School Profiles [By Request... September 2001]

Wyoming

Location
Afton Elementary School (K-6)
175 E. 4th Ave.
P.O. Box 8002
Afton, WY 83110
Contact
Alan Allred, Principal
Phone: (307) 885-8002
E-mail: aallred@silverstar.com

Description

Afton Elementary is a small, rural school with a big reputation. A K-6, targeted assistance Title I school with fewer than 400 students, Afton is known within the state for taking risks and piloting new programs. And for getting amazing results. During the 1993-1994 school year, Afton was part of a districtwide audit conducted by Idaho State University. The audit showed that students were doing well in math, but lagging behind in reading. As a result, raising the reading performance of all students became the main school reform goal at Afton. The solutions came from research.

According to Principal Alan Allred, "We don't do anything that isn't research-based." Beginning with the question, "What can we do differently to help our students?" Allred and his staff studied a variety of interventions over a two-year period, and came up with several different, but connected, strategies.

One answer was the "push-in" model for students in special education and Title I, and the "full-inclusion" model for more seriously disabled students. By "pushing-in" these students, rather than pulling them out of the main classroom, Allred hoped to foster greater collaboration between the entire staff and student body.

The change was gradual, but persistent. When a new special education teacher came to the school about the same time the reform process started, Allred asked her to start with the push-in model. According to both teacher and principal, he shared the research with her, offered suggestions and support, and generally said, "Go ahead and make it work."

Allred admits that change can be more difficult for established staff members. When they initiated the new program in the 1994-1995 school year, the principal sat down with each teacher one-on-one during planning time and explained to the more reluctant that there was no choice-they were making the changes for the kids. He also emphasized to each teacher that student performance was a schoolwide concern, one with implications that went beyond any single school year or testing period. "You stand on the shoulders of the teachers before you," Allred says.

Although the full-inclusion process was painful at first, staff members say, it is going smoothly now. Not perfect, always changing, but definitely working. Having paraeducators and special education and Title I teachers all working within the same classroom setting has helped create what Allred calls "a culture of unity" at Afton. Collaboration has become so strong at the school that, as one staff member pointed out, "It's difficult to identify who are the teachers and who are the aides." The result has not been confusion, but higher student performance.

A second school reform strategy came about through the school's media center staff. The Accelerated Reader program had been shown to improve student reading performance in a wide variety of schools throughout the Northwest. At Afton, Accelerated Reader was first introduced as a self-contained library program. Teachers soon became interested and decided to look into Reading Renaissance, the full-classroom program of which Accelerated Reader is a part. With full support from the principal, both in the acceptance of new ideas and the willingness to reallocate resources, the staff was eventually able to implement Reading Renaissance schoolwide. The success of the program is another testament to the open exchange of ideas between the entire staff and the principal at Afton, and their willingness to take risks.

A third strategy started in 1997, with an increased emphasis on phonics in grades K-2. This has recently been supplemented by the kindergarten's discovery of the SRA Reading Masteries program, a systematic early phonics program based on 20 years of research. The teachers were initially skeptical, due to the scripted nature of the program, but in true Afton spirit, and with an eye toward the research, they were willing to give it a try. They began piloting it in the past year and teachers are already reporting astounding success for all their students. Skepticism toward the program has given way to enthusiasm. "You couldn't pry it out of their hands with a crowbar," Allred says. The program now extends into the first grade, providing the consistency and collaboration so prevalent at Afton.

Another key factor in Afton's success has been the increase in parent and community involvement. A small, agriculture-based town, Afton is a close-knit community that takes great pride in its schools. Afton Elementary has made every effort to tap into that spirit, encouraging parents to volunteer at the school and to attend programs during the day and the evening. Parents are involved in the school governance team and the PTO. They are also involved in committees focusing on school improvement, staff development, facilities, at-risk/gifted students, and school climate. Volunteers have been recruited to help with the improvement of reading performance. The community helps fund a variety of programs within the school. As Allred notes, "Even though most of the parents work, there is a great deal of support both at school and at home."

Professional development has also been a critical strategy in Afton's success. Much of the school's staff development centers on teachers planning with their grade level, as a staff, and with their instructional support teams, as well as collaborating to implement the "full inclusion" process. There are also inservice times scheduled for late-start each month for two hours, two full days before school starts, and two additional days during the year. In the past, inservice time was focused primarily on math, but recently it has shifted to the reading programs and the use of new technology resources. In addition, each teacher in grades 1-6 has 40 minutes a day of preparation time while students are in music, library, and/or P.E.

