Second-grade teacher Patricia Calhoun helps Kayla Hunter with computer-based lessons designed to help her understand words in the context of a story.
Could This Happen to You? W
hile Southside Primary has had the substantial benefit of special funding through both the Alabama Reading Initiative and the Alabama Reading First Initiative, its successes can be duplicated when school boards and superintendents take certain key steps: u
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Choose your principal wisely. Above all, it takes an instructional leader at the helm to transform a low achieving school. Such principals will understand that they must know the instructional program as thoroughly as their teachers, both to be equipped to help teachers and to monitor teachers’ performance, said Dallas County Reading Coordinator Gwen Carrington. “You must know what’s going on in the classrooms, know what to look for, see those red flags and know how to target and work with those teachers in getting the job done,” she said. For example, one of Southside Principal Melanie Wright’s strongest traits is that she is always learning, Carrington said. “She is the lead learner. When teachers see that, they’re more giving of themselves.” It also takes a leader skilled at juggling tasks as varied as balancing the budget, making sure the building is clean, dealing with the cafeteria and monitoring teacher effectiveness. “Reading is just a small part of the day (for the principal),” Alabama Reading Initiative reading coach Patricia Redd said. Plus, the principal must be skilled at balancing the performance monitoring with cheering the staff on. “You can go overboard either way or be lax either way,” Carrington said. “I have seen principals completely turn the majority of the faculty off. Instead of buying in, they shut down.” Provide a reading (or other subject) coach. Coaches allow struggling teachers to seek out help without fear that doing so will make them look weak or incompetent in the eyes of the people evaluating them (i.e., the prin-
18 Alabama School Boards • August/September 2005
cipals). That clear separation of responsibilities does wonders for making staff members feel comfortable about asking for help, said Tonya Chestnut, also an ARI principal coach and Dallas County’s former Title I coordinator. u
Honestly assess your current commitment level. Determine whether your system is putting its resources — money and staff — into the areas the test data show students need to improve, Chestnut said. “Every decision needs to be data driven. You have to ask, ‘Are we doing this because it’s something we want to do or because the data show this is something we need to do?’ A lot of times, they’re not making that connection,” she said.
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Revamp teachers’ on-the-job training. As part of assessing your commitment level, determine whether (or how much of) the professional development teachers receive is truly tied to shoring up specific skills that the data show are weak, Chestnut said.
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Recognize effort. A key part of keeping a reform effort alive is building enthusiasm at the school level and recognizing both effort and results, said Assistant State Superintendent for Reading Dr. Katherine Mitchell, one of the architects of ARI. For example, when the Brewton schools’ faculties attended ARI training several summers ago, they were shipped off for three weeks in three different locations. But the school board sent all of its trainees a care package and later honored their successes, Mitchell said. “They just stand out. It really is a systemic kind of effort if you want to sustain change.”
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Expect hard work every day. The board and superintendent should set the standard that teachers will put in a full day’s work five days a week, said Southside reading coach Allison Kelley. “That’s Monday through Friday, not Monday through Thursday. Reading goes on every single day,” she said.