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New chief of schools improved grade gaps
(Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (IA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 20--WATERLOO -- Gary Norris implemented a flurry of initiatives to boost academic achievement during four years as superintendent of Florida's Sarasota County School District.
Norris is promising to continue Waterloo Community Schools' focus on raising achievement when he takes the helm July 1 as its new superintendent.
In many respects, the two districts are on parallel tracks as they address achievement issues. But Sarasota County stands out for its full embrace of technology in the classroom.
The district spent $15 million last summer to put ActivBoard technology in all classrooms for its 42,000 students. It also provided training so teachers could effectively use the devices.
The interactive white boards are equipped with software that allows for both writing and manipulating images on the screen. Students use wireless hand-held devices that allow them to simultaneously respond to a teacher's questions. And they include video capabilities.
That caught the eye of the Waterloo Board of Education members who visited Sarasota County before Norris was hired.
Board member Lyle Schmitt called the ActivBoards' use the "best integration of technology and staff development" he has ever seen.
"It was really putting all the pieces of the puzzle together," he said. "You're maximizing technology, and students are still learning the basics."
Board member Mike Kindschi said teachers can use the features to determine "who's participating, how well they're understanding the subject."
Caroline Zucker, vice chairwoman of the Sarasota County School Board, said the new technology is impacting student achievement there.
"The addition of technology -- having ActivBoards in all of the classes -- and providing the training that goes along with that, that has made a huge difference in how teachers teach and how students learn," she said. "It's definitely engaging more students."
Both Waterloo board members expect Norris to look at possibly bringing such technology into all classrooms here.
"I think the district does have something similar to this, but we're not using it to its full potential," said Kindschi. "It's not in every classroom yet, but that would be one of our goals -- to get this technology in every classroom."
"We do have that technology, we just don't have it widespread," said Tony Sparks, Waterloo's technology coordinator.
Two other brands of interactive white board -- Smart Board and Mimio Interactive -- have been purchased for limited use at five new or remodeled elementary schools. The district is continuing to expand its use of the Mimio brand.
"We're putting three in every middle school real soon, one for each grade level," said Sparks.
Schmitt and Kindschi said some or all of the hardware and software could be paid for with revenues from the 1 percent local option sales tax and physical plant and equipment levy funds. These funds are generally used for the district's construction and building maintenance needs now.
"The technology is used as a tool," said Schmitt. "It's easy to install technology."
What may be more difficult is training teachers to integrate it into their classrooms. Money for that would come out of the district's general fund, where dollars are tighter because of shrinking enrollment.
"Obviously, there's some funding issues that will have to be looked at," said Kindschi. "I don't know how we will be able to work this into the budget."
Performance praised
The two board members were also impressed with other attributes they saw in Norris.
Kindschi cited "the way he's able to bring people together and get everybody on board." He believes that has allowed Sarasota County to address "what he and the board and administration feel are the biggest needs."
"The performance record of the district was one of several observations that caused me to think he was the best for Waterloo," said Schmitt.
Sarasota County has increased 12 of 21 possible grade level state rankings in reading, math, writing and science during Norris' tenure. The other rankings decreased or stayed the same. In addition, the number of district schools receiving A or B grades from the state is up 1.1 percent to 91.4 percent, although one high school moved from a C to a D in 2007.
Norris said the state's grade level ranking and school letter grading systems look at the number of students proficient on the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test and other annual growth measures.
The district has also seen overall achievement growth on the FCAT, the standardized test Florida uses to measure school progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Under that measure, the number of district schools making adequate yearly progress has grown from 30.3 percent in 2004 to 49 percent in 2007.
The percent of students achieving proficiency in reading, math, writing and science has increased at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Between 2004 and 2007, most proficiency rates have increased between 4 and 8 percent. The lowest increase for students overall was 1 percent and the highest was 15 percent.
"They've improved the low-achieving student even more," said Schmitt, in reference to achievement gaps faced by district minority students. The achievement gap for black and Hispanic students, the district's largest minority groups, has been narrowed in seven of nine categories between the different subjects and grade levels.
Candace Dearing, principal of the district's Phillippi Shores Elementary School, said she is beginning to see those gains among minority students.
"It hasn't been as visible on standardized tests as what we'd like to see," she said. "I'm beginning to have a smaller percentage of my African-American students that falls within the lower quartile of my test scores, which is good."
