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Burke County Principal Believes in "Changing Schools, Not Children"

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When Burke County Principal Teresa DeHart accepted her first principalship, she didn't ask a lot of questions about the school to which she'd been assigned. It didn't take long for her to discover that the elementary school had only $45 in its account, few central goals and performance (47 percent at or above grade level) that placed it at the bottom in the county and low performing in the state. To top it off, the school didn't have an assistant principal for the first two years of DeHart's tenure.

Within five years, Oak Hill Elementary in Morganton had re-earned its rural community's respect. In 1998-99, Oak Hill Elementary had moved from last place to third place in Burke County with 86 percent of its students at or above grade level. There were no achievement gaps among different demographic groups in the school and the attendance rate was 96 percent. To top all these achievements, the school was a regional winner of the prestigious National Blue Ribbon School award from the US Department of Education.

DeHart's success did not go unnoticed in Burke County, and soon, education leaders in the school district had moved her to the principalship in another school with challenges: Mountain View School. Mountain View School has 73 percent of its population receiving free or reduced price lunch, a 57 percent minority population, is a Title I school and has a large immigrant population that is in transition from the Laos Hmong culture to Hispanic. Mountain View did have 59 percent of its students at or above grade level, but its challenges were significant.

Since moving to Mountain View, DeHart has continued her successful record. The school over the past couple of years has posted two years of exemplary growth and one year of expected growth in student achievement and has no gap in achievement among demographic groups. Approximately 87 percent of students are performing at or above grade level. The school now has some dynamic new programs – English as a Second Language Night School, an Afterschool Homework program, a partnership with HUD in Morganton (landlord for many of the school's families), a safer school environment and multiage grouping for reading instruction.

What has Ms. DeHart learned from her experiences at these two schools? Although the challenges facing each school were different, similar approaches were successful in each.

The first thing, DeHart says, is to "stop trying to change the children and try fixing the schools that fail them." DeHart frequently quotes national reading and school improvement expert Richard Allington's sentiments as well as the following motto: "Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it."

Here are the key strategies that DeHart uses to help her schools achieve:

Set goals and keep them visible.
At Oak Hill Elementary, DeHart made a poster and hung it outside the school office. It showed where the school's performance ranked in the county and where they wanted the school to rank. The same type of poster was employed at Mountain View when she moved there.

DeHart relates nearly every activity and decision to how it will help the school reach its goals, and she talks about this with staff, parents and students whenever possible.

Provide structure and coordinate efforts.
When every teacher is doing his or her own thing in isolation of all others, many good things might be going on, but each of them may be aimed at different goals. Schools need common goals, schedules and measures. Within these commonalities, teachers still have room for individual style differences and approaches.

Involve staff and students in decisions that matter.
It is important for teachers to have appropriate input into major decisions affecting the direction and functionality of the school. At the same time, principals also need to be leaders who provide targets and challenges for faculties to meet.

Students are involved in setting goals for their learning. DeHart meets with each student in her school to discuss his or her progress and to set goals for their progress that year. As a result of this process, DeHart personally knows each of her 225 students' names and test score information.

Organize services efficiently.
At Mountain View Elementary, because of the needs of the students, many teachers used to spend a great deal of time and resources providing social work services. While many of these services were important to students and their well-being, teachers needed to be freed to teach academic material. Through partnerships with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, stronger ESL and Exceptional Children's programs, FUTURES grant monies, and more structure and organization in the school day, less time is spent on non-academic issues.

Students who are at risk of school failure need as much time as possible on academic tasks – not less. As a Title I School, Mountain View Elementary uses its reading resource teachers to organize school-wide reading lesson models. Reading groups are multi-age groups and they are not pull-out groups. Students across grade levels have reading group times at the same time each day, and every teacher has responsibility for reading groups. That includes ESL and resource teachers as well as traditional classroom teachers.

The Title I reading specialist spends about one-half of her day working directly with students during their reading group times and the other half of the day working with other teachers who need demonstration lessons, modeling of strategies and other help.

Look for help.
Reach out to the community for resources to help meet your school's overall needs. DeHart is a commissioner with the local Housing Authority, a position that indirectly helps her work with her students and their families because many of them are housed in buildings managed by the Authority. Use volunteers from United Way agencies (Big Brother/Big Sister, for example), churches and other faith-based groups and other community resources.

Watch the clock.
DeHart and other leaders at Mountain View scrupulously look at the school day schedule to ensure that distractions from instruction are kept to a minimum. "We must better organize schools to capture every minute of instructional time," DeHart says.

Make safety a priority.
Mountain View Elementary is in a neighborhood that has more than its share of safety issues. To help ensure that students and their parents feel secure and safe, DeHart has put a buzzer on the main entrance and visitors must "buzz" and be identified before they can come in the school. DeHart, who continues to maintain her school bus driver license, personally drives students home from special events at the school in the evenings to be sure they make it home safely and bolster parents confidence.

Have high expectations for all students.
DeHart clearly bristles when others assume that "her students" won't achieve at a high level because of their socioeconomic status or race. It is important, she asserts, that students understand that you expect excellence from them. These expectations are reinforced during goal-setting for students and the school and even in the way students refer to their homes. DeHart carefully coaches her students not to say they live in "the projects" but to give their proper street address.

Contact information:
Mountain View Elementary School
Teresa DeHart, principal
106 Alphabet Lane
Morganton, NC 28655
828-437-1584 phone
828-437-3879 fax
tpdehart@yahoo.com

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