Norfolk's "model" school

Teaching Pre K-8, May 1996 by Raymond, Allen

A remarkable staff creates a remarkable Basic School

A school building can be in a wealthy suburb, a rural area or an inner city. It can be big, small, a hodge-podge of additions or it can be sparkling new.

But you and I know it's not the building or location that makes it a school...it's what's inside.

Nowhere could that be more vividly demonstrated than in Norfolk, Virginia, in a sprawling, one-story building that is, in the very best sense of the word, a school.

Its official name is the Willard Model School at Lakewood, a site-based-management school serving 600 kids in grades K-5. In 1985 it was selected as a model elementary school for the State of Virginia, to serve as a location "for the development of innovative teaching strategies and programs to meet the needs of at-risk students."

Educators from all over Virginia, and from school systems in other parts of the country, contact and visit Willard for one simple but important reason: they, too, are intent upon change and know that at Willard remarkable change has taken place.

For its first three years as Virginia's one and only model elementary school, Willard received state funds to augment its budget. Since then, as a part of the Norfolk system, Willard has operated with the same funding as all other schools in the district.

It's a neighborhood school, not a magnet school or a charter school. It's...well, it's Willard, and that says a lot.

Walk inside, as we've done so often in other schools throughout America, and you'll know Willard is, indeed, a very special school. There are smiles, oceans of them. And the floors - no surprise - are spotless. But there's something else which, for the lack of a better word, we'll call "atmosphere." An air of controlled excitement, joy and professional competence.

As one walks the halls and visits the classrooms - and we tried to visit them all it's obvious this is a child-centered school in the very best sense of the word. It's also a school where everything is important.

The children's own art, for instance, is tastefully displayed - in the halls and in the classrooms - with the same care one would devote to hanging a Monet or a Rembrandt in the Louvre. The message is unmistakably clear; at this school children are very important.

Thus, if there is a difference to be found between this school and others we've visited, and there is, it is the staff. And we have to be careful here, because there are thousands of schools in the United States with remarkable staffs.

The late Dr. Ernest Boyer, President of The Carnegie Foundation for The Advancement of Teaching until his death last December, had a name for what we found at Willard. He called it "community;" talented teachers, committed parents, skilled administrators and eager kids working in harmony with but one objective: a more welcoming, successful learning environment.

Which is not as simple as it sounds. Dr. Boyer spent years searching the country to uncover "what works" best in elementary school practices, and he, of course, found examples everywhere.

He wrote a book about it - called The Basic School: A Community of Learners (Carnegie Foundation, 1995) - and created a network of 17 schools to put all of those good things into practice. Willard is one of those 17 schools (for information on The Basic School, see the box accompanying this article).

Dr Boyer knew, as we all know, that creating a superior elementary school without a superior principal is like trying to build a superior automobile without a steering wheel. The motor may hum but the car won't really go anywhere.

Enter, Lillian Brinkley.

In her charming, almost Messianic commitment to kids, Lillian Brinkley has Willard's steering wheel firmly in her grasp. One senses it throughout the building. This school functions like a well-oiled machine.

It's evident in the warm camaraderie that so obviously exists among the staff, and the kids. It's a happy school.

But make no mistake, there is a firm but compassionate hand on the wheel. For instance, is a kid absent today, and no one knows why? The chances are good Ms. Brinkley will drop in at the child's home because, as she says, "Parents are important to this process. They must become involved; I want our children in school."

But if Ms. Brinkley is steering Willard's exciting, talented and committed staff in new directions, and she is, it wasn't always thus. Today's Willard is a reincarnation.

Back in 1985, when Norfolk's application to establish Willard as a model school was accepted by the State, the school was under-performing in just about every area by which people measure schools.

The plan submitted to the State on behalf of Willard - Ms. Brinkley was not yet its principal - was to declare the school "vacant." That is, all staff positions, including teachers and administrators, would be open to anyone who applied. Over 200 did, and a committee of teachers and administrators made the final staff selections.

Lillian Brinkley, principal at another Norfolk school, didn't apply; she was selected. Norfolk's superintendent of schools invited her to come to his office and said, "Lillian.. Willard's for you."