Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id i1J1gMI09230; Wed, 18 Feb 2004 20:42:22 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 20:42:22 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <1dd.1a5ddde6.2d656dae@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: MWPotts2001@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2685] EFF on Indian Reservation X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: 9.0 for Windows sub 5001 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Status: O Content-Length: 11555 Lines: 176 Hello, my name is Jacquelyn Power and I am the Superintendent/Principal for Blackwater Community School on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona. My school was part of the original contributors to the EFF project and helped developed the role map for parent/family with NCFL. The following article describes the successes at the school, which include the inclusion of the EFF model for the Family and Child Education Program (FACE). The school is funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and is a preschool through fourth grade with 200 students. The article is long so you may wish to save it first before reading it. Blackwater Community School – A Seven-Step Model for Success on an Indian Reservation By Jacquelyn Power, Superintendent/Principal How many times in the academic conversation have schools located on Indian reservations been labeled failing schools? Or, how many times have the “feeder” public schools labeled Indian students as “at-risk” learners whose needs challenge even the best public school? In the twelve years I have served as an administrator at Blackwater Community School, I have struggled with this perception and made a professional and personal commitment to change these preconceived ideas. As a result, in the past four years the students, teachers, support staff and community have met the challenge of meeting the academic bar set by the No Child Left Behind Act. The following profile of the school and its academic model will validate the school’s mission – “Quality Education Begins Here” as well as the belief that we will do whatever it takes to ensure the success of each child who attends Blackwater Community School. Blackwater Community School is located on the Gila River Indian Reservation and was built by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1939. It was a K-2 elementary school operated by the BIA until the late 1960s when it became a contract school operated by the tribe. Then in 1994 it became a grant school with a local school board representing the communities it served. Even with these changes in management the school is still part of the federal school system operated by the BIA. The enrollment in the K-2 program is usually less than 90 children. Then in 1999 the school added a third grade and last year a fourth grade in response to the desire of the community to keep their children in a local school instead of entering the public school “feeder” system. However, the third and fourth grades are a charter component of the school because Congress will not allow BIA schools to add grades to their existing contract with the federal government. Another important program located at the school is a family literacy preschool that began in 1993. The program is called Family and Child Education Program which allows parents to attend school with their preschool child. The school also has a Title VII Preschool Discretionary Grant. Currently the enrollment at the school including all programs in 211 students. In addition, the school operates under a year round calendar of 180 days and offers enrichment programs during the intercessions and summer. Over the years, the school has struggled with low test scores and high truancy that affected the academic performance of the students. In order to address these issues, several important changes were implemented that have resulted in raising the academic success of the students and have become the seven pillars or building blocks for the school. First, was the Board’s decision to require that all teachers become certified in the Reading Recovery ® Model known as Collaborative Intervention Literacy Program (CLIP). This program targets first graders who are at-risk of not becoming readers. But more importantly, it ensured that all teachers in all grade levels understood the skills necessary for a child to become a reader. Strategies such as taking a running record, guided reading, phonemic awareness, and strategy groups provide critical intervention tools for all students and has ensured that a high percentage of students are reading at the third grade level when they move into fourth grade. Second, the influence of the FACE program on the school has been extraordinary. The participating families may enroll in the program when their child is a baby and receive home visits based on the Born to Learn® curriculum that connects the parent with the newest information on brain development and brings books into the home. In fact, all the children receive a book a month until the age of five as part of a grant from the Dollywood Foundation Imagination Library®. Once the child is three the parent and child may attend school together and participate in a variety of activities that support the educational development of the child and allows the parent to complete his/her education goal, which is usually the GED. In addition, the parents have gained additional life skills using the Equipped for the Future learning model developed by the National Institute for Literacy that emphasizes their roles as a parent, community member and worker and the critical generative skills critical to becoming a productive citizen and responsible adult. Moreover, the parents may continue to stay involved with their child when he/she moves to kindergarten up to third grade. This parental support has increased the literacy level of the entire family and has raised