Santa Fe/ NM Districts Finalists for Federal Race to the Top Funds
By Hailey Heinz
ABQ Journal Staff Writer
November 28, 2012
A consortium of small, rural school districts from New Mexico and two other states has made the list of finalists for federal Race to the Top funds.
- Race to the Top is a competitive grant program for education money, which has previously been distributed through states.
- This is the first competition that allows districts to compete independently.
In addition to the 21 small districts that applied through the consortium, districts in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Bloomfield applied individually. They are not finalists.
The consortium includes 41 small, rural districts in New Mexico, Washington, and Arkansas. More than half of those are from New Mexico, although the district leading the effort is in Washington.
Maria Jaramillo, executive director of one of New Mexico's regional education cooperatives, said a primary goal of the grant is to use technology to support teachers in rural areas.
- The emphasis of the grant is on middle and high school teachers, and creating a web-based network for those teachers to share ideas and best practices.
- Grant awards will range from $5 million to $40 million over four years, depending on the number of students served by the plan.
- Jaramillo said that breaks down to about $2.1 million for the six districts in her regional cooperative.
Joseph Escobedo, who was a leader in crafting APS' application, said district officials are disappointed, but believe strong ideas resulted from the application process.
"We are disappointed, but we're excited about the ideas we were able to gather," he said, adding that the district will still move forward with some aspects of the grant, like making education more personalized for students.
Escobedo said the district has not yet received feedback from the U.S. Department of Education about what was lacking in the application, and it is looking forward to getting that feedback.
The U.S Department of Education chose 61 finalists from 372 applicants. Federal officials plan to give out about $400 million in grants to 15 to 25 winning applicants, which will be announced by the end of the year.
The New Mexico districts in the consortium are: Clayton, Des Moines, Estancia, Fort Sumner, House, Jemez Valley, Las Vegas City, Logan, Magdalena, Mora, Mosquero, Mountainair, Pecos, Quemado, Raton, Roy, San Jon, Santa Rosa, Springer, Vaughn and West Las Vegas.
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Las Cruces/ Spaceport America Tax Pays $1.9 Million to Local Schools
By Diana Alba Soular
Las Cruces Sun-News
November 28, 2012
November Local schools received about $1.9 million from a Spaceport America sales tax over the past year - money officials said pays for a host of science, math and aerospace activities for students.
Officials from the Las Cruces Public Schools, Gadsden Independent School District and Hatch Valley Public Schools reported to county commissioners Tuesday about how they spent the money over the past year.
- LCPS officials said they've invested dollars in expanding learning, inside and outside the classroom, including through robotics competitions and summer programs and a pre-freshman engineering program. Also, a portion of dollars have gone toward teacher training to boost the numbers of Advanced Placement courses, they said.
- At GISD, funding has helped pay for students to participate in an Early College High School summer program in Chaparral, among other activities.
GISD Superintendent Efren Yturralde told Doņa Ana County commissioners the funding has been a boon in the tough economy.
"These are programs we're able to implement that we normally would not be able to do," he said, speaking at the Doņa Ana County Government Center.
Of the $1.9 million collected from the tax between July 2011 and June 2012,
- roughly $1.2 million went to LCPS,
- $677,000 went to Gadsden and
- $65,000 went to Hatch schools, according to a county report.
In Hatch, the spaceport tax dollars are funding an extra science teacher, who also coordinates student participation in a robotics competition, officials said.
The 1/4 of 1 percent spaceport sales tax was OK'd by Doņa Ana County voters in 2007. A portion goes to the schools, while most of the money is used to repay bonds for spaceport construction in southern Sierra County.
The tax amounts to an extra 25-cent charge on a $100 purchase.
Since the tax took effect in January 2009, a total of $7.03 million has been collected for Doņa Ana County schools, according to the county.
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Santa Fe/ OPINION: Our No. 1 Concern Must Be Education
By NM Sen. Pete Campos [Democrat, Las Vegas]
ABQ Journal
November 28, 2012
The 2012 election season was one of the most divisive, partisan and personal New Mexico has faced. It will be hard and take time to heal the wounds, but it is critical that we do so and move away from campaigning and toward governing as fast as possible if we are to make any progress overcoming the tremendous challenges facing New Mexico.
