Willingness to benefit from outside help and advice, including a sizable group of tutors from United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay, a relationship that goes back more than 25 years. Pratt was also part of the coaching and mentoring efforts of the former Schools That Can Milwaukee organization.
Willingness to change and improve. If students aren’t doing well, “then we as adults need to change our practices,” Carter said.
Celebrating success at almost any chance. Small prizes for students who are on time every day for a week, for a class that has 100% attendance for a month, and so on.
At Pratt, most students take part, wearing dark blue, light blue or white polo shirts. On the door of one classroom several days ago, figures were posted: attendance 94%, uniforms 88%. Carter thinks the uniform policy “cuts down on a lot of the other stuff that gets in the way of education.”