parental involvement at all grade levels. The FACE children enter kindergarten ready to learn and demonstrate academic success in the classroom. Third, is the number of highly qualified teachers. In fact, all the teachers, and there are 13, meet the NCLB requirements. There are three Native American teachers from the community. Over half of the teachers have Master’s degree and the turn over is very low. The Board commits approximately $1000 a year per teacher in professional development and provides for paid educational leave to encourage teachers to gain additional educational credentials. This may not seem significant, but for a small, rural, reservation school this is the exception. Most of the funding for these activities has come from small grants that I write as well as a national grant from the US Department of Education for professional development. The major emphasis of this grant is the teacher mentor program that targets comprehensive lesson planning tied to the state standards and curriculum alignment. The focus on lesson planning is tied to the belief that if you fail to plan effectively then you plan to fail, which translates into low academic success for students. Furthermore, the school has used test score data to analyze curriculum, instruction and assessment practices to create new roadmaps for the educational delivery system. Fourth, the classroom sizes are small, especially in first and second grade. Usually these classes have less than 18 students and the teachers have a paraprofessional for 2.5 days a week, or in some cases full time. In addition, the school uses an inclusion model for special education that provides targeted support for children with learning disabilities or other specialized needs. Fifth, parental and community involvement is consistently high. In fact, for many families this school has been their school for four generations. Many important activities take place at the school. The parent/teacher conference rate is always over 90% for each class. Parents also assist with school events and take an active role in ensuring that their child attends school. The attendance rate has consistently been raised over the past four years and is now 94%, which is the exception in Indian Country. Moreover, the school is closely linked to a variety of partners such as Arizona State University's Indian Teacher Preparation Program, the Rural Systemic Initiative in Math and Science, Parents as Teachers, National Center for Family Literacy, Engage Learning, University of Arizona Indigenous Language Program, National Center for Adult Learning, University of Pennsylvania, Read to Me International, Arizona School Administrators, Arizona Association for Lifelong Learning, and tribal departments, to name just a few. Sixth, the school has a strong technology component that is evidenced in the c lassrooms and is made available to the community as a free service. The school has benefited from the E-Rate program as well as the BIA in securing this important teaching tool. Furthermore, the school has incorporated technology in the school library and all titles are on-line for easy cataloging and for teacher research. All the children have access to the Internet in the classrooms and utilized supplemental programs such as Accelerated Reading and Math® to enhance their understanding of the core content areas. Seventh, the school is committed to preserving the culture and language of the Akimel O’Otham people. Sadly, over the years the number of speakers has dwindled to a fraction of what it was 20 years ago. The school is actively working to incorporate culture and language in the curriculum and is offering language classes to the community. Finally, how does the data support these seven pillars of change? The following tables demonstrate how the third grade students performed on the Stanford 9 and AIMS test. It is important to note that the number of children taking the test in any one year was less than 30 and in most years it was less than 20. As a result, the scores are affected dramatically by one or two students. Even so, the scores still provided the teachers and administrator with valuable information on the skills and performance level for each student and how effective the curriculum, instruction and assessment process was for each grade level. Since third grade is the reporting grade and the school usually only has one third grade class the Board decided to test in first and second grade as well as an internal check that targets the strengths and weaknesses of each student prior to entering third grade. It should also be pointed out the school does not give letter grades and relies on authentic assessment based on mastery for its academic measure. These national and state tests are only one indicator of a student’s academic profile. Within the BIA, Blackwater Community School K-2 has consistently made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and the third grade also made AYP for the State of AZ under NCLB. The school was not labeled under AZ Learns because of the small statistical number of students. Furthermore, the school has received the following national and state awards in SY 2002: --National Office of Indian Education Bureau of Indian Affairs Elementary Principal of the Year – Jacquelyn Power --National Office of Indian Education Bureau of Indian Affairs Elementary Teacher of the Year – Noreen Lasiloo --National Office of Indian Education Bureau of Indian Affairs Family and Child Education Program of the Year – FACE --National Indian School Board of the Year – Blackwater Community School --Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year – Gwendolyn Paul (First Native American to win this award) --Arizona Phi Delta Kappa/Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year – Johanna Chess --Arizona State Department of Education STAR Award – Jacquelyn Power and Gwendolyn Paul © January 2004
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