The breadth and depth of the challenges facing our state are well known: high poverty, especially among children; a dearth of jobs, especially high-paying jobs with good benefits; poor access to health care, especially in rural New Mexico; and - at the root of it all - struggling schools that produce struggling students who are not reaching their academic potential. Unfortunately and predictably, the discussions of these and the other challenges we face focus on who is to blame for them rather than how to fix them.
It is time to change that discussion. If we don't, we will endlessly debate the question of who is to blame without ever resolving the issue, and the upcoming legislative session will be one of gridlock and bickering. But if we put the campaigns in the past and refocus the discussion on how to overcome these challenges, the 2013 legislative session can be a model for communication, cooperation and collaboration.
We have all the ingredients for a successful session. Coming together in January will be a healthy mix of veteran and new legislators, each committed to helping New Mexico thrive. The state's budget outlook is the brightest it has been in years, with a small, but significant, amount of "new" money available to restore some of the budget cuts of previous years. New Mexicans, weary of the election season rhetoric, are not only ready to accept, but are actually demanding, thoughtful discussions of the challenges we face and the difficult solutions to overcome them.
We have our best chance of achieving long-term success by initially focusing on several areas: early childhood education, access to health care, protection of our scarce water supply and job retention and creation. Policymakers agree that these are critically important issues that deserve our full attention. There will no doubt be disagreement about how best to address them, but we must ensure that those disagreements are rooted in policy, not politics, and remember that, ultimately, we agree on the common goal of improving childhood education, broadening access to good health care, ensuring a plentiful supply of quality water throughout the state and increasing the number of jobs throughout New Mexico.
The connection and interdependence among these and other issues must not be forgotten either. Paying for better early childhood education and broader access to health care with burdensome tax increases that drive jobs away accomplishes nothing in the long run. At the same time, deep tax cuts intended to create jobs that also result in public school and social program budget cuts do nothing but exacerbate our problems. On the other hand, strong early childhood education and quality health care will lead to a more educated, healthy and productive work force, which will lead to better and more jobs, a more vibrant economy and a stronger state budget that will allow for increased funding for education and tax relief.
A balanced approach, supported by mutual respect for each other's positions, will help us achieve our goal of a perpetual cycle of improvement.
We know all too well what the future holds if we resort to politicking and bickering. The next election is two years away, and we should not tolerate campaigning until then. The Legislature and governor should do what they were elected to do: govern.
To do otherwise risks the future of New Mexico and its residents.
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Santa Fe/ OPINION: School Re-Formed
By Seth Biderman [SFPS graduate and former local educator, Biderman works with the Academy for the Love of Learning to research different learning models and further public conversation about what "school" could someday be]
Santa Fe Reporter
November 28, 2012
Turns out our new superintendent was a troublemaker when he was in school. In a recent interview with Nancy Udell of Santa Fe Stories, Joel Boyd describes how he frequented the principal's office until his high school wrestling coach, of all people, helped him get on track. "He became engaged with my family," Boyd recalls. He took the time "to know each wrestler...to connect and make wrestling relevant for them." I was encouraged to hear this story, which seemed to indicate that Boyd would work to give our teachers and students the time and tools to build meaningful relationships.
Then I read his Transition Advisory Team's report. The bulk of the team's recommendations seem unlikely to foster positive student-teacher relationships. Some of them seem unlikely to foster any learning at all. Instead, the recommendations deal mostly with reorganizing the central office, and modifying and measuring student performance in math and reading.
An example: The team recommends that principals be trained to conduct "instructional rounds" to better "monitor" and observe their teachers at work. The basis of these observations, the team adds, is that "task predicts performance."
Yes, task can predict performance, especially among mice and pigeons, but post-Skinnerian researchers like Howard Gardner have made it clear that performance (read: performance on tests) does not predict understanding. It does not predict critical thinking or creativity or the desire to learn. And it certainly does not predict if our city's young people will enjoy learning relationships of the type that changed young Joel Boyd's life.
