Herron High School

1. Herron High School Home of The Achaeans

2. Herron High School 110 East 16th Street Indianapolis, IN 46202 Phone: 317-231-0010 Website: www.herronhighschool.org

3. School Information • Principal Janet Harmon McNeal • “Herron is a public charter school that provides a liberal arts, college preparatory education.” • Established in 2003 and opened doors to 100 9th graders in 2006 (has since grown to 442 students)

4. Faculty and Staff • 54 faculty and staff • 38 full-time teachers • Average age of Teachers is 34 • Average Salary $47,000 • Liberal Arts Education with a focus on Art History • Herron offers 22 clubs and 9 sports along with 4 after-school tutors

5. School Demographics • 442 Students in Total • 42% Black • 5% Hispanic • <1% Native American • 45% White • About 50:50 males and females

6. Instructional Aspects • “The school's curriculum is structured around an art history timeline and emphasizes the classic art and literature of many cultures” • Integrate art and the humanities into all subjects • Required to take Latin to build vocabulary and a class with a focus on using rhetoric in writing • Goal is to help students approach any subject intelligently

7. Instructional Aspects (cont’d.) • Students are required to take math through Pre-Calculus • Required to take four years of science • Herron also claims to have smaller classroom environments which allows for more one-on-one interaction between teachers and students

8. Community Marion County Public Charter Schools

9. Community Marion County Public Charter Schools Herron High School is a public charter school open to all students in the Marion County Area. 11 High schools (9-12) 3 Middle and High schools (6- 12) 3 Middle schools (6 -8) 23 Elementary schools (K – 5) 6 Elementary and Middle schools (K -8) 7 Elementary, Middle, and High schools (K – 12)

10. Community • Urban residential community of downtown Indianapolis • Median age of residents: 45 • Income: • Median income: 32% around $37,000 • Highest income: 10% above $100,00 • Lowest income: 10% below $10,000 • Languages spoken at home: 87% English 8% Spanish 5% other

11. Community Population: 876, 144 residents Diversity: 26% African American .2% Native American 2% Asian 68% Caucasian 2% multi racial 3% other Home to families with diverse social, economic and cultural backgrounds

12. Herron High School’s Vision and Achievements

13. Achievements • Herron High School is the top ranking of all Marion County K-12 schools. • #1 ranking of all middle schools and high schools statewide. • Achieved 'Exemplary Progress.'  • Herron is one of only three public Marion County schools to receive a passing grade from the Department of Education, meeting the adequate yearly progress goals established by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

14. Herron High School’s Vision Herron High School's liberal arts approach to education finds its roots in the Latin word "libertas," meaning "freedom." Free Greek and Roman citizens needed an education that would equip them to be active participants in the Athenian democracy and the Roman republic, and one that would help them realize their full intellectual and human potential. Thus, began the tradition of preparing well-rounded, truly educated citizens. http://www.herronhighschool.org/mission.jsp

15. Vision (cont’d.) • Herron High School is founded on the belief that a classical liberal arts education, where students are steeped in great historical thought and production, is the very best preparation for future influence. We will emphasize the integration of academic subjects; the teaching of great works of literature through original source documents; formal instruction in Latin, logic, and rhetoric; and appreciation for the great works of visual, musical, and dramatic art. Students will be inspired by the great truths and beauty of our common roots. http://www.herronhighschool.org/mission.jsp

16. Teachers and Students

17. Students • 333 Students • 2008-09 Ethnic Breakdown: • White 163 • Black 129 • Hispanic 16 • Asian 4 • Native American 2 • Multi-racial 19

18. Students (cont’d) 97.7% attendance rate 25% receive free lunch, 7% reduced, and 68% paid

19. Teachers 38 Teachers at Herron HS Average teacher salary- $37,871 Average teacher age- 31

20. Development Attributes and Teaching Practices

21. Methodology Use a timeline approach Have an integrated curriculum Formal studying of rhetoric Teacher- Student dialogue Art as a tool for learning

22. Teaching Methods Focus on providing a liberal arts education that will help students succeed in college “Through an integrated curriculum and classical methodology, Herron High School believes that all students can learn to think logically, express themselves creatively, appreciate aesthetics fully, and approach any subject intelligently.”

23. Teaching Methods (cont’d.)

24. Freshman and Sophomore Development Attributes Freshman take math, biology, and art, history, and language arts classes based off of ancient Africa and Egypt Sophomores take math, earth/space science, and art, history, and language arts classes based off of Ancient Greece and Rome

25. Junior and Senior Development Attributes Juniors take math, chemistry, and art, history, and language arts classes based off of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the age of exploration Seniors take math, physics, and art, history, and language arts classes based of American history, and the modern world

26. STUDYING THE CLASSICS Annotated Book List

27. Starting With the Basics Plato’s Republic 308 B.C. “Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.”

28. To Hell and Back Again Dante Alighieri’s Inferno Part of his Divine Comedy, written between 1308-1321. “In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself again in [or through] a dark wood, [so dark] that the straight way was utterly lost. Alas how hard it is to say what it was like, this savage and sharp and strong forest, which even in thought renews my fear! So bitter was it that death is little moreso; but in order to speak of the good that I found there, I'll tell of the other things I saw there.”

29. Book Burner! Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 Published in 1953 Is bases off of a futuristic society where free though and expression through reading is outlawed. The captain continues by defending the moral aims of the ideal of censorship: "Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal.  Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against." Beatty, explaining the need to cremate the dead to make the living loose their memory: "Forget them.  Burn all, burn everything.  Fire is bright and fire is clean."

30. A Portrait of What? James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Published in 1916 A coming-of –age story about Stephen’s journey from child to university student to full-fledged artist. Stephen's thoughts about the nature of sin, as he hurries to a chapel to confess. "Life became a divine gift for every moment and sensation of which, were it even the sight of a single leaf hanging on the twig of a tree, his soul should praise and thank the Giver."

31. Злодеяние и наказание Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment First published in 1866 A story of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov and his struggles in in impoverished St. Petersburg. Raskolnikov formulates his plan to kill a abhorrent pawnbroker for her money thus solving his financial problems while at the same time (by his justification) ridding the world of an evil parasite. "Crime? What crime?" he cried in sudden fury. "That I killed a vile noxious insect, an old pawnbroker woman, of use to no one! . . . Killing her was atonement for forty sins. She was sucking the life out of poor people. Was that a crime?"

32. Herron High School Presentation By:Krysten PlahmKristyn ShawKyle BlackChristopher HendersonSara Waters