As teenagers stream out the double doors of Norview High School into a frigid winter afternoon, four history teachers gather in a quiet upstairs classroom. They are not there to discuss their students, but to take a cold-eyed look at their own performance.
They鈥檙e evaluating how well they鈥檝e taught a unit on the Industrial Revolution, and the computer printouts they鈥檙e holding will guide them. A graph with jagged, multicolored lines shows the students鈥� average scores on the unit test over the last six years. Additional graphs show how well each teacher鈥檚 students scored.
Some of these sessions offer reason for satisfied smiles. But not this day鈥檚 numbers. Only 37 percent of the students passed the unit test in 2004, an all-time low, prompting sober reflection among the three U.S. history teachers and their department chairman.
What went wrong? Was it the changes they made in that year鈥檚 test? Was it their pacing? The phrasing of certain questions? They brainstorm ways to make this notoriously difficult unit more engaging this year. The teacher whose students turned in the lowest scores seeks and receives tips from a colleague whose students did better.
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Meetings like this one are at the heart of an improvement strategy that has delivered striking results for Norview, a comprehensive high school of 1,700 students, and for schools throughout Norfolk. The largely minority, low-income district of 36,000 students at the southern tip of the Chesapeake Bay is home to the world鈥檚 largest naval base.
Scores on state tests have soared districtwide since 1998, and Norview鈥檚 scores are no exception. They鈥檝e risen from 20 percent or 30 percent of students passing鈥攁nd in some subjects, the teens鈥攊nto the 80s and 90s, while performance gaps between nonwhite and white students have narrowed or closed.
As education reformers turn to the vexing task of improving high schools, Norfolk鈥檚 approach is worth noting. It is bettering its high schools in part by capitalizing on their academic departments鈥攁n aspect of secondary schools often derided as hidebound and a primary obstacle to improvement.
Jo Lynne DeMary, Virginia鈥檚 superintendent of public instruction, says that the intensive use of data to inform teaching, and a culture of universal high expectations, are keys to Norfolk鈥檚 success. She praises Norview High as an example of what can be done to help needy students succeed, noting that it now outperforms some other Virginia high schools that serve wealthier populations.
鈥淣orview has caught a lot of people鈥檚 attention,鈥� she says. 鈥淭heir focus on student achievement and their desire not to use any excuses, but to be absolutely focused on making sure all those students meet with success, has been an inspiration to all of us.鈥�
Michael D. Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington-based advocacy group, says Norfolk chose several pivotal focus areas that paid off. District educators mined data for guidance, staffed the neediest schools with strong teachers, and extended a revamped, unified reading program through middle school. The superintendent and school board drove the improvements by renewing the district鈥檚 focus on student achievement, Casserly says.
鈥淭here is such unity of purpose,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t really is striking to me how much progress they make when everybody in the system understands where they are going, all pulling together.鈥�
Norfolk鈥檚 improvement drive took on an air of urgency in 1998, with the dismal results from new statewide accountability tests, the Standards of Learning, or SOLs. They showed Norfolk in the bottom third of Virginia鈥檚 132 school districts.
John O. Simpson, the newly hired superintendent, worked closely with the staff and the school board to streamline the district鈥檚 goals and objectives, develop a clear philosophy of teaching and learning, build strong ties with community leaders, and promote the value of learning from outside experts and one another.
Consultants helped the district examine its weaknesses and laid the foundation for a comprehensive accountability plan, which requires everyone from bus drivers to central-office administrators to spell out how their departments will fuel the district鈥檚 journey to 鈥渨orld class鈥� status.
A Guiding Coalition of parents, educators, and community members helped forge the district鈥檚 plan, and built the support crucial for carrying it through. Intensive curriculum alignment and staff training placed a clear focus on what was to be achieved and how.
Simpson鈥檚 leadership garnered national recognition. He retired last spring, but key leaders who served under him continue along the path they designed together.
Marian D. Flickinger, the president of the 2,000-member Norfolk Federation of Teachers, one of two teacher associations in the district, praises Simpson for letting educators, parents, and civic leaders help shape the district鈥檚 direction, rather than imposing a finished plan upon the community.
Teacher associations have no bargaining rights under Virginia law. But having seats on the Guiding Coalition enabled members to help design policies they felt would be educationally sound and likely to win rank-and-file support, Flickinger says. They helped secure agreement, for instance, that 鈥渨alk-throughs鈥� of schools, by administrators and staff members from other schools, would be voluntary and meant as a learning鈥攔ather than evaluative鈥攖ool.
鈥淭hat way, we could help make believers of our members,鈥� Flickinger says. 鈥淓verybody was brought to the table, and that was very wise. Everybody felt like they were stakeholders.鈥�
It was against that backdrop that Norview High School began its journey. Its SOL results, and the racial gap unveiled by the disaggregation of those scores, delivered a painful wake-up call. Of 10 subjects tested, the school met the state鈥檚 target passing rate of 70 percent in only one: reading. In six other subjects, passing rates ranged from 13 percent to 35 percent. Black students, who make up two-thirds of Norview鈥檚 students, lagged behind their white peers by as much as 40 percentage points.
鈥淲e had to search deep to think what we were going to do about this,鈥� says Bruce Brady, a 19-year Norview teacher who now chairs the history department. The school鈥檚 lowest scores were in history, forcing that department into some of the most painful reflection.
