Educating Every Student

(Friday) May 28, 2010

Yvonne Folkerts
Alexandria City School Board Chair

Earlier this week, I met seven T.C. Williams High School juniors who will receive four-year college scholarships.  Pretty remarkable, don’t you think?

ACPS School Board Chair, Yvonne Folkerts. (Photo: Regan Kireilis)

That’s not the whole story, however: these seven students are immigrants and/or first-generation Americans and the first college-bound students in their families.  These students have been working since they were sophomores with Tenants and Workers United, which in turn is collaborating with an initiative called Community Organizing for Education and Democracy.   Through COED, these seven students will receive adult mentors, paid summer internships at TWU every year of high school and college, and will have an education and training plan to prepare for college.  After graduating from college, they will return to TWU for one year of work and community service.  I applaud TWU for working with COED and recognizing the importance of giving students educational opportunities.

ACPS will be there, too, to help these students – Margie Obeng, Carla Benitez, Jennifer Araujo, Luisa Burgos, Melvin Alvarez, Dora Twenebon, and Ginno Huarocc – realize their goals.  The Alexandria School Board and Superintendent Sherman are already putting in place education plans for every one of these students and for every student in grades 6-12.  We call our approach an Individualized Achievement Plan, and it calls for each school to have a plan for each of their students to succeed in mathematics and language arts.  These plans will be specialized to a student’s needs to make certain they get the support they need.

At the May 20 School Board meeting, the Board learned about the implementation rate of IAPs as well as other benchmarks being met within the framework of our education plan.  Superintendent Sherman has led his staff to develop this education plan, which are the action steps ACPS will implement to meet the goals and objectives of the Board’s strategic plan.

For mathematics, that translates into something like this: the Board directed the superintendent to raise the overall level of math proficiency across all grades K-12 and specifically increase the successful participation of students in Algebra in grade 8.  Last year, the superintendent and his staff took the first step by identifying 1,619 students “at-promise” in mathematics, acknowledging these students needed more directed help to succeed in the subject.  That step resulted in 423 elementary at-promise students and 455 secondary at-promise students having math IAPs.  So far this year, 90% or 1,192 students of the 1,322 at-promise students have math IAPs: more students getting more help.

These intense efforts to help students in math will hopefully lead to even better results for the 2010 – 2012 school years, when the Board said 100% of identified at-promise students should have math IAPs. All schools must achieve the federal benchmark of adequate yearly progress in math and all schools must have a 100% pass rate on the Virginia Standards of Learning test for math.

The Board has directed the superintendent to increase enrollment in 8th grade Algebra, as successfully completing Algebra in the 8th grade has become the standard-bearer for a student to graduate from college.   In the 2008-2009 school year, almost 23% of ACPS 8th graders were enrolled in Algebra.  This year, that number is 37%.   By the end of the 2012 school year, the Board expects to see 75% of our students successfully completing Algebra in the 8th grade.

The interim report on the education plan demonstrated other steps forward:  a 34-percent increase in the number of students participating in the Regional Science Fair; a 37-percent increase in students enrolled in AP science courses at the high school and  a 48-percent student participation rate in middle school honors courses, a 5-percent increase from the 2008 – 2009 school year.

The Board will receive a final report on the results of the education plan for this school year in August or September, when all test results will be in and other criteria will have been tabulated.  If the interim report is any gauge, we’re on the right track to improving student achievement.

Listening to the personal stories of Margie, Carla, Jennifer, Luisa, Melvin, Dora and Ginno earlier this week reminded me how critically important it is that we, as leaders of the public schools, serve all our students to make certain they have opportunities beyond high school.    Some of the students couldn’t hold back tears when they talked about moving to America, enrolling in ACPS, learning a new language as a teenager, overcoming obstacles and knowing they will now continue their education and attend college.  That was very powerful to me and a stark reminder of just how critical it is that each and every student be served in ACPS.  We have work to do, but seeing progress in our education plan is a good step forward.