Symbol of hope

N. Phila.’s Stanton Elementary wins a national honour for finding what students need and helping them succeed.

By Martha Woodall , The Philadelphia Inquirer : Inquirer Staff Writer - 30 October 2006

An elementary school in the heart of North Philadelphia has grabbed the national spotlight for dramatically improving its test scores. The initial jumps were so large the Philadelphia school district verified them by having some students retake the tests. Over four years, the number of fifth graders scoring at the highest level - advanced - soared from 1.2 percent in math and reading to 42.1 percent in math and 29.8 percent in reading.

How did M. Hall Stanton Elementary School do it? "It's all about challenging people to move to the next level," Principal Barbara Adderly said. Adderly inspired her staff to carry out her vision to boost student achievement using test data to identify struggling students and improved teaching methods to help them. The school, which was among the district's lowest-performers in 2002, has met the standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Act for the last three years. Stanton, where 86 percent of the students come from low-income families, challenges academic research that links family income with academic success.

For Education Trust, a nonprofit that seeks to improve education for minorities and low-income students, Stanton "is a symbol of urban educational promise." Stanton is "proof positive that through hard work and a laser-like focus on curriculum and instruction, schools serving even the most disadvantaged students can see dramatic improvement in student learning," said Daria Hall, senior policy analyst at the trust. "Stanton shows what's possible," Paul Vallas, the district's chief executive officer, said last week.

Adderly, a hands-on principal who is rarely in her office, was assigned to Stanton for the 2002-03 school year. The school was one of 21 of the lowest-performing schools selected by the School Reform Commission for extra help and money. Adderly made immediate changes. "The kids were out of control," she said. Adderly reorganized the school, dividing it into three academies, each with kindergarten through sixth grade.

To upgrade instruction, she tapped two of the school's best teachers to be math and literacy leaders and to coach other teachers. Every day, the coaches and Adderly work with teachers from a different grade and brainstorm how to help struggling students. Because many students also come to school with family, emotional and behavioural problems, Adderly set up three meetings a week to deal with them.

For those meetings, Adderly introduced videotaping to capture students' classroom behaviour. The tapes are shown when counselors, parents and teachers meet to devise plans to help. But a key component of the Stanton turnaround is using test data to determine whether students are learning. "You can't teach them if you don't assess," Adderly tells teachers.

There's nothing new about some of Adderly's ideas. Many are practiced in the district and across the country. But Adderly has elevated the use of data so it is now part of the school culture. On hallway and classroom walls, there are graphs and multicoloured bar charts showing test results. "Children need to know where they have to go," Kathleen Shallow, the school's literacy leader, said. "So if they are looking at the assessment line in their room and they see a star, they know this is where they need to be."

Christina Taylor, the math leader, said teachers also used the data to critique themselves. "If you taught it wrong the first time, and the kids didn't get it, you don't want to teach it the same way again," she said. Student Shakeeya Addison, 10, takes the testing in stride. "There are a lot of tests, and sometimes they're hard," she said. "But once you think about it, if the teacher has taught it before, then we get it right." The fifth grader says she likes to learn and especially enjoys spending 30 minutes every day reading. "School is also fun," she said. "My teacher is very nice. She helps us a lot."

One afternoon last week, Stanton's three first-grade teachers gathered in a first-floor room. Each teacher carried a plastic file case with test results for his or her class. Adderly came up with the idea for these "diagnostic tool kits" this year. She believes the ready information will help teachers focus on struggling students.

They gather in a large conference room, where colour-coded index cards on the walls show at a glance how well Stanton's 487 students are doing so far this year. The cards are placed on an assessment line showing reading levels. The cards will be moved as children advance. "These kids are going to be fine," Adderly said during last week's meeting, referring to first graders testing at grade level or above. But several cards were clustered at the low end of the line. "You have this troop of kids right here who are going to be struggling," Adderly warned.

The teachers talked about individual students who were having trouble connecting letters with their sounds. They brainstormed ways to help them, including using magnetic letters and a computer game. Teacher Andrea Boris described how she gets her students to review the sounds of letters even while they are eating breakfast.

"I'll just pick a random letter and say, 'What's this letter?' " she said. "I'll call on somebody. It takes not even a minute." Stanton's structured approach and its relentless focus on data and improved instruction can be daunting, especially for new teachers. "At Stanton, there is not a minute that is not covered by something," said Janet Sato, a first-grade teacher who joined the staff this fall. "They have certain ways to do things, and it is already set. It's like a game plan. You just go." Last week, two other new teachers wept in front of Adderly, saying they had doubts they could make it at Stanton. Adderly calmed them and told them she realized she demands a lot.

But she knows what Stanton is up against. From her office, Adderly has an unobstructed view of a neighbourhood with boarded-up homes and vacant properties. Fewer than half of the adults in the neighbourhood graduated from high school. "The children live the way they live, and some live in pretty dire circumstances," she said. "But we can't dwell on that because we can't change it. So when we come here, we have to dwell on that which is going to move our kids. I think that has made a tremendous difference, too."