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2003-2004: AYP English Language Arts
2003-2004: AYP Math
2002-2003: AYP English Language Arts
2002-2003: AYP Math
2001-2002: AYP English Language Arts
2001-2002: AYP Math
Introduction In 2002 Reno's Anderson elementary School was one of twelve Nevada schools failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets twice in a row and one of just two schools to fail AYP in three consecutive years. Only 22% of the school's 3rd graders were proficient on state reading exams, and a mere 9% of the 6th graders proficient on district reading tests. This meant that Anderson was labeled "In Need of Improvement" by the state of Nevada. The principal and 20 members of the 50-person staff at Anderson either transferred, retired, or resigned after the 2001-2002 school year. Superintendent Dr. Jim Hager, recently arrived in Washoe County School District, hired a new, young principal, Pete Hall, to lead Anderson and charged him with making dramatic changes at Anderson in order to improve student achievement. Hall's first order of business at this single track, year round school was to interview every employee in the building individually, to determine what was working and what needed to be changed. Next, Hall hired a second literacy coordinator and three reading specialists. In all, 13 teachers were hired specifically for their strengths in literacy knowledge, instructional pedagogy, and openness to new ideas. The district had hired a professional educational consultant firm, Jim Huge and Associates, to help each of its two "Needs Improvement" schools. After two conversations with Anderson staff members, Jim Huge offered to facilitate a visit of Anderson teachers to Kennewick, Washington, home of several high-achieving schools overcoming a variety of challenges of their own. Nine teachers joined Hall on this four-day trip during their own winter vacation to observe high quality schools and get ideas about what might work for Anderson. The group met with Kennewick's superintendent then split up to observe three elementary schools, taking copious notes about what they saw. In addition to the information gathered, another major benefit of this trip was the time spent together, the conversations held during meals and long drives, and the collegiality developed during brainstorming and planning sessions. There was a constant focus on instruction and program quality, setting the stage for the work ahead at Anderson that year. After reflecting for two weeks on the school data and burgeoning ideas, the staff came together and began to forge their thinking into a school improvement plan. Teachers voted unanimously that a strong foundation in reading and writing skills needed to be the primary focus at Anderson and set about designing a preliminary literacy academy. In the first of four consecutive weekly planning meetings, the entire staff divided and assigned aspects of the plan. Members of the group who had traveled to Kennewick shared their findings, other staff members conducted research on everything from successful schools to teaching methods, from reading programs to instructional minutes. Each week the staff reached consensus on a specific topic, agreeing on a number of key principles designed to increase student achievement at Anderson School. In the days between meetings, staff members consulted with each other and the research with a constant focus on developing a plan that would enable them to meet the needs of all students. Thus, each component of the School Improvement Plan including curriculum and instruction, professional development, assessment, use of time, scheduling, reduced class size, and collaboration time were all devoted to improving the literacy skills of the Anderson students. At the end of January, Hall and Huge compiled the data and plans into one coherent, focused school-wide improvement plan for submission to the State. Standards-based Curriculum & Instruction By analyzing their data and immersing themselves in effective practices and research, the Anderson staff came to realize that while the school's current literacy program Success For All (SFA) was beneficial to some students, it wasn't reaching others. To better address the needs of those students not meeting standards, the staff decided to implement a second literacy block using the approaches and techniques of a balanced literacy program. This second period, the "Lit II Block," would include guided reading groups, intensive word study, writing instruction, and other components that targeted student needs. To further complement the current SFA block, students were to remain grouped according to their abilities. This enabled teachers to deliver differentiated instruction, and the students could participate in a variety of learning activities designed around their individual progress and needs. Adding a second literacy block doubled the instructional time focused on reading and writing, with a school-wide SFA reading class of 90 minutes and 90 additional minutes of balanced literacy instruction. Anderson staff further developed a triple-staggered, dual-literacy-block schedule that followed the pattern below:
This staggered approach allowed every available teacher to teach a reading class, and every available paraprofessional to lead a reading group in several literacy blocks. Anderson School's philosophy called for virtually every adult staff member — teachers, literacy coordinators, librarian, specialists, teacher assistants, and even the dean of students — to lead a reading group on a daily basis. Anderson staff place strong emphasis on differentiated instruction within the classroom. For students who are still struggling to meet standards, interventions include small groups of students working with literacy coordinators and reading specialists and tutoring in an after school program supported with 21st-Century Community Learning Center funds. Assessment & Accountability Smaller class sizes and the schedule arranging for more individualized instruction, underscore both the need and opportunity to base teaching on an understanding of students' strengths and weaknesses. The Anderson staff developed a set of assessments to guide instructional decisions and to evaluate program effectiveness and student growth. New students enrolling in Anderson School (which had the highest transience rate in Washoe County, nearly 60%, in 2002-2003) are assessed on various measures prior to entering their first reading class to determine the level of phonemic awareness, comprehension, fluency, developmental spelling, and writing abilities. Site literacy coordinators interpret the results and assign each student to the appropriate leveled reading groups. This practice assures that new students are integrated into the program immediately. All students are then assessed on the same measures three times a year. The data collected through these and more frequent classroom-based assessments are compiled and coordinated in a data program called "The Matrix." This system helps the staff at Anderson differentiate instruction appropriately for each student and track where each student is in terms of meeting standards. Professional Development As the planning year ended and the implementation year began all personnel received