One district’s pathway
to success: The Othello School District Story
Stories
are a powerful thing. They remind us of
who we are, what we believe, where we came from and where we are going. This story is one of change. It tells how a small school district located
in a rural farming community of Eastern Washington made changes to
significantly increase student achievement in reading and mathematics despite
many overwhelming obstacles. We are the
Othello School District and this is our story.
District Context and
Demographic Factors
Located
in central Washington, the Othello community is commonly recognized as the
“Heart of the Columbia Basin.” Othello’s agricultural value comes from the 60
crops and over half the nation's French fries that are made from potatoes grown
in the area. The Othello School District currently enrolls 3,655 students of
which 82 percent are Hispanic.
Additionally, 79 percent of the students qualify for free/reduced lunch
count. While being centrally located in
the state, it does pose challenges of mobility for students. Current trends find Othello to be growing
with student enrollment increasing the needs for more programming and space for
classrooms. Most of the growth has come from indigenous Mexicans commonly known
as ‘Mixtecos’ whom speak their own dialect related to Mayan.
A Need For Change
McFarland
Middle School was one of the first schools identified in the state of
Washington as a “School in Improvement.”
It was, in a word, heart-breaking. We believed that the teachers were
working hard. We believed that students were learning. And we believed that our
community, although silent, appreciated the work that we were doing. We were
disappointed with the reality. Although it was true that our teachers were
working hard, we were not working together and we were not focused on our
students’ needs.
As
we surveyed students, parents, teachers, and staff the results deepened the
heartbreak. The students didn’t feel like they had teachers who cared. The
community didn’t feel welcomed in our school, and the staff didn’t feel that
others were working as hard as they were working individually.
The
findings at Othello High School were equally disheartening. Data from a variety of sources showed that we
were not moving towards meeting the requirements for Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP) as defined by the Washington State Office of Public Instruction
(OSPI). There was a significant
achievement gap between our Caucasian and Hispanic students, 50 to 70 percent
of our students did not feel there was an adult on campus with who they had a
strong connection, and a third of the staff felt that our students could not
succeed in passing the reading, writing, or math sections of the Washington
Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).
Albert
Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results. As a
school district we realized that if we wanted different results for our
students, we needed to make some changes.
And so the work began.
Change One: Multiple
Perspectives
Early
on it was determined that multiple perspectives were needed to facilitate
change. This would require inviting not
only department chairs and administration, but also teachers, staff, community
members, and students to participate in the process. At the high school the School Improvement
Plan (SIP) team initially consisted of department chairs who were assigned to
attend the meetings. This team was
disbanded and a standing invitation was extended to all staff members to become
participants. This allowed
representation of invested staff from a variety of content areas, which in turn
created an environment of respect and rich discussion leading to action.
Community
members were actively recruited to serve on the team and students were given a
voice by inviting a changing panel of students representing the socioeconomic
demographics of the student body. The
student panel continues to meet periodically with the SIP team to engage in
conversations on topics relevant to both staff and students, such as the school
environment and the reasons for dropping out. These student panels have become
an invaluable resource, and are the inspiration behind some of the SIP team’s
most successful changes to OHS.
McFarland
Middle School followed the same course.
The School Improvement Committee was formed and chaired, not by
administration, but by one of the teachers.
Weekly meetings were scheduled and anyone could be a part of the
committee which followed the norms outlined for equal representation of content
instruction, grade level, and regular attendance.
Change Two: Teacher
Leadership
At
the onset of the improvement process McFarland faced the challenge of a change
in leadership which left much of the administrative responsibilities to the
assistant principal who was already dealing with a very full schedule. Seeing a need, teachers stepped up to help
carry the load. Smaller committees were
formed to work on the specific goals of academic improvement, improved culture
for students and staff, and improved communication with parents and
community. As changes in administration
have taken place, teacher leadership has continued to grow. Currently teachers
chair committees more frequently than administrators. Teachers train teachers
with new strategies, and teachers take the lead in training new staff members
on the process and use of professional learning communities.
