Volume 7 Number 1
High Standards for All

 

Where Teachers Are Learners, Too

A deeply committed staff at Glenfair Elementary School scours the research relentlessly for ways to better serve a diverse mix of kids

Teresa Kralj, whose third-graders come to Glenfair from all over the globe, seeks to teach "the whole child."

Story and photos by SUZIE BOSS

Portland, Oregon— The books lining the shelves in the back of the classroom read like a hit parade of fourth- and fifth-graders' favorites. There are titles by Betsy Byars and Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl and Gary Paulsen. J.K. Rowling's young Harry Potter looks right at home among these classics — but there's something a little different about the cover. Instead of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone it says, in Spanish, Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal.

The book offers a clue about the bigger story unfolding here at Glenfair Elementary. And so does the wall outside the school office, where "welcome" is painted in Spanish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Romanian, and Chinese to greet the growing number of families who speak a language other than English.

Across the Reynolds School District, which stretches from the eastern edge of Portland to the western end of the Columbia River Gorge, the community is undergoing nothing short of a cultural transformation. Once solidly middle class and predominantly white, the face of the region is changing as families from Eastern Europe, Mexico, Central America, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world arrive here, drawn by an American dream that often begins with low-cost housing and entry-level jobs in the service economy. Since 1990, the proportion of English language learners (ELL) in the district has soared — from less than 5 percent to more than 20 percent. Classrooms at schools such as Glenfair are even more diverse, with about a third of the 550 students speaking a first language other than English. The school, built half a century ago to educate a homogeneous population of baby boomers, has come to resemble "a mini-United Nations," says Principal Anita Harder.

Those changes tell only half the story. At the same time that community demographics have been shifting, the Reynolds School District has been phasing in the most rigorous academic standards in all of Oregon. To graduate from Reynolds High School, students now must earn 27 credits (the equivalent of nearly a year's more study than the state-required 22 credits), complete an indepth focus on a particular career field, and demonstrate a high level of competence in a portfolio of work samples.

This vision of achievement is no distant dream. It's the new reality in a district that has elected to set a high bar, regardless of students' family circumstances or language fluency. The Reynolds High Class of 2001 was the first to face the new set of graduation standards. Of the 360 seniors, not one failed to complete the portfolio or finish the 27 credits required for graduation, reports Assistant Superintendent John Deeder.

"It's not an option to just pass kids through the system here," says Deeder, a 22-year veteran of the district. "We still have kids who struggle," he acknowledges. But after more than a decade of standards-based school improvement efforts, he adds, "we know more today about why they're not successful. And we know of more things we can do to help them in weak areas. We also know that teachers from K-12 are more connected. Elementary teachers can see that what they do is so important for kids to be successful later."

To keep students on track to complete high school, district teachers have invested years of effort to write Expected Outcomes that align with state standards, spelling out in detail what students need to know and be able to do each academic year.

The standards have proved such a powerful force for change in the Reynolds district that "if the state standards went away tomorrow," Deeder attests, "we'd still do this."

And what exactly does "this" look like? Glenfair Elementary offers a glimpse of life on the front lines of the standards movement. Here, staff members generally agree on the value of standards — but they struggle every day to find ways to help their students meet them.

Frantic Pace

To help her class of 30 diverse learners succeed, fourth- and fifth-grade teacher Andrea Daret knows it will take more than translating a few words of welcome. Research has taught her that students who are learning to speak English also need ample opportunities to read and think at the higher cognitive levels they already have mastered in their first language. So if it takes a Spanish-speaking Harry Potter to turn some of her students into lovers of literature, then she'll make sure he has a place on her bookshelves. And if it means working ever harder to find new ways of helping her students thrive, Daret will just keep pushing.

"It's a frantic pace," she admits on a morning near the end of the school year, "and there's no one magic model (for working with English language learners). It depends on your population, and that can change every year." Just the previous week, three new students joined her class — a common occurrence in a school with a high mobility rate.

Fortunately for Daret — and for her students — Glenfair is a school that doesn't duck challenges. A decade ago, the school embarked on an improvement process called Onward to Excellence (a model developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory; see sidebar for more details). The OTE process, used widely throughout the Reynolds School District, involves the use of data and research to drive decisionmaking.

At Glenfair, a reliance on research has become tightly woven into the school culture. Teacher Joyce Rosenau says that when staff members come to the principal with questions, Harder invariably answers: "Let's take a look at what the research says. Let's look for models that have been successful elsewhere. What might work here?"

Teachers have gradually adopted a similar attitude, says Rosenau, who also serves on a district K-12 committee on implementing the state's Certificate of Initial Mastery. "You don't hear complaints about standards here, but you do hear teachers having informed discussions about the best way to meet them."

