Closing the Gap, Child by Child
Fairfax Sees Gains From 2-Year-Old Effort That Uses Mini-Tests to Steer Extra Help

By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 27, 2006

Teachers at Hollin Meadows Elementary School gathered in fall 2004 for an urgent brainstorming session. They lined one wall of a school trailer with a sheet of paper, about 4 feet by 8 feet, and listed skills that students need to pass state exams in reading, math, science and social studies. They debated the length and timing of lessons and how to cover more than one subject at once.

The Fairfax County school had been jolted by news that 60 percent of black students in selected grades didn't pass the state reading test and that the school had failed to make academic progress required under federal law. Similar alarm bells were ringing at schools elsewhere in the county.

"We were devastated," said Jon Gates, the school's principal. "What hurt the most is we knew other people would think, 'You must have a bunch of low-performing, tough-to-teach, disruptive kids,' and that's not the case. We had to act."

Now, efforts begun in the past two years to address the challenge at that school and others in Fairfax are showing results.

New state data show that many black students are making significant progress countywide. The percentage of black elementary school students who received the highest rating on the state tests, "advanced," rose this year. Last year, Fairfax's black third-graders ranked 91st in reading among their peers statewide. This year, they were 61st.

But the advances have been uneven. From 2005 to 2006, Fairfax's black-white achievement gap in third grade shrank as the county's reading and math scores rose solidly for both groups of students. In fifth grade, the gap narrowed in math but was steady in English. In eighth grade, the gap widened in both subjects.

School system officials say that the expansion of state testing in 2006 to grades 4, 6 and 7 affected scores across the board. Previously, students were tested only in grades 3, 5 and 8. But officials make no excuses for a problem that has come to light in recent years through testing mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind law. Scores show that black elementary school students in Richmond, Norfolk and Prince William County are outperforming black Fairfax students on most state math and English tests.

What's more, black Fairfax students on average trail far behind white Fairfax students. Such gaps, driven by economic, educational and social factors, are also a challenge in the District, Maryland and elsewhere.

But the size and wealth of Fairfax and the strong reputation of its schools make the county an important case study of efforts to eliminate educational disparities. The county has the region's largest school system, with more than 164,000 students. About one-tenth are black, and half are white.

"We're closing the gap because people are being much more focused and intentioned," said Fairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale, who took his post in July 2004. "We are looking child by child, and when you do that, you start to see gains. We still have areas to work on. It doesn't happen overnight."

To pinpoint where students need help, Fairfax elementary and middle schools now track progress with more short tests throughout the year. The system also has hired instructional coaches to help teachers learn new techniques, and it has designed lesson plans to help teachers reach children who have different learning styles.

Hollin Meadows, which is in a diverse middle-class neighborhood along the Route 1 corridor in the Alexandria area, offers a window on those efforts. Nearly 45 percent of the school's estimated 560 students come from low-income homes, and many are the children of immigrants. Forty percent are black, 26 percent white and 16 percent Latino.

In 2004, Gates, the principal, was stunned by scores showing that just two-fifths of his black students had passed the state reading test, compared with three-fourths of his white students.

Even before that year, the school had sought to raise minority student performance. (Scores among Hispanics at the school and others in the county were also a problem.) Hollin Meadows offered after-school tutoring and recruited volunteers to mentor selected students. Gates said the school had energetic teachers. But it wasn't enough.

In retrospect, Gates blamed a tendency to "teach to the middle." He said lessons too often were aimed toward the majority and were not tailored enough to individual students. So teachers generally would march through the curriculum on the assumption that students would either learn the material or eventually catch up.

For most children, that approach worked. But in an increasingly diverse school, some fell through the cracks. "We had kids coming in with different needs, and we didn't say, 'We have to meet you where you are at,' " Gates said.

Gloria Ladson-Billings, a University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor who works with a group called the Minority Student Achievement Network, said that many schools in high-performing districts have had similar experiences. Experts say that family income, parental education levels and other variables outside school contribute to the achievement gap. But Ladson-Billings said classroom lessons are also a factor.

Ladson-Billings cited an elementary school in Madison where black students trailed white students. She found that some basic lessons -- such as learning sounds that correspond with letters -- went untaught.

"What teachers said to us is, 'We don't actually teach that,' " Ladson-Billings said. "Most middle-class kids were learning that at home."

As Hollin Meadows tackled the problem anew in fall 2004, teachers in each grade began weekly 80-minute meetings to plan lessons, discuss techniques and review results from periodic mini-tests of students.

On one of those tests, third-graders struggled to answer questions on a short passage about a "plant" where crayons are made. They didn't think of a factory. Instead, teacher Yvonne Brandon said, "all the kids were picturing this big green plant."

When teachers found that certain students had stumbled, they reworked their lessons. They gathered materials to help children learn unfamiliar words. Then they started over in the classroom.

School officials said the mini-tests have sparked similar changes across the county. Patrick Murphy, Fairfax's assistant superintendent for accountability, said that the feedback is invaluable. Teachers can be sure children "get" each lesson, he said. When students falter, teachers can step in rapidly.

This spring, 74 percent of the black students at Hollin Meadows passed the state reading test. That was up sharply from 2004. And it just edged the statewide passing rate for black students, 73 percent. Hispanic and white students also did better.

The giant "curriculum maps" that Hollin Meadows teachers created with tape and scissors two years ago are now tracked by computers and continually fine-tuned. So in third-grade social studies, students cover Christopher Columbus and Juan Ponce de Leon just as they always have. But the school also wedges in a language arts lesson at the same time, asking students to write short books about the explorers to stretch their reading and writing skills.

Teacher Melissa Hentges said she and her colleagues collaborate more, swapping work sheets and ideas. Recently, one teacher created a math game to help children practice rounding off numbers and shared it with other teachers.

"All the teachers talk to each other and say, 'What's working for you?' or 'My kids didn't get it, and here's what I did,' " Hentges said. "We will do what it takes for a student, despite what they bring to the table. I feel more like I can make that happen every year."