Equity reform at the secondary level: Torch Middle School was able to make dramatic improvements over a short period of time by being consistent with students, following a plan of action and maintaining standards of excellence for everyone.

Imagine a California middle school with an academic performance index of 435, one of the lowest in the region. This same school has a serious gang presence, with fighting, drugs and graffiti as dominant features. The students see school as a place for socializing, not studying.

Hispanic students who are considered English language learners receive little effective help. Socio-economically disadvantaged students get social promotions. The classroom environment is so challenging that the only teachers interested in the school are those who are just trying out teaching as a possible career.

Now take a look at this same school five years later. The API score is 236 points higher. The school is ranked by the Los Angeles County Office of Education as the fifth most improved middle school in California during this same five-year period. Eighty-seven percent of the teaching staff is considered "highly qualified" by NCLB.

There are aggressive interventions in place to meet the needs of English learners and the socio-economically disadvantaged. Gang activity, while still a problem in the community, has been completely suppressed on campus. The majority of the students realize that they can succeed at school and are actively engaged in learning.

How did such a dramatic change take place in such a short period of time? A number of research institutions have asked that very question. As a consequence, Torch Middle School, located in the Bassett Unified School District in La Puente, is being followed by WestEd and The Middle School Improvement Study, sponsored by UCLA.

How the process started

The school improvement process was initiated by Torch's principal, Joe Medina. He began by building up a powerful faculty and support staff and initiating a series of community partnerships. The process shows one way in which school reform can be successful.

In 2001, Torch Middle School was a worn-out campus surrounded by industrial firms. School technology was inadequate and outdated. Keeping the graffiti under control required daily paint touch ups. Trash was strewn throughout the campus and surrounding areas. Groups of students wandered the neighborhoods after school, fighting with each other and vandalizing community structures.

Classroom disruptions were daily occurrences, with classroom management differing from one class to the next. Students took advantage of this situation to play teacher against teacher, and teacher against the administration. In the eyes of the school district and the community, the school was considered a disgrace.

Torch parents

Many parents felt insecure about approaching the school to discuss their children's needs. They were not familiar enough with the public education system to use it to advocate for their own children, or even monitor their educational progress. Thirty-seven percent of Torch parents did not graduate from high school. Many could not read in English and had difficulty understanding their children's assignments. For many Torch families, eighth grade was as high as they expected their children to go in school.

Torch had two large overlapping subgroups of students with severe needs.

* About one-third of the students were English learners. Eighty percent of these students scored below 50 percent on the English part of the state's achievement test, and 58 percent scored below 50 per-cent in math on the same test.

* 83 percent of the students were socio-economically disadvantaged. Half of this group scored below 50 percent on the California achievement test in English and 44 percent scored below 50 percent in math on the same test.

Finding and using tools for reform

The school improvement effort began by recognizing that resources were available to provide guidance. The school adopted the California reform document, "Taking Center Stage," as a blueprint for change. Each teacher received a copy and over numerous group study sessions, each became conversant with the best practices described in the document.

The school hired three outside evaluators from LACOE to observe the state of teaching at Torch in three core areas--language arts, math and English language development. Their observations and conclusions provided detailed and objective insights into the weaknesses of the school that in turn helped the school develop a meaningful and effective plan of action. One step outlined in the action plan required the help of an outside resource for staff development because teachers lacked the skills necessary to address student needs. Two cohorts of teachers and administrators were sent to the LACOE California School Leadership Academy for three years.

The Torch team was exposed to many of the current strategies for school reform, two of which they found to be particularly helpful. Those strategies include creating a professional learning community (DuFour & Eaker, 1998) and using the backward design process (McTighe, & Wiggins, 1998).

While the concept of becoming a professional learning community had immediate appeal for Torch teachers, the process of how to grow one was far from clear. They knew that they needed to read together and discuss the reading. They also needed to develop a shared vision of where they wanted the school to go. They needed to come to an agreement on what best practices would be for all aspects of the school.

These ideas were addressed in broad terms when teachers met as a group at the monthly staff development sessions. One decision they made was to organize into grade-level/content-area planning groups, i.e., the sixth grade would have separate planning groups for each of the core subjects, but each group would consist of the same teachers meeting at different times to address different subjects.

Just by shared examination of student work and curriculum planning they found themselves developing the mechanics of becoming a professional learning community. Their work made them face issues of accommodation, shared solutions to common problems and even conflict resolution. Each group took its discoveries back to the whole-group meetings, where their new awareness added to everyone's understanding.

Planning for instruction

One of the activities that seemed most essential for the grade-level/content area groups was planning for instruction. Here the backward design process was of immediate value. By planning backwards from the goal they desired to reach, they could use instructional time most efficiently and effectively.

The goal, of course, was mastery of the content standards in a particular subject area for the grade level. But in what order would the group be presenting those standards? Which standards would be given the most attention? What adaptations, if any, would be necessary for the particular group of students being taught that year?

Answering these questions then allowed each group to make the next decisions. How will we know if the students have reached the goal? What assessment will we use to give us that information? And how will we organize the teaching to best prepare the students to take that assessment? Finally, how will we know what the students already know? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Developing the skills to use this process took time. Teachers with great differences in their teaching styles had difficulty coming to common decisions with the whole grade level. Other teachers who had decades of experience working totally alone felt overwhelmed by the time it took to develop group process skills.

It took more than four years for the groups to all learn to answer this series of questions together. But when they did, they discovered that they had truly become a professional learning community.

