Summer 2005
| Volume 62 | Number 9
Turnaround Schools (online only)
Marge Scherer
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Elizabeth Bondy, Dina Mayne, Lisa Langley and Pamela Williamson
A Florida elementary school went from a grade of F on the state test to a grade of A in just one year. Using data from a school-administered survey and from individual interviews with various faculty members, the school defines six factors that contributed to improved student achievement on the state test: in-school and after-school tutoring, teacher responsibility for student learning, the use of student achievement data to drive instruction, strong ties with the local university, teacher analysis of the reading test, and the school's integrated arts program. Several other strategies—such as departmentalizing for mathematics, science, and writing in the 4th and 5th grades and focusing on teacher leadership—have enabled the school to sustain this achievement.
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Tanni Parker and Corrie Ziegler
Although the presence of the school principal in classrooms has been shown to have a strong impact on student achievement, most high school principals let the pressing demands of the job prevent them from spending significant time observing classes. Queen Elizabeth High School in Alberta, Canada has adopted structures that allow its principal, Colin Ross, to spend half his workday observing teachers in the classroom and helping shape instruction. Parker and Ziegler explain how Ross delegates administrative duties—and helps the school's assistant principals and department heads do the same—to make his presence in the classroom possible. The school has also adopted a different approach to monthly faculty meetings, turning them into time for professional development focused on a promising instructional strategy, which all faculty members then commit to trying in their classes during the following month. These strategies have positively affected student achievement and faculty morale.
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Kate M. Cassada, Carol J. Stevens and Jamelle S. Wilson
Hanover County Public Schools in Virginia found itself in an unfamiliar position in the spring of 1999. Accustomed to enjoying a reputation for excellence, the district failed to meet the new state accreditation standards. District staff responded by developing an improvement plan based on alignment of goals, curriculum instruction, and professional development, which propelled all 17 schools in the district to full state accreditation in just three years.
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Joyce Flowers and Mary Keating
In 1997, a rural district in Georgia had low to mediocre scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, but after implementing districtwide curriculum tools and procedures, 90 percent of 4th graders and 88 percent of 6th graders reached proficiency in reading by 2003. Several factors were responsible for this improvement. Targeted instruction involved aligning school curriculum. Implementing an assessment and tracking software system enabled data-driven instructional decisions. Shared instructional leadership fostered collaboration and cooperation among teachers and administrators and led to improved practices in the classroom.
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Heather Mattson Almanzán
WestEd's Northern California Comprehensive Assistance Center identified 18 schools as having dramatically improved student achievement. The author describes how research-based principles and strategies that foster school improvement operated in these schools. Almanzan found six general principles that all the schools followed to some degree: insisting on high expectations, using data to drive decision making, creating a focused plan, making administrative leadership interactive, embedding professional development in school culture, aligning curriculum, and reaching out to parents.
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Mike Galvin and Danette Parsley
When rural elementary school Alcester-Hudson was labeled “in need of improvement” and charged by the state of South Dakota to create a school improvement plan, it used the process to improve its school climate in a way that went beyond scrutinizing test scores. Working with consultants from the Mid-continental Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL), Alcester-Hudson staff focused on nurturing shared leadership; coming to agreements on student expectations and curriculum; learning to use data; focusing on one problem at a time; building a professional learning community; and recognizing that being put on the “needs improvement” list was a chance for growth. Over three years, the school's standardized test scores rose dramatically, with 94 percent of students scoring at the “proficient” level in math and 100 percent reaching the proficient level in reading.
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Janis L. Antonek and Mary Joe Lentz
Jones Elementary, a Title 1 school in Greensboro, North Carolina, achieved high levels of student success by implementing an innovative literacy model. The Jones Literacy Model consists of an in-class whole-group component, an independent reading component, and three rotations of small homogenous groups. Several factors are crucial to its success: daily small-group work with ability-grouped learners, high-quality instruction during group time, extensive independent reading, and effective education leadership. In 1995, the school's pass rate for students on standardized end-of-year tests was less than 50 percent. By 2004, the school pass rate for 3rd through 5th graders on the end-of-grade math and reading tests soared to 98.8 percent.
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Sharon J. Damore
In “The Matrix Reloaded” (Educational Leadership, November 2003), James Harvey finds connections between the internal contradictions of No Child Left Behind and a film in which the structure of society bears little relationship to reality. Sharon J. Damore, a teacher and consultant with 30 years in education, uses several titles of popular movies to discuss how accountability’s good intentions have gone astray and how educators need to find the courage to take charge of the direction of education reform. Among the titles she uses as a lens through which to view the challenges of accountability are Lost in Translation, Titanic, and Finding Nemo.
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Mike Muir, Bette Manchester and Jim Moulton
The authors discuss the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, a project launched by former Maine governor Angus King that aims to achieve its mission—improving teaching and learning through the creative use of technology—by providing every secondary student and teacher in Maine with a laptop computer. The program kicked off in 2003-04 by furnishing Maine's 7th and 8th grade students and teachers with laptops. According to one study, the initiative has already positively affected student motivation and achievement. The authors credit the success of the program to a combination of four key factors: access to technology; focus on learning; emphasis on leadership; and context-embedded professional development. Encouraged by increased academic achievement and by the support of community members, the initiative is now aiming to provide laptops for high school students and teachers.
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Randy Anderson, Ronald A. Styron, Thelma Roberson and John Rachal
Staying current with professional literature is essential for education administrators to know what's going on in their field and to effectively perform their demanding roles. But this is easier said than done: Education leaders have limited time for such individual professional development, and there are many journals to choose from. Accordingly, the authors conducted a survey to identify which education administration journals are the most widely read and, by extension, most useful for these administrators. The survey, sent to highly successful K-12 principals and chairs of university education administration departments, revealed that the five top-read journals are (in rank order) Educational Leadership, NASSP Bulletin, American Educational Research Journal, The School Administrator, and American School Board Journal. The authors note that most of these influential, widely read journals tend to publish articles geared to address the needs of practitioners rather than in-depth research-based articles, suggesting that readability and time required to read articles are important concerns to K-12 administrators—a logical conclusion considering the time constraints and other demands placed on them.
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