Whole-School Reform:

Onward to Excellence

"Excellent but isolated teachers" is how one observer described the teaching corps at Lowndes Middle School in rural Valdosta, Georgia, just a few years ago. Though teachers were working hard into the evenings and on weekends, from the isolation of their separate classrooms they couldn’t help the school overcome its biggest challenges: students’ low test scores and teachers’ low morale.

In 1998, a state evaluation study revealed several key problem areas, including instructional programs that were textbook-driven, a top-down administrative approach that left teachers and other stakeholders out of important decisionmaking, and poor communication practices. The school was told it would need to implement a schoolwide reform model.

Within a year, Lowndes received a $150,000 Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration grant from the federal government and, after studying many reform models, chose NWREL’s Onward to Excellence II. The OTE II model, they said, was right for their needs because of its flexibility and emphasis on broad collaboration between the school, community, and parents.

Developed in 1983, and revised in 1999 to incorporate new knowledge about effective schoolwide reform strategies, the OTE II model helps elements of the school community to work together to set goals for student achievement, use research and data to inform decisionmaking, and build capacity for continuous improvement.

The process involves a series of workshops and follow-up assistance over a two-year period. In the first year, the school community develops a school profile, establishes performance goals, maps school curriculum with state standards and assessments, uses research to inform decisionmaking, and develops plans and strategies for implementing school reform measures. In the second year, the emphasis shifts to implementing planned, research-based classroom and schoolwide practices; supporting staff during implementation; monitoring process; and preparing new leaders and identifying steps to ensure that improvement continues.

"Today, our challenge is helping schools to show 'adequate yearly progress', a mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act," says Jim Kushman of NWREL’s School Improvement Program. Along with Program Director Bob Blum, Kushman oversees the OTE II work that’s going on across the country. In the past 20 years, the OTE II model has been implemented in about 1,000 schools, and evidence shows it to be a reliable tool for effective and lasting schoolwide reform.

At Lowndes, students’ test scores soon began improving, as did teachers’ morale. "It empowered us to have a voice in decisionmaking in our school," says teacher Jacqueline Crawford in an informational video the Laboratory has produced.

Says Becky Young, the school’s OTE II site facilitator: "Lowndes Middle School went from sort of being the black sheep in the county, to being something that got bragged about."

To find out more about Onward to Excellence II, visit the Web site, www.nwrel.org/scpd/ote. For a free information packet and video, Onward to Excellence: Making a Difference in Schools, call 503-275-9615.