Success Stories – Eastern Middle School - DEMO
In Memphis, 13 schools—seven elementary, three middle, one high, and two vocational-technical—are actively involved in KEYS. With the Memphis Education Association (MEA) as the local sponsor, employees at the schools have so integrated KEYS into their normal activities that they are looked upon as standard operating procedures.
The Memphis, Tennessee Perspective
A KEYS coordinating team meets every other month at the MEA office and brings together a team from each of the participating schools. Each school team consists of the coordinator, another representative, and/or an administrator. The purpose of the meetings is to share information on what's working in the schools, plan KEYS activities, discuss school needs, and develop strategies for providing assistance.
In the winter of 2001, the school held an all-day revitalization conference. School staff, administrators, parents, and central office personnel attended the meeting. NEA staff and school district office personnel served as facilitators. The sessions focused on areas participants identified as a need or interest.
Cummings Elementary School is in its third year of participation in the KEYS initiative.
An assistant principal at Cummings heard about KEYS at an administrator's meeting. He shared the information with the staff, 98 percent of whom voted to give KEYS a try in the 1995-96 school year. When the superintendent mandated that all schools adopt a comprehensive school improvement program, the Cummings staff was ready to initiate KEYS.
The Cummings staff initially focused on three KEYS indicators—team building, consensus building among staff, and improvement in parental involvement. After taking the KEYS assessment, the staff selected a schoolwide reform model that focused on reading. After three years of progress, the staff added a math component.
How is the program working? Students are learning and retaining what they learned. Test scores indicate that most students are reading at grade level—a major feat for a school that had many students who were well below grade level in reading.
Staff at Longview Middle School, located in the inner city, are struggling to get their students performing at grade level. Meeting district and state standards is a major issue for the Longview educators, most of whom are new to the teaching profession.
After reviewing its KEYS assessment, the staff is focused on collaboration to achieve academic goals. The staff has also been able to identify its professional development needs and family and community needs.
Longview is instituting practices that will encourage parents to come to the school to attend workshops on parenting. The school received a federal grant to launch an extendedday program that provides students remediation, opportunities to learn and develop technology skills, and field trips to help students expand their horizons.
At Sherwood Middle School, also in the inner city, the KEYS assessment revealed a lack of adequate resources; poor communication among staff, parents, the community, and the district administration; and few opportunities for the staff to grow professionally.
Within two years of the survey, the school has beefed up its library capacity, acquired technology resources, improved communications, and focused on teaching and learning outcomes. And, as a result of grant writing, the school has acquired additional resources. More parents are now involved at Sherwood as a result of major events such as open houses. Information garnered through research has also helped staff generate more parent involvement in the school. One effort is the creation of a General Education Diploma (GED) preparation course that will provide a service to parents and will also serve as another opportunity to draw parents into the school.
Also in the works are staff training on interdisciplinary teaching with assistance from Johns Hopkins University and a federal Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program grant.
Students at Sherwood are making consistent academic gains. The school had the highest number of students writing at the required level of competency as it has ever had. Indications are that students need additional work to make significant improvements in math. Through KEYS, the staff is planning and working to achieve this goal.