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Where Everyone’s a Learner

An award-winning superintendent makes learning a priority for teachers, staff, and students.

Story by Rhonda Barton Photos by Erik Bishoff

COTTAGE GROVE, Oregon—The Cottage Grove High School Lions have more to roar about than a winning football season that catapulted them into the state playoffs this fall. The 900-student high school scored second in the county in 10th-grade reading and math achievement tests, continuing a steady climb above state averages. The school’s dropout rate dipped to just 1.2 percent—about a fourth of the state average. And, the list of Advanced Placement and professional-technical options expanded.

That’s a huge turnaround from a decade ago. Historically, 16-year-olds left high school early to work in the timber mills that formed the backbone of this blue collar Willamette Valley town. “Graduating from high school was not a priority and if you looked at our kids’ test scores in the 1990s, they were pretty pitiful in many cases,” acknowledges Superintendent Krista Parent.

Today, with most of the mills idle, the South Lane School District’s economically disadvantaged rate hovers around 54 percent. Almost a tenth of the student population is classified as homeless. Despite the challenge of poverty, students here are star achievers. Both the high school and middle school recorded their highest percentages of students meeting or exceeding state standards in reading and math; out of 305 high schools in Oregon, Cottage Grove High was one of 42 to receive a “strong” rating on the state report card; and all six of the district’s elementary schools met the No Child Left Behind requirements in all categories.

What’s made the difference? Krista Parent—recently named the 2007 Oregon Superintendent of the Year and one of four finalists for the National Superintendent of the Year—points to the district’s literacy plan with its pyramid of interventions at each school. There’s also the grants that support professional development in mathematics and put an impressive amount of technology in teachers’ hands. And, there’s a communication plan that reaches out to parents and the community in a very personal way. But, most of all, South Lane’s vision of a districtwide learning community is modeled at the top and touches every adult and child.

“Sacred Time”

Twice a month, the district’s leadership team gathers for administrative meetings. You won’t see anyone’s eyes glazing over with drawn-out discussions of business matters. Routine operational items are handled via e-mail and meetings are reserved for digging into research and effective instruction.

This year, the two dozen administrators are tackling Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools by Tony Wagner and colleagues at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “We’ll read two chapters on our own, come together, and one of us will facilitate a discussion,” says Parent. At a recent meeting, they looked at two lessons—one for middle school and one for high school—evaluating them individually and as a group. “It was really enlightening because we think we know what good instruction looks like,” notes Parent, “but a third of the administrators rated the first lesson in the ‘B’ range, a third in the ‘C’ range, and a third ‘D.’” Further discussion revealed that group members weren’t that far apart, but had different interpretations of the grades.

The principals take what they learn back to their schools, where every Wednesday afternoon—an early release for students—is “sacred” staff development time. “[The district] has armed me with research and strategies so I can be an educational leader, not just a manager,” says Brian McCasline, principal of the district’s only middle school. “I can go to our staff and say I know these work.”

Principals also get to model instructional strategies at the annual back-to-school staff meeting, which has become a prime opportunity for learning. “Everybody does back-to-school and they almost all look the same: There’s a speaker and break-out sessions,” says Assistant Superintendent Peter Tromba. “But here we actually work, learning reading strategies across all levels.”

A novel approach to book clubs marked this year’s welcome back session. Just before the close of school last June, district staff members visited each building, toting a wheeled cart loaded with 20 of the best books they had read on literacy. “We shared a little piece on each book and then asked everyone to pick one book and agree to read it during the summer,” says Parent. All 250 teachers, administrators, educational assistants, and school board members selected books that the district purchased for them. Staff at some of the district’s smaller schools elected to read the same book, while larger schools had a sprinkling of all or most of the choices. In the fall, before school started, everyone gathered in book clubs to discuss what they read.

A Culture of Readers

Voluntary book clubs focused on professional topics continue during the school year. More than half of the district’s staff members—from teachers to principals to paraeducators—have signed on for the after-school activity. They meet four times during the semester and receive one credit from a local college. One club, led by the superintendent, dissected Robert Marzano’s Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in Schools. For homework, teachers implemented one of Marzano’s strategies and invited Parent to observe them in action in the classroom.

Students have their own voluntary book clubs that gather once a week during lunch. Kids pick the books and join a teacher for a 30-minute session. The clubs attract about 10 percent of the students at Lincoln Middle School, where literacy isn’t just confined to the English classroom.

Step into Lincoln just after the first bell rings and you’ll see all students bent over books during the daily 15-minute reading period. During this “zero period,” youngsters are assigned to classrooms based on their reading levels and everyone—from the P.E. teacher to instructional aides and counselors—leads literacy activities or monitors sustained silent reading. One room might be buzzing with children reading aloud in pairs while students next door are working on their own, charting “event timelines” that trace the action in the book.

The emphasis on literacy continues throughout the day: Math teachers incorporate vocabulary lessons while science teachers use literature circles and social studies teachers turn to graphic organizers. All teachers have been taught specific before, during, and after reading strategies to be used regardless of their subjects.

Pam Jackson—the middle school’s literacy coach—shares strategies with Lincoln teachers at staff meetings and inservice sessions, and through e-mails. She also observes teachers in the classroom, provides advice or more in-depth mentoring, and demonstrates techniques through team teaching.

“The fact that we have a literacy coach here is a huge thing,” says Jackson, who joined the school district this year. “It’s a way for teachers to receive instruction and modeling without pulling them out of their classroom.” Jackson, who has taught in five other districts around the country, can’t say enough about the support she gets from South Lane’s administration. “They put their money where their mouth is. You can tell how important literacy is because of the resources they’re putting into it.”

