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Four Omaha elementary schools were selected to receive grants totaling nearly $2 million over five years to help improve student achievement.
The schools will examine multiple fields of data by race and gender in an effort to pinpoint factors that might contribute to low scores in math and reading.
For example, the schools will find out how many students of each race and gender were most often suspended and why, and then try to determine the suspensions' effect on achievement.
"How can we tweak, if necessary, or totally overhaul what we're doing?" said Decua Jean-Baptiste, principal at Franklin Elementary School, 3506 Franklin St., one of the four schools.
The National Education Association Foundation awarded a $1.25 million grant, $250,000 renewable annually, to the schools. Susie Buffett's Sherwood Foundation will match up to half that amount, or $625,000.
The NEA grant was available to large school districts that at least had an NEA-affiliated union and enrollments in which half the students qualified for free and reduced-price meals.
Castelar, Highland and Field Club are the three other Omaha elementary schools participating in the program.
Those four schools were selected because administrators and teachers already have shown they work together to make decisions, said Chris Proulx, president of the Omaha Education Association, the Omaha Public Schools teachers union. Proulx chose the schools along with Carolyn Grice, an OPS administrator in the student and community services department.
Collaboration between administrators and staff members is a key aspect of the grant. Proulx also said input from community groups, including the Empowerment Network and Communities in Schools, helped Omaha get the NEA grant.
The four schools also have similar populations, according to data from the 2010-11 school year: At least 85 percent of their students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, an indicator of poverty; about a quarter of the students are learning English as a second language; and about one-fifth of each school's students attended two or more schools last school year.
The four schools also have groups of students that typically score below their peers.
For example, 32 percent of Franklin third-graders were proficient on the 2011 state reading test. About 14 percent of the school's black third-graders scored proficient on the same test. By comparison, 58 percent of OPS third-graders scored proficient on the state reading test.
By January, teachers and administrators at the four schools will conduct an "equity audit" that will help them decide what to emphasize over the next five years, Proulx said.
Typically, when schools examine achievement data, they hone in on the subject data, he said. For instance, administrators and teachers might look at state math scores and see that many students scored low on one aspect of the test, such as the algebraic concepts.
In addition to giving staffs more time for data analysis, Proulx said, the grant will let the four schools examine data not directly related to the academic tests. Such data include attendance numbers and the number of students from certain groups that were referred to special-education teachers.
"You miss that component if all you look at is just straight math data," Proulx said.
Maybe some students regularly act up during math class because they struggle with math and would rather spend time in the office than in the classroom, he said.
"There's always multiple factors," Proulx said.
The length of the grant — five years — also sends a signal to the schools to invest in a long-term, sustainable plan.
"It gives you some accountability, but it also gives you the freedom to work toward your goals," said Jean-Baptiste, the Franklin principal.
Schools too often feel pressured to look for quick fixes, Proulx said. They get their state test scores in the fall and do things that will bump up scores by spring, the next time the tests are given.
"When you're getting beat up over your test scores, you just kind of get into that reactionary mode of, 'What do we have to do to get this test score to change?'" Proulx said.
"The problem to me is test scores are then deemed to be the end-all, be-all — that's what matters. But student test scores don't equate perfectly to student learning. It's easy to learn something, pass a test and forget it."
School staffs will determine specific areas on which to focus after poring over the data.
The grant money will be used to pay for extra staff time, any consultants the schools might decide to hire and a consultant team that will manage the grant.
"At the end, the goal is to put teachers in a role that's going to give them more decision-making," Proulx said. "The more involved the teachers are in the decision-making process, the more they own the actual final decision that's reached."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1074, jonathon.braden@owh.com
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