Frank Mickens

A high school principal, Mickens was assigned to New York City's Boys and Girls High in 1986 -- the school where he started his teaching career at age 22. In 1986, the graduation rate for the school's 4,500 students was 24.4 percent, and the school was in chaos. "I have a simple proposition," Mickens said during his tenure: "This is my house. I'm 46 years old. A 15-year-old is not going to dictate to me how this school is run." He instituted patrols to keep drug dealers out, set tougher academic standards, and even required a dress code. Within seven years the graduation rate was up to 40.5 percent; by the time he retired in 2004, it was 47.5 percent. He died at his Brooklyn home on July 9 from unspecified natural causes. He was 63. From This is True for 12 July 2009 Suggestions for further reading: POSH by Lucy Jackson Amazon Price: Customer Review: This is a fairly good, well-written novel that I did enjoy reading, but I was disappointed with the portrayal of one of the characters, Michael Avery, whom the author describes as having bipolar disorder. As someone who is intimately familiar with bo...   Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform Amazon Price: Customer Review: Some ground-breaking new ideas are presented here! Although a skeptic myself before I began to read it, this book really made me want to learn more and do more in high school reform at my own school. I have been inspired to research some of these ide...   Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes by Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Gayle Karhanek Amazon Price: Customer Review: Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap By Richard Dufour, Rebecca Dufour, Robert Eaker, Gayle Karhanek (2010) This volume is a welcome change to the shrill rhetoric of the Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work (D...   194 High-Impact Letters for Busy Principals: A Guide to Handling Difficult Co... by Marilyn L. Grady Amazon Price: $35.05 Customer Review: This publication is a series of letters that are vague at best. Most are no more then three to four sentences. I would be embarrassed to send these letters out to parents.   Time to Learn, Second Edition: How to Create High Schools That Serve All Stud... by George Wood Amazon Price: $29.76 Customer Review: It's such a rre privelege to hear about what can be done by someone who has done it; and someone who knows it doesnt happen overnight or because one is following a recipe or a mandate. Sometimes the fastest way to get to what George Wood describes i...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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