Boyd's team must be aware that research like this-which demonstrates the complexity of the learning process, the importance of relationship and the limitations of testing-flies in the face of most of their recommendations. But judging by their report, the team's more interested in results than research.
They urge us to adopt the "aggressive and transparent accountability system" that they claim has improved student performance in districts across the nation-but neglect to mention that those "improvements" have, in too many cases, turned out to be the product not of hard-hitting reforms, but of data manipulation, adult cheating scandals, deflated standards and low-performing students being told to drop out.
Santa Fe's schools need to change, but we don't need a results-obsessed plan that has failed elsewhere. We need a plan based in researched success and tailored to the unique strengths and values of our community.
Boyd has asked for feedback, so here's mine:
- Get a second opinion.
- Convene a new advisory team, one that includes outside experts but also involves teachers, administrators and students; dropouts and graduates; local leaders, early childhood educators and teacher educators.
- This team should not ask how to improve student performance on exams, but explore simpler, more immediate questions: How do we get kids and teachers excited about learning? How do we get them to stay in school?
Such a team would undoubtedly offer very different recommendations.
It might propose ideas like mentorship, student advisories and interest-based learning, which have driven graduation rates to 96 percent in Big Picture Learning schools nationwide. Ideas like the expansion of successful homegrown programs in arts and dance, in mariachi and traditional New Mexico crafts. Enhancement of counseling and support services, like the Harlem's Children's Zone, Inc. Quality early childhood education for all, ā la Reggio Emilia. And following the Finnish model: more time and autonomy for teachers, and testing that's limited to a random, anonymous sample group, one day a year.
Ideas like these would engage students and teachers in deep learning, distinguish our district and create opportunities for meaningful relationships to flourish. Likely, they'd also help students improve academic performance-or at least get them interested enough to try.
Boyd strikes me as a sharp, energetic guy, willing to listen. The wrestling coach story shows his heart's in the right place. If a critical mass of us has reservations about his team's recommendations, we need to let him and our school board know.
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Washington DC/ 61 Applications as Finalists for $400 Million Race to the Top's School District Competition
U.S. Department of Education Press Release [Ed.gov]
November 26, 2012
Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced that 61 applications have been selected as finalists for the Race to the Top-District (RTTT-D) competition.
The 2012 RTTT-D program will provide close to $400 million to support locally developed plans to personalize and deepen student learning, directly improve student achievement and educator effectiveness, close achievement gaps, and prepare every student for success in college and careers.
The 61 finalists, representing more than 200 school districts, were selected from 372 applications the Department received in November to demonstrate how districts could personalize education for students and provide school leaders and teachers with key tools that support them to meet students' needs.
- "These finalists are setting the curve for the rest of the country with innovative plans to drive education reform in the classroom," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said.
- "This competition was designed to support local efforts to close the achievement gap and transform the learning environment in a diverse set of districts, but no matter who wins, children across the country will benefit from the clear vision and track records of success demonstrated by these finalists."
Race to the Top-District applications were randomly assigned to three-person panels that independently read and scored each application, with independent reviewers' scores averaged to determine an applicant's score. The Department arranged the applications in rank order from high to low scores, and determined which were the strongest competitors to invite back based on "natural breaks" - i.e. scoring gaps in the lineup. The top 61 applications were then selected as finalists.
Consistent with the Department's plan to select high-quality proposals from applications across a variety of districts, the finalists represent a range of districts, both rural and non-rural, from both Race to the Top states and non-Race to the Top states.
The Department expects to select 15-25 winning applications from the Race to the Top-District competition for four-year awards that will range from $5 million to $40 million, depending on the population of students served through the plan. Awards will be announced no later than Dec. 31, 2012.
The Department has posted the list of districts that submitted an application on its website: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-district/index.html. The list includes all districts that applied and does not indicate their eligibility for the competition.
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New York NY/ Finalists Announced in District-level Race to the Top Competition
By Jackie Mader
Hechinger Report [Hechingerreort.org]
November 27, 2012
School districts in Arizona, California and Georgia are among 61 finalists in the $400 million federal Race to the Top-District competition, which will fund district-wide efforts to close the achievement gap and raise teacher effectiveness.
