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Public School Success Stories
Across the Country, public schools and districts are transforming themselves to prepare students for success in a 21st-century democracy and global society. Take a look at what educators and communities are doing right now to meet this challenge.
Or tell us what's working in your own school or district.
Working Towards a 100 Percent Graduation Rate
Story posted August 27, 2012
Results:
- The district graduation rate rose from 76% in 2004 to 93.5% (over 90% in all student racial and income groups) in 2011
- The school system now has about 110 community partners and a 100% Graduation Project committee that meets quarterly to discuss ways to engage additional community groups and encourage students to pursue their diplomas
Summary: School officials in Clarksville Montgomery County believe that, with the community’s help, 100 percent of their students will graduate from high school. ...
Supporting 21st Century Skills
Story posted August 27, 2012
Results:
- North gained 19.3 points in reading, 19 points in science, and 8.9 points in math on Iowa’s state standardized tests, the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED). (The science and reading gains took them from last place in the district to second.)
- The North High School Academic Decathlon Team earned a spot at the national online competition by achieving the highest score of medium-sized schools at the state level and finished 7th nationally in their division with six individual medals.
- The Science Bound program at North has been named the best high school program four years in a row.
The North High School Academic Decathlon Team from Des Moines, Iowa had its most successful year in a decade during the 2011-2012 school year. Competing against 12 schools in Central Iowa, the North team placed first in a regional competition. ...
Inspiring Students to Do Their Best
Story posted June 25, 2010, Story updated July 24, 2012
Results:
• The district's graduation rate consistently outpaces the state's: 92 to 85.9% in 2009, 92.3% in 2010 and 93.4 to 86.5% in 2011
• In 2011, 95.6 % of 4th graders in the district scored at or above proficiency on the state reading test, compared with 52.7% in the state; 98.5% of 4th graders scored at or above proficiency in the district on the state math assessment, compared with 51.2% in the state.
• Named a 2009 National District of Character by the Character Education Partnership (CEP)
"I’m just a hometown gal, born and bred in Arnold, Missouri.” The effervescent superintendent of schools for the Fox C-6 district, Dr. Dianne Brown, who has served in this district for her entire career in education, cannot hide her love of her hometown. She continues, “Arnold is really a special place. We don’t just have a district of character here; we have a whole community of character. We even have a parade for character.”
Brown, known as a passionate crusader for character, initiated a character program in 1999, the first year she served as an elementary school principal. But Brown’s passion for character education has a deeper, personal connection that dates back to her first year of teaching. Tim, one of her students, a transfer from the inner city, was shot as he alighted from the school bus. Tim’s brother, unaware that the gun he was pointing in jest was loaded, had killed him. “They never taught me how to handle this at college,” thought the young teacher as she prepared to ...
Story posted January 22, 2009. Story updated April 24, 2012.
Results:
• Proficiency rates score consistently around or above state averages in reading, ELA and math at all grade levels.
Although it opened only six years ago, Skyview Elementary School in scenic Lizella, Georgia, has already gained a reputation as an educational star. As a member of the National Basic Schools Network, which focuses on the four building blocks of community, curriculum, climate, and character, Skyview has a sound framework. But it is the passion, dedication, and wonderful vision of its dedicated former and present staff that has made this Title I school, where 50% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, soar to great heights in academics and character. ...
Story posted April 18, 2012
Results:
- 2,400 more students met state academic standards in 2011 than did in 2005
- Nearly 91% of students met state proficiency standards in reading in 2011, up from 76 percent in 2005 (gains in math have been equally as dramatic)
School District 54 in Schaumburg, IL, always viewed itself as a great school district. Unfortunately, student achievement had remained stagnant for several years. Staff members were becoming increasingly frustrated and complained of low morale.
At the same time, the accountability movement exploded and achievement results became fully transparent to the entire community. Staff and parents now could see firsthand how a particular school was doing and began calling for change.
Guiding Light
After a great deal of research, we concluded that a district-wide implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) was the way for us to go. Several key strategies proved beneficial. ...
Story posted May 4, 2010. Results updated March 21, 2012.
Results:
- Despite serving a student population where 79% are recieve free or reduced lunch - double the state's rate - the school outperforms the state and district in multiple measures
- In 2011, 93.2% of Sacajawea students scored at or above proficiency in reading, compared to 91.3% in the district and 92.7% in the state; in math, 90% did so, compared to 85.3% in the district and 88.4% in the state
- The school improved its own proficiency rates between 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 in both reading, 90.3% to 93.2%, and math, 87.8% to 90%
- Named one of only three Distinguished Schools in Idaho for 2009
Back in 2005, Idaho’s Sacajawea Elementary School was struggling. The school had had four principals in four years, had never made Adequate Yearly Progress and lacked direction. But that changed with the arrival of Greg Alexander.
Now in his fourth full year as principal, Alexander presides over an award-winning school. After making AYP the last two years and seeing tremendous growth in its Limited English Proficient students' reading scores in particular, Sacajawea was named one of only three Distinguished Schools in Idaho for 2009. What are the keys to its success? A focus on recruiting and retaining excellent teachers, a consistent discipline strategy, a strong reading program and a host of other efforts designed to meet students’ individual needs. Principal Alexander recently told us more.
