PROVIDENCE, R.I. — As more than 20,000 Providence children returned to class last week, students at Mount Pleasant High School embarked on the new school year with a veteran educator at the helm on special assignment.
Nkoli Onye, the city's executive director of high schools, is taking over as principal this year as part of a plan to transform Mount Pleasant from one of Rhode Island's persistently lowest-achieving schools to a "world-class institution."
Among her first tasks is instilling a sense of importance in students.
"There are amazing opportunities for learning here and they can succeed from this school and become someone that they can be proud of," said Onye, a native of Nigeria who began her teaching career in south central Los Angeles in 1988.
Acting Superintendent Susan F. Lusi announced Onye's new role a few weeks ago, and shortly after, the school was alive with its first-ever weeklong freshman orientation, boot camp for juniors preparing to take state exams in October and meetings for parents, teachers and seniors.
The more than 1,000 students have a lot of ground to cover.
Last March, the state Department of Education added the school to its list of low achievers. Just 2 percent of 11th-graders scored in the proficient range last year in math on the state exam and 1 percent in science, state figures show. A third tested proficient for reading — compared with two-thirds statewide — and 19 percent did in writing. The results are well below statewide scores.
The school's performance has some parents considering pulling their children out.
"We're not sure about the quality of the education," said Paul McKoy, whose daughter, Sharon Brown, is a sophomore. He said he wasn't planning on keeping his daughter enrolled there.
The school has suffered from unstable leadership, Onye said, and is also adapting to new curriculum requirements and the district's relatively new college-or-career-ready graduation policy.
There are other challenges, too: The school's attendance rate was 78 percent in 2010, compared with 91 percent statewide. And the district's finances are on shaky ground because of city budget woes.
Mount Pleasant is one of the city's largest high schools. Many students are Latino and speak Spanish at home, Onye said. State figures show 72 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. The school has English as a second language and bilingual programs, as well as an academy for new immigrants, some of whom have not had formal education and cannot speak English.
But Onye is known for turning around schools. When she was principal of the Providence Academy of International Studies and Hope High School's Information Technology Academy, the schools met annual progress goals for the first time, school officials said.
"Nkoli Onye has an outstanding track record as an executive director, as a building principal and as a teacher before that," Lusi said in a statement announcing Onye's appointment.
Onye said she believes the district's new curriculum requirements will help improve test scores. She says now that teachers have a clear idea of what they need to teach, the next step is to focus on improving instruction. She plans to introduce a weekly after-school session for teachers seeking to compare notes to make up for what she calls a "very short" instructional day that leaves no time for teachers to meet regularly.
"We want to get those scores up because that is an indicator, one indicator of how we're doing," Onye said.
Karianne Mysoth, a sophomore, said she was concerned about going to Mount Pleasant, which she had heard referred to as "Mount Pregnant." But she says the school's reputation was unfounded.
"I was skeptical to come here, but the people are cool," she said.
Her stepfather, Simon Tan, remains doubtful.
He complained teachers are not professionally dressed and discipline seems lax. Tan said he was heartened, however, to see a staff member standing outside the school dressed in a shirt and tie Friday.
"Our vision is to create a college-going, campus-like atmosphere here," said Onye, a former science teacher.
She says she has a clear goal for where her new charges are headed: college, career or the military. She envisions a school where students are "researching, they're interning, they're really getting engaged in their areas of interest to make connections between what is happening in their classrooms and what actually occurs in the real world."
A parent center, where parents can get information and discuss problems, is starting its first full year in the school. Work is also being completed on new science labs at the aging school, built in 1930.
Ninth-graders, who described starting high school as "scary," said they enjoyed their first experience at Mount Pleasant, a transition program where they met teachers and new classmates, toured Rhode Island College and Providence College and ate breakfast and lunch at Mount Pleasant.
Ray Mari, 14, said he gets a good feeling from Onye.
"I like the principal," he said. "She's understanding."
Onye says she has a simple message for her students: "Remember to work hard, do the right thing. Remember to always conduct yourself with class and dignity."
"They're going hear me say that every single day," she said.