Guiding Principal

Orchard Gardens School in Boston has been failing since it opened. New principal Andrew Bott is determined to not only turn it around, but to make the first "90-90-90" school in the city: 90% students of color, 90% children living below the poverty line, hitting 90% proficiency. Andrew chose Citizen Schools to be one of his ELT partners because we help make a school day "that just goes." Learn about his daring vision for change in his address at the opening session of Summer Institute.

“What it comes down to is what is that guiding principle? The state test isn’t enough; we could say that we want to be proficient, but that’s not enough. It is that we want our kids to have choices. We want our kids to graduate and be able to choose where they go next. So the guiding principal is, 'How do we get our kids and our families choices?'"

“Many, many, many adults have caused this [failure] to happen. And it’s now incumbent upon us to fix it. And we can’t do it in 6 1/2 hours. We can’t do it if kids see, “Well, this is our school day and this is our afterschool program.” And what’s so exciting about the partnership with Citizen Schools, as well as some of the other partnerships that we're forming, is that we are putting together a day that goes..it just goes."

“I guess what I’m trying to say is – when you think about change, think big, think bold, think about your guiding principle and stick with it. Stay with a laser-like focus. If 90% proficiency is our goal then everything I bring in has to be getting us towards that goal.”