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Success: Our Only Option
Story posted April 2, 2009
Results:
• Consistently makes adequate yearly progress as defined by No Child Left Behind
• Received an "A" on the New York City grading rubric, which is based on student progress and performance as well as parent, teacher and student opinions of the school
In 1996, then-New York City Schools’ Chancellor Rudy Crew created a “Chancellor’s District,” a non-geographic improvement zone of chronically underperforming schools. His goal was to increase those schools’ instructional capacity and academic outcomes. Beginning with 10 schools and growing to 58 schools by 2002 (the final year of the initiative), these schools were under direct control of the chancellor and received a number of capacity-building interventions.
East Harlem’s P.S. 30, Hernandez-Hughes Learning Academy entered the Chancellor’s district in 1999. P.S. 30 serves 395 kindergarten through sixth-grade students who are mostly African-American or Latino, with 76% eligible for free or reduced price lunch. For the prior decade, the school had performed poorly on standardized assessments and was in danger of being closed for failing to meet New York State academic standards. But after joining the Chancellor’s District and bringing a reform-minded principal on board, the school began to turn around.
The school implemented all of the reforms suggested for the Chancellor’s schools, including:
• Extended learning time. P.S. 30 extended the school day by 20 minutes, and the school year by one week. This time was negotiated with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT).
• After-school programs, including tutoring. P.S. 30’s after-school program lasts until 6 p.m. each school day and is designed to enhance and enrich daily learning. Small-group tutoring is available for one hour per day for third- through fifth-grade students who require additional reading or math assistance.
• Small class size. All kindergarten through 3rd grade classes have a maximum of 20 students, and 4th through 6th grade classes have a maximum of 25 students.
• Structured schedule using theory-based instructional programs. Elementary schools in the Chancellor’s District held two daily 90-minute literacy blocks. The first block followed the Success for All instructional model and the second used a Balanced Literacy approach. Schools also implemented a daily 60-minute math block using the Trailblazers program, and a daily 30-minute skills block, alternating between reading and math instruction.
• Intensive, structured and systematic professional development aligned with the curriculum. Every Chancellor’s District school had at least four on-site professional development specialists, focusing on language arts, math, technology and Success for All. Every school also had a UFT Teacher Center staffed by a teaching specialist who offered coaching, co-teaching and modeling of instruction. In addition, part of the extended time in the school day and school year was devoted to professional development.
• Data-driven instruction. Regular benchmark assessments are embedded in the curriculum and designed to provide feedback to classroom teachers. Staff receives professional development on differentiating instruction and remediation based on results from the assessments.
These capacity-building reforms were not cheap. However, increased funding came with results. The only large-scale study of the Chancellor’s District concluded that the “intervention improved these schools’ instructional capacity and academic outcomes, both relative to where these schools would have been and relative to comparable schools.”
P.S. 30 followed the trend, with student achievement increasing throughout its participation in the program. In addition, while the Chancellor’s District program ended in 2002, the initiative provided the foundation for the academic success that P.S. 30 has sustained since.
After the program ended, P.S. 30 joined a Community Learning Support organization program, a New York City Schools initiative to help maintain the services received as part of the Chancellor’s District. The program provides participants assistance in areas such as administrative support and professional development. In addition, the school has applied for and received numerous grants to maintain and expand the resources provided by the Chancellor’s District, such as high-quality school and classroom libraries.
According to a January 2008 New York City Department of Education Quality Review Report, at P.S. 30 “instruction is contextual, practical and highly engaging.” The school has established a highly organized, rich and engaging curriculum that includes the use of metacognition and contextual learning, and provides opportunities for practical exploration. Teachers strive to make students responsible for the direction of their own learning, and beginning in kindergarten, students are expected to tell the teacher exactly what they have learned from a particular lesson. By sixth grade, students must explain “What I did. How I did it. Why I did it,” at the end of every project.
The UFT Teacher Center established at P.S. 30 as part of the Chancellor’s District is still an integral part of the school. The center is staffed by a literacy coach who provides individual mentoring and support for all beginning teachers and for veteran teachers as needed. That coach models lessons, co-teaches classes and works with teachers one-on-one to plan instruction. He or she also organizes and implements school-wide, ongoing, job-embedded professional development.
UFT Teacher Center specialist Johnnie Mae Russell credits Principal Karen Melendez-Hutt with establishing a culture of collaboration, respect and high expectations for students and staff. As a result, there has been very little staff turnover during her eight-year tenure as principal. This stability in staffing has allowed each year to build upon the last in terms of professional development and staff collaboration.
Russell believes that professional development, including that provided by the UFT Teacher Center, is integrally responsible for the school’s success five years after the Chancellor’s District initiative officially ended. The school prioritizes professional development by compensating staff—both teachers and paraprofessionals—for attending after-school “learning academies” that focus on specific curriculum areas. It also supports job-embedded professional development. Teachers are given extensive opportunity to observe others teach, both in the building and at other schools.
P.S. 30 has also continued to use a wide range of carefully selected assessment tools to track students’ progress, including diagnostic reading and writing assessments. From the assessment results, school staff members set specific and challenging targets for every student and plan differentiated instruction accordingly. Teachers at P.S. 30 receive excellent training and ongoing support in the use of specific assessments and in tracking the mastery of specific skills.
Using the various performance data, P.S. 30 has highly effective systems to identify students in the greatest need of improvement. A family support team recommends appropriate interventions for these students, including mental health support, extended day provisions, intensive academic interventions and support for parents. The school also offers after-school tutoring, Saturday academies and a “holiday academy” for a week in December, all of which provide intensive academic tutoring. In these programs, students are grouped for instruction based on the need for remediation in specific skills, as identified by the school’s assessment team. Incentives are provided to attending students and their families.
P.S. 30 also offers subject-specific after-school clubs to extend learning opportunities for students. For example, this past school year, the after-school Science Club made a trip to the Pocono Environmental Education Center for a week of learning and camping. The school has entered into several partnerships to support learning, including one with City Year that supplies in-school and extended-day tutoring.
Today, the school consistently makes adequate yearly progress and has received an “A” grade on the city grading rubric, which is based on student progress and performance as well as parent, teacher and student opinions of the school. Over the past three years, scores on New York state standardized tests have risen substantially at all grade levels.
For additional information, please contact:
Johnnie Mae Russell
Specialist, Hernandez-Hughes Teacher Center
212-722-4290
This story came to LFA's attention in a series of school profiles by the American Federation of Teachers that highlighted policy recommendations by their President Randi Weingarten.
Story adapted with permission from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Click here to access the original article as contained in the AFT website.
Copyright © 2008 by the American Federation of Teachers. All Rights Reserved.
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