The importance that Afton places on research and new ideas is also reflected in the many conferences school staff members have attended. Teacher/staff teams frequently go as small groups to see other schools in the state, as well as to conferences such as the Nashville Accelerated Reader Conference, the National Title I Conference, the International Reading Conference, and National Science and Math conferences held in the Northwest region. They also attend technology inservice sessions in Wyoming on a regular basis.

The use of technology has played a critical role in Afton's success. The Computer Curriculum Corporation's "SuccessMaker" software program is used in the library's computer lab, and according to Allred, "is a very important piece in the overall strategy for filling in the gaps of students that might otherwise have been missed." CCC came to the school and worked with each staff member one-on-one.

In addition, each classroom has at least one Macintosh, and there are several more in the media center. The Macs are used, among other activities, for the administration of comprehension tests, an important part of the Accelerated Reader program. The entire staff also uses the PowerSchool program to keep track of students. It's clear that the staff and administration at Afton are as willing to try new technologies to help their students as they are to try new ideas.

One of the most important factors in Afton's remarkable success has been the development of Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) for every student in the school. This insistence on an individualized approach is consistent, Allred says, with the full-inclusion model. Every student is treated equally within the classroom, but every student is also treated as an individual with specific needs. Without the parent and community involvement at the school, Allred notes, this individualized approach would be much harder to carry out.

Allred also draws attention to both the state and district support of the school's coordination of funds. Afton takes the idea of reallocation of resources "to the limit," by combining Title I, special education, district, and school site funds in a variety of ways, to support everything from instructional programs, to professional development, to books and other materials. The school also takes advantage of outside funding as much as possible, as evidenced by a recent Extended Learning grant to support students after school.

The success at Afton is apparent on many levels: the percentage of students reading at or above grade level has increased from 62 to 78 percent; the media center's book circulation has doubled; 47 percent of the school's Title I students place out of the program due to increased achievement. On a recent CTBS/McGraw-Hill National Education Report, Afton's third- and sixth-graders showed scores "significantly above average" in nearly every category and demographic. Afton was also the first school in Wyoming to receive the Reading Renaissance Model School Award, and Allred was named a 2000 National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP).

While Afton has not implemented a specific comprehensive school reform model, or received any additional money, the school has developed its own schoolwide plan that shares many characteristics with those models. The unofficial motto, "Comfort the Disturbed, Disturb the Comfortable," gives some indication of the independent spirit that drives the school reform process. And others are starting to take notice. As Allred says: "Success breeds success. At first, Afton teachers were visiting other schools around the state and region, now other schools are coming to Afton to see what we are doing." What they are seeing is a small school with a big heart, doing a lot of things right.

Location
Corlett Elementary (K-3)
600 W. 22nd
Cheyenne, WY 82001
Contact
Stuart Nelson, Principal
Phone: (307) 771-2420
E-mail: NelsonS@Laramie1.k12.wy.us
Web site: http://www.laramie1.k12.wy.us/schools/corlett/corlett.htm

Description:

Four years ago, Corlett Elementary Principal Stuart Nelson took a good look around his school and decided the time was right for a change. In the five years he had been at the school, he had tried to make changes, including taking his Title I program schoolwide, but there were still some major problems. Student performance and staff morale both seemed to be as low as when he started. The 60-year-old building in central Cheyenne seemed to have a stigma attached to it. No one seemed to want to talk. No one wanted to take field trips. Teachers and families wanted out of the school. With 40 percent or more of the families coming from the local Air Force base, there was a high mobility rate that seemed to result in a fatalistic attitude-how much can we do with these kids when they move through so quickly?

With four different superintendents in Nelson's first five years at the school, the administration seemed almost as mobile as the students. It was hard to get consistent support for changes. But Nelson felt that the newest administrative change didn't have to mean more of the same. The schoolwide project had put some good things in place. They just needed one more big push.

Nelson sat down with his entire staff and asked them what they thought was the single most important area that needed help. Math and reading were both mentioned, and the consensus was that improving reading skills had to come first. They set that single goal and went looking for answers. Nelson, along with the other Title I principals in the district, had already been researching a wide variety of reading intervention programs. Corlett decided to go with a relatively new program, the Collaborative Literacy Initiative Project (CLIP), which had shown great results in Tempe, Arizona. Based on many years of study by literacy expert Marie Clay, CLIP is designed for first-graders. As a K-2 school with a high mobility rate, Corlett needed a program that brought kids up to level early and quickly. CLIP seemed like a good match. The first year, Nelson sent two teachers through CLIP training. At the end of the second year, five more were trained.

