If you ask Partnership principals and network staff what the best high school in Cleveland is, you should get the same answer from each of us: It’s the school where each individual student best fits and can flourish fully. Luckily for our students, there are a wealth of “best” high schools in Cleveland. We’ve shared stories of students headed to some of those schools here, here, and here, for example. But when we saw how Zion Pinnock reacts when he speaks about the high school he’s headed to in the fall, we got more than another great example of what a fit-flourish high school placement looks like; we got a share in his excitement.
Currently an eighth grader at Archbishop Lyke, Zion is headed to the Hawken School, an independent day and boarding school. “They are really into engineering, and I love that there are no grades,” he beams. The Mastery School—Hawken’s newer campus in University Circle, where Zion will attend—uses a mastery approach, where students’ transcripts reflect skills and content they have mastered instead of traditional grades.
Other features of the school have him really excited: “They have two-week intensives where you are focused on one subject before a break, and that’s a great way to learn something. And I plan on joining the philosophy club, the photography club—I want to try a lot of new things.”
His grin gets even wider as he explains, “My mom is super-proud. She knows it’s a really good school, and she’s proud of me being able to get in.”
Zion relied on a number of partners to help with his path to Hawken. He’s an enthusiastic participant in after-school and summer enrichment programs run by Boys Hope, Girls Hope (soon to be re-christened Hope Ignites), and it was a private school fair sponsored by that organization where he first encountered Hawken. He met with the admissions office multiple times, and he got help on his application from a knowledgeable resource close to home: his older brother, who goes to the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine and wants to be a doctor. His brother also sparked his interest in robotics. “We used to build robotic kits together—including a robotic hand.”
Zion also credits Archbishop Lyke—where he has attended since Kindergarten—with preparing him well for Hawken. He explains, “The curriculum here is harder–for example, we take Algebra 1–which a lot of people don’t take.” And he also feels that the friendliness of the teachers at Archbishop Lyke is similar to that he’s seen so far on visits to Hawken.
We are proud that most of our students go on to attend Catholic high schools. Yet as we work to increase opportunities for all our students to be ready to flourish in high school and beyond, we’re grateful that there are so many “best” high schools in Cleveland where Zion—and dozens of other students—can find the learning experiences they need to fulfill their family’s aspirations and find joy along the way.
