No More Revolving Door, Part 3
Old Hands at Planning

The CSRD funding and planning process supports Grout's school-improvement efforts. But it's the staff, under McCullough's leadership, that really drives change. "It's an extremely cohesive staff, extremely accustomed to working in small groups," says G.M. Garcia, an Oregon Department of Education Distinguished Educator who supported Grout in the CSRD application process. "The notion of planning, to them, was not a new thing," agrees Moilanen.

Every Grout teacher belongs to at least one committee-literacy, math, or discipline. "We talk about the concerns and issues the whole staff has, we'll come to some consensus in those committees, and then go back and talk about it again with the staff," says McCullough. Once a program is put in place, it is continually re-examined and refined.

"They work together for kids," says McCullough of her staff. "They're willing to give up a personal interest if that helps the school as a whole."

Other schoolwide initiatives have sprung from the staff's ability to reach consensus. They've agreed, for instance, on a structured system of infraction slips and detentions for rule breakers. Well-behaved students get rewards. A teacher on special assignment runs an alternative classroom where severely disruptive students are placed temporarily or permanently. "Our instruction time was getting eaten up," says David Snyder, coordinator of the Motivation Station. "So we decided as a staff to create this program. If the teachers have problems with a student, they send them to me and I work on solving those problems."

From year to year, teacher to teacher, homework at Grout is due in the same format and on the same day of the week. All students have the same notebook and system for organizing their work. Students who have not finished homework on time must do it at "the opportunity table" during lunch hour.

"I was not gung-ho on it, but once again I was proven wrong," says second-grade teacher Kris Amling, who initially doubted students would do the homework. "They really are returning it every day."

Admittedly, schoolwide policies and practices may detract to some degree from teacher autonomy. But at this school, consistency for kids comes first. "There are many combination families, and many of our parents work shift jobs," says McCullough. "You want to support them because you want them to support their kids. You can't do it if you keep changing the expectations and rules."

Grout's staff pursue school improvement with dedication, not dogma. Everything is up for discussion. "You don't make an assumption that this is good or this is bad," says McCullough. "You talk about it and you really look at it. It's from everybody's best thinking that we have the program that we do."

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