Gateways supporters welcome new name.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - The change was small, uncomplicated and noncontroversial, but for the students and staff at Gateways High School - formerly Gateways Learning Center - it speaks volumes.

Responding to a request from the school over the summer, the school board last week voted to change the name of the 12-year-old alternative school, which has evolved from a part-time credit-recovery program to a bona fide high school that last June awarded nearly 80 standard diplomas in a celebration at the Wildish Community Theater.

"The people who instigated (the change) were really the students and, second to that, the parents," said Gateways Principal Sheryl Ott, who has led the school nearly from its inception. "They said, `We're not a learning center now, we're a school. We're not just making up credits, we go to school.' '

Located in a bright, refurbished former bank building on Main Street downtown, Gateways also serves as a hub for referrals to all of the district's alternative education programs, including the Young Parent Program and private programs such as Looking Glass Riverfront School & Career Center. For that function, it will keep the "learning center" moniker, operating as a distinct entity.

That means the Gateways Learning Center sign in the parking lot out back will remain, Ott said, though she plans to get a new Gateways High sign for the front. Anticipating smooth sailing with the school board, Ott ordered calendars and computer flash drives for students and staff with the new name.

"It actually does mean a lot to the students," said Stephanie Gibbs, 16, who enrolled in Gateways as a sophomore last year after finding that neither Springfield High School nor an online high school program fit her learning style. "It makes us feel more proud of ourselves when people ask where we go to school.'

Gateways serves nearly 200 students in grades 10 through 12, most of them kids who have struggled in regular high school and enroll with hopes that the smaller class sizes, one-on-one attention and extra support will make the difference.

Until last year, the program was only half-day, which made it difficult to cobble together enough credits for a standard high school diploma, Ott said. Moving to full days - a change that she and her staff sought - made a world of difference for many students, she said.

"One of the big advantages is the longer you have the students, the more chances you have," she said.

Helping drive the changes was $475,750 in federal Comprehensive School Reform grant funds over the last two years, a hefty sum for a school Gateways' size. For comparison, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Meyer Memorial Foundation grant that helped launch the district's new Academy of Arts and Academics was $312,000.

Gateways used the money - distributed to high-poverty, low-performing schools around the state that were willing to undertake an exhaustive application process - to purchase a new reading program and all the training it required. The school also sent teachers to conferences and other training opportunities, many of them focused on literacy, and provided summer school for students.

Hoping to better integrate technology in the classroom, Gateways bought enough Macintosh computers for every student to use one at the same time, as well as SMART boards - interactive electronic white boards - and a "clicker" system that gives instant feedback.

Staff members have also used the funds to visit similar schools that have demonstrated success. For schools like Gateways, though, success is difficult to show through conventional means.

On statewide assessment tests, for instance, Gateways students typically score lower than their counterparts at other district schools, placing the school on the list of low-performing schools under both state and federal criteria. Those criteria focus primarily on scores of 10th-graders - the students who have been at Gateways the least amount of time and are usually the furthest behind.

Nonetheless, the school has demonstrated progress in grant-required annual reports to the state, Ott said.

For instance, compared to the scores they earned on state reading tests as eighth-graders, students at Gateways last year scored an average of six points higher, said Rob Hess, the district's student achievement coordinator. That's more than twice the district's average rate of improvement, he said.

Ott also noted a big drop in the mobility rate - the number of times students come and go during the school year divided by the total fall enrollment.

The rate was 350 percent in the first year of the grant, before the school went full-time, but dropped to 162 percent last year.

Social studies teacher Fred Merwin, in his third year at Gateways, said the "learning center" name simply didn't fit anymore.

"(The new name) says we're a high school, and you're going to learn just as much here as you would learn at Thurston High School or Springfield High School - maybe even more," he said.