LEWISTON — For years, Longley Elementary School’s test scores have been the lowest in the city. Martel Elementary School’s scores — while below state averages — have been significantly higher.
If the two schools are combined in 2019, will Longley students improve at the cost of Martel students?
Superintendent Bill Webster says no, because today’s teaching methods focus on individual students.
With teaching methods of the past, the teacher lectured to the class; pretty much everyone got the same lesson. “That’s not the way teachers teach today,” Webster said.
These days, a teacher might give a mini lesson to the class on a concept, “then they are gearing the rest of the class to (teaching) students one on one or in small groups.” Students get problems to work on at their ability level, Webster said. The result is that all students increase their knowledge.
That teaching style is going to be easier as schools implement proficiency-based learning, which focuses on individualized lessons and students progress after they’ve learned what they need to know, Webster said.
The fact that one of the merging schools may have more or fewer students doing grade-level work isn’t going to change the outcome for all students, he said. “Our approach is to meet the needs of each student.”
Most Longley students are English Language Learners who start school behind their peers because they haven’t mastered English. Research shows it takes an ELL student about seven years to catch up.
They are catching up, Webster said, adding that graduation rates of former ELL students are growing. “At the end of the day, what’s coming out is ELL students are more proficient.”
David Silvernail, former director of the Center for Educational Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine, said Webster is right. “With more individualized curriculum, you, by design, respond to individual needs.”
When merging two schools, it’s critical to understand the strengths of each school and “make sure that (strength) transfers over to the new school,” Silvernail said. “Related to that, you want the schools to understand what’s working and why it’s working.”
Silvernail said his research into effective schools identified certain strategies teachers use “that became second nature. It wasn’t easy for them to articulate this is why it’s working.”
Whether a group of students brings another group up or down “depends on how well the schools are run,” Silvernail said. There are cases of students taken out of high-poverty schools and put in low-poverty schools where, Silvernail said, “the results were mixed. It depends on what the schools did, not just moving them.”
Longley Principal Kristie Clark said her school is not the same as it was five years ago. A federal turnaround grant provided resources for extensive professional development and expert coaching to help teachers be effective in helping students catch up.
Inside Longley today is a positive atmosphere, one where more parents are involved and more students are making gains, Clark said.
“The label of us being the lowest-performing school isn’t accurate,” she said. “Our kids are starting out at a lower level. We’ve proven we have the highest growth in the district in terms of reading and math. That shows our kids are making gains.”
Effective methods of teaching at Longley include examining test data to tweak instruction and give students what they need; coaches working with teachers to improve instruction; and teachers working collaboratively with each other to help individual students.
“All of those things that high-performing schools do across the nation we will continue to do at Longley, at Martel and at the new school,” Clark said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
