Carter & MacRae: A lesson in success - School that struggled now beating the odds

LANCASTER, Pa - Carter & MacRae Elementary School has the largest percentage of poor students of any School District of Lancaster school; 95 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged. It serves more migrant and homeless children than any other SDL school, and more than one-quarter of its students don't speak English as their native language. The kindergarten through fifth-grade school is in a neighborhood notorious for gangs and gun violence. So why have many parents sought to transfer their children there? The answer lies within the walls of the converted tobacco warehouse on South Prince Street, which has become an oasis of hope and promise for the hundreds of children who pass through its doors. On the surface, one might conclude Carter & MacRae has some of the lowest PSSA scores in the district, but its students rank in the top half of the district's 12 elementary schools in both math and reading. The school has never been cited for failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress, the standard by which schools are judged under the No Child Left Behind Act, for more than one year in a row. Carter & MacRae's reading program has become a state model, and its students have access to the biggest library of any elementary school in the district, with more than 13,000 volumes. "We've blown away the myth that minority students, low-income students and homeless students can't achieve," said Robert Slamp, a seven-year Carter & MacRae teacher who recently was named Pennsylvania History Teacher of the Year. "For our population and our school, we have to be more creative, and we have to be more focused and targeted." That means Carter & MacRae is unlike any other elementary school in the district. Its teachers helped develop its unique curriculum, which teaches science, social studies and geography as separate disciplines, an unusual approach for a grade school. Its corridors are clean and quiet, and its classrooms are packed with globes, maps, computers, overhead projectors, DVD players and other teaching aides many other city schools lack. Classes are kept small, and nearly every inch of space on classroom walls is devoted to vocabulary words, definitions, math formulas, grammar rules and other tools to help students succeed. Everything about the school supports one objective, principal Ollie Jones said: "doing what's best for kids." "If someone comes to me (with an idea), my first question is: 'Will this help the kids?'" Jones keeps several binders full of test scores for every Carter & MacRae student on her desk. Behind her chair is a trifold panel containing the school's 2007 PSSA scores and her targets for next year. It's no surprise that the goals for 2008 are far above what the school must achieve to make AYP. As the school district seeks ways to bolster its students' lagging PSSA scores, it need look no further than Carter & MacRae for a case study of a school succeeding against the odds.

Carter & MacRae is far different than when Jones arrived in 2001 from Alabama, where she worked in the curriculum department of Huntsville City Schools. Jones thought she would find a more enlightened educational environment in the North, but she was shocked at what greeted her. Carter & MacRae "had no globes, things that I thought were essential, they had no maps in the classroom, they had no student textbooks," she recalled. "I was appalled. I had never in my life seen a school more in need." Fifth-grade classes resembled first-grade classes back in Alabama, she said, and parental involvement was virtually nonexistent. "It was such a wide disparity of expectation and demands," Jones said. "I had never been at a school where you didn't demand excellence." In addition, teachers were not working together to coordinate their lessons. "The first-grade teacher here could be teaching what she wanted to teach, and the one next to her would be teaching what she wanted to teach, which was ludicrous," Jones said. Instead of regretting her decision to take the principal's job, Jones saw an opportunity to put her knowledge and experience to the test. In addition to working in curriculum development, she was a teacher and principal of Mountain Gap Elementary School in Huntsville, a wealthy community of 180,000. "I did not, when I came here, have a clue what urban schools meant, but I knew that all children could learn," Jones said. "I knew that there were ways to teach all children, so I wasn't bogged down with these preconceived labels and notions and ideas. "Nobody told me that I couldn't do this."

