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Equity
Success Stories
An Overnight Miracle, Seven Years in the Making
Story posted August 27, 2010
Results:
• On-time graduation rate is just under 84%, up from 53% seven years ago
• Extended graduation rate is just over 90%
• College-going rate is 54%, up from 17% in 2004
Seven years ago, Washington’s Everett School District awoke to a harsh reality. A change in how the state calculated graduation rates revealed that only 53% of the district’s students graduated on-time. Officials were shocked and embarrassed. They sprang into action.
Today, Everett’s on-time graduation rate is just under 84%. Its extended graduation rate is just over 90%. And the improvement has occurred across the board, in all ethnic groups and special populations.
To what do they credit their success? Getting a group of committed adults focused on the problem and meeting regularly to try to solve it. And they also moved from numbers to names—getting personal about who is not on track to graduate and what they can do about it. Everett’s Chief Academic Officer Terry Edwards recently told us more.
Public School Insights: Your district has recently gotten some press because of its improved graduation rates. Could you tell me a bit about the success you have had?
Edwards: It is something that I call “An overnight wonder that took seven years to get here.”
About seven years ago, in 2003-2004, the state of Washington changed how it calculated graduation rates. It moved from looking at the number of graduates in the senior class plus those who dropped out over the past four years to a cohort model, the on-time model that the federal government has adopted. This model looks at the number of kids who enter in ninth grade and the number who graduate four years later.
When we converted to that model, our district’s graduation rate was 53%. That was very hard for Everett to accept, because we had always believed that we were a very good school district and doing a good job. 53% was shocking and embarrassing. And it did not seem to follow what we perceived as reality. We did not see hundreds of children standing around on street corners in ...
Story posted July 8, 2010
Results:
• Black, Hispanic, ELL and economically disadvantaged students consistently outperform their peers across the state on standardized reading and writing arts tests
• Emphasis on equity and teacher collaboration has created a positive school environment
• Named a 2010 Breakthrough School by NASSP
Entering the lobby of Park View High School in Sterling, VA is like entering another world. The diversity in the student body is reflected in flags from 63 of the 80 countries that are represented in the student population and in a special project for Hispanic Heritage Month, which covers the walls of an entire hallway.
The school walls, hallways, and stairwells are a celebration of outstanding achievement, featuring students’ academic work, photos of high achievers on Virginia state tests, student honors and trophies, class murals, paintings, sculptures, and other artwork. Diversity is also reflected among class officers and student representatives and by a notable sense of friendship among different cultures and races.
Evidence of the commitment to supporting all students is abundant. In the ESL Department, which works with 20% of the 1,200 students in the school, there are eight teachers, nine assistants, a dedicated counselor, and a parent liaison. An equity facilitation team that is composed of counselors and classroom teachers provides basic equity training to help teachers create culturally responsive classrooms. One of the school’s goals is to provide equal access and ...
Making Healthy Students a Priority
Story posted May 26, 2010.
Learn more about this district and its school-based health clinics in our interviews with district official Linda Gann and nurse practitioner Jennifer Danielson.
Results:
• 439 students had mental health visits in the first two years of the clinic's operation
• 313 students were seen by the nurse practitioner
• 113 students were enrolled in an insurance program
The Concern
Montrose County School District serves 6,500 students. About 54 percent of those students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. At one school, Northside Elementary, 78 percent of students are eligible. The school board’s mission is that all children will learn at their optimal level. It is difficult for students to learn if they are not well. Students in high-poverty schools have barriers to getting health care. According to Richard Rothstein, in his book Class and Schools, “Without fully adequate health care for (high poverty) children, there is little hope of fully closing the achievement gap. ... So, a high priority should be establishing health clinics associated with schools that serve disadvantaged children.”
The Solution
The district established a school-based health clinic on the campus of Northside Elementary School. It’s open full-time during the school year and one month in the summer. The full-time staff includes ...
A Village Route to Early Childhood Education
Story posted February 23, 2010
Results:
• Participants outperform their peers on fall DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) testing in kindergarten
• Significant academic and social gains are seen at the individual level
In the 1990s, we at Davenport Community Schools noticed a trend: Children were coming to kindergarten unprepared to learn. A troublingly low number of our district’s children (more than half of whom receive free or reduced price lunch) had preschool experience. Recognizing the importance of early childhood education in ensuring students are ready to succeed in school and life, we developed the Children’s Village.
The Structure
Children’s Village, launched in 1998, includes formal preschool classes and all-day, year-round programming serving children from six weeks to five years old at five sites. We encourage participation by families of all economic and social backgrounds. Services are in great demand—we have a waiting list of hundreds of families.
Funding this model was a significant challenge. We historically had two targeted sources of ...
Exceptional Children Performing Exceptionally Well: A Conversation with Principal Cindy Goodman
Story posted February 18, 2010; Story updated July 24, 2012.
Results:
• In 2011, 73% of students with disabilities passed both the state math and reading tests, compared with 42.1% of such students at the district level and 34.4% at the state level
• Made Adequate Yearly Progress every year since 2002-2003
North Carolina’s Laurel Hill Elementary School is a model school. Its rural, diverse and high-poverty student population consistently exceeds state targets on standardized test scores, and the school has made AYP each year since 2003. It has also been recognized for its great working conditions.
But getting there wasn’t easy. In the early 2000s, one challenge stood out: The school failed to make AYP because of the performance of its students with disabilities (known in North Carolina as its 
“exceptional children”). Rather than throw up their hands at the daunting task of educating special education students, staff at Laurel Hill made lemonade out of lemons. They took the opportunity to study their school and its structure, revise its schedule and move to full inclusion. The result? A Blue Ribbon school that can confidently say it is meeting the needs of all its children. Principal Cindy Goodman* recently told us about the school and its journey.
