Short takes
Closing the achievement gap, one student at a time
Pundits, policy-makers and elected officials throughout the state are debating strategies for closing the troubling and persistent achievement gap between rich and poor students and between students of color and their white and Asian classmates. Education leaders at Anderson Elementary School in Dixon—in Solano County, between Sacramento and San Francisco—got a rare chance recently to show the state’s top education official how it’s done.
After some polite but persistent prodding from Dixon school board member Shana Levine, California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell paid a whirlwind visit to Anderson on a recent spring afternoon. He came away impressed with what the school had accomplished.
“You are educating every student that comes through the door,” he told teachers, who gathered to meet the superintendent during afternoon recess. “This is a real success story.”
In just six years, Anderson’s Hispanic students, who make up 70 percent of the student population, have improved their scores on the state’s Academic Performance Index by nearly 250 points. Scores for economically disadvantaged students are up 244 points, rising from 485 to 733—just 67 points below the target of 800 set by the state as the benchmark for all schools. Between 2005 and 2006 (the first year that scores for this subgroup were broken out), scores for Anderson’s English language learners jumped 72 points, going from 656 and 728.
Scores for white students have improved too, rising from 745 to almost 781. The achievement gap between scores posted by whites and affluent students and those earned by economically disadvantaged and Hispanic students is closing fast. In 2000, these two subgroups lagged more than 250 points behind the school’s highest-achieving students; in 2006, the gap was a modest 67 points.
The school, which was once in Program Improvement for failing to make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, met all its federal AYP targets last year.
“State officials are always talking about the need to close the achievement gap,” says Anderson Principal Sandy Jessop. “We’re doing it at Anderson. This is what closing the achievement gap looks like.”
Jessop says there’s no silver bullet or magic fix. The school is succeeding thanks to creative and dedicated teachers and staff who share the core belief that every student has the potential to excel.
“I get so tired of hearing people talk about those ‘pobrecitos,’ the poor kids who can’t succeed because they come from disadvantaged backgrounds,” says Robert Salinas, superintendent of Dixon Unified School District. “We don’t accept that.”
Teachers at each grade level use a common, standards-based curriculum and meet regularly with Jessop and each other to talk candidly about successes and problems.
Anderson also offers after-school enrichment in collaboration with the city of Dixon that focuses on academic tutoring and homework, the arts, recreation and “Safe and Drug-Free” character-building activities.
Thanks to support from Sodexho Inc. food services, the school is able to provide free breakfasts to all students, regardless of their family income level. “It’s made an incredible difference,” Jessop says. “Children look forward to coming to school; they’re excited. The breakfast program has improved our attendance. We are aiming for 97 percent of all students showing up for school every day. We’re hovering now at about 96 percent attendance.”
Also central to the school’s success is Anderson’s emphasis on data analysis. The school’s “data room” is a repository of test scores that includes progress reports on every student’s academic performance throughout the year. “Twice a year, I spend an entire day with teachers at every grade level, in addition to weekly collaborative planning meetings, and we analyze each student’s progress. We intervene early when we identify problems,” Jessop explains. “It’s a collaborative effort. We compare how each class is doing and compare those numbers to the averages for all students at that grade level.”
The school employs a bilingual parent liaison who spends several hours in the front office every morning to make it easier for parents with limited English skills to communicate with administrators and teachers.
“I welcome and prepare parents to participate in their children’s education,” says Antonia Echarte. “I am a communicator between the parent and the school and between teacher and parent. I take calls and hear complaints. I translate at meetings. It’s my job to recruit parents to come and have a voice.”
Dixon School Board President Kim Poole says teachers and staff “focus on the whole child” and continually analyze student performance to determine which students need extra attention. “The whole staff is amazing,” she says. “They are very dedicated and focused.”
The school day also keeps the kids focused. At 8:15 every morning, every student sits down with a book for 90 minutes of uninterrupted reading, grouped according to skill level.
Dixon school board member Levine says she and her colleagues on the board target all available resources on helping schools find the best staff and the right strategies to help students succeed. The district is replicating many of the strategies that are working at Anderson at Dixon’s other elementary schools.
Nonetheless, Levine was amazed at the school’s latest API numbers when she visited the Anderson campus during a recent open house and eager to spread the word about the school’s success. A self-described “outspoken advocate” for the schools in her district, the school board member made it her mission to convince the state schools superintendent to include Anderson on his busy schedule. Her persistence paid off.
“There was a person hanging on my leg,” O’Connell joked during his May 16 visit. “She wouldn’t let go, until I promised to come.”