Jones' arrival was hardly a joyous affair. "On my first day here, I walked in, and you could see that (the staff) thought, 'Oh my God, she can't tell us anything,'" Jones recalled. "I had a faculty meeting and said, 'You know, whatever animosities you have, forget them. We're going to front load, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, we're going to do the other.'" Jones' desire to change the status quo prompted some teachers to leave. But most stayed and have continued to stick with her ever since. Their first task was to align the curriculum from grade to grade so teachers knew what students were expected to learn by year's end. Jones formed building-leadership teams, which continue to meet regularly to discuss the vertical alignment of the curriculum. "I don't want a first-grade teacher to assume anything but that the kindergarten teacher has done everything he's supposed to do" to prepare a child for first grade, she said. Jones also began to expect more from parents. Her first year was the first time they had been asked to provide even the most basic supplies, pencils and paper for their children, Jones said. Parents must sign students' homework agendas each day and a bright yellow envelope with school communications that goes home each week. If they're not signed, the materials are sent back home until parents comply. "Most parents have learned now that that's our expectation, and it usually doesn't happen more than one or two times" that the materials aren't returned right away, Jones said. If their children are having problems, parents must come to the school to talk with the staff, Jones said. Part of that is pragmatic, many parents lack regular phone service or Internet access, but it's also part of a larger effort to make parents stakeholders in the school, Jones said. Carter & MacRae holds parent-teacher conferences late at night and early in the morning to accommodate unusual work schedules. Staff members will go to parents' homes or shelters to speak with them, if needed. "We use whatever means necessary," Jones said. "All of that has a purpose, and that purpose is to get parents involved." The school adopted a more rigorous maintenance schedule, and Jones hired a part-time worker to patrol the school grounds each day and keep them clean. The goal, she said, "is to make sure we have this island, this very special place" for children to come to every day.

The biggest change was to the curriculum, which was revised to focus on the unique needs of Carter & MacRae students. In math class, third-graders must learn multiplication tables, and all students learn a basic math vocabulary that includes addition terms, sums, number lines, numeric patterns and cardinal numbers. "I know that's old-fashioned, but it cuts through the nonsense," Jones said. Students in every grade get at least 90 minutes of explicit reading instruction each day. In kindergarten, they learn the alphabet; in first grade, they work on phonemes, or sounds; and in second grade the focus is letter blends. Third grade is a transition year emphasizing comprehension and fluency. By fourth grade, students "have gone from learning to read to reading to learn," Jones said. Carter & MacRae participates in the Renaissance Reading program, which encourages students to read at least 25 books a year. But Jones said she felt that goal was too low, so the school encourages its students to read 25 books each month. After a student completes a book, he or she takes a short, multiple-choice test on a computer, providing instant feedback for the child and teacher. "These kids monitor themselves," Helen Lockard, a seven-year Carter & MacRae volunteer tutor, said. "They get an immediate printout, and it tells them how many they got right or wrong. "They'll look at it and say, 'Boy, I've got to do some more reading.'" Carter & MacRae used to honor student achievement with extrinsic rewards, a bicycle or an award at an assembly, for instance, Jones said. Now students want to do well for the sake of doing well, a goal that is supported throughout the school. "All of (the students) are made to feel that they can succeed, and there's something in that that rubs off," Lockard said. "There's no 'poor me,'" she said. "Nobody is ever excused because of what their color is, that they just came to the country. ... It's the atmosphere and the attitude of winning."

In all classes, students are divided into small groups and receive regular assistance from tutors like Lockard if they need help. The school has partnership with St. Paul's United Methodist Church and St. James Episcopal Church, which provide about 70 volunteers to work with students. Carter & MacRae also has a partnership with the Salvation Army, which provides an after-school reading program for third-graders that is a direct extension of the curriculum. Lockard said she rarely has problems getting potential volunteers, many of them are senior citizens living at Willow Valley. "I've always felt that if I can get them to take a tour of the school, I've got them," she said. "They'll volunteer because it's so well run." In addition to getting tutoring help, students can use a variety of computer-based programs to develop specific skills in reading and math. While the curriculum is highly structured, it's also flexible, depending on students' needs. Jones cites the example of a student who has just arrived from Puerto Rico as a third-grader. Testing reveals he lacks a basic understanding of phonemes. To help him get caught up, he may sit in on another class that's learning phonemes until he has mastered that skill, then move back to his regular class. "It's a very liquid, very flexible grouping," Slamp said. "Once we get (students) to understand the skill, we move on, and they may go into another group." Carmen Galarza, whose son is a second-grader at Carter & MacRae, said she appreciates how teachers are always willing to help her son. "My son told me when the teacher is teaching something he doesn't understand, she takes the time to explain it," Galarza said. "At Carter & MacRae, they have a lot of people checking on the kids."