"Especially in elementary and middle school, we've seen significant increases in student achievement," said Norris.
"We have not grown as much in the high school area as I would have liked to have grown," he added. "We believe that this year we are going to see some of those high school scores go in an upward direction. All of our scores have essentially gone upwards, but the most significant gains have been for our minority students and our students on free or reduced-(price) lunch."
Norris said it took a "comprehensive, balanced approach" to accomplish Sarasota County's achievement gains.
Waterloo Community Schools has seen a trend of growing proficiency on its standardized tests during current Superintendent Dewitt Jones' tenure. That is true whether black and white or low-income and other students are being compared. As in Sarasota County, achievement gaps have been narrowed but are still significant.
Engaging students
Norris said striving for "an active, engaged classroom supports better and usually creates better student achievement" and has been key to Sarasota County's improvements.
"One of our main focuses has been using data to inform instruction on a daily basis," he said, noting in the past the data would get analyzed at the end of the school year. Collaborative planning by teachers during the work day has allowed them to look at the data throughout the year and analyze smaller parts of it. Teachers also give students benchmark assessments to measure progress.
"By laser-focusing instruction on those state standards that the district is farthest behind in and by laser-focusing on those students who are farthest behind is how you raise those test scores," said Norris. "Don't be teaching the topic if they already know it."
He added, "The actual how-to of better instruction is what the teachers do in these collaborative planning sessions."
Data analysis is already a standard practice in Waterloo's schools. Data teams regularly examine testing information and use it to determine teachers' instructional focus with their class or specific students.
Collaborative planning has also been introduced in Waterloo.
"We are getting more and more into collaborative planning in our district," said Debbie Lee, Waterloo's secondary curriculum coordinator. "The middle schools have been doing a lot with collaboration the last couple years." In addition, it is happening with some types of lessons at the high schools.
"The research is out there that says collaborative planning is definitely getting better achievement results," said Lee.
Norris said Sarasota County also uses the Performance-Based Diploma, a computerized system, to assess struggling students' weaknesses and help them catch up academically.
"It's what they know, not how much seat time they had," he said. "That has led to the increase in our graduation rate and a decrease in our drop-out rate."
For a number of years, Waterloo used a different computer-based program called Fast ForWord to help struggling students. Lee said the program has since been phased out because it didn't provide enough improvement for students.
Another change implemented by Norris was including a 90-minute reading block in the school day, and training teachers how to use the time.
"They go through a very structured approach to teaching reading," said Norris. "It's very prescriptive, and teachers have embraced it for the most part. And they can see the huge differences it makes."
He said staff development has been key to all of the initiatives that have been put in place.
"The way you accomplish any of those things is by making sure you provide teachers with ample staff development, ample professional development."
Teachers received four days of paid professional development before Norris arrived. That has since been doubled to eight days, adding about 30 hours.
Providing professional development has also been important in Waterloo. Denise Schares, the district's director of professional development, said such training is provided during a portion of teachers' three contract days prior to school starting and one day at the end of the year. Two full days -- one in the fall and one in the spring -- are also devoted to professional development.
First- and second-year teachers are paired with mentors and spend two hours a month going through the district's mentoring and induction program. A credit program is also offered for teachers and administrators providing 15 hours of training in certain subject areas.
Schares noted "specialized professional development" is also provided for teachers during the school day or after classes. In addition, a variety of professional development is provided weekly on Wednesdays, when students are released an hour early.
"Some of the training that has been provided for the Waterloo teachers is right along the lines of some of the training that we've done here in Sarasota County," said Norris. "So, I think the important message is, it's not going to be wholesale or radical change. It's not going to take that. The achievement has already been happening in Waterloo."
With new tools and training, Norris hopes to help Waterloo move to the next level when it comes to increasing achievement.
However, he added, "This is not a one-size-fits-all plan that Gary Norris has." Norris is in Waterloo through the early part of this week to meet with officials and begin assessing district needs, the first of several visits. Some district staff members are also expected to visit Sarasota County.
"I may have the opportunity to bring a couple of the key Waterloo people here to observe what we're doing and help me understand the work that's already been done in Waterloo," said Norris. Then they will look at "the additional work that we all believe we should tackle."
Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.
To see more of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.wcfcourier.com/.
Copyright (c) 2008, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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