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Story posted November 19, 2009. Results updated December 7, 2011.

Results:

• Proficiency rates close to or exceeding 88% on 2011 state reading and math tests at every grade level, outperforming the state as a whole on each test.
• In 2011, grade 4 math and reading scores both exceeded state averages by 5% at 88% and 93% respectively.
• Since 2008, grade 3 math scores rose by 4% and exceeded state math scores in 2011 by the same amount.

Indian Springs Elementary is located along one of the many rural highways that crisscross northern Mobile County, in territory marked by signs of poverty and under-development. There’s no interesting history behind the name of the unincorporated community the school serves—Eight Mile is just the distance down U.S. 45 to the city.

The exterior of Indian Springs shows the wear and tear of a building that has housed students for many decades. The school comes alive only after you cross the threshold, where you find a physical space that is clearly well-loved by the faculty, staff and students.

Just inside the front doors, a small sitting area decorated with potted plants and flowers welcomes visitors. The walls are bright and the floors shine. Bulletin boards and student work cover every inch of the hallways. Teachers decorate the entrances to their classrooms with personal touches, like the kindergarten teacher whose door resembles a front porch with columns, shutters and an awning.

The school serves 451 students in grades pre K-5. It has a 50-50 ratio of white and African American students—87% of whom meet federal poverty guidelines. About 14 percent are classified as having special needs. The demographics offer few clues about the school’s academic performance. But in fact, Indian Springs Elementary has met state Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks (AYP) every year since 2003.

In 2008, 87% of fifth graders scored proficient or higher in Reading and Math on the ARMT (Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test). And in 2009, this Alabama Reading First Initiative school was recognized as a Torchbearer School by the State Department of Education for helping all of its students to meet high standards.

Leading a team of experienced and caring teachers is Principal Rosalie Howley, a 30-year veteran of MCPSS, who’s been at Indian Springs for nine years. She greets visitors, parents and students with a warm smile and a genuine laugh. But she’s all business when discussing progress, or lack of it, at her school or in the district. Her expectations for faculty and students are extremely high, and she’s implemented several “out-of-the-box” programs and strategies to ensure a constant focus on rigor, relevance, and building strong relationships.

Funding support and strategic staffing
Indian Springs became part of the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) in 2001, but Howley cites the implementation of the more intensive Reading First Initiative (ARFI), with its influx of federal support, as the point at which the school began to close its achievement gap and raise performance by all students.

“When we received the ARFI grant in 2003, that’s when we got a tremendous amount of professional development. We got our onsite reading coaches and the resources we needed. To be honest, you have to have that kind of funding to make your dreams come true.”

“Six years ago, we were not patting ourselves on the back,” says Leslie Jackson, who spent 20 years as an Indian Springs classroom teacher before taking on the role of ARFI reading coach six years ago.

“We moved to the Open Court comprehensive reading program and really started looking at the data, and we realized we had lots of problems,” says Jackson. “It was a huge eye opener for those of us who were used to whole group instruction. We took the data and began addressing the needs of each individual child.”

Howley has staffed the school strategically to ensure success. She has an ARI coach and an ARFI coach, and she uses Title I money to fund an intervention coach to focus on writing in the upper grades. “Having the two reading coaches makes such a big difference because they can go so much deeper and do more between the two of them,” she says.

Janiece deLange serves as the intervention coach for grades 3–5. Her primary role is to focus on writing. “I think it’s great that Mrs. Howley saw the need for this position, because in many other elementary schools the upper grades do not get the level of support that the lower grades get,” she says.

Throughout the year, deLange works with teachers to develop mock ARMT and SAT 10 tests so that students develop the writing skills they need to be successful on the assessments. “Our ARMT and SAT 10 scores have certainly improved with the focus we’ve placed on writing across the curriculum,” says Howley.

Retired teachers handle intervention
Howley’s most innovative staffing decision was the hiring of highly qualified retired teachers to staff the intervention program. The five intervention teachers work Monday-Thursday, pulling students one at a time, or in small groups, throughout the day for instruction. “Many of [the retirees] have more than 30 years in the classroom,” says Howley. “They love being back in the school setting and working with our struggling students.”

Tanya Hazzard taught for 27 years at Indian Springs. She and other intervention teachers are fully integrated into the faculty. They provide support to students, but they also share in important daily conversations about teaching and learning. “I have 30 minutes of planning every day,” says Hazzard. “And during that time, I'm in classrooms talking to teachers about students. We can’t walk down the halls in this school without stopping to share, discuss, and problem solve. It’s second nature to us now.”