intensive training to ensure that this new program would be able to effectively meet the needs of all students. This on-site training was conducted over four early release days. The district's technical assistance team, including the associate superintendent and curriculum experts, and literacy experts on staff at Anderson trained the rest of Anderson's staff on how to deliver guided reading to leveled, very small groups of students. In addition to the intensive balanced literacy training, all the changes taking place at Anderson School required regular, frequent collaboration time between teachers to discuss assessments, student placement, progress, materials, teaching methodology, and philosophy. The school found ways to make this time. During the implementation year of 2003-2004, Hall and the dean of students supervised the student body for the last 45 minutes of the school day every Wednesday, allowing the teachers to have those 45 minutes plus the remaining 30 minutes of the contracted workday to meet in collaborative groups. That 75 minutes of Teacher Collaboration Time (TCT), built into the regular schedule, was set aside for teachers to work and plan together, and to discuss student needs. Anderson teachers established a schedule to meet with fellow grade-level staff, with grade-pair teams, and on action research teams throughout the month. During TCT, Hall would lead an assembly for the primary students in the multipurpose room while the dean of students would run an organized P.E. activity for the upper grade students with help from the counselor, playground supervisor, and after-school program coordinator. Each week the groups would swap. The importance of the TCT dictated that the site administrators put forth that effort. In the summer of 2004, Hall recognized that students could be released 35 minutes early on Wednesdays and still meet the state time requirements. These early release Wednesdays now allow Hall to participate in TCT so that he can contribute to the conversation and answer any questions as they arise. Every teacher at Anderson School signed up for an action research project, focusing on a topic of interest or concern them and important to the entire school community. Throughout the year, each "Teacher Learning Team (TLT) Task Force," would formulate a driving question, conduct the relevant research, compile data, and determine if there was a useful conclusion to draw from that information. To encourage vertical collaboration, teams could not have more than one person from a particular grade level. Topics ranged from "What effect does a student's home life have on achievement?" to "What are the potential benefits of guided imagery instruction?" and everything in between. Asking the staff to investigate a meaningful, relevant concern, and then present their findings to their colleagues, was a powerful way to promote reflective practice for teachers. Leadership & Management When Hall became the principal at Anderson, he made it clear that decisions would be based on student and school performance data and on research. He made it a point to constantly share data and relevant research with the staff. This mirrored the district emphasis on data-driven decision making. In addition, Hall let staff know that everything that currently happened at the school would be closely evaluated and challenged. He could see that there was good teaching and a lot of talent at Anderson, but that their energies needed to be channeled into core needs. There needed to be a laser-like focus on reading and math. Hall's goal with the staff was and continues to be consensus building through reflection. Decisions are not made the same day ideas are proposed. An idea is presented with further research and data to support it. The staff then have a week to discuss, debate, and research the issue. The following week a decision is made using the "fist to five" model. Hall has his teachers sign a pledge to use this model in which staff hold up their hands to vote. Holding up a fist and means they completely disagree with an idea and holding up five fingers means they are in complete agreement. This format has proved very effective for the staff to move forward on major decisions. Bypassing the often lengthy filibustering of one or two ultra critical naysayers, it "enables the will of the group to override the pill of the few." Another early priority for the new principal was to be extremely visible to all his constituents. Hall is in classrooms every day. He greets parents and students before and after school every day. He is on the playground for recess and lunch duty every day. This visibility opens channels of communication with all of these groups and conveys a sense of active leadership. The leadership and support of the district were also critical for Hall as he undertook the challenge of leading Anderson through the school improvement process. For example, an associate superintendent accompanied the Anderson team on the trip to Kennewick. The district also facilitated personnel decisions, supported professional development, and assisted with data. Parents & Community Hall has used his visibility to help encourage parents to participate in school activities. In addition to being more visible, Hall also speaks Spanish, which is the first language of a majority of the parents at Anderson. The school now has a parent organization up and running and a 97 percent participation rate in their parent-teacher conferences. Anderson has instituted monthly parent nights focused on topics to help parents support their child's learning (i.e. how to read to students) and usually about 250 parents attend those. Finally, Anderson has started "Second Cup of Coffee" where guest speakers from the community are invited to speak to parents about a variety of issues. The staff were very pleased to make AYP in 2002-2003, but knew it was critical for them to do so for two consecutive years in order to be taken off the "In Need of Improvement" list. In 2003-2004, the implementation year of the comprehensive school-wide plan, the numbers demonstrated a remarkable turnaround. Anderson surpassed its AYP requirements, increasing the percentage of proficient students by 10%-51% in every sub-category. In fact, the achievement was so high, Anderson joined an elite group of just nine Washoe County elementary schools that earned "High Achieving" status and Anderson was the only Title I school to earn this distinction. In addition, the school was extremely close to "Exemplary School" status, qualifying in six of its eight reporting sub-categories. The changes implemented on this campus clearly made a significant impact on the faculty and, in turn, contributed to extraordinary growth in student achievement. This school profile was created in 2004. Achievement and demographic data through 2004 are included. Permission to Use Resources SchoolsMovingUp, a WestEd initiative, invites you to use our resources in your work. For uses that involve reproduction of more than one copy of the resource, please submit the online permission request form. We will reply immediately once we know your intended reproduction needs. All reproductions of the resource must include a full citation of the WestEd copyright. |
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