District Administration - November 2009 - (Page 77)

Advertisement Urban, At-Risk Arizona District Sees Success Spread from School to School The Success for All program drives sustainable improvement in the Alhambra Elementary School District The program is also demonstrating positive affects in n the Alhambra Elementary School District in Phoenix, success is infectious. That explains why almost all the Alhambra’s middle school classrooms. In its second year of schools in the at-risk district have adopted Success for using Success for All, one middle school saw a 20 percent All, the research-proven reading program developed improvement among ELL students, a subgroup whose results had been stagnating. by the non-profit Success for All Foundation. With its evidence of sustainable school improvement and “Some of our schools have been Success for All schools for some time,” says Mara Wayland, the district’s assistant commitment to continuous staff development, Success for All meets the criteria for stimulus superintendent of academic services. funding through the American “As those schools saw huge successes, Recovery and Reinvestment Act. more and more of our schools have “You really are a true partner with gravitated toward it.” Success for All,” Wayland says. “They Thirteen of Alhambra’s 14 Title I continue to look at the latest research schools have adopted Success for All, and update the program based on using the Reading Roots program in that. The training is ongoing. You primary grades, Reading Wings in have a point person who attends your upper elementary, and the Reading leadership meetings and monitors Edge in middle school classrooms. data with you.” This year, the primary grades The Success for All approach introduced the new Reading Roots 4th is based on a cycle of effective Edition, which incorporates the use of instruction that includes direct interactive whiteboards as a powerful teaching; cooperative learning in instructional tool. “The lessons really which students work as teams, but come alive,” Wayland says. are individually accountable; and Wayland first came to admire formal and informal assessments. Success for All 13 years ago, when By constantly monitoring student she began implementation of the progress, teachers and administrators program in the school where she “If we were going to invest, can use data to guide instructional was principal. The same qualities we wanted something we decisions and to plan interventions. that attracted her to Success for To Wayland, Success for All is All then still hold true today. “We knew would work.” much more than a reading program. examined a lot of programs, and “I call it a staff development program what set it apart was that it is based on solid research,” she says. “They were getting results, and in disguise,” she says. “The student engagement strategies and the results were replicable. If we were going to invest, we the cooperative learning strategies in Success for All permeate the classroom all day long. Scores in other content areas go up wanted something we knew would work.” Wayland credits Success for All with driving consistent when you are a Success for All school.” improvements in student achievement at the schools in her district. “We are, indeed, seeing huge gains, especially in For more information please visit www.successforall.org. the primary grades,” she says. A primary school in which 95 percent of students receive free lunch and 72 percent are English language learners met the difficult standards for an “excelling” school—Arizona’s highest category of achievement. In that school, 87 percent of students met and exceeded standards in reading, compared with state averages in the 70 percent range. www.DistrictAdministration.com November/December 2009 77 I http://www.successforall.org http://www.successforall.org http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November 2009

District Administration - November 2009
Contents
Advertiser Index
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Facilities & Construction
Stimulus Monitor
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Mobile Learning Guide
The New Writing Pedagogy
Staying Ahead in Education
Tightening the Purchasing Process
Minding Your E-mail
New Books
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Problem Solution
New Products
Professional Opinion
Crisis Response

District Administration - November 2009