Principals Credit Curriculum Enhancement for Increase in Testing Scores

The boost in scores is most dramatic in schools with high minority, ESL students.

WriteCon.com - February 29, 2008

(PRNewsChannel) / Compton, Calif. - Despite a focus on education in this year of an historic presidential election, children are still getting left behind. 

The problem may be most acute in California, filled with a large base of minority and ESL students in the most populous state in the country.  Scores on the California STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) have steadily dropped at most public schools. 

Yet at a handful, they’ve risen.

What’s happening at those schools?

They implemented The Write Connection. 

The Write Connection is a relatively new program developed by Deborah Stephenson, a former Lynwood Unified School District elementary teacher.

“This program reverses the achievement gap in high ethnic schools,” says Stephenson, “that’s no small accomplishment and schools nationwide could start closing the gap, too.”

The program has been called a miracle for the schools, and is being credited for a rise in test scores in a handful of schools since 2001. 

At Bursch Elementary in the Compton Unified School District, students are 72% Hispanic, 27% African-American and 97% are on free or reduced lunch.  Until the school started using The Write Connection, state test scores were lower than the state’s minimum API (academic performance index) goal of 800. 

After implementing The Write Connection school-wide three years ago, the scores soared to 845 rivaling that of their Beverly Hills counterpart. 

“The Write Connection was essentially responsible for increasing our scores,” says Abimbola Ajala, principal at Charles W. Bursch Elementary.  “It is a program that we use on a daily basis; a very systematic approach, based on current school events (such science and social studies topics), and holidays to help the students focus and keep their attention.” 

Ajala compared scores for the last three years.  She sees the difference it has made across the board. 

“It is a structured approach to writing that teaches the students format and formula even at the lower grade levels,” Ajala says. 

And it’s not just at Bursch.  Synergy Elementary, also with a high minority population and poverty, increased its API by a whopping 104 points in 2006, the highest gain of any school. 

And Century Park Elementary increased their API by 64 points in 2007-the most significant increase in five years.

Flournoy Elementary, part of LAUSD’s Ten School Project, a research program specifically created to help high ethnic and high poverty schools, had the highest gain for 2007 of schools in the program.

Deborah Stephenson created the program over a period of years.  The idea arose while she was a teacher.  It was a response to her students’ needs.

She understood her students’ struggles because she too had struggled for years with writing.

“I was frustrated and needed to do something,” remembers Stephenson.  “I spent seven years developing the program, I noticed significant improvement in student work that drove me to leave teaching to focus on trying to help struggling schools fulltime,” says Stephenson.

Not only has the program brought up test scores in writing, but as a result of learning how to write, students also mastered reading comprehension and critical thinking.

As a result, test scores have gone up not just in writing but in the other subject areas as well.
“To me that’s amazing to see scores rising not only in reading and writing, but in all areas of academia,” says Stephenson.  “Which makes sense because if you can write you can read. But most importantly, students can think.  Writing is after all the quintessential to reading comprehension.” 

“I combined the teaching of grammar, mechanics, and non-fiction writing across the curriculum into easy to use differentiated daily lessons,” Stephenson adds.

She says the real power of the program is that it has the hook to motivate students make them enthusiastic about learning. 

“Curriculum can have all of the standards, frameworks, and research, but in order to see academic achievement, especially for children, you must unlock the key to student motivation,” she says.
Stephenson says more California schools, and those across the country, would see the same results.

The Write Connection works with any curriculum—in any school district.  It has the greatest impact in schools with large minority populations. “I am confident that if schools used The Write Connection there would be no achievement gap and no students would be left behind,” Stephenson says.
“And you can’t help but feel good when you see success like that,” she says.  “I’d like to see students nationwide seeing this success.  And they can.  The data doesn’t lie.”

To learn more about The Write Connection, please visit www.writecon.com.

This article was written by Michelle LeFort, a freelance author based in Kansas.

Contact:  Glenn Selig
Phone: (813) 300-5454
Email:  glenn (at) thepublicityagency.com
Web site:  www.writecon.com

Source Web Site: WriteCon.com