(Vol. 4, No. 1 - Spring 2000)
Student Support:
A "Laserlike" Focus on the Neediest Kids
In the last two years, Long Beach Unified has redoubled its
effort to support its many low-income and low-performing middle grades students.
Next on the agenda: better counseling support and an effort to correct the
"scandal" of "storefront schools."
By John Norton
Two years ago, English teacher Adrianne Matte spoke poignantly about conditions
at Hamilton Middle School in an interview with Changing Schools. Students
at Hamilton, she said, were "tougher kids to teach. They're not mean
kids -- but they are so very, very needy."
Matte described a school with a small core of veteran teachers who found
themselves not only "thinking about these kids 24 hours a day,"
but trying to support the large numbers of new and inexperienced teachers
who came and went every year, creating an atmosphere of permanent instability.
Despite the heroic efforts of principal Cynthia Terry and her administrative
staff, it was impossible to serve the school's 1300-plus student population
at the level Terry and Matte and others knew they needed.
Today, Hamilton Middle School is a different kind of place. The school is
still overcrowded and many of the teachers are still inexperienced. But
a "can do" spirit now permeates the school. What changed? District
leaders heard the cry for help.
In the fall of 1998, the district placed a team of four full-time teacher-coaches
at Hamilton, one for each core subject area. The highly accomplished teachers,
drawn from other middle schools across the district, mentored rookies in
the fundamentals of good teaching and classroom management. They worked
with more experienced teachers to redesign instruction for the many kids
with limited basic skills and special learning needs. They even pitched
in for cafeteria duty.
And the district took other steps to strengthen support for students in
the school. New literacy programs, more guidance support, earlier intervention.
The decision to make the school year-round created new opportunities to
help struggling kids during the "inter-sessions" that substitute
for summer vacation in the year-round model. "It's still a challenge,"
says Terry, "but it's a whole different school today -- a better school
because we're in a better position to serve these kids."
Hamilton is one example of a larger phenomenon taking place across Long
Beach Unified. In the last two years, the district has redoubled its effort
to serve its many low-income and low-performing middle grades students.
That has happened, in part, because of the school board's Eighth Grade Initiative,
which requires students with two or more "F's" at the end of eighth
grade to spend an extra year at Long Beach Prep Academy.
The Initiative sparked action on the part of principals and faculty across
the district, both because they cared about the kids and because they didn't
want to suffer the embarrassment (or potential consequences) of sending
students "to Prep."
Schools started or expanded after-school programs, reorganized the school
day to create more intensive instruction in basic literacy skills for kids
who don't read and write well, added more support personnel, and improved
their outreach to community service agencies that share their interest in
creating a healthy environment for young adolescents.
Lessons from a tough year at Lindbergh
"The superintendent has made it very clear that he wants what he calls
a 'laserlike focus' on those schools that are the neediest," says Dorothy
Harper, who became assistant superintendent for middle schools last fall,
after serving as "Area A" superintendent under the old administrative
structure. Harper's area included both Hamilton and Lindbergh Middle, another
school with similar challenges. Both schools remain under her supervision
today.
Last year, Harper says, "we had a very tough year at Lindbergh. The
teachers were complaining about the kids' behavior, the kids were complaining
about the teachers because they felt misunderstood. So our school social
worker, Noel Alpin, said he'd like to start some groups.
He worked with the counselors, the psychologist, and himself, and he recruited
off-track counselors and social work interns. He also went to the outside
and got additional resources. So we ended up with an extended counseling
service center. I have to tell you that I don't know how we would have made
it through the year if that intervention had not been brought to the campus."
Harper says when she assumed responsibility for the entire middle school
program, one of her top priorities was to build on the experience at Lindbergh
and "see if we could replicate those services at other schools and
have really coordinated interventions for kids. We have a lot of support
people in place now, but it's just not as focused and efficient as it could
be."
The press of her new responsibilities -- and the transfer of a key staff
person -- has forced Harper to "put my dream on hold" this year.
But she vows to pursue it in 2000-01. "One of the things we're expecting
to happen is that through this counseling support we'll have mentors for
the youngsters who are most at risk. We want to maybe have a mentor on the
campus for each kid. We want to provide some parent education services to
parents of the youngsters. Not just the kids who are in deep, deep trouble,
but borderline kids. And the kids that need more challenge -- we want to
help the parents with that. We want enrichment, field trips, those kinds
of things."
One knotty issue, says Harper, is deciding who will coordinate a program
of this scale at every school where it's needed. While Alpin stepped into
the breech at Lindbergh, "he couldn't keep doing it forever."
She hopes that school-based counselors will take some of the responsibility,
with district support. And she's counting on help from outside youth agencies.
"Our community resource folks are very interested in helping in any
way they can," Harper says. "We haven't always done the best job
in the past in using those resources, but we've gotten a lot better at that.
So the goal is for school sites to take it on themselves, working with agencies."
Meanwhile, Adrianne Matte has moved to Long Beach Prep, where she says she's
learned what it really takes to support the district's most needy kids.
And Harper is quick to say that it was her own experience in starting the
Prep Academy that hardened her determination to strengthen student support
programs for middle graders.
Another target in her sights is the district's long-standing "storefront
school" program, where students with behavior problems have often been
placed. "They're a scandal, really," she says. "They're a
holdover from the Seventies, and most often the curriculum is whatever keeps
them quiet." By revamping the alternative schools and holding them
to the same high academic standards being pushed in other schools, Harper
believes the district can create a "safe haven" for some students
"that are not ever going to make it on a traditional campus that's
huge and crowded."
She imagines schools with small enrollments and low student-teacher ratios,
designed specifically for middle graders. "We want to create a new
alternative program that takes advantage of what we're learning about how
to better meet the needs of all kids."
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