Low-Income Rogers Schools Score High On State List

ROGERS — High test scores in the face of challenges garnered three elementary schools in the Rogers School District statewide applause for their efforts.

Eastside, Grace Hill and Bonnie Grimes schools all made a statewide list recognizing high performances on Benchmark exams despite high populations of low-income students. All three were recognized in the report “Beating the Odds — High Achieving Schools Serving Low-Income Students” for literacy scores. Eastside was honored for math and literacy scores with its literacy score tied for 12th overall in the state.

Literacy can be a challenge at all three schools. Nearly 57 percent of students were learning English at Eastside last year, and 74 percent of students qualified for free or reduced lunch prices, an index commonly used by schools to gauge poverty.

Grace Hill had the highest free and reduced lunch number in the district with 87 percent of its students qualifying.

Bonnie Grimes had the second-highest number of English-learners among Rogers elementary schools last year with 60 percent.

Economic challenge has nothing to do with student success, said Gary Ritter, professor of educational policy at the University of Arkansas whose office authored the “Beating the Odds” report. It is up to educators to find solutions, he said.

“Some kids face greater challenges than others, but we get to interact with them six to eight hours per day,” Ritter said. “Heck, if we thought these things were intractable we might as well throw in the towel.”

He sees four common traits in successful schools: principals who visit the classroom, teachers who work together, schools that hold students to high standards and a staff that uses test scores as a tool to identify student needs.

The ability to come up with new approaches defines schools in Rogers, Ritter said.

“Rogers is always willing to try different strategies for trying to reach kids instead of throwing up their hands,” he said.

Teaching Team

Building a teaching team has helped test scores at Eastside, said Principal Robin Wilkerson. Teachers from each grade level meet regularly. There also are meetings for long-term planning and to coordinate between specialists and classroom teachers.

More than 30 teachers at Eastside are certified in teaching English as a second language. They partner with math and literacy coordinators for classroom instruction, making an effort to give students individualized attention in class, instead of taking them aside.

Students know their goals and can be proud of their work, Wilkerson said. The district tests quarterly, but teachers check student progress in between those tests and brainstorm options together.

“We look at it from all different angles,” Wilkerson said.

“We try and think outside the box,” said Jo Stevens, Eastside’s literacy facilitator.

When she gets a new idea or hears of a new technique, she tries it out with teachers, and they adapt it or drop it based on how it helps kids.

“Our focus is really on our students,” Stevens said. “We take them where they are and move them as far as we can move them.”

While Eastside students may have made top scores this year, school isn’t about teaching to the test, but teaching the child, said Renee Concoby, a mom and school volunteer. Her twin sons, third-graders Keegan and Devin Loza, 9, love their school.

“When they say ‘No Child Left Behind’, Eastside does not,” Concoby said. “They’re building them for the next grade.”

Depending on the subject, her boys can represent either end of the learning spectrum, but each has his own goal. If a child excels, he is challenged, Concoby said, and if he struggles with a particular subject or concept, teachers come alongside him.

Children also learn responsibility. Students are held accountable for homework, and if it isn’t turned in, they can stay in at recess to finish. While Concoby wants her children to have time to play, making learning a priority is a good lesson, she said.

Kristin Day, president of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization, said the group has worked to include Spanish-speaking families. Meetings are translated and there are more Hispanic families getting involved.

Day has children in both first and third grade at Eastside, and while she picked the school for its continuous learning calendar, she applauds the teachers.

“They’re not going to give up on any student,” Day said. “I think what they’re doing works.”

Real World

With 87 percent of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch prices, students at Grace Hill Elementary live the “real world” everyday, but the school tries to foster strong children with a no excuses mentality.

“I think we inspire children that they are good, that they are smart and that they are capable so they can take care of themselves,” said Principal Jennie Rehl.

Parents may work two jobs and struggle to stay afloat, but they do the best they know how.

“You have kindergartners and second-graders where it’s their job to set the alarm and get themselves here,” said Yvonne Voss, assistant principal. “They love school, and they want to be here.”

“We don’t even think about the obstacles,” said Anne Saullo, literacy facilitator. “We don’t dwell on it. We fix it.”

Lost mittens have been magically replaced, elastic shoestrings brought a smile to the face of a child who could not keep his shoes tied and a broken bicycle was repaired by teachers at Grace Hill.

Academic failure is not an option and her teachers truly believe that every child — no matter his situation — is capable of passing exams, Rehl said.

Teaching methods are based on what is best for the students, said Denise Crutchfield, math facilitator.

“They don’t waste time here,” Crutchfield said.

School is not all work. The hallway is papered with seashells, starfish and dolphins that denote books read by Grace Hill students, and Rehl admits to dressing in the occasional outlandish costume for her kids.

“I think we have fun here,” she said.

Outreach Program

Reading is hard when you have to start by learning a new language, said Debra Lewis, principal at Bonnie Grimes.

“It’s a total different language for 60 percent of our kids than what they hear at home,” Lewis said. “It’s just a challenge.”

The school has the second-highest number of English-language learners in the district, exceeded by the 75 percent of the students at Russell D. Jones Elementary who are working to learn English.

At Bonnie Grimes, part of the learning plan is to focus on educating parents. Three years ago the school’s English as a second language coordinators began reaching out to Spanish-speaking parents using Parents ADvancing the Readiness for Educational Success. The group started small, grew and this year, with child care and dinner, it has reached 50 members. The school also has started a parallel program in English, talking to parents about how to navigate the educational system. One of the lessons explained reading levels used at the school and asked parents to read with their children.

Parents say children sometimes correct their pronunciation, but they are reading together every day, said Olga Munoz, English as a second language facilitator at Bonnie Grimes. Getting parents involved in the learning process helps make it a priority with their children.

“You can just feel a difference,” Lewis said.