BTO SUCCESS STORY: PERALTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Many schools are tempted to try one program after another to increase student academic performance. Peralta Elementary School in Phoenix recently discovered the wisdom of sticking with a good program, making it better and better. In the most recent school year (2008-2009), Peralta improved its AZ LEARNS designation by two levels—from “underperforming” to “performing plus.”

 

It took dogged effort over two years, a dedicated team, and a strong and steady principal.  

School Overview

When Mary Kay Radavich became principal of Peralta Elementary School (Cartwright Elementary School District) in fall 2007, she faced numerous challenges:

          The school had received an “underperforming” AZ LEARNS designation for two consecutive years.

          Many teachers were overwhelmed by their workload and the pressure of turning around the school’s “underperforming”

          label.

          The school has a predominantly low-income, minority student population.

As a first-time principal, her work was cut out for her.

 

One of the things working in Principal Radavich’s favor was the school’s participation in the Beat the Odds School Partners Program. The program, based on research by the Center for the Future of Arizona, helps K-12 principals with predominantly low-income and minority student populations implement research findings and practices that have led to better than expected individual student achievement.

 

“I learned that in order to get results I had to be action-oriented and willing to embrace learning by doing,” she said.

 

The school began its turnaround effort by creating a clear bottom line—goals that everyone in the school could understand and support. The staff developed a school mission, vision and values.

 

Other important actions included:

 

          Creating interventions to help struggling students

          Tracking every student’s individual data

         

          Taking steps toward using data in collaborative teams

 

“We began to see small changes and improvements in our students’ data,” Principal Radavich said. “We celebrated every step of the way.” It was a major blow when the school received an “underperforming” label for the third consecutive year.

 

“I know that some of my staff weren’t completely convinced that we could actually make a difference,” she said. “Getting the ‘underperforming’ label again reconfirmed what some were already thinking, but challenged the rest of us to forge ahead.

 

“We knew we were beginning to do the right work, around the right things, with the right tools,” she said. “We knew we had to stick to it, so we allowed ourselves to be disappointed but then returned to celebrate the small gains that we had in all areas in grades 3 – 5 as measured by AIMS.”

Enhanced Tactics

During the second year, the school’s staff continued to track individual student data, use common assessments and develop its data analysis skills.

 

“We discovered that many of our students had significant gaps in their learning that kept them from being successful in reading,” Principal Radavich said. In response, the school designed “built to suit” programs that provided intensive intervention for students in grades K-5. 

 

Further data tracking showed that the school had begun to close the gap and was ahead of the national average for rates of improvement as measured by AIMSweb benchmarks.

 

They also developed SMART goals for reading, writing, and math; involved students in their data; and began posting data and monitoring progress. They continued to group and regroup students to provide every opportunity for learning. 

Two Big Changes

The biggest difference in the second year was in the school’s culture. The staff shifted its focus from teaching to learning—from intention to results. Also, rather than focusing on improving instruction one teacher at a time, the school focused on building and sustaining a collaborative culture.

 

A team of 11 Peralta teachers visited a school with high-performing collaborative teams to see successful instruction modeled in the classroom. “Teachers were using the same strategies in the same way,” Principal Radavich said. “They were teaching the same thing at the same time and using similar instructional methods. Students were responding similarly in different classrooms.”

 

Applying the new practices was difficult, however. “It is hard to shift teacher accountability from the individual classroom to all students in the grade level,” Principal Radavich said.

 

“I worked hard to find a balance between pressure and support to ensure teachers felt safe in taking risks in their own learning,” she said. “I celebrated frequently with my staff and recognized their attempts and hard work. I model what I value and consistently reinforce our clear bottom line.”

 

“We understand that change is not easy on teachers,” she concluded, “but at Peralta, communication, collaboration and learning take precedence over comfort.”