The curriculum can be adjusted to serve stronger students as well. "When you have 50 to 60 percent of a class reading on or above grade level, do you give them the same boring book? No," Jones said. "You allow them to read on a higher level that demands more of them, and you assist them." The ability to shift the curriculum and move students based on their needs also helps the school control the size of classes, which are generally limited to 20 students. This freedom to improvise empowers teachers, who become more effective in the classroom, Slamp said. "We have allowed teachers to be the experts in their rooms," he said. "They make the decisions, but they must be prudent, and they must be revisited." As the school has been transformed, so have its teachers, Slamp said. "Seven years ago, a few teachers would say, 'These kids can't do it,'" he recalled. "If you went back to them today, they'd say, 'I dare you to tell me my kids can't do it.' "Instead of 'these kids,' they are now 'my kids' and 'our kids.'" Jones boasts that Carter & MacRae has the lowest teacher absence rate in the district, the highest staff retention rate and "the best teachers in the world." "It's such a powerful team," she said. "I just marvel at where my teachers are. It's a functional family." The approach has been working. PSSA reading scores for Carter & MacRae students improved by nearly 17 points from 2005 to 2007, despite more students taking the test last year. Math scores also went up by more than seven points. The success of the reading curriculum has prompted the state Department of Education to videotape Carter & MacRae teachers in action for a program used to train other teachers. It took four years to refine the curriculum to the point that "we are positive that it works," Jones said. "I tell parents, 'Give me three years, and I guarantee we'll have your child reading on grade level.'" The key, she said, is matching instruction to students' specific needs, which are determined by frequent assessments. In addition to taking the PSSA each winter, Carter & MacRae students are tested when they first enroll and several times throughout the year. They take the 4Sight test, which is based on the PSSA, along with assessments in early literacy and reading and the Stanford 10 multiple-choice achievement test. Jones added the Stanford 10 to get more feedback on students' science and social studies skills. "We are a data-driven school," Jones said. "I analyze every piece of data on every student in this building." If the data show a large number of students having trouble learning parts of speech, for instance, Jones will discuss with teachers ways to "tweak the curriculum so that's taught at the time it needs to be taught." "It's like a prescription," she said. "You have to check to be sure if it's the right medicine delivered in the right amount to get the right results." Teachers on each grade level meet weekly with Jones to discuss student progress and teaching strategies. "Everything is purposeful; everything is targeted," said Slamp, the state History Teacher of the Year. "Nothing is left to chance." That approach extends to classroom materials as well, he said. Carter & MacRae is committed to spending money where it can do the most good, in classrooms, rather than on administration, Slamp said. The school has no assistant principal or dean of students, for instance, which frees up money for computers, DVD players, globes and other classroom materials.

Jones said she appreciates the freedom she's had in remaking the school. "I was able to take a piece of clay and make a school, and I'm very thankful that the school district allowed me to do this because at a lot of places that I could have gone, that would not have happened," she said. But the path to success hasn't always been smooth. A teacher once filed a grievance against Jones for removing materials from her classroom walls that Jones felt weren't up to snuff. And Carter & MacRae has had to fight the SDL administration on curriculum and budget issues for years, Jones said. This year, for instance, the school has reluctantly agreed to use a districtwide standardized report card instead of its own, which was designed by teachers. The new report card mandated by the district "doesn't measure what is taught," Jones said. The district also has balked at the need for Stanford 10 testing at the school, she said, and Carter & MacRae has had to fight for adequate reading program money, despite serving a growing population of at-risk students. The school now enrolls 437 students, Jones said, compared with 340 at the start of 2006-07. Jones laments that successful schools like Carter & MacRae are not rewarded by the state, which provides resources to help struggling schools develop improvement plans. And as a school of choice, Carter & MacRae must accept students from other SDL elementary schools that have failed to make AYP for two or more years in a row. Parents of 97 students at a single school sought transfers to Carter & MacRae this year, Jones said. According to the school district, eight transfers were approved. If all of those students had made the switch, "it would be a huge burden on us," she said. "But we don't take it that way. We know what we do works ... so we'll take them with a smile and keep on going."

Wallace, Brian. "Carter & MacRae: A lesson in success." Lancaster Online. Oct 18, 2007. Oct 19, 2007 <http://local.lancasteronline.com/11/38430>