Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
Middle school leaders cite strategy for students' AYP turnaround
Martinsville Middle School Co-Principals Cynthia Tarpley and Zeb Talley discuss the factors that helped the school make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this spring. (Bulletin photo by Paul Collins)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
By PAUL COLLINS - Bulletin Staff Writer
Martinsville Middle School made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this spring, after not doing so the year before, by finding out and meeting students’ individual learning needs, according to the school’s co-principals.
AYP, one of the cornerstones of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, measures year-to-year student achievement on Virginia Standards of Learning tests in reading, writing and math, according to online information.
Co-Principals Cynthia Tarpley and Zeb Talley cited various factors in the middle school making AYP this year.
For one thing, they made sure teachers were teaching the curriculum as specified and that assessments or tests were covering what was being taught, Tarpley said.
Also, she said, MMS uses what is called Response to Intervention. According to online information, the purpose of RTI is to identify students who need extra help and to make sure they get the right amount of instruction or intervention needed to succeed.
Testing all children helps identify who may need extra help. Then, teachers and staff choose materials and methods of instruction for each child needing the extra help, according to online information. Students’ progress is monitored and instructional methods and materials are changed as needed, according to online information.
All children do not learn at the same level and the same pace, Tarpley said. “We have to meet them where they are,” she said.
The school also “raised the bar” for what was expected of students academically, Talley said. For example, students were required to score at least 80 percent when tested in any subject, and those who didn’t were required to receive remediation/tutoring, according to Talley and Tarpley.
The co-principals also visited classrooms, where they observed teachers and asked students to articulate what the learning objective was for that day. If students couldn’t do that, chances are they were not learning, Talley said.
When that happened, the teacher was coached on how to be more effective.
Various support staff and facilities were available to help students, such as a reading specialist, instructional coordinator, tutoring center with a certified teacher, computer lab and many types of classroom instructional technology, according to Tarpley and Talley.
Building positive relationships between educators and students was stressed, partly in hopes that if students knew teachers cared about them, they would work harder to achieve. Teachers would do such things as talk to students, let them and their parents know they believed in the students, take students to movies or out to eat, or play ball with them.
The results were amazing, Talley said, adding, “We had students coming to teachers asking for help.”
“Students took ownership and wanted to do well,” and teachers encouraged that, he said.
The school also encouraged mentors from the community to work with students.
Teachers contacted parents by phone, e-mail, home visits, mailings and note cards, and their lessons were available on their web pages.
The school gave students plenty of positive reinforcement, recognizing them for such things as academic success, good attendance, being on time, helping teachers and good behavior, Tarpley and Talley said. The rewards were such things as snacks, parties, recognition programs, 30 minutes of free time each week and coupons.
An emphasis was placed on hands-on learning, such as discussions and projects, because research shows that students learn best by being engaged in learning, compared with lectures only. Tarpley said that even for an adult audience, about 20 minutes is the most a speaker can generally hold one’s attention. And a teacher who lectures for the entire class period will likely have discipline problems, Tarpley said.
The school administration also made it clear to teachers and students that failure was not an option.
Students were required to do their assignments, period — even if they had to be called to the school office to talk to one of the co-principals or to complete their work there. No zeros were allowed.
Attendance also was a focus. If students aren’t in school, they can’t learn, Tarpley said. “We wanted them here every day,” Talley said, adding that if necessary, someone from school would go to the home to pick the child up.
MMS was “a school without barriers,” as Talley put it, in the sense that all students could take higher-level courses. And the remediation/tutoring programs at the school offered a safety net, Tarpley said.
Reading was emphasized through summer and school-year programs in which students were required to do a certain amount of reading, and by integrating reading in all subject areas.
The school made AYP in spring 2008, but not in spring 2009, so school officials felt the school could make AYP again in the 2009-2010 school year and accepted no excuses, especially when they heard of other schools with demographics similar to MMS’s making AYP, according to Talley and Tarpley. Sixty-nine percent of the students at MMS are on free and reduced lunch, and the city has a high unemployment rate, they said.
The co-principals also said credited such things as schoolwide teamwork and support from the school system administration.
Talley said educators at MMS tried to instill a mind-set in students that if they worked hard, they could achieve.
Performance of students at all academic levels increased, Talley said. “No child truly was left behind,” he said.
.jpg "104")
