A closer look -- Shooting for the stars

Danette Goulet

With the state putting heavy pressure this year on raising student

test scores, teachers at several of Newport-Mesa’s historically

low-achieving schools joined forces to find success.

Soaring student test scores at West Side schools can be attributed to

a break from traditional teaching styles, administrators said.

“I know what did it,” Sharon Blakely, principal of Whittier Elementary

School, said of the school’s 73-point increase on the Academic

Performance Index ranking.

“Basically, [there was] a schoolwide focus on basic skills, teachers

working together to provide quality instruction, teacher use of data and

what we call differentiated instruction.”

But weren’t students already being taught basic skills? Didn’t

teachers always work to provide quality instruction?

The difference, according to the principals of three schools where

scores increased the most, is an intense collaboration of teachers and

extra programs outside the traditional classroom setting.

Teachers were “working very hard, but they weren’t working together,”

Blakely said. “Teachers are collaborating. We’re deepening out knowledge

base. What we learn we put into practice. We access it and then we

recraft it.”

That was the story all over the successful West Side when the API

rankings were released last week.

The API, mandated by Gov. Gray Davis’ Public Schools Accountability

Act of 1999, ranks each public school based on student performance on the

Stanford 9 achievement test scores.

The state set a target score of 800 for every school across the board.

Each school ranked below 800 will be required to improve its score by a

fixed percentage each year until it reaches 800. Schools that receive an

800 or higher are expected to maintain or improve that grade each year.

When the API first came out in January, only six of the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District’s 26 schools included had reached that target

score.

When the new scores were released last week, 16 of the 20 schools that

needed to improve did so, many making astounding leaps that far surpassed

state requirements.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

This year’s buzz word in improving schools must have been teamwork.

“I would certainly give credit to the staff. We certainly worked as a

team,” said Ken Killian, principal of Rea Elementary School, which jumped

83 points on the API ranking.

Unlike Blakely, Killian said he couldn’t possibly nail down what made

the difference.

But like the principals at most under-performing schools, Killian knew

when the governor’s mandate took effect, it was time for a new approach.

Maybe the time had come to veer away from the traditional classroom

approach, with teachers doing their own thing.

Costa Mesa instructors were each struggling to find an effective way

to give the multitude of English language learners the attention and help

they needed, while continuing to challenge the rest of the class.

At Whittier Elementary, teachers began meeting on a regular basis to

discuss what was working and what was not, Blakely said.

They were no longer alone.

EXTRA INSTRUCTION TIME BOOSTS SCORES

Each school’s success story involved starting key intervention

programs that offered students extra individualized instruction time.

Sonora Elementary School, where the API score jumped by 90 points,

began a state-funded “After-School Eagles” program that focused on

literacy.

Last year, the program served 50 students who stayed at school until 6

p.m., with teachers providing additional instruction.

When it was well-received, Principal Lorie Hoggard and her staff

decided to begin an “Eaglettes” program for the kindergartners and

parents that resembled a mommy-and-me program.

At Rea Elementary, educators developed a new reading program that

closely tracked each student’s level and progress.

Performance-level reading groups were formed that took children from

their regular classrooms and grouped all students by their ability,

Killian said. As a student progressed, he or she moved on to another

group.

“We also had a lot of English-language development support, which

added one teacher per grade level who were available to work individually

and with small groups beyond what a regular classroom teacher could

provide,” he said.

Rea also had an after-school academy, which took 12 students who were

performing below grade level from each classroom and instructed them

after school for 45 minutes, two days a week.

The program served 260 students, Killian said. Rea students also had

the benefit of many outside programs, such as the Boys & Girls Club,

Shalimar Learning Center and Girls Inc., he said.

All of these programs, administrators said, have been instrumental in

the improved test scores.

But when it comes down to it, Killian said, it is not the individual

programs but the very focused, combined effort that makes it work.

“I think what stands out is what we do is very focused, whether it be

during or after school, on what kids really need to learn,” he said.

“And the second thing I think really stands out is that there are ways

to get a lot of extra help to students who need it.”