The
high school also realized that true sustainability is achieved through having
teacher leaders; that it is important to provide opportunities for staff to
grow and develop into leaders, and that individual initiative should be
encouraged and supported. A staff book
club was started by one of the history teachers, Learning Improvement Days
(LID) feature professional development by teachers, and three staff meetings a
month are reserved for teachers to lead their fellow staff members in
developing new strategies and skills.
Both schools have realized that our best resources and solutions lie
within each one of us.
Change Three:
Collaboration
Seeing
the need for collaboration, both schools incorporated the Professional Learning
Communities (PLC) concept. The PLC
concept allowed for team meetings on a regular basis to discuss student needs
and upcoming events such as school-wide assessments, conferences, and
grading. These PLC meetings continue to
help foster ownership of classes, teams, and school as well as build a sense of
belonging for all members of the school.
If
you were to visit Othello High School today, you would be taken into a variety
of classrooms and encouraged to speak with students about their learning. This open door policy is a result of PLCs
which have allowed teachers to share data, create common assessments, align
curriculum and ask each other, “What are you doing that is causing your
students to achieve?”
Another
collaborative program incorporated is the BERC Group’s STAR (Skills/Knowledge,
Thinking, Application, Relationships) Framework for Powerful Teaching. Through
the STAR program teachers were given the opportunity to visit different
classrooms within the district and view fellow educators in action. Instructional practices in a Kindergarten
classroom could be solutions to challenges faced in secondary classrooms. Instead of having six to eight other teachers
to collaborate with, there were now over one-hundred.
In
addition to PLCs and STAR walks, instructional coaches were incorporated as a
resource, support and an instructional partner.
Having an instructional coach enabled teacher to have individualized
professional development.
Change Four: Culture
Both
schools saw the need to move from a “principal or administrator’s school” to
one in which teachers, students, and community were invested. At McFarland Middle School this meant the
adoption of an open door policy. Parents
and community members are invited to visit the school at any time to observe
what is happening in the classroom.
Administrators regularly visit classrooms to observe and collect data on
instruction and learning.
At
Othello High School the goal was set to provide opportunities for students to
invest themselves in school activities, and to feel that there are adults who
care about them as a person. A Club
Fair, Super Student Assemblies, and the Freshman Assembly are some of the ways
in which OHS is working toward this goal. The Club Fair, held at the beginning
of each school year, introduces students to the many school clubs available and
provides peers to answer any questions.
Super Student Assemblies honor students who exemplify traits such as the
willingness to put forth effort and the desire to change and a Freshman
Assembly at the beginning of each year introduces incoming students to support
staff, administrators, and teachers.
Parents and community are invited to participate.
Change Five: Focus
Many
believe that a secondary school’s main task is to get as many students
qualified for graduation as possible. We
used to think that too, but we have come to realize that it is not our end
goal. Our goal is to enable each of our
students to leave us being college and career ready. This goal cannot be met by administrators or
teachers alone. It requires a
partnership between educators, students, and community.
And The Story
Continues
While
academic gains have increased at the high school and middle school, the
improvement has been systemic. Reading,
Mathematics and Writing scores show continual gains with occasional dips that
remind us of the need to be focused and deliberate in our efforts.
The
story of Othello School District will never be done because it continues to
have new chapter written every day.
Looking at the past, present, and future we believe the following:
- Admitting there is a problem is the first step to solving the problem.
- There is an abundance of valuable resources available within each of us.
- The focus must reflect the true mission.
- Embrace the uncomfortable nature of change because the results are worth it.
In
the words of musician Robert Cushing, “The fact is that to do anything in the
world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold
and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.” In the Othello school district we live by
these words thought our daily actions.
Authors:
Dr. Miguel A. Villarreal- Othello Assistant Superintendent
Denise Colley-Instructional Coach, McFarland Middle
School
Tamara Deford-Instructional Coach, Othello High School
