Local students post best test results in city

By Joe Lamport
Managing editor

Fourth graders in Highbridge and other Region 1 schools dramatically improved their scores on the state's English language arts test in 2005 and students in third, fifth, sixth and seventh grade posted record high scores and largest one-year gains on the city's reading and math tests, city education officials announced.

Across the city, almost 10 percent more fourth graders passed the state's standard English language arts test compared to last year. Region 1 students, including fourth graders in Highbridge, posted the best improvements: 52.6 percent of the students passed the test -16.9 percent more than in 2004. Many credited the Lead Teacher program, pioneered by the Community Collaborative to Improve District 9 Schools (CC9), for the dramatic improvements in Highbridge and Region 1.

The lead teacher program placed 35 experienced teachers in schools to mentor and support new and less experienced teachers. Four more lead teachers will be added this year as the program will again receive $1.6 million in funding.

"Everyone was excited," said Nancy Santiago, the parent coordinator at C.E.S. 126, adding that the school's principal announced the results proudly to students. "We reminded the students that it takes hard work to get good grades." C.E.S. 126 has four lead teachers.

Chauncy Young, the CC9 organizer for Highbridge Community Life Center, said the Lead Teacher program was a major factor in the students' achievements.

"The collaboration of parents and teachers working together is working," Young said, and it has had a ripple effect. The Lead Teacher program "was initiated by parents, but now it's involving the whole district."

The CC9 collaboration has allowed parents to participate in the schools more intensely. Parents helped conceive of the idea for lead teachers, organized a campaign to obtain support for it and participated in hiring them. Now they are also reviewing the lead teachers' work. Those reviews have shown that lead teachers are helping new and less experienced teachers in a variety of ways, Young said.

"They have helped other teachers see how important organization within the classroom is," Young said. Having materials organized for easy access, study space set up, a structured library and effective bulletin boards are seemingly simple things, but essential, he said.

Lead teachers have helped by observing other teachers and giving them feedback, and by modeling teaching for other teachers.

Outside of the classroom, parent-teacher collaboration has also helped, Young said. Over the next year, more effort would be made to improve family-school partnerships, he said.

Others also basked in the glow of students' achievements on state and city tests, most notably Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is running for reelection. "One look at today's City ELA and math results and it's clear that the reforms that we put in place are working," Bloomberg said at a press conference.

Bloomberg pointed to the initiation of Saturday classes to help struggling students as one reason for the results. Still, only slightly less than half of students did not meet the standards for English on the city's tests. And exactly half of students did not meet the standards in math.

CC9 organizer Young said community involvement was the main factor. "What's working is parents and teachers are working together to address the inherent problems in the schools," he said. "Everyone is working in conjunction to improve the schools. That's something that hasn't existed up until this point."

More improvement would occur, he added, if the schools had more money for programs that help students.