A different drum

NEA Today, Feb 2002

Success at Minnesota's American Indian Magnet School

One day last May, staff members at the American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota watched anxiously as reporters and television crews, along with top school district officials, converged on their school.

The staff had been told there would be a press conference, but they did not know what the news was. Their school was on "probation" because of low test scores. Just the previous week, teachers at another school had learned that many of them would be removed. So the American Indian Magnet School faculty feared the worst.

But worried expressions changed to smiles and laughter when the superintendent announced that this school's scores were up so sharply that it was being taken off the probation list a year ahead of the target date. And when reporters asked students what was behind the turnaround, they all talked about the literacy program.

That felt extra sweet to kindergarten teacher Julie Hutcheson because the staff had fought hard for this program, resisting pressure from district administrators.

The district had wanted all lowscoring schools to choose one of three school reform models. But American Indian Magnet School teachers were using a different approach called "Balanced Literacy," which they felt was effective and a good fit with their students' culture.

With Balanced Literacy, teachers emphasize both appreciating stories and decoding individual words. The version they use includes big dollops of American Indian culture and close ties between teachers and parents.

Family involvement is an important factor in the program's success with American Indian students, says Hutcheson, who is an American Indian herself (Keeweenaw Bay Ojibwe). About 40 percent of the school's 350 students are American Indians.

The faculty has been deeply involved in developing and adapting this program. In contrast, Hutcheson notes the program favored by the district administration was "highly prescriptive," telling teachers in great detail what they should do. It also would have cost $60,000.

The teachers at this school, says Hutcheson, are all well prepared to do their work. "We don't need a `teacher-- proof' program," she insists. Even the newest members of the staff can benefit much more from mentoring than from a set of instructions.

Other St. Paul schools also resisted the district's narrow range of program choices, and several hundred teachers organized by Education Minnesota's St. Paul local showed up at a board meeting to ask for more flexibility. American Indian parents told the board how much they liked Balanced Literacy.

The district allowed Hutcheson and her colleagues to go ahead with their approach-but warned that they would be held accountable if scores did not come up.

By spring 2001, one year after the contentious school board meeting, reading scores had risen faster than anyone had expected. New test data document sharp improvement in both reading and math.

Other evidence indicates that these children are becoming more literate in the full sense of the word-beyond test scores. School librarian Marnie Pershke has noticed a jump in the number of books children check out.

"Our students are reading for enjoyment," says Hutcheson, "not just because they have to."