One thing I’ve learned about Kentlake High School students during the past few weeks is they want the time they spend there to be meaningful.

What I decided to do after the Site Council meeting in October was go talk to students, to spend time at the school, to find out what worked, what didn’t work, and what students wanted to see change.

First, I visited Susan Best’s journalism class.

Best asked me to give her students some tips on investigative journalism and talk about how I find stories, but, she also allowed me to use the time to ask her newspaper kids questions. Many, many questions.

I asked them to name the teachers they liked, to give examples of the things they didn’t like, what they thought of the High School Proficiency Exam compared to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, what they thought had gone wrong under the previous principal, what is going right, and what they want to see change.

They had so much to say.

For me, it was important to do this to better understand the school from their perspective, to give them an opportunity to be open, honest and heck, blunt, about all those things.

When that class period was done, Best invited me to stay and speak with her next two English classes, which had between 20 and 30 seniors in each class. I hadn’t planned on it but it seemed like a good idea.

I got nothing but amazing, insightful, useful, articulate feedback from these kids. They care a lot about school. They care about getting good grades. They care about what they get out of the experience. They want there to be a point to going to Kentlake beyond passing a high stakes test and getting a diploma. They want it to have a purpose. They want it to have meaning. They want to feel valued and respected. They want to be given a chance to earn the trust of adults.

In short, they want to get up in the morning and more often than not, feel like there’s a point to the whole exercise.

Little changes made this year by Joe Potts, the new principal, and his administrative team have had a huge impact on student morale.

For example, five minute passing times are huge, compared to four minutes to get from one class to the next last year. It was explained to me the shorter passing time was intended to reduce issues that were happening between classes most notably fights in the halls.

Allowing students to have cell phone privileges is also significant, even if it is only at lunch and between class. This was a universal sentiment.

One student told me that when students took the climate survey in the spring, the mood among them was “bitter,” but the vibe at Kentlake has improved noticeably.

Many students attributed that to the fact the Falcon football team was winning, too.

During the previous school year students felt like there was a communication problem between them and the administrators and that rather than deal with the root cause of significant issues all 1,900 students were punished.

One student said she was frustrated because one of her teachers still didn’t know her name and the first quarter was almost over.

Many students felt their teachers weren’t approachable. They felt they couldn’t ask questions. One student told me a teacher said she could ask two questions in class that day, but, that was it.

Students said they didn’t feel like they were engaged by their teachers.

When asked who their favorite teachers were, the same names came up over and over and over again.

Kentlake students I spoke with want more structure, more interaction with their teachers, clearer directions, to feel respected and valued, to have a more consistent experience as students.

I know, I know, hard to believe that teenagers want all the things we want for them but amazingly enough they do.

When I returned to Kentlake on Nov. 4 to spend the day at the school I felt like I had a pretty good idea what I was going to get. I had heard all about the bad.

This day was intended to observe what’s going right at this school that clearly needs change.

I started with Marla Boyd’s first period University of Washington Spanish class.

Everyone in this class is expected to speak Spanish the whole period. This is a rigorous class. It is meant to prepare students for college.

Lucky me, I took three years of Spanish in high school and a year at Washington, and I usually did well. I was able to follow along.

This class functioned like a well oiled machine. Students were quiet, they paid attention and were generally focused.

Her students described Boyd as “relatable.”

“She doesn’t talk down to us,” one student said.

Another added, “She makes what might be boring fun.”

Good to know since Potts wants to expand Kentlake’s UW offerings, but, more on that later.

Off I went upstairs to Tammy Barnhart’s ninth grade English class.

Barnhart got things started with some vocabulary and definitions that relate to essay writing.

She had it set up in Cornell Notes format, something I would see again later that day in Russ Ballard’s chemistry class, a structure I wasn’t sure about at first.

There were 28 students in class that day as Barnhart went over essay writing concepts such as the main idea and supporting details, how to identify them and what different kinds of methods could be used while writing.

I worked on an exercise with the students to identify a main idea and supporting details. Barnhart lent me a highlighter pen then I scribbled some things on the worksheet.

Her ninth grade students did better at it than I did. So much for being a professional writer. Heh.

From there I went to other side of the second floor to Matt Sturtevant’s calculus class. There were 20 students, of those six were in their second year of calculus, while the rest were first year calculus students. The six second year students were all girls which I thought was quite cool. My inner feminist was pleased.

But, I was also out of my element. Math was never my strong suit. This is a foreign language I do not understand.

While the first year students were taking a test, Sturtevant went over a test with the rest of his students, who were excited to get some focused time from him. They talked about the best strategies for each kind of problem and learned how to do things better next time.

