Proven Paths to Unique Challenges: An Interview with Principal David Lon
Principal David Lon’s (Cohort 7) Jules E. Mastbaum High School has recently garnered attention for its focus on ninth-grade student retention. However, in a recent conversation, Principal Lon emphasized not the achievements of Mastbaum’s partnership with the Ninth Grade Success Network (which he largely credits to Assistant Principal Amy Foster), but rather how established structures can be applied to new challenges to improve student outcomes.
Mastbaum is unique among Neubauer Fellow-led schools as it is entirely a Career and Technical Education (CTE) school. 12th graders in CTE programs take the two-part National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) exam. This exam is distinctive because students who pass are eligible for free community college credits in Philadelphia or—thanks to legislation spearheaded by Councilwoman Katherine Gilmore Richardson—can receive five extra credit points on the Philadelphia civil service exam. “There are so many great city jobs for Philadelphia students. These are skilled industry jobs that students can start immediately after graduating from Mastbaum,” Lon explained.
While most Mastbaum students easily passed the practical portion of the exam, immediately following the pandemic only 40% passed the two-day multiple-choice “NOCTI written” exam, according to Lon. Despite his extensive experience as an educator and school leader, Lon admitted that he started his time at Mastbaum feeling “a certain sense of insecurity when it came to CTE. I didn’t know anything about plumbing or carpentry or nursing.”
During his Neubauer Fellowship, Lon worked with his PASL coach, Matt Kelly, to directly address this issue. By defining his problem of practice as improving the NOCTI written exam scores, Lon and Kelly identified existing successful systems that could be adapted for the NOCTI. “Education is no stranger to standardized testing. But while there’s an industry around preparing kids for high-stakes tests like the Keystone, those same structures didn’t exist for the NOCTI exam,” Lon noted. For the Keystone exams, students had late arrivals, pep rallies, and post-exam parties for those who met their goals.
Lon decided to implement similar incentives and structures for the NOCTI exams. “On the morning of the test, we provide a great breakfast, hold a pep rally, give motivational speeches, and take pictures of the students. Then we send them off to take the test with all that wind in their sails. After the test week, we have a NOCTI block party,” Lon described. Additionally, he introduced quarterly benchmarks, and a vocabulary strategy modeled after the STAR exams.
The results have been impressive. Lon reports that Mastbaum’s NOCTI passage rates have increased by 24.3% since the pandemic, with a 17% increase in the 2023-24 school year alone. By applying successful strategies from other areas to the NOCTI exams, Lon created a model for student success.
Lon credits much of his inspiration to his work with his PASL coach. “It’s really important to have the PASL coach on your side. They’re your thought partner and someone who will give you feedback.” Even as a Senior Fellow, Lon continued to update his coach on his progress. “Even though Matt wasn’t my coach anymore, I kept him in the loop. He was really invested in what I was doing. Together, we tackled this problem of practice and came up with something pretty good.”