In a southwestern Kentucky city of less than 15,000 residents sits a high school defying all odds.
Though Glasgow High School is located in one of Kentucky’s lowest-income areas, the International Center for Leadership in Education, a division of global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt based in New York, recognized GHS and five other schools across the country as model schools for 2019. GHS Principal Amy Allen said she believes the school’s success is due to its culture and focus on responsibility among administrators, teachers and students.
“There is a really high level of expectation here,” Allen said. “We hold each other accountable really for being the best that we want to be.”
That sentiment is perhaps expressed most visibly in black lettering above one of the school’s main hallways, located near the school’s front entrance. The lettering spells out a quote from esteemed American author John Steinbeck, reading, “It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.”
Along with various displays of success located throughout the school — from framed jerseys of GHS graduates who competed athletically at a professional level to a case located near the school’s cafeteria containing photos of all current students in every grade who scored a 28 or higher on their ACT — it’s apparent GHS focuses on achievement.
Named after the Scottish hometown of a commissioner who helped establish Glasgow as a county seat in 1799 due to its central location, GHS calls to its roots with its mascot and primary symbol of school pride, a Scottish terrier. Allen said the terriers, or “Scotties,” are known for being territorial and loyal, which she said is the norm at GHS.
“We’re always talking about what it means to be a Scottie,” Allen said. “I think that’s what makes us different.”
Among its total student population of around 600 students, GHS’s student demographics consist of 68% white students and 32% minority students. Eleven percent of students are part of GHS’s Exceptional Child Education program, and 5% are English language learners.
Allen said GHS counters all perceived student limitations with three core values: culture, communication and curriculum. She added that creating relationships with students and providing them an opportunity to succeed is everything.
“We in this building believe that there are two ways … to stop that cycle,” Allen said. “One of them is education — is to teach them to the highest degree possible to maximize their potential. The second one is to form relationships with them so they can see there is another life waiting for them if they so choose.”
Allen helps make this possible by visiting classrooms and walking the school’s hallways throughout the day to maintain visibility among students.
“I don’t spend a lot of time in my office,” Allen said. “They just know that I’m going to be around.”
This visibility is reciprocated by Glasgow Independent Schools Superintendent Keith Hale, who served as GHS principal for six years prior to taking over as superintendent two years ago. Of the five schools included within Glasgow Independent Schools, Hale said he tries to visit at least three of them every day to let students know he recognizes their achievements.
“I think everybody needs to know that what they’re doing is important,” Hale said. “For them to feel that way, you’ve got to be out talking to them, supporting them.”
Now in his 25th year of education, Hale said he believes GHS is unique for its involvement among all faculty and students. He said he believes such involvement goes a long way.
“It truly is like a big family,” Hale said of GHS. “You walk in the door, you’re proud to be there.”
Hale and Allen first worked together at Barren County High School, where he served as principal for six years and she was a guidance counselor. Once Hale moved to the Glasgow schools district, he soon after recruited Allen to work as principal at Highland Elementary School within the district, where she worked for three years. Allen is now in her second year as principal at GHS since Hale moved to the superintendent position.
Hale said he believes Allen has a gift for expanding potential in every student.
“She’s fabulous, she’s a winner,” Hale said. “She’s a natural leader.”
Since Allen took over as principal, GHS has included an advanced medicine program for its students interested in pursuing the medical profession. This program coincides with a variety of offered vocational programs at GHS within the fields of business, science and art.
As freshmen, GHS students take a series of personality tests administered by the GHS counseling department in order to help them consider where they might best fit in a future career. In accordance with students’ results and their preferences, students are able to choose classes based off these considerations throughout their time at GHS.
“You just kind of get to pick — where is your passion?” Allen said.
Through the various career-driven programs offered at GHS, students are able to earn industry certifications in order to best prepare them for their future. Along with this, Allen said all students are encouraged to take any of 14 Advanced Placement courses GHS offers in order to adjust them to college-level work and expectations.
“Let them struggle here, so whenever they go to college, they’ll do fine,” Allen said of GHS’s philosophy regarding coursework. “A lot of schools kind of are the backwards.”