Like Lincoln, each school in the district has a working literacy plan that defines the curriculum, assessment, time, additional support, staff development, and resources dedicated to literacy instruction. The schools’ plans are guided by the district literacy plan, which is described as a “dynamic” document that’s reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

The plans, with their specific interventions for students who either aren’t learning or need to be challenged, have contributed to substantial gains in reading proficiency. The district saw a 16 percent jump in achievement scores, from 49 percent of eighth-graders proficient in 2004–2005 to 65 percent last year. Third-grade students improved three percentage points to 91 percent during the same period, and fifth-graders had a 15 point increase to 93 percent proficiency. At Cottage Grove High School, 10th-graders also gained 15 points, with 59 percent meeting or exceeding state standards.

Ramping Up Math and Technology

Reading isn’t the only area where the district has seen hefty improvements. Math scores are also on the upswing, partly due to the district’s participation in the Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute (OMLI) Partnership. The National Science Foundation initiative offers ongoing professional development that emphasizes reflective discourse about mathematics and collaborative problem solving. As part of the multiyear project, 14 teacher-leaders from the district attend a half-dozen training sessions during the year and an intensive three-week summer institute. During the last week of the institute, they’re joined by eight principals—an arrangement that strengthens administrative buy-in for a new approach to teaching math.

“The OMLI work is focused on building a professional community—and one of the keys is to really use student thinking to learn about best practices and what kids need,” says Julie DePauw, who leads the district’s participation in the project. “You do that in a variety of ways through case studies, protocols looking at student work, lesson study, and discourse observations in each other’s classrooms.”

Math coach Teresa Myers agrees that “deprivatizing” practice in the district has made for stronger teachers. “This project has created a broad base of teachers across our district who really feel supported by each other and work closely together,” she comments. One example is a first-grade teacher who paired up with a sixth-grade teacher. They each designed a lesson and traded places so the first-grade teacher taught her colleague’s lesson to the sixth-graders while the sixth-grade teacher instructed the first-graders. Afterward, they compared what they learned. “That’s a no-cost way to build community as well as content knowledge about the trajectory of math from where it starts to where it goes,” DePauw points out.

South Lane has been able to enhance its math instruction with high-tech tools, acquired through a Title IID educational technology grant. This year, the grant equipped 34 teachers with laptops, document cameras, projectors, and digital cameras.

On this sunny day in October, an all-day professional development session helps teachers discover new ways to blend technology with math. They’ve fanned out on the leafy streets surrounding district headquarters to photograph examples of mathematics in nature. One teacher is busy snapping shots for a counting book for her kindergartners. A middle school teacher is making plans to borrow other teachers’ cameras and have her students take photographs to illustrate their own math problems.

In the classroom, the new computers, projectors, and document cameras—along with 1,200 hand-held computers for student use—are spurring a deeper level of discussion about problem solving. Sharing student work becomes easier and more immediate, says Lynn Lary, technology director for the educational service district. “As kids are working on their problems, the teacher can walk around, look for different strategies and sequence them from very simple to complex. So, when she asks kids to come up and share their work [on the projector], there’s no wait time; it’s not random; and it’s not just one kid. It’s a whole sequence of student work that helps build the instructional point of the lesson,” says Lary.

Through Title IID funds and other grants, about half of South Lane’s teachers now have the latest technology at their fingertips. But, Teresa Myers says she’s confident that the superintendent won’t rest until everyone is wired. “Krista doesn’t say ‘no’ or ‘some day,’” according to Myers. “It’s ‘let’s find a way to make that happen.’ She’s said every teacher should have a laptop, and knowing Krista, she’ll find a way.”

Preparing Well-Rounded Graduates

The district is also finding ways to ensure that all students leave high school with the skills they need for success: literacy and mathematical competency; an understanding of technology; habits that foster wellness; and a sense of civic-mindedness.

At the impressive new $26 million high school—built after voters approved a levy by a three-to-one margin—students can get college credit not only for Advanced Placement calculus and physics, but also for professional-technical courses like engineering technology, recreation and tourism management, and anatomy and physiology. State-of- the-art robotics, plastics, and CAD (computer-aided design) drafting labs give students a taste of career possibilities that their parents never dreamed of.

Principal Donn Pollard, who’s been at the helm for seven years, talks about the sustained focus on a “culture of achievement.” Pollard says, “We started by asking, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if learning and success were the norm instead of something just a few kids do?’ We went to work on increasing attendance, providing a welcoming environment, communicating well, and creating a system of interventions when kids struggle. We’re asking kids to do more and they’re responding. But, we’re also offering them support.”

Part of that support is reorganizing the schedule so that half the lunch period is designated as a study hall. Some students take advantage of the time to do their homework; those who need to bolster their reading take classes organized around comprehension, fluency, or vocabulary. Students with the greatest needs are enrolled in Read 180, Scholastic Inc.’s comprehensive reading intervention program, in addition to their regular language arts block. In effect, they get a double dose of literacy instruction.

A 32-member site council—which includes parents and students as well as teachers and administrators—helped craft the literacy program. They’re working on a number of other issues, too, like improving parent involvement. Perhaps most notable, though, is that the group meets regularly at seven o’clock on Saturday mornings.

For South Lane School District, losing a little sleep is nothing to worry about when you’re building a community where everybody learns.

A Model Leader: Q&A With Krista Parent