Out of that soul-searching came a leadership role. The history teachers took the first steps toward 鈥渃ontent teaming鈥� and vertical alignment, which would become bulwarks of Norview鈥檚 improvement strategy, with the blessing and support of its principal.
Picking up on the district鈥檚 drives to use data and revamp curricula, the history faculty met after school, on weekends, and over the summer鈥攎any of those hours without pay鈥攖o craft guidelines on what should be taught and tested in each unit of each class. They adopted common grading policies and pacing. They composed banks of hundreds of test questions, and learned how to use a computer program that would analyze the results.
At first, the teachers modeled course content around the Standards of Learning. But after a few years, they became convinced that students should know far more than what was required on the state tests, says Brady, and they expanded the course content. That move echoed the district鈥檚 oft-cited mantra to see the state tests as 鈥渢he floor, not the ceiling.鈥�
Content teaming had difficult aspects, and not everyone was a fan. Particularly tough were the team meetings, in which teachers faced data on their own performance. For a while, session leaders blocked out teachers鈥� names next to the lines showing their class scores. But eventually, such courtesy measures were dropped.
鈥淭hose early sessions were really painful,鈥� says Linda Partridge, the chairwoman of Norview鈥檚 mathematics and science department. But she believes that content teaming is valuable because it forces teachers to 鈥渢each to the standards, rather than to our passions.鈥� A math teacher, she jokes that without agreed-upon pacing, she might linger forever on conic sections, shortchanging topics she loves less.
Some teachers disliked the new system and chose to leave, Brady says. He speculates that some found the uniform content and pacing overly restrictive, while others chafed at the increased and public examination of their performance. Some, he suspects, didn鈥檛 like or agree with the influence the SOLs were wielding over the school.
For others, support of content teaming took time. 鈥淥ur department was reluctant,鈥� says Sharon Blumenthal, the chairwoman of the English department. 鈥淗istory had to bring us along. But I see it makes us much more reflective on the work we鈥檙e doing. And working in teams means we鈥檙e never isolated.鈥�
History teacher Camille Riek likes the feedback she gets from the analysis sessions. Occurring every few weeks, they enable her to adjust her teaching to meet students鈥� needs more quickly than waiting months for state or national test results. And the data are used again later in rewriting tests or shifting plans for upcoming units.
As content teaming worked its way into other academic departments at Norview High, it was unfolding in various forms in Norfolk鈥檚 other schools. A couple of years ago, Norview teachers began designing a vertical-alignment process, borrowing an idea from the College Board to better prepare students for Advanced Placement work. That process is still being developed.
Starting with the goal of what students should know in each discipline by graduation, teachers 鈥渂ack mapped鈥� through each course and grade, specifying where students must be academically when they begin and end each course, says Blumenthal. When done right, teachers are working collaboratively across grade levels to ensure students are well prepared for the next level.
In conjunction with the vertical alignment, Norview undertook an early-identification process, reviewing PSAT and 8th grade SOL scores to guide promising students into higher-level work. Students whose performance is borderline for such work can still sign up, if they and their parents sign a contract with the teacher agreeing to the course expectations, Blumenthal says. The Advanced Placement enrollment has risen, while minority participation has increased.
The vertical alignment has boosted students鈥� confidence and enabled teachers to focus their teaching at a higher level, proponents say.
鈥淲hen my kids come into my classes speaking comfortably about literary criticism, and Aristotelian principles, I don鈥檛 have to waste time reteaching,鈥� says Blumenthal, who teaches AP English. 鈥淭hey have it. They can move on. It pays off in students鈥� confidence.鈥�
Marjorie L. Stealey, who has been Norview鈥檚 principal for 13 years, says content teams have been pivotal to the school鈥檚 improvement. But those early test scores showed that a change in culture was also necessary. Staff leaders brainstormed to define a set of beliefs and practices that should infuse school life, including equity, respect, and higher expectations for students and staff.
Norview also tried harder to enlist parents鈥� participation. The school schedules PTA meetings on the same nights as major school events, a strategy that helped enlist parent support for higher academic goals after hundreds watched a slide presentation about lagging test scores.
The school also began offering weekly conferences with all of a student鈥檚 teachers for any parent who requests them. Every Wednesday after school, conversation buzzes around a dozen or more tables in the cafeteria as teachers and counselors rotate from table to table, talking with parents.
Stealey also took deliberate steps to build a culture of achievement and inclusion, such as holding student-led retreats for cross sections of staff and students to discuss ways to build a respectful school environment, and starting a support group for high-achieving black male students.
Norview began displaying in its hallways the photos of students who scored 1000 or more on the SAT. Teenagers have confided to Stealey that they鈥檝e taken the college-entrance exam several times to gain inclusion in that display. A similar photo display has been mounted for those in AP classes. The numbers of pictures in each are growing.
Stealey acknowledges that the last six years have required relentless focus, energy, and hard work. But, quoting noted Harlem educator Lorraine Monroe, she says that helping disadvantaged students is 鈥渉oly work,鈥� and that viewing it that way can produce good results anywhere.
鈥淎ny school in America can do this,鈥� says Stealey. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 bottle it. It may not be the exact same formula, the exact same ingredients, in each place. You have to find your own way. But it can be done.鈥�
