Jackson Elementary’s new principal moves into a school that has
been beset with problems.
Jackson Elementary’s new principal moves into a school that has been beset with problems.
The school has been in Program Improvement for five years, saw its former principal Garry Dudley quit last year after a Times story cited 19 complaints filed against him and after the school’s enrollment dropped 110 students from the first day of school in 2010.
But that’s not stopping Elvia Teixeira from remaining optimistic, yet realistic, about the school’s goals for the future.
“You have to have an action plan, you don’t just cross your fingers and hope for the best,” she said. “My strategy is work stronger not harder.”
Teixeira arrived in the Morgan Hill Unified School District in July with a 22-year educational experience background; she’s been an elementary school teacher in the Santa Ana Unified School District, a vice principal in the Pittsburg Unified School District and principal at Washington Elementary in San Leandro where she helped take the school out of PI in 15 months, she said.
“For me, it was a challenge but I figured it out. And when it’s no longer a challenge, I find that I need one. I’m always looking for the next challenge,” she said.
And a challenge she finds at Jackson, who’s current Academic Program Index score is 762 points this year, 6 points fewer than 2010, and shy of the states 800 score of being proficient under No Child Left Behind. In order to pull Jackson out of PI, the school needs to improve their API score by at least one point for two consecutive years.
So Teixeira, who is bilingual in Spanish, evaluated and one month into the school year already has a plan of action to focus on. With 39 percent of Jackson as English learners, she starts with California English Language Development test “chats” with students. Teixeira will personally deliver students a “golden ticket” with their past CELDT scores and will help them set goals of which level to move into by the end of the year.
“We have to bring the kids into it so that they know how important this test is for them so that they can be ready,” she said.
Helping them to reclassify and become proficient English speakers comes in the form of new daily in-class instruction programs for the school.
“English learners need specific English Language Development instruction every day in order to learn the complexities of the English language and in order to access core content,” she said.
Programs such as Read 180 that focuses on intensive intervention for students who are two grade levels behind in reading and Imagine Learning English, a technology adapted program, will focus on Teixeira’s theme of working stronger, not harder.
The After School Academy that last year added two hours to the school day and was volunteer-based in terms of which students wanted to participate, will this year be targeted toward intensive intervention students.
“It isn’t about getting 100 kids to come, it’s about using the benchmark data to analyze discreet student need and group students who have similar needs around specific standards for six weeks,” she said. The school year will be divided into three six-week long after school sessions focused on specific standards.
Programs such as Standards Plus, which was also used last year, will focus on strategic intervention, or students who are less than two years behind reading level.
Teixeira made the decision to concentrate the year on English Language Arts programs and next year to start with math programs.
Even with a whirlwind of issues to deal with, Teixeira maintains a “no negatives” rule.
“We stay focused on what’s coming ahead. I can’t do a thing about what happened last year. From July on, it’s a new day,” she said. “We can no longer dwell in the past.”
Joey Adame, principal of Martin Murphy Middle School
Joey Adame has high hopes for Martin Murphy Middle School, and he isn’t using ‘impossible’ as an excuse.
In two years, he wants Murphy to have an 850 API score and be a California Distinguished School.
“We’re going to shock a lot of people,” said Adame, who is a former police officer for Butte County and the Gridley Police Department.
Adame, who is bilingual in Spanish and was an English learner himself, moved into the education field in 2000 and has been an assistant principal in Madera County and principal at both Monterey County and West Fresno School Districts.
His restructuring plans aim toward his goal of creating a positive and safe environment. For example, students are required to get a card stamped everyday in every class period to make sure they did their homework and show benchmark assessment effort. If they complete the blue card, it will be their ticket into the dance at the end of the month.
Adame has also drawn up a progressive discipline policy that hangs in his office that outlines clear rules and expectations for every violation. For example, if a student does not return a library book, their first infraction will be a call to their parents.
Adame wants to enforce positive rewards as well with grade point average clubs. If students earn a 3.5 to a 3.79 GPA, they will be in the Platinum Club. A 3.8 GPA or higher earns them a place in the Diamond Club. Students in these clubs receive T-shirts, wristbands and special privileges such as movies on Friday afternoons and entrance to the “VIP area” at school dances.
Yet Martin Murphy Middle School’s 28 point drop was the largest in the Morgan Hill Unified School District. At 754, its still 96 points shy of Adame’s self imposed two-year deadline of 850 API points toward a California Distinguished School.
“The 28 negative drop is only going to inspire us to conquer and make it 850. And it will happen. We will get to 850,” he said. “I’m really positive about every school that I’ve been at in my professional career as an administrator has gone up. This will not be any different.”
At his previous middle school in Fresno, the school went up 145 points in three years during his tenure when he was there, he said.
For starters, each teacher wears a “Mustangs 850” T-shirt on Fridays to encourage each other and students to reach that 850 API mark. Adame has also implemented a Word Generation academic word program. Students receive five words a week to focus on that will be on the California Standardized Test at the end of the year. The words are displayed in classrooms and in front of the school for the week. Each Friday students use these words in a in-class essays that focuses on relevant prompts such as “Junk food: Should schools sell it?” or “Censorship: Who should decide what young people read?”
But the changes don’t end there.
In addition to the districtwide benchmark assessments three times a year, Adame has made a pre-gage test to those benchmarks to determine what students have to work on. Staff take the data and prioritize different standards, starting with the weakest. For example, in seventh grade English Language Arts, students did the worst on identifying parts of speech: this will be the first priority in teaching students in that subject.
“It’s a very strategic way of mapping out instruction,” he said. “We’re taking every precaution to ensure that every kid is going to be proficient on these through the year. When the CST comes around we will already know how they’re going to do.”
Adame said he hopes parents will see the positive change at the school so students who go to charter or private schools will want to attend Martin Murphy.
“I’m hoping that the end result of this is that I get the kids back that belong to this school,” he said. “It is a good school, but it’s going to be an even better school.”
