Calling on HOPE To Jumpstart Reform
by Alan Blankstein
School Administrator; Oct2010, Vol. 67 Issue 9, p44-44;
Payne Elementary School did not like its designation as the lowest-performing school in Wichita, Kan. Three years later, Payne, as well as the entire district, has dramatically improved its achievement levels.
Payne has shed its label through students' double-digit percentage improvements on the state's reading tests (soaring from 48 percent to 92.5 percent since 2007). Gains in math were comparable, and achievement gaps were closed. Hispanic students' test scores surpassed those of their Caucasian counterparts in several subject areas.
Principal Donna Simpson attributes these major gains to her school's adoption of the six principles described in the award-winning book Failure Is Not an Option®, now in its second edition. She also discovered useful guidance at HOPE Foundation conferences and on-site academies over several years. "I liked the messages, thought processes and principles they talked about," says Simpson, Payne's principal since 2006. "HOPE also showed us how to look at things, not what to do."
The Wichita Public Schools brought in HOPE (Harnessing Optimism and Potential through Education), a School Solutions Center partner and the only organization to have support from both the American Association of School Administrators and the National Education Association, to lead Courageous Leadership Academies in all of its schools. The aim was to align their mission, values, goals, data collection and intervention techniques, as well as overall culture, to optimize teaching and learning toward sustaining students' success.
Fort Wayne's Story
Similarly, the Fort Wayne, Ind., Community Schools needed to build leadership capacity to advance student achievement. Six Fort Wayne elementary schools began working with HOPE two years ago. After lifting test scores significantly and closing achievement gaps, the district signed up all 53 schools for the Courageous Leadership Academy.
HOPE's efforts to break down barriers to effective communication helped the district through another challenge, a $15 million budget cut. Negotiations with the Fort Wayne Education Association began in January; by mid-March, 96 percent of the teachers approved the one-year contract.
"HOPE training has given us a common language across the district that nearly everyone has internalized," says Dan Bickel, the district's elementary area administrator. "Contract talks have moved smoothly, more quickly and with high levels of support because, in part, so many employees had a common understanding of what everyone was trying to accomplish."
Success at Hand
Both Wichita and Fort Wayne have made dramatic changes as a result of HOPE's intervention. At Payne, staff relish collecting and analyzing data as well as identifying intervention techniques to help struggling students.
Fort Wayne champions walks where teachers visit classrooms to meet colleagues and share best practices. "Prior to these walks, teachers who had taught for more than 30 years in the same building had never stepped into other classrooms," says Carolyn Powers, director of elementary administration.
"We learned it takes a learning community to build success," she adds. "The HOPE process drew out of each team member what this really looks like in the schools and what we each need to do to make success for each child a reality."
Simpson, a 23-year veteran in Wichita, calls HOPE "my guiding force. Without it, she quips, "I think we would be spinning in circles."
The HOPE Foundation (http://www.hope-foundation.org/) has a decade-long track record of sustaining student gains district-wide and helping low-performing schools achieve at high levels. After successes in 17 states, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa, HOPE has created a process that has been documented to work in almost any setting. It is not a program, and it is not short-lived. The investment that goes into the work goes directly toward building a robust team capable of continuous improvement.