Block scheduling 

As the capacity for effective teaching was being developed in Torch teachers, the school was reconfigured using a block scheduling structure recommended in "Taking Center Stage." Block scheduling reduces student anonymity and provides more support for students with below-grade-level skills. Torch adopted a version of block scheduling that consisted of pairing two teachers--one teaching English and social studies, the other teaching mathematics and science. Each pair of teachers shared a cohort of about 60 students from the same grade level.

The students attended each classroom as an intact group of about 30 for two instructional blocks with each teacher. This schedule replaced four of the six periods of each school day. A fifth period was allocated to physical education and a sixth period was used in a variety of ways. For students with weaknesses in math, literacy or English language development, this sixth period was dedicated to remediation.

Within the teaching pair, the two teachers organized the curriculum in whatever way worked best for their students. For instance, one pair found that some of their students learned better with longer lessons in English language development. So instead of keeping a group for two hours at a time every day, they moved them so that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday the students in one group could receive long, unbroken sessions of English language development.

One immediate result of this approach to block scheduling was that teacher pairs began to offer after-school tutoring to specific individuals within their cohort. Each pair member provided either language or mathematics tutoring to any member of the cohort who needed it. This service spread to all grade levels and to special education.

Staff enrichment 

In conjunction with the school reconfiguration, the principal also enriched the staff y adding a number of specialists--an additional counselor, a parenting instructor and an English language development resource teacher.

The resource teacher offered a three-hour English language class to newcomers and provided support and training to teachers who have English learners in their classes. The resource teacher also dealt with compliance issues for English learners, and encouraged parents to participate in school decision making through membership on two committees--the English Language Advisory Committee and the School Site Council.

The additional counselor assisted with identifying student problems and helping the faculty find appropriate interventions to help particular students. The parenting instructor, who was a certified marriage and family counselor, taught parenting classes in Spanish.

Student discipline

From the outset it was determined that creating a safe and secure learning environment was a top priority. Since discipline at Torch historically had been poor and teachers and students did not feel safe, student habits such as promptness, appearance and completion of homework needed to be addressed. So a program of holding students accountable for some of the most basic requirements of school participation was begun.

Each day began with the principal standing outside the school just before the first bell, urging students and their parents to arrive promptly. A sign was posted near the entrance gate as a daily reminder, asking the parents to avoid tardiness. As the day progressed, promptness in moving from one class to the next was also encouraged by all staff.

Careful records were kept so that a progressive discipline program could be used. This meant that infractions would receive progressively more severe responses if they were repeated.

Two programs were adopted that helped students improve their behavior in the classroom both as citizens and as learners. "Tools for Teaching," developed by Fred Jones, is a 12-week training program that uses videotapes and a study guide. Teachers try out techniques described in the tapes and meet in groups to discuss problems and share ideas about the execution of those techniques.

Teachers learned to use the impact of proximity on student behavior by continually walking the classroom. They learned to organize the student desks so that teachers could move directly to problem students. They learned to teach the students to be responsible through a rewards system that awarded points for good behavior and quick compliance with class requirements. Classroom disruptions and off-task behavior diminished.

The school also implemented the research-based Advancement Through Individual Determination. AVID techniques include taking Cornell notes, keeping an AVID binder and using the AVID investigative techniques in tutor-led discussion groups. AVID helped students begin to think like scholars.

Classroom environments improved as student skills developed. High levels of attendance became the norm in most classrooms. Students were continuously busy paraphrasing and summarizing the lesson in their notes. Student questions became evaluative and critical rather than simply informational.

The relationship between content, skills required to access the content and behavior was clearly highlighted through the adoption of these new programs. Observable improvements in student behavior and achievement were corroborated by improving scores on the California achievement test each year.

Community partners

Because 78 percent of Torch students came from socio-economically disadvantaged families, the school must function as more than an academic setting. By reaching out to many community partners, the school has been able to provide a wide range of services and function as a community resource center.

The Los Angeles County Probation Department has stationed a full-time officer on campus to address the needs of at-risk youth on campus and the children in the neighborhood after regular school hours. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department provides the services of an officer to teach about drug and safety education.

The YMCA Family Resource Center provides an on-site center with a worker who dispenses emergency supplies such as food, clothing and transportation. The California Student Opportunity and Access Program provides a visiting mentor who counsels students on how to get into college through workshops, seminars and home visits. Various counseling services are available through agencies such as Spirit Family Services and The Children's Bureau.

Two additional key features have melded the process together. When extra funding was needed to provide services, staff appealed to foundations and the state government for help. The California Community Foundation provided $150,000 (over two years) and a California High Priority Schools Grant Program provided $727,000 (over four years) to support the Torch effort. Lack of funding to support student learning was never accepted as an excuse.

A commitment to sustained growth

The Torch team is committed to sustaining growth over time by being consistent with students on a daily basis, by having a plan of action leading into the future and by maintaining standards of excellence for themselves and the students.

References

Black, P. & William, D. (1998). "The Value of Formative Assessment." Fairtest Examiner. Cambridge, MA: FairTest.

California Department of Education (2001). Taking Center Stage; A Commitment To Standards-Based Education for California's Middle Grades Students. Sacramento, CA: California Department of Education Press.

Dufour, R. & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: National Education Service.

Jones, Frederic. (2002). Tools for Teaching. Santa Cruz, CA: Frederic H. Jones and Associates, Inc.

McTighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Daniel Ramirez is bilingual resource teacher at Torch Middle School, where Joe Medina is principal. Meta Nelson is coordinator of special programs, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, for the Bassett Unified School District.