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GRADING OUR SCHOOLS: Reforms and results

Newly implemented changes have started to pay off for Wichita schools

BY ICESS FERNANDEZ AND KATIE LOHRENZ

The Wichita Eagle

Parents and educators are seeing results less than a year after the Wichita district started high school reforms to improve student achievement and increase graduation rates. Extra time and attention for students is starting to show up in better grades in classes and on district tests, although it is too early to see improvement on state test scores.

"It's helped out a lot in some classes," said Amy Holtzinger, whose son Kyle attends West. "He was on honorable mention twice this semester."

Kyle, a freshman, said he feels more connected to his school. His teacher, Amy VanSickle, gives him extra time four days a week to get help with his schoolwork.

The $8 million high school reform effort, launched in April, focuses on placing students in smaller learning groups, giving teachers more time to plan in teams, and having every teacher become an advocate for students.

The smaller groups allow students at large high schools such as West, with 1,233 students, to interact with the same students and teachers each day.

If students feel connected, they won't fail, their grades will be better and they won't drop out, said Denise Wren, assistant superintendent for high schools.

But there are no guarantees.

High school students traditionally falter on state exams, more so than students in middle and elementary schools. And Wichita's high school scores are far below the state average.

Statewide, 58.4 percent of 10th-graders passed the reading exam in 2006. In the Wichita district, 42.4 percent did.

In math, 77.1 percent of 11th-graders passed statewide. In the Wichita district, 63.1 percent did.

Some education experts say that the way the district has approached reform ensures success.

Other experts say the reforms, like others attempted by school districts around the country, don't go far enough.

The plan

West High principal Lori Doyle knows her school has traditionally scored lower than the rest of the district's comprehensive high schools on state tests.

For the past three years, West has been part of the High Schools That Work program developed by the Southern Regional Education Board.

The program aims to increase graduation rates, make students feel more connected and increase achievement.

The district's high school reform has similar goals.

This school year, teachers and administrators are working to:

  • Make students feel connected to the school by having an adult, usually a teacher, serve as their advocate.

  • Have teachers plan and work as a team across subjects and grade levels.

  • Make sure that each high school teaches the same thing at the same time of year, so students can pick up where they left off if they change schools.

The district has negotiated with its teachers union to extend the school year by four days and the week by 40 minutes, giving teachers more professi onal development and team planning time.

"Unless you have quality teachers in the program, you are throwing money to the wind," Wren said.

In some schools, students are placed in smaller "academies" that have their own principals and staff.

West has five academies based on subject areas: freshman success, fine arts and communication, business and hospitality, health and early childhood development, and engineering and manufacturing.

High Schools That Work also provides a consultant who offers extra professi onal development to West teachers.

The school receives additional help from the Hope Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports schools, that allows it to pay for guest speakers on topics such as the black/white academic achievement gap and educating students in poverty.

Doyle said she's seen students' grades improve with the additional support.

Wren said those efforts also have paid off on district tests.

"I think we are already seeing some of it," Wren said.

At West

On a recent Friday, Amy VanSickle, a teacher in West's business and hospitality academy, helped her students through a transfer review.

Students look at their transcripts to see which classes they need to take to stay on track to graduate.

"You see, we are trying to help you graduate," VanSickle told one student. "You have to show you'd be able to do the work."

During academy time, four times a week for 30 minutes, students can finish homework, make up exams or take care of other school matters.

Each teacher is an advocate for 16 to 17 students.

"We make sure they pass all of their classes," VanSickle said. "We e-mail their teachers to see how they are doing in their classes."

The goal is to make students feel connected to and comfortable with an adult so they have an ally.

"It's paramount. It's foundational," Wren said. "When you look at kids that drop out, it's not an academic problem, it's because (for) some reason or another they are not connected in school."

Lateece Griffin said it's helped her. She has won a $180,000 scholarship to Pomona College in California to study neurology.

"They let us review our transcript to make sure we stay on track," she said. "It's been useful."

In other schools

Reforms look similar at other schools.

At Southeast High School, some students already participated in AVID - Advancement Via Individual Determination - which steers toward college students who otherwise would not have thought about it.

This year the school added a weekly one-hour seminar time, similar to West's academy time.

Instead of teachers, older students serve as mentors to groups of four to eight freshmen at a time. The mentors are advised by teachers.

The seminar time helps freshmen make the transition to high school and learn what is expected of them. It goes beyond academics into social skills, such as how to talk to an adult.

Principal Leroy Parks said the program has surprised some of the teachers.

"Already, teachers are talking about 'wow,' " he said. "It's impacting the freshmen who need it the most."

Both the freshmen and the mentors form relationships.

"Usually we talk to them about what they need to go to college," said 17 year-old senior Tessie Arambula. "They don't teach us about talking about personal stuff, but I do."

Educational experts say reforms should focus on the ninth grade.

"Ninth-graders fall through the cracks starting through the summer," said David Bloomfield, associate professor of educational leadership at Brooklyn College. "Some get involved in nonscholastic activities in the summer, and they don't go (back) to school."

Those kids don't show up in dropout rates, said Bloomfield, who specializes in school reform and school district management, among other areas.

"Those are the kids we really want to capture."

Leslie Santee Siskin, research professor at New York University, who has studied and written about high school reform, said those who don't drop out before freshman year want to go beyond high school to college or a career.

"That doesn't mean they know how to get there," she said. "Most high schools are not set up that way."

What the experts say

Seeing results from reforms will take time, Siskin said.

"High school reforms have been so much harder than anticipated and slower than people allowed for," she said. "It's particularly slow in test scores."

Experts say a reform's success will be measured initially through attendan ce. As students feel more engaged, they are less likely to miss school.

That has already happened, Wren and Doyle said.

Suspension numbers will also decrease, Siskin said.

In Wichita, 6,850 students were suspended in the 2005-06 school year, an increase of 486 students from the year before.

But scores won't change without more emphasis on curriculum, Siskin said.

"While it (feeling connected) might be a necessary and helpful precondition for academic success, it's not a guarantee," Siskin said.

And Wichita's reforms don't go far enough with teachers becoming advocates for students, Bloomfield said.

Additional teacher planning time isn't as helpful to students as old-fash ioned one-on-one time, he said.

He suggests using an hour and a half to two hours for intense academic work.

"It depends on what the aim is," he said. "If the aim is to bring lower-pe rforming students up, then tutor them."

Parents and students

Even so, some parents say they are seeing a difference.

Rosario Rodriguez, whose daughter Marlenne is a freshman at Southeast, said her child's grades improved this semester.

"They varied at first, but now they have increased," she said in Spanish. "Last year, they were low."

Candice Grey, mother of West sophomore Joey Grey, said she's had more contact with the school than in past years. Her two older daughters also attended West.

"They call you to tell you what's going on," she said. "And they call you and tell you when they are doing a good job. They didn't do that with my oldest child."

Amy Holtzinger e-mails Amy VanSickle regularly about 15-year-old Kyle.

"I'm in communication with the teacher on a monthly basis," she said. "And his grades have gone up a lot. He's been fair, but now he's excellent."

Wren said more parent participation will be encouraged. This month, all high schools are starting Coffee with the Principal, in which parents can come in to talk with their children's principals.

"We want their input and want their satisfaction," Wren said. "High school is difficult. Critical."