Over the years, the research process has guided the school in adopting several programs, such as teaching higher-level thinking and life skills, and planning curriculum around integrated themes. Before any new classroom practice is adopted, Glenfair teachers investigate it thoroughly. One or two teachers will typically visit other sites where the approach is being used. They evaluate how it might benefit their students and also how well it would fit with their school's culture. Then, they return to Glenfair to share their knowledge with colleagues. Earlier this spring, Daret and third-grade teacher Teresa Kralj scouted a program being used with ELL students in the Forest Grove School District and hope to convince their colleagues that it will be worth introducing at Glenfair.

Functioning as this kind of active learning community means that teachers are often cast in the role of learners. At staff meetings and in workshops, teachers and administrators are constantly sharing information on topics they have investigated — ranging from brain-based learning to native literacy, from discipline to differentiated instruction. "That's powerful for us," says Rosenau, "to be able to sit and talk together in an informed way, comparing the research with our own experiences." But all this effort comes on top of the day-to-day demands of the classroom and the more subtle but steady pressure to help students meet state benchmarks.

If the task begins to feel insurmountable, a teacher like Daret can find inspiration in the eager faces of students who have traveled thousands of miles to reach her classroom. Four were born in the Michoacan region of Mexico and grew up speaking Tarasco, an indigenous language with no written tradition. There's a girl who wears the long braids customary in her native Russia, and several students who hear only Spanish at home. Sometimes they remind Daret of the first ELL student she ever worked with, back when she was still in college. "I was doing a community service project in a second-grade classroom. A sixth-grade boy was assigned there, and I saw him sitting alone with crayons all day. I was told that he couldn't do more challenging work because he didn't know English. That made me mad," she says, her eyes flashing, "and I began to do my own research."

She wound up becoming fluent in Spanish, traveling to Costa Rica for advanced language studies, and eventually getting an endorsement to teach English as a second language. Now eight years into her career as a teacher, Daret is happy to have joined the staff at Glenfair, a school she praises for being "kid-focused, not staff-focused." This is a school where "the staff is open to new things, where teachers genuinely want to learn," Daret says. In her own evolution as an educator, she says, "I try to keep thinking of the priorities of our kids. What will help them learn?" It's not an easy job, but Daret is quick to remind herself, "We (teachers) are not here for our own comfort."

The Sky is Falling

Minutes after the final bell sounds on a sweltering May afternoon, teachers make their way to a classroom on the side of the Glenfair building that happens to be air-conditioned. This choice of location for the staff meeting is no accident. Principal Harder is a leader known for keeping her cool — even when facing hot-button issues.

She starts by explaining the details of a summer renovation project that will involve, literally, taking the roof off the building. She doesn't mince words. "It's going to be messy, dirty, dusty," she says. And the timing is tough. "You're going to have to pack up your rooms. Take home anything you don't want to risk getting ruined." The preparations will have to happen the same week when teachers will be conducting parent interviews and finishing other year-end work. But there's a bright spot. Suggests Harder, "Think of this as your chance to do some major reorganizing."

"So now the sky is falling," sighs a weary-sounding teacher.

It can feel that way. Even Harder, who is credited with leading Glenfair through the ambitious improvement process that has boosted student achievement, acknowledges the "huge challenge" still facing her staff. "When a third to a half of your students start with a language other than English, how does that affect learning in the classroom? How will we meet the needs of this new group? Many of our most experienced teachers — our senior staff — have never confronted this before in their careers. It's an issue they've never had to face until now." On a personal level, Harder understands just how difficult language acquisition can be. "I've failed in my own efforts to acquire a second language," she admits. "So I have to also ask myself: Do I have the expertise to meet this challenge?"

What's more, the high mobility rate at Glenfair means that teachers are constantly embracing newcomers and bidding farewell to departing students. The staff works hard to build a feeling of community, to be welcoming. "But I worry about our teachers feeling exhausted," the principal admits. "One teacher told me she can't bear to say goodbye to one more child this year."

As if that's not enough, Harder and her teachers have been meeting weekly to make scheduling and programming plans for the coming school year. The principal is hoping they reach consensus soon. Then, grade-level teams can make plans for how they will use their blocks of time to offer flexible groups for reading, so that all levels of learners will receive the focused instruction they need to improve literacy skills, and struggling readers will be able to receive more intensive intervention to help them progress.

The staff also has been discussing broader themes — reexamining the beliefs the school adopted six years ago. Since 1995, Glenfair has seen a wave of teacher retirements and an influx of new faces. It's time, Harder believes, to revisit underlying school beliefs "and see if they still make sense."

