President praises Memphis school's 'culture of caring and learning' (high school commencement)

Source: CNN

Memphis, Tennessee (CNN) -- A hundred and fifty-five Warriors from Booker T. Washington High School received a diploma Monday -- and a handshake from the president of the United States.

"Just a couple of years ago, this was a school where only about half the students made it to graduation. For a long time, just a handful headed to college each year," President Barack Obama pointed out in his address to the students.

The school's dramatically improved graduation rate was one reason the president came to Memphis on a cool spring day.

Booker T. Washington High is credited with a jump in graduation rate from 55% to 82 % in just four years through the use of gender-based classrooms and increased teacher effectiveness. Teachers who seemed to get more than a year's growth out of their students were moved to the core classes of English and mathematics as part of the school's educational innovation.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/05/16/memphis.obama/index.html