A Celebrated School Gets to Show Off
By Kristen A. Graham, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Jan. 12–Although she came to Philadelphia yesterday to spotlight the accomplishments of one remarkable school, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings was also confronted with the challenges of urban education.
Spellings, whose first stop was at M. Hall Stanton Elementary in North Philadelphia — where students have shown dramatic improvements in test scores — also met with educators, asking what they see on the ground floor.
“We’re not educating kids at the U.S. Department of Education — you all are,” said Spellings, education advisor to President Bush when he was Texas governor.
Stanton math teacher Christina Taylor said she worries about how new teachers are trained.
“Teachers don’t come out of college ready to teach in North Philadelphia,” said Taylor. “They student-teach in Northeast Philadelphia. They student-teach in the suburbs.”
Paul Vallas, chief executive of Philadelphia schools, chimed in, saying that the district was attempting to lure more student teachers to the city with an incentive program, and that about a third of those who student-teach end up working for the district.
Barbara Adderley, Stanton’s principal, asked Spellings to consider tweaking the federal No Child Left Behind act — which just hit its fifth birthday — so that talented teachers who didn’t currently meet the “highly qualified” benchmarks set by states could demonstrate competence in some other way.
“Maybe the recommendation should come from us, that these people should keep their positions,” Adderley said.
“Are you willing to have that teacher evidence her achievement through real-life student achievement data?” Spellings asked the group, earning nods.
In an interview, Spellings said schools around the country needed to pay attention to and replicate what Stanton was doing.
“It’s getting your best people in your challenging places — that’s what is happening at Stanton, and that’s what needs to happen in a whole lot of other places,” she said. “Frequently, we have our most experienced, most skilled educators in our less-challenging environments and vice versa.”
Philadelphia is receiving $20 million, one of the largest federal grants from the U.S. Department of Education, to set up an experimental merit-pay program over five years.
The program has been blessed by the district’s teachers’ and principals’ unions, and will involve a pilot likely to begin in the fall. Extra money will go to teachers at 20 struggling elementary schools who help students succeed.
The second key piece of Stanton’s success, Spellings said, is the focus on data and customization of instruction that is the school’s hallmark.
“They chart everything. Every single day, they know exactly where every kid in that school is, and they get them help immediately when they need it,” Spellings marveled. “They also use that information to improve the teaching.”
Although there is no controlling legislative schedules, Spellings said, she was hopeful that the landmark No Child Left Behind law would get reauthorized.
“I am cautiously optimistic that we can get it done this year,” she said.
Although there will be some tweaks to the law, the main provisions of yearly assessment, data broken down by category, and grade-level performance in reading and math are bedrocks.
“They’re righteous and they’re here to stay,” said Spellings. “I’m a warrior about it.”
She was especially pleased with Stanton, where 86 percent of the students come from low-income families. Over four years, the number of fifth graders scoring at the highest level — advanced — soared from 1.2 percent in math and reading to 42.1 percent in math and 29.8 percent in reading.
The school’s initial jumps were so large that the district verified them by having some students retake the tests.
The halls of Stanton — bright with student work and notes on how pupils are progressing — were abuzz over their guest. Spellings honored student Kaitlyn Lindsay and parent Theresa Addison with the President’s Volunteer Service Award. Kaitlyn volunteers weekly at a nearby nursing home and Addison has worked at the school daily since 1989.
After Spellings left Stanton, sixth graders Malik Walker and Rafik Johnson said they were pretty impressed with the secretary.
“It was nice of her to visit,” said Malik, 11, who received a giant trophy almost as tall as he is for scoring at a level of advanced proficient on both sections of his state assessment test. “She has all the other schools in the whole country she could have visited.”
His friend Rafik, also 11, had a perfect score on the math section of his state test and also earned a trophy.
Spellings seemed nice, he said, but the most jaw-dropping thing was her physical presence.
He was impressed by Spellings’ visit — and also by her presence.
“She was tall,” Rafik said. “She doesn’t look tall on TV.”
For an Inquirer story on Stanton, go to http://go.philly.com/stanton
Contact staff writer Kristen Graham at 215-854-5146 or kgraham@phillynews.com. To comment, or to ask a question, go to http://go.philly.com/askgraham.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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