I was thoroughly impressed.

Fourth period I went back to Best’s journalism class but this time I listened to her talk about my line of work and then I spent about half the class talking to the kids about their second edition of the Falcon Flyer, what they did well and what I thought could improve, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s a pretty good student newspaper and I like talking about my craft with aspiring journalists. I hope I get a chance to do that again this school year. It’s as good for me as it might be for the students.

Fifth period I spent in Kathy Underhill’s class.

Underhill teaches American Sign Language and has been at Kentlake for six years.

I was seriously envious of this class and wrote in my notes, “Wish we’d had it when I was in high school.”

A student from Best’s journalism class told me Underhill’s ASL courses have grown tremendously in popularity from last year to this year.

I could see why. This class looked fun yet the students were focused and intent, it was clear they were going to get as much from it as they could.

To start with, there was a test, then the end of the period was spent working on duets. The teens were looking up lyrics to songs and translating them, grooving and dancing in their seats as they practiced signing the songs.

Finally I spent sixth period in Russ Ballard’s chemistry class. Most of his pupils are sophomores and juniors.

To start with, Ballard talked to his students about the importance of good note taking, and the Cornell Notes structure came up again.

Ballard explained to his students that he wanted to help them improve their ability to take good notes.

“I’m going to be figuratively in your face, harassing you about note taking,” he told them.

He added that he learned the hard way in college why good notes were important and explained the Cornell system would help them not just in learning the material, but in retaining it, as well as preparing for tests.

Students in his class described Ballard as “organized” and that “he wants us to succeed.”

His class is “super structured” but “when we’re confused he doesn’t abandon us.”

Ballard’s expectations to his class are clear, that he explains everything well and “he doesn’t baby us at all.”

See. Students do want their teachers to have high expectations for them and hold them to those standards.

Educators I have spoken to in recent weeks have told me that teens will not only rise to those expectations but will exceed them if given the opportunity.

One of Ballard’s students said, “Some teachers, I feel like they expect us to fail.”

Another said, “Bad teachers are in the minority.”

Instead, it’s about how teachers are approaching the job that cause frustration and with the right guidance, those who are perceived as bad could indeed actually be great.

So, at the second Kentlake Site Council meeting on Nov. 17, Potts wanted to talk about bringing more rigorous courses to the school.

I was quite pleased to hear that. And, let me mention that I do not live in the Kent School District nor do I have children old enough to go to school yet, I just spend a lot of time talking to kids and teachers about education.

Potts is taking advantage of a KSD initiative to offer more options from UW.

Now, being a UW graduate, I love the idea kids are getting into that curriculum. So, yes, I’m a bit biased.

But, back in October I talked to Potts about why there weren’t more options, because that was my biggest complaint in high school.

The issue was interest.

So, as Kentlake administrators work to bring more rigorous courses to the school, one of the questions is how do you make taking those classes appealing to students who aren’t already taking Advanced Placement, honors or the available UW classes?

Another issue will be cost. Students will have to pay to get the college credit they can earn by taking the courses. While it’s cheaper to take the classes at Kentlake and many schools in the state — even across the country — accept the credits, the cost could be prohibitive for a segment of students.

“There’s interest … in the student population. There’s interest in the faculty,” Potts told the Site Council. “It’s a big deal to me that no child is denied the opportunity.”

In other words, the staff and administration team will figure out a way to get money to make the classes available to all students, regardless of ability to pay.

The goal, Potts said, is to offer students the ability to earn up to 60 college credits while at Kentlake. It will give students a reason to attend, to stay, to get plugged back in something that Running Start, while valuable, doesn’t offer and students believe that has also contributed to the morale issues there.

There’s a lot of upside to this proposal.

And based on what I’ve learned in recent week, I really feel like Kentlake students would embrace it because they want the opportunity to be challenged.

In addition, the parents on the Site Council were all enthusiastic about the idea, which Potts was happy about.

But, this is just one strategy. Potts is also looking at potential partnerships with career training programs for students who are looking at options other than a four-year degree.

Potts is continuing to work with and support collaboration with Cedar Heights Middle School, which feeds into Kentlake, as well as on his 30/60/90 plan that we will talk more about at the next meeting.

I was pleased with what I saw on that plan in the brief time we touched on it on Wednesday.

Mike Shepard, who teaches AP government and UW history, among other rigorous courses, likes where Kentlake is headed now.

“I’ve been passionate about raising the academic bar here and I’m pleased about where we’re going,” Shepard said.

I am certain raising the bar for Kentlake students is the right idea and those kids will impress everyone with their ability to clear that bar.