Va. Award Highlights Schools' Similarities

Parents, Principals, Teachers Praised

The three Prince William County schools are similar: They have a low percentage of economically disadvantaged students and a mostly white student body, defying the county's overall surge in Hispanics and non-native English speakers.

Last week, the three were among 89 schools that won the first Governor's Award for Academic Excellence, given to schools with a high percentage of students who scored "advanced" on the state Standards of Learning exams.

The elementary schools in Prince William that won are Henderson in Dumfries, Mountain View in Haymarket and Westridge in Woodbridge. Among Northern Virginia's major school districts, Prince William, the second largest in the state, has the fewest awardees. Fairfax County has 18, Loudoun eight and Arlington four.

School Board Vice Chairman Grant Lattin (Occoquan) lauded the schools' teachers and principals for "working to death" trying to boost achievement, citing the students' families as another contributing factor.

"These communities are well represented by high-achieving parents. These kids have mostly gone to preschool that their parents have paid for and they've been on the fast track," Lattin said. "When you have kids with those advantages, they tend to have high results"

At Westridge, where about 9 percent of students are Hispanic and about 10 percent are low income, Principal Pat Hayden said strong parent involvement complemented innovative work by teachers to boost SOL scores. She said parents' support permeates school culture in generous ways.

"We're going to have a walk in May, and we'll ask for water bottles. Within two days, our office will be filled with cases. In other schools, you would have gotten two. Here we'll have 40," Hayden said.

Hayden said it has been only recently that Westridge added a program in English for speakers of other languages. The school's main challenge, she said, has been trying to raise the reading test scores of boys.

Westridge's success is evident. The number of poor students who passed the SOL in English jumped to 93 percent in the 2006-07 academic year, from 69 percent in 2004-05; for black students, the number rose to 95 percent, from 72 percent.

Hayden noted several reasons for the achievement. She uses licensed teachers, rather than parents, to help teach extra reading groups for low-performing students. She sent teachers to training conferences focusing on the differences between how boys and girls learn.

Recently Westridge has been using graphic novels, which are popular with boys, who, she said, "need material that is more engaging." Similar to comic books, the novels are directed at more mature audiences because they are written with more complicated plots and text.

In addition, Hayden has instructed teachers to make boys read more nonfiction about current events.