BELIEVING IN OUR STUDENTS AND OURSELVES

Nicole Saginor, Superintendent St. Johnsbury Schools

It is a familiar axiom that if you have low expectations, you’re liable to live up to them.  There is also an automatic agreement with the statement that “all children can learn” by every educator and most people in polite society.  But it has been pointed out that there could be several interpretations of that belief statement.  A few years ago, the Northeast Kingdom School Development Center at Lyndon State College brought to the region a nationally recognized educational leader who had turned a failing school into an awarding-winning school for several consecutive years.  His name is Rick DuFour, and many of his ideas are being used in Vermont schools now to try to replicate his results.  His most influential book, Professional Learning Communities, has served as the basis for the emphasis on teachers’ collaborative work here and across the State.

But another key concept in his work revolves around believing that all students can learn.  He identifies four different versions of that idea.  They go something like this:

1. We believe that all children can learn based on their ability.  It is tempting to rely on the belief that some people are just naturally smart and they will therefore be able to learn more or better than others.  But this does not take into account the many stories of those who began with fewer advantages and rose to heights of success, and it also ignores the newest in brain research around IQ which has found that intelligence is a much more flexible commodity than previously thought.  It turns out brains continue to develop and that good schooling can help increase brain capacity.
2. We believe that all children can learn if they take advantage of the opportunity to learn.

But, if for no other reason than that the federal law makes it so, it is our job to do more than provide all students with opportunities to learn.  It is why we need to do more than wait for the yearly NECAP tests; we need to create collective ownership and accountability for results by not only school personnel, but students, parents, and the community.  Look for us this year to be not only doing formative assessments, but to be reporting more frequently on progress.  Look for students to be doing more presentations of their own work.  Look for parents and community to be invited in on a regular basis to see and understand the work we do at school.  Please take advantage of these occasions.  You may be pleasantly surprised.

3. We believe all children can learn something, and we will ensure at least some growth. But remember the axiom about living up to low expectations.  Schools across the country, and now in our very own backyard  with the stories told in the publication, “Roots of Success,” have proven that setting high expectations is not merely a “pie in the sky” approach; it actually works if the standards are sincerely held, are clearly stated, and all join forces to reach them.  More about the “Roots of Success” later.
4. We believe all children can learn and we will establish high standards of learning that we expect ALL students to achieve.  A classic example of this belief in setting high standards beyond traditional expectations comes from the Mission District in Los Angeles where I think we can all agree that the serious problems experienced daily by those families (violent gangs and everything that goes along with them) are more severe than anything we experience here. Jaime Escalante, a high school math teacher, took a class of failing and disaffected students and set the goal with them to pass the Advanced Placement test in calculus.  If you are interested in the story, you can rent the movie, Stand and Deliver, to discover the outcome of that example of setting the bar higher than had ever been set before.  But we also have Vermont’s “Roots of Success” study and will be striving this year to become a “Roots of Success School.” 

With the designation of the St. Johnsbury School as a Tier I school, we come to a challenge that has not yet been fully faced.  While progress has been made and new initiatives undertaken by the teachers at school have shown promise, these have, in plain language, simply not been as successful as we needed them to be.  There is more that we can do and we must not make excuses as we carefully analyze the steps we have taken and look at that which we still can do.  We are fortunate to have on board this year one of the authors of that study, as well as other consultants who have statewide and national reputations.  We will look carefully at the three “Roots” schools that made progress beyond expectations.  As I look at the elements identified as contributing to their success, there are several areas where we can and must improve.  Because this research in our state has uncovered the same elements identified in national studies (successful schools believe that all students can learn, take responsibility for outcomes, are guided by strong leadership, use data to monitor progress and adapt strategies, have a professional culture that supports high quality instruction, have systems that support academic, social, and emotional needs of students, engage parents, and reach out for and receive community support and resources), we know that educating all students is an attainable goal that does not require abandoning the public school as a vehicle for quality. 

There is much quality in the St. Johnsbury School to build upon.  This year can be the year that we take the promise of the good work that we have begun and make it all come together.  We accept the challenge to successfully educate ALL our students and, as painful as the Tier I designation is, we will use the opportunities of time, money, and assistance to meet that challenge.  In order to succeed with our students, we will need to believe in ourselves as well.