The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday released a list of finalists that represent more than 200 school districts, including some of the nation's largest.
- "These finalists are setting the curve for the rest of the country," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "No matter who wins, children across the country will benefit from the clear vision and track records of success demonstrated by these finalists."
A total of 372 applicants, including several charter-school networks, competed in the district competition.
The Department of Education will choose 15-20 winners from among the finalists to receive between $5 million and $40 million each (depending on district size) by December 31st.
Some of the country's weakest educational performers, like Mississippi and West Virginia, were noticeably absent from the list of finalists, despite applications from multiple districts. Both states also failed to receive money in 2010 and 2011 through the initial Race to the Top competition as well as the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, which provided funding for early education programs.
The district-level competition follows the state-level Race to the Top competition, which in 2009-10 incentivized 46 states to make contentious changes to teacher evaluations and charter-school laws. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have received funding through Race to the Top grant competitions since 2010.
In Mississippi, where students have posted some of the country's lowest test scores for years, a lack of state funding has prompted nonprofit organizations and various districts to create their own solutions and seek funding independently.
Thirteen Mississippi school districts applied in the latest round of the Race to the Top competition, including several in the impoverished Delta region as well as the beleaguered Jackson Public Schools. Earlier this month, Jackson narrowly avoided losing its accreditation over special-education program indiscretions, and it recently hired a retired Tennessee educator to oversee its compliance efforts.
Money for schools has long been sparse in Mississippi. A program intended to support its districts has been underfunded by about $980 million since 2007, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, and the state already spends less money per pupil than nearly every other state.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has said he will not recommend funding pre-kindergarten next year, but he has proposed $3 million for a promising private pre-k initiative. In his 2013 budget proposal, Bryant also suggested spending $15 million for teacher training and literacy coaches to address what he has called the state's "literacy crisis."
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Washington DC/ New Graduation Rate Data Show Large Achievement Gaps
By Michele McNeil
Education Week [Edweek.org]
November 26, 2012
The U.S. Department of Education today released four-year high school graduation rates for the 2010-11 school year that, for the first time, reflect a common method of calculation for all states.
The state-by-state data show graduation rates that range from 59 percent in the District of Columbia to 88 percent in Iowa. The new method requires states to track individual students and report how many first-time 9th graders graduate with a standard diploma within four years.
According to the department, the new, common metric "can be used by states, districts and schools to promote greater accountability and to develop strategies that will reduce dropout rates and increase graduation rates in schools nationwide."
Today's data show glaring achievement gaps.
- In Minnesota, for instance, the graduation rate for black students was 49 percent; for white students, it was 84 percent.
- In Ohio, the graduation rate for economically disadvantaged students was 65 percent; for all students it was 80 percent.
The release of this data comes as advocacy groups are calling on the department to strengthen graduation rate accountability in the waivers being issued under the No Child Left Behind Act.
These groups are criticizing U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for allowing states to violate the spirit-if not the letter-of the 2008 regulations that mandated a common graduation rate.
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Washington DC/ Which State Does Best Job of Graduating Students from High School?
By Emily Richmond [Education Writers Association Public Editor]
The Educated Reporter
November 28, 2012
For the first time since the nation's governors agreed to use the same formula to calculate high school graduation rates, the U.S. Department of Education has published state-by-state figures that allow apples-to-apples comparisons of student achievement.
The data are for the 2010-11 academic year and show Iowa with the nation's highest graduation rate of 88 percent.
Nevada finished last among the states at 62 percent. (The U.S. average graduation rate has not yet been released because several states still have to be reported.)
As Education Week's Politics K-12 blog points out, the new report shows considerably wide achievement gaps among minority and economically disadvantaged students when compared with their more affluent white peers. In Michigan, for example, the graduation rate for black students was 57 percent, compared with 80 percent for white students.
The new formula for calculating graduation rates is straightforward:
- States report the percentage of first-time ninth graders who earn a diploma within four years.
- Students who receive adjusted diplomas (typically an option for students with disabilities) or GEDs are not counted.