Public School Insights: How would you describe Laurel Hill Elementary?
Goodman: Laurel Hill is a pre-K through fifth grade community school. We have about 500 students and are located in an extremely rural community. We have a very nice facility, which is about 11 years old.
We have an outstanding staff that holds our children to very high standards for behavior, for academics…just high standards in general.
Public School Insights: What kind of population does the school serve?
Goodman: Our community, the little town of Laurel Hill, is located in Scotland County, North Carolina. The county currently has, and for a good while has had, the highest unemployment rate in the state. So it is a very poor area. Between ...
Beyond "Heroes and Sheroes": The Success of Montgomery County Schools
Story posted December 2, 2009
Results:
• District students graduate college at double America's overall graduation rate
• About 65% of the graduation class has taken an AP exam
Editor's note: Dr. Jerry Weast has presided over a decade of strong and steady gains in Montgomery County, Maryland. How did his district do it? Not by using any of the cure-all strategies that have captivated the national media.
Weast recently told us the story of his school district's success. Several big themes stand out:
- Stop the blame game and start collaborating. Big fights between administrators and teachers are catnip to reporters, but they don't do much for children.
- Set common goals and figure out how to reach them. In Montgomery County, everyone could agree that students should leave high school ready for college.
- Create a system that helps everyone be successful. It's not enough to let 1000 flowers bloom.
- There's more to equity than equality. Weast describes a "red zone" where most of the county's low-income children live. It's not enough to treat those children and their wealthier "green zone" peers equally. The children in the "red zone" need much more systemic support.
There's much more to Dr. Weast's vision than I can sum up here. Here's the story as he told it to us in a phone conversation last week:
There are some structural issues in the way that we are thinking about American education. You see little Kindergartners come to school, and they believe that they can learn anything. Their parents do too. And so does everybody else who meets them. But a few years later, because of the sorting process and the type of structure that they are in, a lot of that belief is taken away and there are huge achievement gaps.
Then you see beginning teachers. They come in and they feel like they can take on the world and do anything. But within ...
Story posted November 5, 2009
Results:
• Native American math performance increased from 1080 to 1397(on Oklahoma's API scale of 1500) over the past two years
• Native American reading performance increased from 1059 to 1272 over that time
• Native American families feel more connected to the district
Bruce Belanger seems to be caught in the “wow effect.” When he speaks of the rapidly mounting success among Native Americans in Weatherford Public Schools (WPS), it’s hard for him to keep his enthusiasm from boiling over.
As director of special education, federal programs and testing at WPS, it falls to Belanger to find ways to improve student achievement. And for the past two years, good things just keep rolling in for Native American families in the district.
Central to this success are two related initiatives: a Native American Task Force (formed in October 2007) and a Community Conversation program funded by a National Education Association grant from the Public Engagement Project/ Family School Community Partnership, implemented with ...
Story posted August 6, 2009. Results updated August 2012.
Results:
- In 2012, Vallivue was recognized as a NASSP Breakthrough School.
- In 2011, 87% of 6th graders reached or exceeded proficiency in reading, up from 73% in 2008
- 57% of 7th graders did so in science, up from 35% in 2008
- 80% of 8th graders did so in language useage, exceeding the state average of 71%
- In math, the percentage of 8th graders scoring at or above proficient exceeded the state average of 80% by 10 points, reaching their all time high (so far) of 90% [math proficiency rates hovered around 50% prior to 2005]
On any given day in one of Debbie Watkins’s seventh-grade math classes you might find a student standing under a giant lightbulb, calling a parent, family member, or guardian on an old white telephone attached to the wall. Occasionally, the 
entire class will turn to watch the student make the call. Other times they barely notice, it’s become so commonplace.
It may sound like a punishment, but it’s actually a unique reward. A student gets to turn the light bulb on when they’ve finally demonstrated mastery of a difficult concept, typically one that has been causing them grief for several weeks. Then they get to call an adult of their choosing to share the good news.
It’s a small victory—one little step on the ladder of improvement—but the phone calls can be emotional moments. Once in a great while a student chokes back tears. Other times, they high-five or strut to the phone as if ...
Story posted May 19, 2009
Results:
• 98.3% of students progress from 9th to 12th grade--the highest completion rate in the county
• Approximately 86% of the current junior class has already earned up to 32 college credits, with many seniors earning upward of 60
The Hidalgo Independent School District (HISD) is located in South Texas along the U.S./Mexico border in one of the poorest counties in the state. Forty-five percent of Hidalgo’s residents live below the poverty level and only 3.9 percent of residents have earned a college degree. More than 90 percent of HISD students are economically disadvantaged and more than half have limited English proficiency.
[Despite the challenges faced by students in these demographics,] one of the district’s goals is “college attainment for all students.” It seeks to improve student graduation rates, college awareness, and ...
Expecting Success: College in the High School
Story posted April 30, 2009
Results:
• All students met the Washington State Assessment of Student Learning graduation requirements in reading and writing in 2007 and 
2008, up from 59% and 53%, respectively, in 2003
• Graduates are accepted to and attend colleges throughout the nation
• In 2008, Bridgeport High School was selected as one of America's Best High Schools by the U.S. News & World Report.
Many Bridgeport School District students dreamed of attending college. Sadly, for most, dreaming was all they could do because they couldn’t afford tuition, fees, or books. Nor was the 150-mile round trip to the nearest college possible. More than 80 percent of Bridgeport students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 87 percent are Latino, and most are prepared to become migrant farm laborers, like their parents. The Bridgeport School Board chose a different career path for them, and, in the process, introduced the College in the High ...
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
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