Several years before, Nelson had read an article in Principal magazine about "thinking outside the box" to bring change. Ever since, he had been thinking about how to alter the instructional schedule at his school to lower class size and find more staff planning time. Although rescheduling was not, at first, a popular idea at the school, he decided the implementation of CLIP was a good time to try it.

By arranging to have teaching specialists for art, music, and P.E. all come in the afternoon (going to another school in the morning), taking greater advantage of the educational assistants, and moving to block scheduling, Nelson was able to achieve the two goals at once. First, this allowed each grade level team 30 minutes of planning time every day. Second, they were able to set aside 40 minutes of reading time every day with a class size of only seven.

Every 40-minute session during the reading block, one-third of each class stays with the teacher. Another third works at the computer lab using the Jostens program to work on specific reading skills. The final third works on writing, either at the writing-to-read lab, or at the library writing center. At the end of each day, every student has spent 40 minutes at each station, including a very focused session with his or her teacher in a class of only seven students. At first, Nelson says, the teachers were resistant to rescheduling, but after seeing the results and how it frees them up, they would never go back.

These changes started to bring immediate results, but there were still problems. The CLIP program was working wonders, but was limited to the first grade. The second-grade students in the bottom quartile needed more help getting up to level. After more research into reading programs that would augment the CLIP program, Corlett decided to follow the lead of the Tempe School District and the suggestion of CLIP and implement a Guiding Reading program for every grade. The entire staff went through a two-day training, given by a CLIP trainer, combining the Guided Reading techniques with CLIP lessons and terminology. Eventually, they also added NWREL's Six-Trait Reading method to their repertoire. With the whole school now using the same strategies and common language, things really began to take off.

Now into their fourth year with these changes, the results have been dramatic. Nearly every child at Corlett is now at or above grade level in reading. But the changes are deeper than that. By building off their success in reading perfor-mance, the entire school has seen a turnaround. The increased planning time, and the meaningful use of educational assistants and volunteers, has led to vastly improved staff satisfaction. The improved reading performance led the staff to the idea of integrating reading, and similar strategies of teaching, across the entire curriculum. As a result, math, social studies, and science have all shown improvement.

Another big change has been parent and community involvement. As part of the implementation of new programs and scheduling changes, the school was determined to bring parents into the process. After the first year, eight low-performing students had learned to read. "The parents of those eight children," Nelson says, "became our biggest supporters the second year."

Before the changes began, teachers were defensive about the low performance levels at the school, and there was a subtle feeling of discouragement toward parent visits and involvement. The success of the reading program created the opposite effect. Staff members felt proud of their accomplishments and wanted to share their excitement. Building off this, the school pushed forward with more parent-oriented activities. Every month, there is now a social event connected to an education program. Teachers and students alike have worked to show the parents some of the specifics of the CLIP program, Guided Reading, and the Six Traits of Reading method, as well as many other instructional programs at the school. Field trips are now common and encouraged, the PTO is stronger than ever, and community involvement, through contributions, partnerships, and volunteers, has increased dramatically. "When the school is willing to admit mistakes," Nelson say, "and to genuinely seek input from parents and community, only then do you gain that much-needed community buy-in."

The turnaround at Corlett has been remarkable and is only getting stronger. The increased use of technology has helped implement programs more effectively, including frequent assessments that offer kids the individual help they need, when they need it. Running Records of reading skills, for instance, are given on a daily basis to at least one student, and teachers submit monthly and quarterly reports to the principal. The majority of school funds continue to be focused on specific goals, such as the purchase of leveled books, which build off past successes in a logical way. The school integrates Title I, II, VI, and VIB special education funds toward resources that improve the entire school, with teachers playing an important role in how the money is spent. With only eight full-time teachers, collaboration and teamwork are a definite strength at Corlett. Staff meetings are generally held during noontime, and both parents and classified staff are encouraged to attend and give their input.

The biggest outcome of the reform process at Corlett, Nelson says, is that "the stigma of the '60-year-old school in downtown Cheyenne' has been taken away." The surest sign is the pressure now coming from the district office and other schools for training, tours, and information. "There's always someone at the school now, observing," he says. That is perhaps the biggest testament to the perseverance and commitment at Corlett Elementary.