Hawthorne Elementary School in Everett is concentrating on student math abilities after landing on a federal list of schools in need of improvement.
The school was put on the list after posting persistently low fourth-grade math scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
As a result, 30 families left the school at the district’s expense this fall, a choice provided under the No Child Left Behind law. Another 40 transferred earlier.
“It was heart-wrenching,” Principal Betty Cobbs said.
Sanctions can get worse as schools spend more years on the list. After five years, a school would be required to “restructure” – which could mean replacing all the teachers.
Cobbs told Everett School Board members last week that she’s confident the school will meet its WASL targets this year.
As part of the law, the school had to put together a plan for improving math scores.
Plans this school year include:
* Visiting the home of every family to improve the connection between parents and school staff.
* Assigning math mentors to new teachers.
* Adding a second math facilitator, a teacher whose focus is on improving math instruction across the school.
* Increasing the number of before- and after-school math activities, including games, to help students understand mathematical concepts.
* Encouraging parents to come to open library and computer lab times to learn how to help their children with math homework.
* Involving staff at the Boys &Girls Club and YMCA in helping students who go there with math homework.
In all, about two dozen Snohomish County schools are at different stages on the “needs improvement” list. But only schools that receive federal dollars to educate poor children face its sanctions.
Besides Hawthorne, Tulalip Elementary School in Marysville and Explorer Middle School in south Everett are putting together improvement plans, also because of low math scores.
At Tulalip, teachers have partnered with the Tulalip Tribes and the National American Indian, Alaskan and Hawaiian Educational Development Center in Wyoming to improve math instruction.
More than three-quarters of the school’s 230 students are American Indian.
An Australian math expert will visit the school in early December. The school also has hired three half-time teachers who each work intensively with three struggling students for six weeks at a time.
At Explorer, efforts focus on teacher training and getting students extra support, such as after-school tutoring.
Hawthorne is the county’s most diverse and poorest elementary school, drawing a sizeable number of children from families that have recently immigrated.
Fifteen languages are spoken by Hawthorne families.
Lisa Johnson, one of five parents who gave advice on the improvement plan, said language barriers are a significant issue in making sure that lessons are reinforced at home.
“If there is a way we can open up a bridge to those parents … I think that would be really what is most meaningful,” Johnson said.
Only about 29 percent of Hawthorne fourth-graders passed the WASL math test last spring. The state goal was 47 percent.
Many students at Hawthorne, 44 percent, fell into the lowest-performing group, meaning they had the furthest to go to master the skills needed to pass.
Many of the students who transferred to another school under the law didn’t struggle on the WASL, which could make increasing the passing rate that much tougher, said Jim McNally, an administrator who oversees the school.
Elementary schools start taking the 2007 WASL in April.
Hawthorne teachers were crushed when some families left, said David Davis, a third-grade teacher. Still, they’re focusing on those who remain – classrooms are full with 469 students.
Fellow teachers from other schools asked Davis why he didn’t try to switch schools.
“To transfer would be to give up,” Davis said. “You can’t just give up, and I don’t know of a teacher at Hawthorne who would.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
