Student achievement summit celebrates successes

More than 250 educators, principals, community members, and teachers gathered on August 20 at Raleigh (NC) Athens Drive High school to hear how 12 Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) are closing achievement gaps*. The annual summit was planned by WCPSS Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Task Force.

Each school selected to present had data from the last 3 years that clearly demonstrated their students are achieving more with gaps closing as measured by performance on End of Course (EOC) tests.

North Garner Middle (NGMS) was among the schools invited to participate. NGMS Instruction Resource Teacher (IRT) Maryn O'Neill said the Professional Learning Team (PLT) sessions were the driving force in establishing an agenda focused on high expectations of all students. "We are paying attention daily to what kids are learning," says O'Neill.

Dr. Camille Hedrick, principal of Apex Middle (AMS) shared the COUGAR approach to raising achievement. Each letter stands for a focus of area that creates a climate of high expectations. For example the "U" stands for unconventional and the way staff looks towards other approaches to raise achievement. AMS student Rick shared that he liked that his classroom can use Skype to talk to other classrooms and the ability to tap into online forums to post classroom discussions on books.

It was hearing about the innovative approaches that made Dr. Anne McLaurin, WCPSS School Board member, feel energized about the results. In particular, McLaurin commented on how well the schools are using data to find approaches that work. "They are not getting stuck doing the same thing every day. Teachers are looking for approaches that work today and aren't afraid to make changes if the approaches stop working tomorrow."

Across the county, all schools showed improvement. In a report compiled by WCPSS Evaluation and Research, evaluators reported virtually every subgroup of students in the Wake County Public School System show improvement in 2009-2010 NC End of Grade (EOG) and EOC scores, "and also show a closing of the achievement gaps between white, African-American, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students at several grade levels. Additionally, 85 percent of students taking EOC tests passed those exams."

The RACG plans another summit later in the fall that is geared towards parent and community involvement.

WCPSS Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps (RACG) Task Force formed in January 2003 and has presented at the State RACG Conference on several occasions. The purpose of the task force is to advise and work with the local board of education, central office administration, individual school site administration, and other school personnel on raising achievement and closing the gap in academic achievement as well as developing a collaborative plan for achieving that goal. Special attention has been given to creating a task force that is racially diverse and includes parents, school personnel, and representatives from human service agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the business sector

Schools presenting at the summit:
Elementary: Conn, Holly Grove, Reedy Creek, Wildwood Forest
Middle: Apex, Heritage, North Garner, Zebulon
High: East Wake Engineering, Garner, Holly Springs, Sanderson

*The achievement gap refers to the measurable difference on a number of educational standards between groups of students as defined by gender, socioeconomic, race/ethnicity, and ability. Most often, the groups are measured by scores on standardized scores, grade point averages, end of course tests.

What methods are your school district using to close the achievement gap?