When students came back to Glasgow High School last fall, hopes were high that the low-performing school would start to show great progress. Designated to participate in the state’s “Partnership Zone” school program, a three-year, public-private effort funded by federal Race to the Top grants, Glasgow totally restructured its operation.
It created four “academies” of learning within the school, increased parent involvement, and extended the school day, using staggered start times for staff. Later in the year, teachers planned to start “Project Based Learning” -- breaking common core learning standards into 4- to 6-week chunks of curriculum, culminating in a comprehensive project for students.
The reform effort didn’t go exactly as planned.
“We had a rough start to the school year and we’ve hit some bumps along the way,” said Glasgow principal Sherry Gross.
But recent student test scores showed a noticeable jump from earlier in the year. “I think we’re finally starting to gain some momentum,” Gross said, though one critic noted Glasgow students are still a long way from meeting proficiency goals.
Glasgow’s experience shows some of the challenges in turning around a low-performing school.
Teachers were enthusiastic at first, as they prepared to revamp the way the school would operate. “In the summer there was a lot of synergy and a lot of energy toward, ‘we can do this,’ ‘this is good stuff,’ said Gross, who took on the principal’s job in August, not long before school started.
But some of the staff who signed up to be part of the partnership zone school “didn’t really realize what they were getting themselves into and really questioned whether or not this is something for them,” she said.
When those questions were answered, half of the staff left Glasgow. Fortunately, being a Partnership Zone school allowed the positions to be filled quickly as professional development ramped up in late summer.
“Then as the school year started and the kids walk in the building, after a few weeks of the staggered start time and the gaps where we had overloaded classes and not enough teachers to teach 1,200 students and only half the staff here at the end of the day, the front end of the day, you know people got worn down very quickly,” Gross said. The plan to stagger staff start times was abandoned in October when administrators found themselves short-handed in the building.
Glasgow High School Principal Sherry Gross
Excerpts of DFM News' interview with Sherry Gross on Glasgow's Partnership Zone progress.
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Test scores are up
Despite the rough start, Glasgow students are making progress.
In January, Winter Delaware Comprehensive Appraisal System test scores returned and Glasgow saw improvements, though it remains to be seen if the school will improve enough to hit its end-of-year benchmarks.
Between Fall and Winter DCAS testing this year, school scores increased 19 points to 47 percent proficiency in reading and nine points to 38 percent in math. The proficiency targets for a school in Delaware to show “Adequate Yearly Progress” are 67 percent in reading and 66 percent in math.
“I think with all of the hard work they’ve put in the first four and half months of the year, you definitely see where some of the implementation and instructional strategies they’ve focused on have made a difference in reading and math,” said Noreen LaSorsa, chief officer of the School Turnaround Unit at the Delaware Department of Education. “We’re smiling, though it’s a hesitant smile because we’re not at the end yet.”
“With the small wins for students and staff, it gives them a lift and keeps them going with surge of momentum,” LaSorsa said.
A dissenting view
John M. Young, a Christina School District Board of Education member, has a less charitable view. He has been critical of the Partnership Zone program from the time the first round of schools were announced, including two in the Christina District, Glasgow and Stubbs Elementary. He said he isn’t sure if Glasgow’s recent test score improvements are the mark of real change or if the statistics are just a fluke.
“We are below 50 percent proficient,” Young said. “We continue to miss proficiency benchmarks.” He said using growth as one measure of a success is appropriate, but using growth without looking at the overall level of student proficiency is a “disservice.”
The Winter DCAS math scores were “18 points shy of the (Adequate Yearly Progress) target and that target is 34 points shy of 100 percent proficiency,” which Young said he holds as the goal.
The state checks in
As DCAS test score results were coming in, the Delaware Department of Education requested a meeting with the School Turnaround Unit and officials at Glasgow.
LaSorsa said she understands that holding progress meetings can be highly charged for those being examined, but she noted DDOE and the Turnaround Unit had meetings at all of the first-round Partnership Zone schools.
Of Glasgow, LaSorsa said, “I think for them, just as an organization, they’re feeling a lot of pressure and angst around ‘Are we able to do this?’ We all sat down, we all had a conversation.”
For principal Gross, it seemed the meeting was mostly to work on relationships between stakeholders at the building, district and state levels.
“There were differing views or perceptions of how things were going here in terms of the PZ plan and its implementation and that perhaps the board thought one thing, and the administrative team thought one thing, and DOE thought something else,” Gross said.
One facet of the conversation was the delay in launching Project Based Learning. The new approach was meant to already be in Glasgow classrooms, but instead will roll out this month for 11th and 12th graders to allow for additional teacher training.
Gross said open communication with DDOE has allowed for adjustments in the Partnership Zone plan.
“We’re always going to be very critical about how we’re doing business and supporting each other, but that’s how we get better,” Gross said. “I have found it very easy to communicate and say I think we’re focus is on the wrong things and these are my interests and this is what we need as a school.”
LaSorsa said the state will be open to changes to Partnership Zone plans if administrators at the building level take the time to explain their needs.
Gross said she knows DCAS scores will be scrutinized and used a major measure of growth, but she’s focused on improving student performance on all levels.
“Someone at the state may hold you to this standard, but I know what I have to get done here and I may not hit that standard this month, and I’m OK with that,” she said. “I have no problem pushing back on that and feel we’ll still meet our end goal. I’m much more outcomes-driven and what we need to do day-to-day. Looking at the reports, that tells a story, but there’s a lot behind the story.”
