School Finds Strength in 'Family'

Hybla Valley Elementary Improves Academically as It Builds on Relationships

Teachers and administrators at Hybla Valley Elementary School in Fairfax County took a few minutes from their back-to-school preparations this week to celebrate their students' remarkable progress on state standardized tests. In reading, 85 percent of Hybla's students are proficient, up from 68 percent two years ago. In math, 75 percent are proficient, up from 68 percent.

Those pass rates mean that for the first time since 2005, the school, which has more low-income children than any other elementary school in the county, met federal benchmarks for student achievement.

"If you go back and check the records with Hybla, it has struggled for a long time," said Dotty Jensen, a 20-year veteran of the classroom who teaches kindergarten and first grade. "This is quite a feather for each of us and quite a sense of accomplishment."

The school of 750 students, south of Alexandria and just off Route 1, and its neighborhood have endured a reputation for being "tough," Jensen said -- so tough, that when she is ill, Jensen can no longer call her favorite substitute. "She said, 'Hon, I can't go to Hybla -- my husband won't let me,' " Jensen said.

But, two years ago, a new administrative team arrived, bringing with it a new standard for organization and school climate, parents and teachers said. And that reputation has begun to change.

"Hybla is such a family environment," said Shateer Franklin, president of the school's parent-teacher organization. "I'm really proud to be a part of it."

Hybla Valley's turnaround is the kind of positive change that the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal K-12 education law passed in 2002, was designed to make happen. The law, with testing and data reporting requirements that have been called too burdensome by some educators and politicians, requires that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

To make the law's yardstick of adequate yearly progress, an ever-higher percentage of students must pass standardized tests. Low-income Title I schools that receive additional federal funds, such as Hybla Valley, face sanctions if their students do not meet that goal.

Having failed to make the mark since 2005, the school has been required to pay for weekend tutoring sessions run by private companies and to offer families the option to transfer their children another school. But having made adequate progress last year, Hybla can avoid these sanctions if it maintains its improvement in 2010.

"We embrace the spirit of [No Child Left Behind], to be accountable to our community, to one another and especially to our students," said the Lauren Sheehy, the principal who has led the transformation at Hybla Valley for the last two years and whom parents and teachers describe as approachable, organized and firm.

For Sheehy, the school's "family environment" is just as important as excellent academics. Ask her for her secret to turning around a school, and she does not talk about a snazzy new curriculum and cutting-edge technology, but about relationships -- not just between teachers and students but among teachers, too.

"We've really built a community of learners," she said, "and a culture of trust and reflection."