One belief that continues to resonate with Harder is the value of building consensus before attempting change. By the end of today's staff meeting, for instance, the principal is not hearing the hum of agreement that she was hoping for on the scheduling issue. Glenfair teachers aren't shy about expressing strong opinions, and that means it can take time for them to come to an accord. Harder draws a robust laugh from the group when she says, "In keeping with our decision not to make decisions until everyone is comfortable, we'll wait to ponder this for another week. But in the meantime, be thinking: Would this new schedule help our kids?"

Teaching the Whole Child

After 22 years as a teacher, Teresa Kralj is hardly a rookie. But when she looks around her classroom and sees students from Russia, Romania, Albania, Somalia, and elsewhere in the world, she admits, "I feel inadequate. How do I reach all these kids?" It doesn't ease the pressure that Kralj teaches third grade, a benchmark year when her students will be tested and measured against third-graders from all across the state — many of whom have enjoyed advantages far beyond the reach of low-income immigrant families.

To teach students from such diverse backgrounds, Kralj uses classroom methods that include the arts to appeal to different modes of thinking, reaching different styles of learners. She focuses not only on academics, but also on teaching life skills such as effort, curiosity, patience, and perseverance. She constantly searches for ways to help students make connections between what they are learning in class and what they will need to succeed in the world beyond the school. "I want to teach the whole child,"she says, "not just the benchmark."

Kralj is eager to expand her classroom skills — which are already considerable. She was Glenfair's employee of the year for the 2000-01 school year. But even excellence isn't enough to get the job done today. "Teachers have to be willing to keep learning," she says. "Back when I did my teacher prep, we didn't study things like different learning styles, whole-brain research, and how students acquire fluency in English. We didn't even have the labels and terms yet to understand all these things. We just followed the textbooks."

Today, of course, she wouldn't consider planning her lessons around a single textbook. Instead, her instructional methods and choice of materials are based on the needs of her diverse students. The Expected Outcomes spell out what third-graders need to learn, but it's up to the individual teacher to select how to teach the subject matter. Like her colleagues at Glenfair, Kralj uses broad themes to organize her lesson plans and integrate subjects across disciplines. Pausing to admire a student's painting, she adds: "The kids are the same as ever, but they're dealing with so many new issues. And we expect them to learn so much."

But at Glenfair, teachers also expect much of themselves. Most of all, they expect that, when a fresh challenge arises, they will find a way to meet it. Between 1996 and 2001, a period that saw increases in diversity and mobility rates, the percentage of Glenfair students meeting or exceeding state standards in reading climbed from 57 percent to 83 percent for third-graders and from 50 percent to 69 percent for fifth-graders.

Some years have been better than others, and test scores plateaued or even dipped once or twice. But the general trend is powerful evidence of success. Staff members have gained the confidence to keep trying new approaches in the classroom, as long as the research is solid.

Around the corner from Kralj's class, speech and language specialist Sandy Garr is listening to an animated discussion among a dozen fifth-grade ESL students about why the Earth spins. The question came up a few days earlier in a discussion about seasons, and three students did independent research to find an explanation.

The active discussion reminds Garr of the value of a program called Instrumental Enrichment (IE) that she helped introduce at Glenfair two years earlier. Developed by an Israeli psychologist, IE teaches basic cognitive functions — the "how" of thinking. Rather than focusing on a particular content area, the program targets more overarching concepts such as problem-solving strategies. In essence, says Garr, "It gets you unstuck in your thinking."

Garr first introduced IE to a group of special education students, who improved their impulse control as a result of improving their problem-solving skills. With staff support, Garr wrote a grant for books and materials to introduce the program to mainstream classes. Now it's taught in grades three through five, and is proving especially beneficial for students who are learning English. Nearly every fifth-grader in the room, for instance, met reading benchmarks this year.

Andrea Daret's students devote an hour a day, four days a week, to IE. At first, she worried about taking so much time away from specific content instruction. But as she learned more about the program, she was won over by its success in teaching the thinking skills that will lead to success in all subject areas. IE worksheets open the door to discussions about such important concepts as similarities and differences, or understanding the criteria required to complete a specific task.

"What if you don't know the criteria?" Daret asks her students.

"Big trouble!" says a fourth-grade boy. "Then you won't know how to solve the problem."

Daret reminds her students to think "beyond these worksheets. These papers alone won't get you anywhere. But learning how to figure things out, understanding the criteria — that's a skill that will help you in real life."

At Glenfair Elementary, learning "how to figure things out" is a task that the entire staff has taken on. After a decade of standards-based reform, the criteria are clear. The challenge is huge. But as students continue to arrive from far-flung places and different life experiences, they find a community where learning is an ongoing task for everyone — teacher, student, and principal alike.

 

Respond to this article

|