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Here's How Five Treasure Valley Schools Are Working to Meet Goals, Improve Student Test Scores and Maintain Classroom Success

Posted on: Thursday, 26 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Anna Webb, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Jan. 26--Les Bois Junior High

Boise School District

Students: 908

Grades: 7-9

Low-income students: 22 percent

English language students: 4 percent

Adequate yearly progress 2004/05 school year: Missed goal in reading for low-income students.

The picture last fall: Les Bois fell short of state standards when it came to reading goals for low-income students. At the same time, the school was having great success in math. It was in its second year of "Accelerated Math," which is a remedial program to help students without strong foundations in math sharpen up their skills.

What's happening now: "Les Bois got the highest ISAT math scores in the Valley last fall," said Principal Coby Dennis. In one year, scores rose from 80.5 percent of Les Bois students proficient in math to 88.4 percent. The Accelerated Math program is the secret, said Dennis. It's the sister program of the Accelerated Reader program used in elementary schools. The school's focus on math has become part of the school's academic climate, said Dennis. Staff, teachers and parents are all aware of the school's attention to math.

Sonya Feller's son, eighth-grader Zackarie, has been in the Accelerated Math program for two years. The program involves lots of repetition, said Feller, and Zackarie doesn't have to move to a new chapter until he's mastered a math concept.

"It's getting him back on track with his grade level, it's allowed him to work at his own pace, and he loves math now," said Feller.

Goals for the future: The Les Bois staff now plans to build on its math success to help all students -- including those from low-income homes -- do better in reading. The staff is meeting Feb. 3 to lay out a strategy for low-income reading for the 2006-07 school year.

"We obviously know we have an issue with our free and reduced reading scores," said Dennis, "though they're close to being proficient."

What school officials want you to know about Les Bois: Dennis is proud that Les Bois was the first Boise school to implement ParentCONNECT a couple of years ago. The Web-based program lets parents check on their children's grades and attendance 24 hours a day.

Lewis & Clark Middle School

Meridian School District

Students: 984

Grades: 6-8

Low-income students: 25 percent

English language students: 11 percent

Adequate yearly progress 2004/05 school year: English language students did not meet math expectations.

The picture last fall: Lewis & Clark's English language students did not meet state expectations in math. The school had a plan for extra instruction, including teachers using classroom prep time to help students with their language skills.

Math and language teachers also were focusing on specific skills. For example, English department chairwoman Debbie Bennion was trying to help students raised in a visual society develop a taste and understanding for written narratives. Students would mark passages for discussion or vocabulary words. In math, teacher Sherri Roberts was trying to help her students wrap their brains around fractions and decimals.

What's happening now: Principal Dennis Keogh said the school is using new computer software that emphasizes skills tested on the ISAT, as well as a test-prep learning program from the Idaho Digital Learning Academy. Another strategy is having students who have not reached state-standard levels of proficiency in reading give up an elective class to focus on reading skills. Keogh said as many as nine different languages are spoken at Lewis & Clark, including Arabic, Uzbeki, Spanish and French. He's recently hired new teachers and aides who speak those languages.

Goals for the future: The school will focus on getting students learning English up to proficiency, but Keogh said that won't be at the expense of other students including high-achievers. For example, the Meridian district has decided that all middle schoolers must study pre-algebra by the time they leave eighth grade, beginning with those students now entering sixth grade.

What school officials want you to know about Lewis & Clark: Keogh wants to invite everyone to the school's international dinner, 6 p.m. today at the school. "Our cultural diversity is our richness," said Keogh. The evening will include food and music from the cultural groups that make up Lewis & Clark, including Bosnian dancers and more.

Jackson Elementary

Boise School District

Students: 330

Grades: K-6

Low-income students: 60 percent

English language students: 20 percent

Adequate yearly progress 2004-05 school year: Met all expectations

The picture last fall: Jackson was meeting state expectations and 75 percent of its third graders were reading at grade level. The school had challenges outside the standardized testing realm -- working with a high number of students on free and reduced lunch, which is one indicator of poverty, as well as a student body with 20 percent English-language learners. The school's goal last fall was to help families tied to the school learn English and build closer ties with the classroom.

What's happening now: The school started a new program this semester -- offering free evening English classes at Jackson for non-English- speaking parents, said Principal Rob Winslow. Becky Moore, Jackson's English Language Learner instructor, helped put the program together, partnering with Boise State to provide instructors. About 15 parents and adult family members of elementary students have been meeting twice a week to hone their language skills.

Moore said the Jackson school community speaks nine languages besides English, and the program has allowed parents to help their children with schoolwork and understand information sent from the school.

"The class will help give parents lots of confidence to pick up their children's books, to be curious," said Moore, adding that lots of non-English- speaking parents have been to college or have professional training and can benefit from small bits of information and an understanding of school operations. Moore said many class participants are parents of first-graders. Parents and their children are learning basic vocabulary together.

Goals for The future: The school will continue to build on activities involving parents, Winslow said. This spring the school will host a workshop so parents can take learning materials home to work with their kids. Spring 2006 ISAT scores, said Winslow, also will help determine Jackson's future projects and focus.

What school officials want you to know about Jackson: "If the bond passes, we're one of the schools Boise is looking at closing," said Winslow, "so everything our PTO buys, needs to be movable." The school is focusing on technology in the classroom, in particular, smart boards -- giant computer screens that make chalk boards and white boards obsolete. "If you're doing a unit on weather," said Winslow, "you can show a one-minute video about clouds on a smart board with a single touch."

