Its Own Yardstick for Success
Hoffman-Boston Focuses on Small Strides Even as It Fails by Federal Standards

By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 20, 2007

Bernard Posey, 7, slowly writes his name -- b-e-r-n-a-r-d -- on the white board in the bright reading room at Arlington's Hoffman-Boston Elementary School. His reading teacher, Cynthia Chiu, then writes it, too, but capitalizes the B.

"Notice any difference between mine and yours?" she asks him brightly. His face, under a mess of black curls, lights up. He tells her the answer.

"Yes, that's awesome!" she says. He gives her a big smile.

It's a small but important victory for Bernard, one of four students who receive daily, one-on-one tutoring from Chiu, a Title I reading specialist. It's the kind of victory that can't necessarily be measured in test scores, educators say.

Hoffman-Boston Elementary is one of 146 Northern Virginia schools that failed to meet federal guidelines under the No Child Left Behind Act, nearly double the number last year.

For many schools, the most serious penalty is usually negative publicity. But for Title I schools, which receive federal money based on their poverty rates, penalties are imposed when the schools fail to make what the federal government considers adequate yearly progress (AYP) on standardized tests. Making adequate yearly progress means that a majority of students -- as well as various subgroups, such as Hispanics and blacks -- pass the reading and math exams.

Schools that fail to make such progress for two consecutive years in the same subject must offer parents the option of transferring their children to other schools. The more years a school fails to meet the targets, the more stringent the penalties. Eight of the county's 11 Title I schools failed to make adequate yearly progress.

But for Hoffman-Boston, which missed its targets for the fifth consecutive year, time is running out. If the school does not make adequate progress next year, it faces drastic consequences, including staff changes, restructuring or a transfer to private ownership.

Teachers and other school officials said they are focusing on the small strides students are making and improving upon their successes.

"I can't stress about that," Chiu said after her session with Bernard one morning last week. "I can't waste my energy on that. I need it for teaching."

The school, in the shadow of the Pentagon in a traditionally black neighborhood, has made gains, just not enough. Its challenges are many.

For example, 70 percent of Hoffman-Boston students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, twice the percentage needed to qualify as a Title 1 school, Principal Yvonne Dangerfield said. Many of its students' parents work second jobs to make ends meet; many don't speak English.

"Hoffman-Boston is making real progress," Superintendent Robert G. Smith said. "We're going to just keep working at it. We're not interested in any of the alternatives."

Smith and other educators said AYP is not an accurate representation of a school's progress. For example, Hoffman-Boston, which with its pre-kindergarten program has 358 students, met federal benchmarks in math this year -- after failing last year -- but didn't reach the reading target, he said. Educators blame the failure on the test and its parameters.

"If you have a school with fewer than 50 students in a category, you don't have to count them or be responsible for their achievement," Smith said. "That's not fair. Schools that have less than 50 students in a category are in better shape."

Mark Johnston, assistant superintendent for instruction, said Virginia schools that have many students with limited English proficiency were at an added disadvantage this year because the federal government disallowed a reading test that had been used as a proxy for such students. Now, students who have been in the country one year and a day must take the same test as native speakers. That change had affected Hoffman-Boston, Johnston said.

Last month, state officials said that Virginia is working with the federal government to create a new reading test for English learners but that it is unlikely to be ready by spring, the next round of testing.

Johnston said the way that students are counted more than once -- in subgroups based on such factors as race, ethnicity and income status -- also worked against Hoffman-Boston, where about 45 percent of students are black, 25 percent are Hispanic, 21 percent are Asian-Pacific Islander, and 8 percent are white.

Parental involvement also can affect a school's performance, officials said, and schools with large numbers of parents who are poor, work multiple jobs or have limited English skills tend to have less involvement.

Participation in the Hoffman-Boston PTA is extremely low, Dangerfield said, with teachers outnumbering parents at meetings. That can translate into even more work for teachers already struggling to boost student achievement to levels seen at more affluent schools where parents tend to be more involved.

"At McKinley [Elementary School], where my kids went, the parents organized the fun fairs, the library nights, the multicultural evenings," said Debbie Wren, a teacher of English as a second language at Hoffman-Boston. "Here we do it all.

"I joke that I'm on the same committees here that I was at McKinley, but here I'm the teacher," Wren said.

Elsie Kimbrell, a "book buddy" who does one-on-one reading with Hoffman-Boston students two mornings a week, said the hardest part of the program is "getting parents to bring the kids before school."

"Some don't have cars," Kimbrell said. "It's not always easy to get the cooperation you need."

Kimbrell said one teacher started picking up a student she was tutoring at home and bringing him to the reading sessions because his parents didn't have transportation.

Wren said the number of students needing ESL classes is dropping at Hoffman-Boston as immigrants move to the outer suburbs, where housing is more affordable. The school has 90 ESL students this year, compared with 130 and 180 the past two years, she said. The school had five full-time ESL teachers; now there are two.

Karin Chenoweth, an author and senior writer at Education Trust, a District-based group advocating higher standards for poor and minority students, said schools can turn themselves around "even after the last minute."

"This school is not on its last legs," Chenoweth said. "You're seeing some weaknesses, but there're also strengths there."

Chenoweth said she has seen several schools turn around by tweaking their curriculum or changing personnel. "Any school can achieve academically if everything is working right," she said.

The intense focus on raising test scores and boosting achievement can be a double-edged sword. It can be a turnoff for more affluent parents, who think their children won't get the attention they deserve as resources are focused on struggling students.

Heidi Jakes opted to take her younger son out of Hoffman-Boston recently; her older son spent all his elementary years there.

"My son is extremely bright, and their focus is on getting their scores up," Jakes said. "They're working primarily with the disadvantaged. I just felt my child would've gotten lost in the mix."

Jakes took advantage of federal guidelines that allow students at failing schools to transfer to better-performing schools. That is precisely what educators at Hoffman-Boston don't want to hear.

"That's a frustration for me," said Assistant Principal Gail Seligson, who runs the school's gifted program and is reaching out to high-performing students. "We're trying hard. We have to fight against that reputation with parents."

Hoffman-Boston has programs for students at all levels, she said.

"A-Y-P," Seligson said. "Three letters do not a school make."