- The new graduation rate formula is the result of a nationwide initiative that dates back to 2005, when the governors of all 50 states signed a compact agreeing to adopt the new formula by this year. (The District of Columbia also agreed to participate.)
With the release of the 2010-11 data, the baseline for each state's graduation rate has been reset.
It's important to remember that the newly reported graduation rates are not directly comparable to those previously calculated by states using alternate metrics. Under the new formula, slightly more than half of the states saw their graduation rates decline, while the remaining states either saw an increase or stayed the same, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
So, why does this matter?
The formulas previously used by some states were considered highly inaccurate:
- Dropouts were often widely under-reported, while graduation rates were inflated.
- The new formula is a move toward more accountability, as well as consistency.
- Additionally, the wide disparity in states' formulas for calculating graduation rates made it difficult for researchers and policymakers to compare outcomes. That's a necessary element for identifying and addressing the underlying issues contributing to nearly 30 percent of the nation's ninth graders failing to earn a diploma in four years.
"By using this new measure, states will be more honest in holding schools accountable and ensuring that students succeed," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Monday. "Ultimately, these data will help states target support to ensure more students graduate on time, college and career ready."
That's the hope of Jim Guthrie, Nevada's recently appointed superintendent of public instruction.
"You can't solve your problems if you don't know what they are," Guthrie told the Las Vegas Sun. "We need accurate information, and more of it."
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Oklahoma City OK/ A+ Schools Infuse Arts and Other 'Essentials'
By Erik W. Robelen
Education Week, Vol. 32, Issue 13 [Edweek.org]
November 27, 2012
As a group of Oklahoma principals toured Millwood Arts Academy on a recent morning, they snapped photos of student work displayed in hallways, stepped briefly into classrooms, queried the school's leader, and compared notes.
They were gathered here to observe firsthand a public magnet school that's seen as a leading example of the educational approach espoused by the Oklahoma A+ Schools network, which has grown from 14 schools a decade ago to nearly 70 today.
A key ingredient, and perhaps the best-known feature, is the network's strong emphasis on the arts, both in their own right and infused across the curriculum.
"I took a million pictures today and emailed them to all my teachers," said Principal Leah J. Anderson of Gatewood Elementary School, also in Oklahoma City.
Ms. Anderson said she was struck by the diverse ways students demonstrate their learning, such as a visual representation of the food chain displayed in one hallway.
"It's not just a page out of the textbook," she said. "They created it themselves."
The Oklahoma network has drawn national attention, including praise from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and mention in a 2011 arts education report from the President's Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The A+ approach was not born in Oklahoma, however. It was imported from North Carolina, which launched the first A+ network in 1995 and currently has 40 active member schools.
- It has since expanded not only to Oklahoma but
- also to Arkansas, which now counts about a dozen A+ schools.
- Advocates are gearing up to start a Louisiana network.
The networks are guided by eight core principles, or "essentials," as they're called, including a heavy dose of the arts, teacher collaboration, experiential learning, and exploration of "multiple intelligences" among students. At the same time, each state has some differences in emphasis.
Oklahoma's network describes its mission as "nurturing creativity in every learner."
The nearly 20 educators who toured Millwood Academy this month-part of a larger group attending a leadership retreat for the state network-covered the gamut from those brand new to the A+ approach to others with years of experience.
"The continual plea from people seeking to do things like this is, 'Show me, demonstrate,' " said Jean Hendrickson, the executive director of Oklahoma A+ Schools, which is part of the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.
"[This] is one of the handful of A+ schools we can count on to actively, any day of the week, demonstrate this model in action," she said at Millwood. "What we want is for the others in our network to have their feet on the ground in a place like this."
The network faces continual challenges, such as attracting sufficient state aid and coping with the inevitable turnover of school staff, which can strain the degree of fidelity to the A+ essentials.
This fall, 16 member schools in Oklahoma have new principals, more turnover than ever. Some of them lack prior experience with A+, including Consuela M. Franklin, who just took the reins at Owen Elementary School in Tulsa.