Snake River Elementary

Nampa School District

Students: 510

Grades: K-5

Low-income students: 96 percent

Diversity: More than 50 percent hispanic

Adequate yearly progress 2004/05 school year: Missed state expectation in several areas:

-- Math, special education

-- Language, schoolwide

-- Reading among Hispanics, students learning English, low income and special education.

The picture last fall: Just under half the school's third-graders were reading on grade level. The school was also missing state expectations in language skills schoolwide and falling short in special education math and reading among a number of subgroups, including Latinos. The Nampa district started reading intensives in the fall, devoting more of the school day to reading.

What's happening now: Snake River is still doing interventions for students failing to meet reading goals, said Principal Nancy Chopko. The school's special education and Title 1 teachers and its limited English proficiency coordinator are working to figure out which kids need extra services. Students who are not reaching proficiency are getting 45 minutes to an hour of reading time beyond other students. Some students also get a half hour each day for language enrichment, including oral language practice and vocabulary.

Reading specialist Shirley Reyna said activities cover a wide range of word-related activities, including fluency, or "reading in a natural and fluid way." Students with reading "fluency" can pay attention to what they're reading, rather than how they're reading it." Students in second-fifth grades struggling in math also get up to 30 minutes a day of extra help.

Most of Snake River's students come from low-income homes, so teachers have extra responsibilities, said Chopko, including providing life experiences and vocabulary. For example, the school has organized a weekly "mystery vocabulary word" project. Fifth-graders write the clues for younger kids. Those kids hear a different clue each day before guessing the word at the end of the week.

The school also houses the Even Start program, an educational program organized with Boise State for parents and their children, as well as a full-day kindergarten for at-risk kids so they can stay at school and learn while their parents are at work.

Goals for the future: Spring IRI tests will tell Chopko and her staff more, she said. The school's goal is still to improve reading scores and there are bright spots on that front. In 2003, 44 percent of all Snake River students were proficient in reading according to the ISAT. In spring 2005, that percentage had risen. Seventy-two percent of the student body as a whole was proficient in reading, which met the state target. Still, subgroups like Latinos, students learning English and others are not meeting proficiency in reading, which means the school isn't meeting standards under No Child Left Behind legislation.

What school officials want you to know about Snake River: Chopko said the Nampa district has a "maintenance bilingual program." If a student arrives at Snake River from a Spanish-speaking home, teachers teach that child in Spanish until the end of first grade when they're gradually integrated into classes taught in English.

The thinking is, said Chopko, that people only learn to read once, and it's best to have that foundation in their native tongue. The difficulty comes when schools have to administer tests in English.

Joplin Elementary

Meridian School District

Students: 410

Grades: K-5

Low-income students: 8 percent

Adequate yearly progress 2004/05 school year: Met all expectations.

The picture last fall: Joplin met all state expectations last fall. Sixty-seven percent of the school's third-graders were reading on grade level in 2005. Joplin was continuing to help its students sharpen their verbal skills with timed readings that chart how many words a child can read in 60 seconds.

Another strategy for strengthening word skills was to focus on spelling. Third-grade teachers started working with a new idea -- spending two weeks rather than one on a spelling list, learning how words are used, rather than just how they're spelled.

What's happening now: The school is continuing its strategies from last fall, said Principal Judi Taylor, who said the "brain jam" also is part of the school day for kids in grades K-3. Kids go to the gym and do a mix of physical and academic activities, for instance, spelling words as they toss balls back and forth. "It helps students use both sides of the brain at the same time," said Taylor. Studies have shown that linking spelling and math skills to physical activities helps cement them for students.

Joplin also has been offering extra help for students who score low on the fall or winter Idaho Reading Indicator. Joplin also has started sending reading binders home with first-graders so parents can help them sharpen reading skills.

Camille Miller, whose son Carson is a Joplin first-grader, said working with the binder has become a normal part of the family's day. The binders include stories to read, as well as reading aloud, writing activities and short tests.

Since Carson is the youngest of five, said Miller, "whoever is available does homework with Carson." The school also has been good about sending test information home, said Miller, including sample test questions for practice so parents can help their kids experience a little test anxiety.

At Lara Marler's house, reading binder, or "red book" activities take around 10 minutes a day. She likes that the stories her son Adrian reads in the binder emphasize word families -- for example, words that contain a "sh" sound, or words that rhyme, and that there are activities for comprehension, not just reading and spelling. Marler said Adrian's reading homework from school has helped him develop the habit of reading signs, of pulling shorter words out of longer ones, and even mixing math with his reading and spelling.

For example, he was writing "monkey" one day, said Marler. He wrote the word in two parts, "mon" and "key," then explained to her that "three letters plus three letters equals six letters."

Goals for the future: The state has set a goal for 85 percent of its third-graders to be reading on grade level by spring, and the Meridian District has set the bar even higher, at 90 percent. Taylor admits the goal is "lofty."

"We're holding our breath," said Taylor. "It will be hard for third grade, but we should be close to the 75-80 range."

What school official want you to know about Joplin: The school is focusing on teaching through technology and has a smart board, or large, interactive computer screen, in each hallway for teachers to use.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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