The FAPE Site

Pinellas County, Florida

Skyview Elementary School (Pinellas Park)
Azalea Elementary School (St. Petersburg)

The Challenges

Azalea and Skyview Elementary Schools are two of 172 schools in Pinellas County, Florida, where 74 percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunches and there is a 52 percent mobility factor. Skyview, which receives federal Title I funds earmarked for students in disadvantaged communities, was ranked a 'D' as a result of low standardized test scores and a statewide policy that issues performance grades to its schools. The school was under a desegregation order to keep racial diversity-only one-third of the students can be African-American. Many students are bused to and from neighboring schools. Azalea was ranked a 'C' by the state.

The School Environments

Most Azalea and Skyview parents lack higher education and many work two or three low-paying jobs. At Skyview, recent statewide tests showed only one-third of the school's kindergartners knew more than ten letters of the alphabet-not surprising when parents lack the skills, time and energy to engage their children, says Achievement Specialist Jana Maples. "It's not a community that values education as much as we'd like them to," she says. "They have a lot of personal struggles and obstacles they are trying desperately to overcome."

Actions to Improve

After the district and the Association began bargaining collaboratively to improve their schools in the early 1990s, the Pinellas County school district received a Saturn Partnership Award from the National Education Association in 1997.

Azalea

Azalea was one of the first schools in the district to approach and accept the Baldrige method. In one year, all the school's staff members, including support staff, were trained in the Malcolm Baldrige National Criteria for Performance Excellence, adopted by many American businesses looking to sharpen their competitive edge in a global economy.

"Originally, only 12 of us were trained, and we started implementing some of the theories in our teaching on a small scale," says Lisa Bigham, a first-grade teacher. "A lot of our teachers were opposed to the method, but I think the turnaround point was when our principal, Brenda Clark, made a presentation to staff about student performance. The students who were in the classrooms of those of us that had gone through the initial training were far outperforming the other students. It was amazing. At that point, all the teachers wanted to jump on board."

The Baldrige Method is based on quality principles and student data to drive high student achievement. For example: teachers guide students in setting their own individual goals in reading, writing, math and behavior and action plans for how to achieve those goals. The goals are then reassessed using testing data.

Students also create their own classroom rules and mission statements-even first-graders. "If you ask any one of my students who is responsible for their learning, they will answer, 'I am,'" says Dolores Chipelo, a first-grade teacher. "Before we started this quality approach, I would ask kids to draw me a picture of who was responsible for their learning. They would draw their parents and me, but not themselves."

Parents are communicated with on a daily basis and are expected to develop action plans detailing how they will help their children succeed. "Parent information is not an open house," adds Chipelo. "It is a continual process, an everyday reality."

Skyview

When Principal Carolyn Sinclair started at Skyview six years ago, she implemented more on-site opportunities for professional growth and also put into place a school-wide training philosophy: every staff member helps raise student achievement, so every staff member will be trained. In the first four years of the plan, all Skyview staff, including support professionals, went through six different training sessions, each four-to-six weeks in length. Topics include: guided reading, guided writing, quality training, process writing and more.

Like the staff at Azalea, Skyview teachers work in partnership with their students to create teaching and learning goals-one of the most fundamental pieces of the Malcolm Baldrige program. "We used to hide the grade-book from kids," says Skyview's Maples. "Now they ask to see it. Every day, we show them how they are earning their grades and work together to set new goals. It is so much more effective, and the kids love being a part of the process."

Because Skyview classes were overcrowded, four years ago the school used some of its Title I funds to hire another full-time teacher, as well as several hourly reading teachers. One of the school's top goals is that children have a reading group daily.

Association Involvement

Because of the change in bargaining due to the NEA grant, the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association (PCTA) and the Pinellas Educational Support Professionals Association (PESPA) are vocal partners in the district reform efforts-assisting in many aspects. PCTA boasts one of the highest numbers of Nationally Board Certified teachers in the country, and last year the local had a 50 percent success rate in electing recommended candidates. "If we can impact reform efforts and get more support for public education at the political level, we'll be in great shape in years to come," says Maples.

Biggest Successes

Azalea

"I think if we were still doing things the way we used to do them, we would have the potential to be low-performing," says Chipelo. "Between the low socioeconomic levels of our community, and teachers who were not engaged, it would have been inevitable. I'm convinced that implementing this reform saved our school."

Azalea continues to perform at or above state standards-much higher than in any years past. They also benchmark their performance against other schools, and continually show a greater increase in scores than those they benchmark against. Because of their success, last year Azalea received the "Sterling Award"—the state's Malcolm Baldrige award.

Skyview

Skyview went from a 'D' school to a 'C' school-something the entire school community is thrilled with. "I know to outsiders it may seem like we should be making more progress, but the progress we've made has been substantial," says Maples. "I once heard that you can't expect to have any kind of lasting reform in less than three years. I now know that's true."

The school is also finding success with a new parent-outreach program. "We're still having a hard time getting parents at trainings, but they do come for the pizza parties and student performances," says Maples.

Teachers now travel to satellite zones-bus stops in the community-to meet parents for parent-teacher conferences. Because of this, more than 80 percent of parents participated in conferences last year. "That's a record figure for us," says Maples. "It's a totally different story when we go to the parents instead of expecting them to come to us."