Tiny School Overcomes Big Problems

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 15, 2000 | by Ab

Finding Portland Elementary School takes a bit of doing, as they say in Arkansas, but Principal Ernest Smith is getting used to giving directions. All sorts of folks, including the governor, have come calling, eager to discover just what makes this rural school in the Delta region one of the state's educational gems.

The energetic Smith, a sharecropper's son and veteran educator who has been a teacher and principal for 43 years, is one reason this small school has rebounded, despite that 77 percent of his 150 students are from low-income homes. Half of them used to score two or more years below grade level on national tests. Now Portland Elementary sets benchmarks for academic success.

Central to the school's turnaround is its adoption of Direct Instruction, called "Distar" when first introduced in the 1960s. Aggressive, in-your-face and demanding for both teachers and students, DI (as Portland officials refer to it) is an intensely scripted and regimented teaching method with a strong track record of accelerating learning. Children are grouped by skill level and tested every seven or eight days in reading, language, math and science until they master each subject. The assessments continue until each child is ready to move up to a higher level.

The first year Portland Elementary used DI, however, things were rough. "By the end of the day, teachers were exhausted," Smith recalls. Critics of the method complained the school was creating little robots, that the school was so structured it robbed students of creativity and individuality.

But guidance counselor Sheila Greene says DI has helped raise self-esteem in struggling students. "There's a lot of positive reinforcement," she says. "They are not singled out to be ridiculed, and the students don't realize they are in a lower group ability-wise. They aren't stigmatized as underachievers."

The payoff has been enormous, particularly in lower grades where children have been exposed to DI for their entire academic careers. Last year, first- and second-graders scored in the 78th percentile in math on the Stanford-9 achievement test. Sixth-graders did equally well, scoring in the 72nd percentile in reading and the 84th percentile in math. All students have risen to grade level or above and are improving five points annually on national tests.

"We do not do special things to prepare for the standardized tests," adds Smith. "We teach our curriculum."

DI certainly has worked for Salud Torres, 8, the daughter of migrant farmworkers. Two years ago, Salud spoke no English -- no one in her home did. Her chances of academic success in a new country looked dim. On paper, she was at risk.

Today, Salud reads a year above grade level. She is able to master accelerated reading programs on the computer, which she demonstrates without help from a teacher. Reading is her favorite subject, says Salud. "I take books home and read them and bring them back to school and read them again," she explains.

"Isn't she great?" asks Smith as Salud skips down the hallway from the library to her class, knowing her skills have been recognized. He sighs, shaking his head in disbelief that his no-frills school, in a tiny farm town in southwest Arkansas, is beating the odds.

"This is the most exciting period of my life," says the principal. "I have no intention of retiring anytime soon."