"Keeping that promise today means walking into your class with the conviction that every single kid that walks in your door is going to walk out ready for college. That's the promise we made three years ago when we opened this place, and it's a promise we make anew every day when they walk in that door. And this circle is here to remind you that this is going to get hard, but when it gets hard, you've got to know you never walk alone. Everyone in this circle is going to be there to back you up, pick you up, put you on your feet and keep on walking. But the promise can't change, and now it's time to deliver."
And now Johnston is ready to deliver his promise to MESA students. As on that first day three years ago, he wants the kids to know what they're up against. He has half the students stand, to show how many would graduate high school if they went by just statistics. The kids seem unfazed; they've heard this before. Then Johnston has just fifty of the 500 students in the auditorium stand. These, he says, are the only kids who'd finish college.
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Barack Obama visited Mike Johnston and MESA students on the last day of school in May.
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Anne Woolman (from left) , Jeremy Brittain, Billy Gomez and Ulises Cano are seniors at MESA this year.
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This they haven't heard before. Everyone stirs, objecting and mumbling questions to their friends.
"That's what they say," Johnston says. "Statistics say only one in ten of us would ever make it to graduate high school, go to college and finish college. To that, we say, 'You haven't met the kids at MESA.'"
Relieved, students applaud and holler.
And Johnston's not done yet. He asks the class of 2009 to stand and face the crowd. Then he tells the school that everyone in this class — at sixty, a significantly bigger class than 2008 — is going to graduate, be accepted to college and do one better: They're going to be prepared for college.
He compares the climb to college with a climb to the top of Mt. Everest. "Our job is to make sure not one of you gets left in the cold," he says. "So when you see the fire in our eyes, when you see a sense of urgency on your teacher's face because you came in without homework ready or you forgot to do that project, it's because what you see in their eyes is the fear that you're going to be left out in the cold when the year's over.
"You're going to see us this year working harder than we did last year, and you're going to see us now look at giving you assessments along the way. We're going to try to measure more and better and faster so we know exactly how we're progressing on this climb. We will make sure every single one of you gets to the top and walks in the doors of college and they say, 'I can't believe how well prepared you are.'"
At that, the students cheer.