Public School Insights: How would you describe Sacajawea Elementary?
Alexander: Sacajawea Elementary is located in Caldwell, Idaho, a suburb of the capital city of Boise, just a good 20 minutes away. I actually live in Boise and commute to this community. We have a neat facility. We are up on a hill, overlooking what is called the Treasure Valley. There is a story about a young boy sitting on the edge of a cliff off beyond our school, looking over the valley as the wagon trains came through. The sagebrush was so high that you could only see their canopies. And we look up at the Cascade Mountains. It is just a really beautiful campus.
On this beautiful campus we serve 500 students from pre-K through fifth grade. We are 60% Hispanic and 23% ELL, or LEP [Limited English Proficient], students. We are about 36% Caucasian students, and then just a few percentage of a variety of other students. We have 7% that have special education needs, and we are 90% free and ...
Story posted December 9, 2008. Results Updated January 22, 2012.
Results:
• In 2010, the school outperformed the state on reading assessments in every grade, with performance in the 3rd and 4th grades exceeding the state average by close to 20%.
• In 2010, the school also performed that well on math assessments, with 100% of 4th graders meeting or exceeding the state standards.
All children can learn. When a school staff truly embraces this core belief and openly demonstrates it to students, parents, and each other, dramatic improvements in academic performance can result.
Take, for example, Anne Fox Elementary School. Fox is a moderately low-income, demographically diverse school in the working-class suburb of Hanover Park, Illinois. The student population is 34 percent white, 30 percent Hispanic, 17 percent black, and 19 percent Asian/Pacific Islander. Students speak more than 35 different languages, and the school’s low-income and mobility rates are double the district average. Until recently, Fox School ranked dead last in academic achievement among the district’s 21 elementary schools and was known as a “problem spot.” ...
Story posted September 25, 2008. Results updated January 22, 2012.
RESULTS
• While serving a student population that is 97% free or reduced price lunch, the school outperformed the state in math in grades 4 through 8 in 2011.
• In English/Language Arts, the school outperformed the state in grades 4 through 7 in 2011.
• One highlight: 83% of 8th graders met or exceeded state standards in math, compared with just 60% statewide in 2011.
Osmond A. Church Elementary School, otherwise known as PS / MS 124, sits so close to John F. Kennedy Airport that some at the school refer to it as "Hanger 12." It is appropriate, then, that achievement scores have "taken off" in recent years and continue to soar within all subgroup populations.
How has this been accomplished, one might ask? It began in 1999 when the school applied to New York State for a Comprehensive School Reform Grant. The school community chose to embrace E.D. Hirsch's "Core Knowledge Program," which was developed on the basis of scientific research. ...
Zone Offense Helps District Fight Challenges of Poverty
Story posted January 9, 2012
Results:
- In 2011, Zone schools outperformed non-Zone schools on state standardized tests in math, and performed equal to non-Zone schools in reading for the first time (overall performance improved in both groups of schools in both subjects)
- Dramatic gains at two middle schools lead to their removal from the state’s list of “persistently low-achieving schools,” and there are no district schools on this year’s list
Vancouver, Washington, is a city of around 165,500, located just north of Portland, Oregon. About 22,500 children attend the city’s public schools. But as elsewhere, not all of those schools perform equally – and students affected by poverty often attend the lowest-performers. In the Vancouver district, approximately 54 percent of students qualify for federally subsidized meals, up from 39 percent six years ago. “Decades of experience and research have shown that unmet basic needs, family mobility, inadequate medical and dental care, mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, crime and violence, and gang involvement adversely impact student achievement,” said Steve Webb, superintendent of Vancouver Public Schools. ...
Story posted June 10, 2010. Results updated December 20, 2011.
Results:
• In 2011, the school performed as well, or better than, the state as a whole on reading and math tests at every grade level (no data available for seventh grade math), despite serving a significantly higher percentage of students in poverty
• Named a 2010 Breakthrough School by the National Association of Secondary School Principals
It is no accident that the staff at Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School adopted a central tenet of Breaking Ranks in the Middle—to banish anonymity by creating a personalized learning environment for all of its students. The school was created six years ago when the four middle schools in Henry County, VA, were consolidated into two middle schools.
The consolidation left the students, the staff members, and the community angry and disjointed. No one felt any joy in coming to a middle school that was housed in a former high school. The hallways and classrooms were out of proportion with the students, and the 900-student school was an extreme change for the rural area.
The closing of many of the area’s manufacturing plants and subsequent rising unemployment rates compounded the difficulties— unemployment in the area is the highest in the Commonwealth of Virginia at 20%, with almost 50% of the students eligible for meal subsidies. The board of education, supported by the community, recognized that an effort had to be made to provide a quality education for every student.
After a challenging first year of consolidation, the staff, led by principal Moriah Dollarhite, embraced the idea of grade-level teams, breaking the school into small groups to create camaraderie and school spirit. Content teams were also created to monitor instruction and ensure that all lessons were tied to the state learning standards.
And finally, a lead teacher team, representing all content areas and ...
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
On this website, educators, parents and policymakers from coast to coast are sharing what's already working in public schools--and sparking a national conversation about how to make it work for children in every school. Join the conversation!
