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Staying on Target

Parkville Community School’s principal Elizabeth Michaelis knows where her school is and where it needs to go to get off the federal watch list. During academic reviews with teachers, she made sure everyone else knew as well. Included: Included: Teachers’ efforts to raise achievement scores.

For two days in mid-October, teachers in grades 1 to 6 sat down with principal Elizabeth Michaelis literacy facilitator, Ms. Maple, and Ms. Poplar, the school’s Reading First internal facilitator, for academic reviews. Teachers were asked to discuss their strategies for improving reading scores for their grade level, individual students, and subgroups. Michaelis and the reading coaches offered feedback and suggestions about where teachers needed to focus their energies.

Each teacher was given a list of items to prepare before his or her meeting, so everyone knew where Parkville stood and where it had to go. According to the handout for teachers:

• School improvement plan literacy goals: “There will be a minimum of a 10 percent decrease of students in grades 3-6, including all subgroups, in levels 1 and 2 (the lowest levels) on the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs), which will therefore increase the number of students meeting proficiency or goal at levels 3-5 in reading comprehension on the CMT and 4Sight Assessments.
• “Seventy percent of students in grades K-3, including all subgroups, will meet proficiency or goal in reading as measured by… [multiple] assessments.”
• “Based on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act targets, in order for Parkville to attain Safe Harbor, (a category of the No Child Left Behind Act just below adequate yearly progress (AYP)), there must be a 10 percent decrease in the number of students at reading levels 1 and 2 in the student body as well as each subgroup. “At the same time, the school must continue to have at least 70 percent of all students and students in each subgroup at or above basic (level 2) in writing.”
• Teachers were required to identify each student in their classes and group them in the categories of Hispanic, Black, English Language Learner, Special Education, Economically Disadvantaged, and CMT levels in reading, writing, and math.

A COMMON GOAL

In keeping with Michaelis’ philosophy that all teachers are responsible for all students, teachers in each grade prepared a poster with every child’s name on it and where each student falls in terms of reading ability.

Students were categorized as:

• Intensive: Reading one or more years below grade level.
• Strategic: Reading six months below grade level.
• Benchmark: Reading at grade level.

Level 3 is considered proficient on the CMTs, and most students reading at grade level can reach the proficient mark, Michaelis said.

But there always are variables. Rodrigues mentions a student with high abilities who did not score well on the CMT -- yet everyone knew the student was capable of doing much better. And every level 3 and above student is critical.

Each teacher was required to come to the meeting with the number and percentage of students at their grade level and in their classes at the intensive, strategic, and benchmark levels, and the grade-level goal for the first cycle.

“How do you know you are meeting the different needs of students?”

In addition, teachers needed to present goals for the intensive and strategic students in their classes, use data to support the development of those goals, and explain how they were meeting the different needs of students during the second literacy block of the class day.

A representative from each grade sat with each teacher. The grade level representatives attended to see how each colleague applies data, meets students’ needs, as well as to look for patterns across grade levels.

NO EXCUSES

When Michaelis was asked if she thought she was demanding a lot from her teachers, she replied, “No more than people are asking of us [administrators], and what the world expects from public education.

“My job is to help them understand that and roll that out.”

Some of the teachers were ready with all the necessary data and explanations of how they are using it. Some were stopped short when Michaelis asked if the chart of student names and reading levels had been updated since August, and they realized the chart would have to be redone -- as would their data.

A sixth grade teacher, Mr. Willow, was asked what he was doing to help his intensive students. Willow said that he is using 4Sight measurements -- an assessment tool for Success for All that tests skills similar to those on the CMTs -- and performance on different sections of the CMTs as the basis for lessons, and having students summarize books they have read.

“How do you know you are meeting the different needs of students?” Michaelis asked.

“By asking questions and by supervising,” Willow responded.

Michaelis then noted that while seven students were at the lowest reading level only two were attending Power Hour, which is focused instruction before and after school for students who are at level 2 on the CMTs. “You should have more in Power Hour,” she said..

Willow said he planned to stay after school two days a week to work with two students to get them up to level 3 in reading.

Michaelis said later she wants to see more level 1 students at Power Hour as well -- many of the level 1 students are at that point because they still are learning English, she said.

KNOWING EVERY CHILD

Other teachers outlined similar approaches. Fifth grade teacher Ms. Maple looked at the sections of the CMT her strategic-level students did not pass and used that information to set goals for them.

She is using a science text during the second literacy block to help students read for content.

Another fifth grade teacher, Ms. Palm, explained that the grade level goal for fifth grade was clarification -- ensuring that at least 75 percent of the students can clarify words in reading and in the second literacy block.

For her own students, one of the literacy activities she uses is to assign them to sort words according to the patterns of vowel-consonant-consonant, vowel-vowel-consonant, vowel-consonant, or vowel consonant silent e, an activity they really enjoy, she said.

“It’s not that it can’t be done. It can be. You just have to break it into pieces.”

“It’s to help them identify patterns, build vocabulary, and identify words they don’t know,” Palm said. The class was divided into three teams; each team member had to look at the word, then the team had to discuss where to put the word, and explain why it belonged in that category.

For homework, students had to write each of the words they sorted three times and put them in alphabetical order.

LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE

Adapting to the changes in instructional strategies and demands of state and federal officials is harder for some teachers. Michaelis reminded second-grade teacher Ms. Birch to update the board for her grade level to reflect current student enrollment and skills. Birch needed some help organizing her data.

For the second literacy block of the day, Birch said she grouped students according to the categories of benchmark, strategic, and intensive. She assigns students a poem to read every week, and asks them to make word lists and form new lists.

“How are you assessing that you are filling in the gaps?” Michaelis asked.

By asking students to show her what they are doing, talk about what they are doing, and sitting with the groups, Birch said.

And even though she is putting in a lot of time, Birch said she is afraid she is not doing things the right way. “I’m lost,” she said. “Everything I learned a long time ago has a new name. I know how to teach kids to read -- but I don’t know all the buzz words.”

“What you are saying is, ‘You want me to go to Washington, D.C., but you haven’t given me the name of the highways,’” noted Poplar. She and Maple offered to stop by her classroom and review some areas with her, and Michaelis urged her to stop staff members when they started using too many buzz words.

Whatever the terminology, though, Michaelis said she is certain that teachers can take the right steps so Parkville’s students get where they need to be. “It’s not that it can’t be done,” she said. “It can be. You just have to break it into pieces.”

Article by Ellen R. Delisio
Education World®
Copyright © 2006 Education World

11/08/2006