"I inherited an A+ school, and so my quest today is to actually learn more, the overall philosophy," she said. "What it looks like. What it sounds like. How do you know it when you see it?"
Desire to Change
The Oklahoma A+ network has a diverse mix of schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Some serve predominantly low-income families. Most are public, though a few are private. And they include traditional public schools, as well as magnets and charters.
The network is supported by both public and private dollars, with all professional development and other supports free to participating schools. But state funding was cut back sharply during the recent economic downturn. An annual line item in the state budget for the network that at its height provided $670,000 was zeroed out in 2011. In the latest budget, it was restored, but only at $125,000.
Schools are drawn to A+ for diverse reasons, said Ms. Hendrickson, who was a principal for 17 years before becoming the network's leader. But it all boils down to one thing: a desire to change.
- "What they want to change ranges broadly," she said. "It can be they want better test scores. It could be richer activity-based, project-based-learning ideas. It could be taking their success to the next level. It could be more arts."
As part of the application process, a school must gain the support of 85 percent or more of its faculty members before a review by A+ staff and outside experts. The review is focused mainly on gauging the school's commitment and capacity to effectively implement the A+ essentials.
The level of fidelity to the approach varies across schools, Ms. Hendrickson said, adding that even within the same school, it may shift over time. "Schools are not static places," she said.
- "Over time, [A+ schools] tend toward one end or the other of our engagement spectrum, whether the informational end, 'Thank you, we got what we wanted,' or the transformational end, where, 'It drives what we do,' " she said. "So we have different levels of engagement and different categories of affiliation."
One teacher at the A+ retreat confided that with a recent leadership switch at her school, the commitment level has declined.
- "It's not the same if you don't have a leader who is completely active and passionate about it," she said. "So it has changed, but we're hanging in there."
The tightest alignment comes with "demonstration schools." Those schools, including Millwood Arts Academy, have "made a really strong commitment to the eight A+ essentials, and they are our best partners to help others see what it looks like," said Ms. Hendrickson.
Millwood is a grades 3-8 magnet that primarily serves African-American students from low-income families.
- Unlike most Oklahoma A+ schools, it has selective admissions criteria.
- Admission decisions primarily are reflective of strong student interest in the arts and parents' embrace of the school's philosophy, said Christine Harrison, the principal of both that school and Millwood Freshman Academy, which is in the same building and is also an A+ school.
Speaking to her visitors this month, who saw classes for both academies, she sang the praises of the network: "A+ is our driving force."
Ms. Harrison, who describes her schools as "dripping in the arts," also emphasized the power of the other A+ essentials, including the intentional collaboration.
"We have teachers collaborating without me having to say 'collaborate,' " she said. "You cannot be isolated in an A+ school."
'Shared Experience'
Following the trip to Millwood, the visiting educators spent time sharing ideas and exploring best practices. At one point, the principals sat down in small groups for an intensive, problem-solving exercise. Each leader identified a particular challenge and worked on strategies to cope.
- "We provide ongoing professional development and networking opportunities, with a strong research eye on the methods we're using, the outcomes we're getting," said Ms. Hendrickson.
Sandra L. Kent, the principal of Jane Phillips Elementary in Bartlesville, Okla., gives high marks to the professional development, especially the five-day workshop for schools first joining.
- "We had a really powerful shared experience," she said. "That's one thing, as an A+ school, when you all go and live together for a week."
Ms. Kent said A+ is often misunderstood as being an "arts program." The arts dimension gets significant attention "because not a lot of other people talk about it as being so important." But other elements are also important, she said, such as the call for collaboration and the pursuit of multiple learning pathways that attend to students' "multiple intelligences."
Another ingredient is enriched assessment strategies that aim to better capture what students know and are able to do.
One aspect that has helped get A+ schools noticed is the research base.
"They have a very strong evaluation component," said Sandra S. Ruppert, the executive director of the Washington-based Arts Education Partnership.
"They have made the investments, documented their strategies. They can look at the correlation with test scores, but also a whole host of other outcomes. ... It is what gives that work greater credibility."
Both the North Carolina and Oklahoma networks have been the subject of extensive study.
