As
students 'move on,' school's problems
persist
Kids tell of personal growth, but
test scores prove disappointing
Sunday, July 03, 2005 • BY JOHN MOONEY •
Star-Ledger Staff
It is thefirst day of summer vacation
andthe halls of Eighteenth Avenue School arebarren again,
their chipped paint and cracked walls no longer masked by
children's art and schoolwork.
The classrooms inthe Newark elementary
school are ghostly quiet, and theblue and white balloons
that had floated above the "Moving On Ceremony" earlier in
the week lay listless on the auditorium stage.
Principal Barbara Ervin sitsin her office
facing a pile of papers, tasks for the next year, and
triesto squeeze the fatigue from her eyes.
"I'd like to say we had a great year, and
for the kids, I think it was," Ervin says. "But I still
don't think it went as well as it should have. ... For all
the energy we put into it, we didn't grow as much as we
should have."
Eighteenth Avenue opened last September
full of hope and anticipation, undeterred by state and
federal pressures to raise its lagging test
scores.
Ten months later, those dark clouds
remain after a year when the school had to deal with a staff
in flux, an enrollment on the rise and, ultimately, student
scores that only inched forward, if at all.
Yet on the last day of school, none of
that mattersmuch to theteary-eyed grandmother who givesErvin
a good, long hug after the sixth-grade
graduation.
"I want to see Marquise move on, but I
hate to see him leave Eighteenth Avenue," Willa Griffith
saysof her grandson. "They turned him around. They turned
him around for the best."
CONCERNS REMAIN
After 180-some days of school, Eighteenth
Avenue very much reflects how hard it is to judge a school
by any one measure, when so many variables dictate what goes
on inside.
When the year began, Eighteenth Avenue's
enrollment was about 280 students. By June, it was over 300,
most of the newest faces coming with special learning and
behavior needs. Special education students ultimately made
up a third of the school's enrollment.
Teachers came and went, too. From a staff
of 35, two quit by the winter break and two others were
reassigned to other schools, their vacancies never
filled.
In one of Newark's poorest neighborhoods,
the challenges of student discipline loomed large throughout
the year, evidenced by the crowded bench that typically
greeted Ervin outside her office. On the first day of
summer, the bench insteadheld moving boxes, but the concerns
remained.
"On too many days, we had too many kids
out of class," Ervin said from her desk. "They were here.
The nurse's office. Suspended. That's something we need to
focus on. They need to be somewhere learning."
None of that could have helped the
school's test scores, the gauge that ultimately will decide
itsfate.
At the start of the year, the school's
scores had put it on the watch list of both the state
Department of Education and the federal No Child Left Behind
act.
The state was supposed to give the school
an intense weeklong review, but the team never came. Under
No Child Left Behind, the school was required to offer
students a chance to transfer or at the least get extra
tutoring. On its own, the school devoted 100 minutes a day
to reading, then math, and held an after-school and Saturday
"academy" for its third- and fourth-graders taking the tests
in March.
Yet when the test scores came out in
June, there wasn't much to cheer about. Fewer than half of
the 33 third-graders passed the state's language arts test,
and only a third passed the math. They were both gains from
2004, but far below the requirements of the federal law
requiring at least two-thirds of students to pass the
tests.
About half of the 26 fourth-graders
passed the language arts and almost two-thirds passed in
math. Reading and writing weredown from last year, but the
math was a big jump, especially from last year's third-grade
scores with many of thesame students.
"That was up 32.5 percent from last
year," Ervin said. "That came up really nicely. They worked
really hard this year."
Ervin had pulled out the scores in a neat
black binder. She highlighted in pink the four third-graders
who were within five points of passing. Flipping to the
fifth- and sixth-grade scores on the district's own tests,
she pointed to nine students on the edge. There were a
half-dozen more in fourth grade.
Under the intricacies of the federal law,
the scores of just a few students can be the difference
between the school making the law's mandates for "adequate
yearly progress" or yet more sanctions. For Eighteenth
Avenue, another two years of sub-par scores and its faculty
could be purged altogether.
"Those will become our target group," she
said of those children whose names appeared in
pink.
But closing the book, Ervin was
hard-pressed to say there was much of a silver lining in the
report card.
"A silver lining to me would mean a lot
of kids passed, and a lot didn't," she said. "It's too early
to talk silver lining. The question should be how can we
build on this, how can we do better."
BEYOND TEST SCORES
Nicole Gruner, the fourth-grade language
arts teacher, was already thinking of things she might do
differently. In her first year of teaching, Gruner was no
longer the nervous rookie who during opening week shyly
asked a veteran teacher for advice on a reading
lesson.
She worried the whole year about the
tests and didn't hide her disappointment when the scores
came in. But on the last day, she also pointed out students
like Elijah Wesley, a shy boy who went on to win the fourth
grade's most improved award.
"It's incredible how far he came this
year," Gruner said, a self-conscious smile coming to
Elijah's face.
There were stories like Elijah's in
virtually every classroom. Markel Franks started second
grade saying she wanted to learn how to count to 100. On the
last day, she boasted of knowing the multiplication table.
"I wrote it down and got it all right," she said.
A group of graduating sixth-graders
gathered in the last week to talk about their school
experience. Beyond the reading and math, the science
experiments, the class trips, they focused on what they
learned about themselves.
"I learned that you need to have a
positive attitude," said Tameer Goode, 12. "A lot in what my
teachers taught me was in how they treated me and made me
feel."
A few also offered a wish list for their
school, including more extracurricular clubs,
air-conditioning and a coat or two of paint.
These same sixth-graders were in their
Sunday best for the final day of the year, June 27, and a
"Moving On Ceremony" of song and celebration.
Twelve-year-old Donya Burgess was among of the stars,
winning the school's Edward P. Pfeffer Award for top
academic performance and opening the show with a rousing
welcome.
"We ask you to sit back and listen to the
voices of the future generation," said Donya, one of three
students admitted to Newark's selective University High
School middle school program for next year. "We believe the
future is ours to take."
Each teacher also took the microphone,
their messages of encouragement also a sobering reminder of
the tough conditions outside the school's walls.
"These children did not opt to be Bloods
and Crips, but members instead of our Beta Club, our Do
Something Club," said Dana Murray, a special education
teacher.
Ervin was among the last to speak, with
some final words for those leaving her before she would turn
her attention back to those who remain.
"There are future senators, doctors and
teachers, we hope, sitting in this audience," she told the
graduating class. "Now take what we taught you to your next
school. And remind them that you came from Eighteenth
Avenue."
To read previous installments of this series and see
Star-Ledger photographs on NJ.com, please go to
http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/.
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at
jmooney@starledger.com or (973) 392-1548.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
|