lot of our
students were afraid

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to take honors classes.

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A lot of their parents
were afraid

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to have them take honors classes
because they were afraid either

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that the kid couldn't do
it or they were afraid

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that it would hurt their
grade point average.

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But I think that now
that's all changed

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because our kids have
taken the challenge,

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they have embraced
the honors classes,

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they have embraced
the AP classes,

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they are even embracing
the IB classes.

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And I think that the
more that we are able

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to have these children
succeed, the other children

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that are watching them,

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the other children outside
the school who are coming in,

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they are beginning to believe
that they too can do it as well.

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The fact that the kids have had
an opportunity to participate,

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whether or not they did
make the honor roll,

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and I think when they saw
the value that we placed

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on doing well academically, it
became more and more popular,

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popular with the students
and it became popular

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with the parents as well.

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One of the problems that we
had had at the school prior

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to 2004 was that parents
did not come to the school

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to celebrate anything.

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Usually, when they did come to
the school, it was to complain

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about something, and that
adversarial relationship

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that the school had with parents
was part of what had to change.

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And I knew that parents
like to hear good news.

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They don't always
want to hear bad news.

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So I wanted to make sure
that we told parents

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when their kids did well

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and that we showed parents
how much we appreciated it

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when their kids did well.

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So whenever we gave
out the report cards,

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we would also send along a
letter to the parents that said,

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"Your child made the honor roll.

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We are going to have
an Honor Roll Assembly;

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we want you to come."

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>> Thomas, to students
in assembly:

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I know that your
parents are proud of you.

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I know your teachers
are proud of you.

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And you better believe your
principal is proud of you.

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>> Thomas: I think that was
one of the important things

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that we did from the start,
to say to everybody-all

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of our stakeholders-that
it's okay to make good grades

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and it is not okay to
denigrate good grades.

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That is not what we do here.

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We are going to try to be
successful; everybody is going

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to try to be successful.

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When our kids make 4.0 grade
point averages or higher,

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and we introduce them at
the Honor Roll Assembly,

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first of all, we
do it separately.

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Second, we enunciate
exactly what

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that grade point average is,
if it's 4.0 or if it's 4.75,

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and we give them engraved
plaques because we believe

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that that type of
extraordinary effort requires an

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extraordinary response.