GHS sophomore Brad Endris transferred to GHS this year from a high school in New Albany, Indiana. He said though the work at GHS is difficult, he believes the teachers and environment at GHS makes it all worth it.
“The work ethic here is up because the teachers push you so hard,” Endris said. “The teachers are just great here, and they get a connection with you, so you want to try harder for them.”
Endris said he believes the culture at GHS is more upbeat, adding that while he didn’t know a fourth of his classmates at his old school, he feels much differently at GHS.
“The people here — you care about them,” Endris said. “I help everybody in that class, and they help me.”
Endris said he’s currently looking into the school’s entrepreneurship and marketing program but included he believes all programs at GHS are special. He said no matter who you are, he believes GHS often leaves its mark.
“If you come in here with a negative outlook, you’ll probably leave this place with a positive outlook,” Endris said.
These programs, along with recent GHS measures of success, are partly what’s helped GHS qualify for its categorization as a model school. Per the ICLE website, ICLE’s mission is to “challenge, inspire, and equip today’s educators — both teachers and leaders — to prepare our students for lifelong success,” which it does by “identifying innovative practices from across the country, ensuring those practices make a positive impact on student learning.”
Allen said GHS’s selection as a model school is something everyone involved is incredibly proud of.
“To get designated as a model school is just a huge sense of pride for all of us because it’s recognized — it’s something that’s not just regionally or in the state, but it’s across the country,” Allen said. “There are only six high schools this year that were named model schools, and we were one of them.”
Unfortunately, with such success comes difficulty. Although GHS functions as a hub of education and achievement, it’s located in one of Kentucky’s lowest-income areas.
According to USA Today, Glasgow was considered the poorest city in Kentucky in 2018 based on statistics on town median household income ($28,362) and town poverty rate (26.9%). With that, 72% of GHS students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and 14% of students are homeless.
Despite these limitations, however, GHS ranks seventh of all Kentucky high schools and features a graduation rate of 96% (well above the Kentucky high school average of 87.5%, according to a 2014 report compiled by Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Education), according to U.S. News & World Report. The GHS average ACT score among its students ranks 17th in the state, as well, according to 2019 statistics provided by GHS.
GHS junior Dinah Miranda has been in the Glasgow school system since elementary school. Compared to her friends who go to other schools, she said she consistently sees a difference in curriculum and opportunities.
“Glasgow’s a lot different,” Miranda said. “It being a public school and it providing us with all the opportunities that we have — it’s something that you don’t find anywhere else.”
Miranda ran for the position of Kentucky Senior Beta president at the Senior State Beta Convention in January 2019 and won. As a Hispanic student, she said she felt supported by GHS throughout her time running for the position and after the election as well.
“I don’t think I’d be able to get this type of support anywhere else,” Miranda said.
Though Allen is already a mother to a freshman and sixth grader within the Glasgow school system, she said she feels as if her family is much larger.
“I have two biologicals … but then, all these other kids are like my kids too,” Allen said.
Todd Garrison is a mathematics teacher at GHS. Before arriving in Glasgow to teach a little over 10 years ago, Garrison taught in states like North Carolina and Tennessee. He said he believes GHS’s environment for academic success is unlike many others.
“Compared to the other places I’ve taught, there’s just a better culture for learning here,” Garrison said. “Students expect to have to work, and once they expect to have to do it, it’s not that big a deal.”
Though GHS was beginning to increase success under the leadership of Hale, Garrison said he believes Allen has done a lot to keep that success moving forward. He said that’s not always easy to do.
“To come in once a school’s already started improving culture, it’s sometimes harder to come in and keep that culture than it would be to be the person to try to change it,” Garrison said. “She’s doing a great job.”
As a glimpse of success in a state where education has undergone its fair share of difficulties — Kentucky ranked 34th in education in the United States, according to 2018 data by U.S. News & World Report — GHS provides hope and a potential roadmap for schools across the country. Allen said its success is nothing short of the work its students and faculty commit to on a daily basis, noting, however, that some things just aren’t describable.
“From the outside looking in, it’s really hard to understand,” Allen said. “From the inside looking out, it’s really hard to explain.”
This story was originally created with Adobe Spark and was published as part of a project titled "Failing Our Future," conducted by an advanced reporting class at Western Kentucky University.
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