Assessing, supporting, reassessing
The procedure for instruction at Indian Springs is straightforward: assessment, grouping, intervention, and reassessment. All students are assessed monthly and placed in flexible reading groups based on their level of progress. Each grade level meets regularly to review data and to discuss every student. “It’s basically a time to put our heads together, figure out how to solve problems, figure out how to make kids move,” explains Howley. “The working relationships between our teachers and coaches are very close.”

In addition to DIBELS and daily progress monitoring in the classroom, the school relies heavily on the quarterly Criterion Referenced Tests (CRT), assessments required by the district to measure proficiency. Mobile’s CRTs are based on districtwide instructional objectives, which Howley greatly appreciates. “We have a revolving door of children coming in and out of this school, so it’s great to know schools all over the county are covering the same things and testing the same objectives.”

Students identified for intervention “can have up to four dips a day,” explains Howley. Three take place during school and the fourth in an after-school program if bus schedules allow. Next year, Indian Springs will use stimulus money to strengthen its before- and after-school care. “We have a lot of students whose home lives are not conducive to getting help. Lots live with relatives or in foster homes. So we’ll help them this way.”

Investing in guidance
The school’s guidance counselor is another example of Howley’s strategic staffing. Last year’s district budget cuts reduced funding for guidance counselors by half. Howley adjusted her budget priorities to keep her full-time counselor Jennifer Johnson, which she says is a critical position at her school.

Johnson creates behavior plans for students she identifies as “Chiefs.” Every morning, they check in, receive a form and a pep talk, then go to their classrooms. At the end of the day, the teacher signs the form, makes any necessary notes, and gives the student a daily grade for behavior. If a student does well, Johnson gives them a feather. Parents sign the forms each night and students earn rewards when they accumulate enough feathers.

Johnson also holds weekly group sessions in classrooms. Her involvement in the students’ lives has made a big difference in discipline referrals. “And it’s great for teachers because we can focus on teaching,” says Jasmine Bell, who teaches fourth grade math. “Sometimes students don’t want to open up to their classroom teachers, but they need to talk to someone.”

Doing what it takes
“Our school is the perfect example of teamwork,” says deLange. “Our bookkeeper and registrar care about the children and do whatever they can to help them. Our custodian has students that she checks on daily to make sure they are doing well in the classroom. Our cafeteria workers are the same way. Every adult in the building is focused on student needs.”

“When I drove up to this school, I knew this was where I wanted to teach,” says Shelly Byrd, who teaches kindergarten. “I didn’t know a lot about teaching this population of children. But I’m a fast learner and I had a lot of support.”

This “can do” culture starts at the top with Howley. “She knows everything that goes on in this building, and she supports us 100%,” says Jackson. “She’ll fight all the way up to the school board to keep the resources and staffing we need to be successful.”

“She’s all about student success and she’s extremely data-driven,” says deLange. “If it’s not about moving the students forward, then we don’t do it. She protects our instruction time and makes sure we don’t get caught up in things that might interfere with teaching and learning.”

What lies ahead
Like all true learning communities, Howley and her staff know their work is not done. The school applied for AMSTI funding last year to strengthen math instruction, but state budget cuts intervened. “Our reading is up there but the math isn’t. So we put our heads together and decided to extend the math block to 90 minutes, during which the teacher can pull strugglers into small groups.”

Next year, the faculty also hopes to do more collaboration across grade levels. “We found that when the kindergarten students go to first grade, there is a huge gap in the curriculum,” says Howley. “So we’re going to try to address that next year, looking at all grade levels.”

Howley believes Indian Springs has maintained its intensity and momentum because of its coaches and intervention program. With the elimination of federal support, she joins other Reading First principals who will lose their ARFI coaches. “It’s such a crime. To me it’s like throwing away diamonds because they are so well trained and can do so much good in schools.”

Howley will use stimulus money wherever she can to supplement staffing, professional development, and programs. But it’s going to be hard to do it all with much less. “We’ll adjust to it, of course, because we’re responsible for what kind of life these children will have.

“Teachers have got to do everything they can to make sure our children are learning. Otherwise, they leave here without the ability to read and do math, and those are the tools needed to break the cycle of poverty in this community.

For additional information, please contact:
Rosalie Howley
Principal, Indian Springs Elementary School
251-221-1436

Adapted with permission from the Alabama Best Practices Center.

Full citation:
Jennifer Pyron, "Indian Springs Elementary: ‘You Need Funding to Make Your Dreams Come True.’” In the Fall 2009 issue of Working Towards Excellence: the Journal of the Alabama Best Practices Center, Volume 9 Number 1.

Copyright © 2009 by the Alabama Best Practices Center.

Click here to access the original article as contained in the Alabama Best Practice's Center website.

Photos courtesy of Indian Springs Elementary School.