At Tech, no trouble in Paradis

LYNN – Lynn Vocational Technical Institute Director Diane Paradis does not talk about “the Tech turnaround” because the numbers speak for themselves, telling a story about a school where graduation rates are up and students are meeting or exceeding standardized testing targets.School Advisory Council parent Jeanne Cabe said Paradis “takes pride in the school and really cares about the kids,” and Tech?s 850 students return the favor. Last Wednesday, they surprised her by decorating a Tech faculty room with four posters covered with the signatures of Class of 2015-2018 members.?It was such an emotional moment,” Paradis said.In May 2010 when the Worcester-area native left Cambridge Rindge & Latin?s School of Technical Arts to come to Tech, the Neptune Boulevard school?s enrollment hovered near 1,000 students, and a six-year state review made it clear Tech was overdue for “a major cleanup.”?It wasn?t good,” Paradis recalled.Former director James Ridley started the work of getting Tech in line with special education and English Language Learning requirements as well as federal occupational safety requirements for Tech vocational programs. Paradis built on that plan. For three months, the two veteran educators hammered out a “corrective action plan” that looked at teacher and other employee schedules and deficiencies in the vocational program, including equipment and needed repairs.Instead of clustering Tech sophomores, juniors and seniors into an alternating vocational and academic study schedule, Paradis revamped the schedule to provide teachers with more efficient uses for their time and simplify the way seniors and juniors switched between vocational education and academics.Her next step involved Tech?s compliance with state application-process standards. Resulting reforms meant only half of the 240 middle-school students who applied to go to Tech in the spring of 2010 got accepted. Paradis called the new application standard “a step we had to take.”?We had to make a stand on the quality of student we were accepting,” she said.Paradis, in Cabe?s view, made the right move. The application reforms and other changes at Tech ended the school?s image as “a dumping ground for kids with bad behavior,” said Cabe, whose daughter, Brianna, is a Tech senior who, her mother said, will graduate into a health care job.Paradis said unifying Tech?s curriculum and instituting common planning time for teachers have helped improve school programs, including a health care program where 90 percent of the current students have passed certified nursing assistant tests. Students must have good grades and attendance records before they can apply for admission to the health care program.?There?s a huge waiting list,” Paradis said.Tech?s graduation rate, according to school department statistics, rose from 54 percent to 76 percent from 2010 to 2013. Its MCAS results showed gains in the same time period. Students who have taken the MCAS tutor those preparing to take it using computerized display boards.?There is a relationship between the kids. The ones who have lived the test know what confused them and they can tell the others,” Paradis said.Cabe said Paradis? success is partly rooted in her ability to demand students act like adults.?She really cares – it shows,” Cabe said.Paradis credits her 100 teachers and support-services employees “who embraced the change” required to gradually expand Tech?s application pool and increase its enrollment.?My goal is 1,000 students. We will be there next year,” she said.