In 2010, Oklahoma A+ Schools issued a five-volume report on data collected by researchers from 2002 to 2007.
- It found that participating schools, on average, "consistently outperform their counterparts within their district and state on the [Oklahoma] Academic Performance Index," a measure that relies heavily on student-achievement data.
- The study also found other benefits, including better student attendance, decreased disciplinary problems, and more parent and community engagement.
- But it found the level of fidelity to the A+ essentials uneven, with those schools that adhered most closely seeing the strongest outcomes.
Meanwhile, a separate, more limited study in Oklahoma City compared achievement among students in A+ schools with a matched cohort of students.
- It found that, on average, students across the seven A+ schools "significantly outperformed" a comparable group of district peers in reading and math, based on 2005 test data.
- However, not all individual schools outperformed the average, and the study did not measure growth in student achievement over time.
Tapping Into Creativity
Amid growing interest in A+, neighboring Arkansas is ramping up its network, after stalling for a few years. Just recently, several charter schools in the high-profile KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) network signed on.
- "People think KIPP: structure, discipline, rigor. Arts infusion? What the heck do they have in common?" said Scott A. Shirey, the executive director of KIPP Delta Public Schools, which runs schools in Helena and Blytheville, Ark. "But I think it was what we needed to bring our schools to the next level, ... to tap into the creativity of teachers and students."
Mr. Shirey said he values the ongoing support in the A+ network.
"It's not, 'We'll train you for one week, and you're done,' " he said.
Back in Oklahoma, Ms. Kent, the elementary principal, welcomed the fall leadership retreat as a way to get "refreshed and renewed and refocused."
She said it can be tough to maintain support for an arts-infused approach as schools face the pressure for improved test scores and other demands. In Oklahoma, recent changes include a new teacher-evaluation system, new letter grades for schools, the advent of the Common Core State Standards, and a new 3rd grade retention policy for struggling readers.
- "Yes, it's very difficult with the policy changes to get other people to trust you and trust the [A+] process," said Ms. Kent, who previously led another A+ school. Her current school is in its second year of transitioning to the A+ essentials. "Until you really produce the results, people have a hard time going there," she said.
But Ms. Kent said she's convinced her school's journey as part of the network will serve students well.
Schools can't escape the push for strong test scores, said Ms. Harrison from Millwood Arts Academy. "Let's face it, that's a big part of how we're graded," she told the visiting educators. "But the A+ Schools way helps you look good on that paper."
The tour of Millwood was eye-opening for Ms. Franklin, the new principal at Owen Elementary, who came away impressed by this example of A+ in action. She said "evidence was everywhere" of student engagement and learning.
"It was colorful, it was lively, it was audible," she said. "I am motivated to take it back to my school."
What's Essential?
Schools participating in the A+ network in Oklahoma and other states commit to a set of eight A+ essentials.
- Arts: Taught daily. Inclusive of drama, dance, music, visual arts, and writing. Integrated across curriculum. Valued as "essential to learning."
- Curriculum: Curriculum mapping reflects alignment. Development of "essential questions." Create and use interdisciplinary thematic units. Cross-curricular integration.
- Experiential Learning: Grounded in arts-based instruction. A creative process. Includes differentiated instruction. Provides multifaceted assessment opportunities.
- Multiple Intelligences: Multiple-learning pathways used within planning and assessment. Understood by students and parents. Used to create "balanced learning opportunities."
- Enriched Assessment: Ongoing. Designed for learning. Used as documentation. A "reflective" practice. Helps meet school system requirements. Used by teachers and students to self-assess.
- Collaboration: Intentional. Occurs within and outside school. Involves all teachers (including arts teachers), as well as students, families, and community. Features "broad-based leadership."
- Infrastructure: Supports A+ philosophy by addressing logistics such as schedules that support planning time. Provides appropriate space for arts. Creates a "shared vision." Provides professional development. Continual "team building."
- Climate: Teachers "can manage the arts in their classrooms." Stress is reduced. Teachers treated as professionals. Morale improves. Excitement about the program grows. [SOURCE: Oklahoma A+ Schools]
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