Brown Street Academy.

What if an overlay of reading and writing were placed atop a curriculum? How would it change the picture of a school? Educators at Brown Street Academy School faced a daunting challenge in 1990: to raise the academic achievement of a largely low-income, African American student body performing 20 to 40 percent below the Wisconsin state average. Added to that was a high rate of student turnover with over 25 percent of the students new to the school in a given year. To tackle these challenges, Brown Street implemented a revised curriculum with literacy at its center, extended the academic day, connected to parents and the community, and began to see results.

Today, Brown Street Academy School serves 549 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. A K4 program enrolls four-year-old students who are academically and emotionally ready to begin school, while a K5 program serves five-year-olds. The school's population consists of 95 percent African American, 3 percent white, 2 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, and less than 1 percent Hispanic and American Indian students. Eighty-seven percent of the students qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program.

The Brown Street curricula combine student and teacher accountability with an emphasis on literacy. The academic day centers on an uninterrupted reading block that is implemented across the school. In kindergarten through third grade, teachers devote an entire two-hour segment of the day to the development of basic reading skills in order to create a foundation for students to develop more complicated skills such as comprehension and analysis. For students in kindergarten through second grade, teachers employ a "four-block method," which subdivides the two-hour literacy period into smaller segments. Teachers rotate between four activities that concentrate on different skills. During the "self-selected reading block," for example, students read independently or in groups, while teachers may choose to work with specific students or small groups for individualized instruction. This combination of structure and flexibility allows teachers to exercise their own discretion within a set curriculum.

The fourth and fifth grade curricula include a variation of this literacy period. "Writers' workshops" allow students to submit their work to their classmates in "peer editing" sessions where students edit each other's work and then conference about the results. Through this exercise, students familiarize themselves with the structure and character of good writing and sharpen their oral and written communication skills. Writing is further emphasized through cross-curricular efforts. For example, each month, all students craft written responses to D.E.W. (Drop Everything and Write) on-demand prompts. The school's principal and a literacy coach collect the students' work, analyze each prompt, and provide feedback to each of the teachers concerning areas where their students need improvement. These monthly exercises help administrators and educators monitor the progress of their students and compare students' overall competency.

In addition to Brown Street's intensive focus on literacy, teachers are sensitive to individual differences in learning styles. During language arts lessons, for example, teachers use elements of music to teach students phonics and to recognize words as they clap and chant vocabulary to a syncopated beat. During science lessons, students draw diagrams and engage in hands-on laboratory exercises that apply classroom concepts to the real world. During mathematics lessons, students verify answers to homework problems in journal entries and write about math problems drawing on their critical-thinking skills.

In order to ensure that students are benefiting from the curriculum, a team of representatives from each grade level, the school's literacy coach, the librarian, the reading resource teacher, and the principal, convenes each year to analyze the school's test results and academic progress. The school's overall educational plan is developed based on test data. During monthly meetings, the team continues to review the school's plan and adjustments it appropriately.

Brown Street's extended-day program, which runs from 2:35 through 3:45 PM daily, provides students with additional time to reinforce skills and receive homework help from teachers. Teachers also take advantage of the extended day to target specific skills where students need improvement. Students who are reading below grade level work in the extended day sessions with a variety of resources to improve their literacy skills. A reading resource teacher, as well as paraprofessionals and students from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, provide tutoring services to struggling students. For students seeking a challenge, the school also offers after-school classes in Spanish and Hmong (a language that is prevalent in the local community).

In addition to initiatives within the school, Brown Street reaches out to the educational community. In the past year, state school boards, the governor of Wisconsin, and participants at the National Title I Conference have visited Brown Street to observe its instructional techniques and educational program. The school also participates in an annual Literacy Conference where it shares its successful curricula with other schools.

The school's relationship with the local community, however, is perhaps its most important outreach effort. Brown Street directly involves parents in their children's education through the School Governance Council, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and parental surveys. The school holds "Chat & Chew" sessions where parents are updated on their children's academic progress and test scores are reviewed. Teachers make their evenings, lunch hours, and preparation periods available to parents to ensure a continuing cycle of dialogue between the home and the school. In addition, a Family Center, open daily, helps parents feel welcome and comfortable in the school.

Brown Street Academy's hard work has yielded results. Since 2000, students' scores on Wisconsin's annual assessment test, the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE), have risen, with the largest increases in math and science. Student scores climbed from 38 percent proficient or better in mathematics in 2000-01 to over 86 percent in 2003-2004. This jump erased the 37 percent achievement gap between Brown Street students and their peers across the state. Similar results occurred across the board in reading, language arts, science, and social studies. Since embarking on its upward trend in 2000, Brown Street has experienced 5 years of consistent gains in academic performance.

In recognition of Brown Street's academic achievement, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings named the school a 2005 No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School. Brown Street received further distinction as one of a short list of schools within this category to have dramatically improved student performance in an environment where over 40 percent of students are from economically disadvantaged households.

Resources:

* Brown Street Academy

* Blue Ribbon Schools Program