Before Jaime Crowley was the assistant principal at Mt. Hope High school in Bristol, RI, he was a foreign language teacher, bridging the gap between languages for his students. Crowley’s position now requires a different type of translation. Instead of translating languages, he is translating data and research to create practical, workable improvements for his school.
As the leader of the school’s improvement team— which consists of teachers, parents, business and community leaders— Crowley led the development of a Comprehensive Assessment Program (CAP) involving all faculty in a multi-disciplinary effort to align assessments to establish universal scoring protocols and benchmarks. Crowley established an extended-day support program to help at-risk students spend less time in summer school making up classes by allowing them to keep up after class, rather than failing and having to repeat the class in the summer. Based on scientific sleep studies, Crowley also pushed for the school to institute a later start time for the school day, which the school adopted, to make sure kids were getting enough sleep to start class each morning ready to learn at the highest level. These new programs have made a huge impact on the school’s graduating class. Since 2000, the school’s dropout rate has decreased by a staggering 65 percent due to the interventions and support programs the school has implemented.
1991 Boston College, B.A.
