Professor Proctor goes back to school

NEA Today, Mar 1996 by Weiss, Stefanie

So Baylor University education professor Tom Proctor spends his days at an elementary school in Waco, Texas.

He teaches three college classes there. He supervises student teachers and compares notes with veteran teachers there. And yes, he teaches the kids there, too.

Proctor works at Hillcrest Professional Development School--an elementary school that works with Baylor University to teach kids and train new teachers at the same time. But Proctor' s just one member of the school's dedicated staff team.

Gloria McCoy's another. A 27-year veteran known as a "master" teacher, McCoy has 47 students in her classroom--and three adults to help her teach them. One is a first-year teacher, the other two are full-time, full-year student teachers from Baylor.

The set-up is unique--but so is the package known as Hillcrest PDS.

Created three years ago as a partnership between the Waco Independent School District and Baylor University. Hillcrest is a magnet school in an urban setting.

Its 300 students are African-American, Hispanic and white, in roughly equal proportions. Its 11 master teachers are all veterans looking for new ways to get the job done. Its mission: to reach each child each and every way it can.

To that end, Hillcrest has:

* Four adults in every classroom. The low student-teacher ratio allows for a lot of individual attention--and a high likelihood that each child will find at least one adult in the room to bond with.

"Having four adults is nice." says McCoy. "We don't have any big you's and little I's--we just get along like one big happy family, planning and teaching together."

* A mix of educational perspectives. The professional development school concept unites theory and practice, mixing university research with both youthful enthusiasm and years of classroom experience.

* Multiage grouping. Most classes mix students from three grade-levels. Children often work in cooperative learning groups, and curriculum is integrated and thematic.

McCoy's curriculum for third, fourth, and fifth graders is based on three units: "All About Me," "U.S. History," and "Land, Sea, and Air."

* Teachers in charge, principal on the side. "The teachers here get together and make the rules of this school," says master teacher Sandra Jennings. "We set the agenda at faculty meetings, we participate in hiring decisions, and we are treated as professionals."

* An adopted business partner. Waco is home to the nation's largest candy factory--M&M Mars. Employees there donate time to help run the Kids Institute of Technology, an evening program to help parents and children learn to use computers.

* A variety of settings. In addition to the classroom, Hillcrest students have the benefit of a garden, a pond, numerous area field trips, and something new called "The Everywhere School." During school vacations (the year-round school is open 60 days, then closed 20). kids can venture farther. So far, students have gone to Colorado to learn about apple orchards and to Louisiana to study Cajun culture and the ecosystems of swamps.

It all adds up. Last year, Hillcrest students posted a 96.9 percent attendance rate and huge gains on achievement tests. In Waco. that means bonus pay. Each Hillcrest employee--principal to custodian--got a 6.75 percent bonus, for a grand total of $55,000.

The money's nice, McCoy says, but the real payoff is the kids. "We want them to have a different shine when they leave here," she says. "We want them to stand out."