Baltimore builds for success
 

Not long ago, the two squat red-brick buildings that house Baybrook School sat almost hidden in a field of weeds—a forlorn South Baltimore outpost of public education, with test scores to match. Today, the grounds are manicured, test scores have soared, and educators from around the nation are beating a path to the school’s doors to ask how this elementary/intermediate school, and several other Baltimore schools like it, have managed to turn things around.

The “secret” isn’t really a secret at all, staffers at Baybrook explain. Good things happen, they say, when educators rally around a research-proven, literacy-focused instructional model, have the time to work together in teams, understand where their students stand academically through regular assessment, and receive such key supports as adequate materials, a strong code of conduct for students, and meaningful communication with parents.

Also key is professional development—a part of daily life at Baybrook. The school has four on-site teaching coaches. Each school day begins at 8 o’clock, well before students arrive, when teachers gather for training. The schedule also is arranged so that each grade level can meet for 45 minutes daily for team planning. The emphasis on professional development, woven into school life, “has helped me a lot as a teacher,” says Allison M. Whing, one of the school coaches and a former first-grade teacher at Baybrook. “I wanted to grow professionally, [and] I like the opportunity to work with different teachers.”

Principal Lydia Le’Mon believes a key to success lies in the consensus that comes from a shared mission—Baybrook takes the time to make sure that everyone, from administrators to instructional assistants, understands the school’s focus and work as a team. Achievement First was the literacy model chosen at Baybrook, but more important than any particular model or strategy, “one of the most important pieces is for everyone to buy into a vision,” she says.

MAKING GOOD CHOICES

It’s not hard to find positive comments coming out of the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS), a district that has faced some of the starkest challenges in urban public education. A state reconstitution policy adopted several years ago put the system under the gun; in 1995, nearly half of the district’s schools were threatened with state takeover, and 83 percent of the state’s worst-performing schools were located within BCPSS.

In 1997, the Maryland Legislature adopted a law creating a partnership between the state, city and district. A new board of commissioners was established to run the district and to work with the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) to create a five-year improvement plan—one that would address professional development, curriculum and a specific course of action at the city’s lowest-performing schools.

“The Baltimore plan made the wise choice of concentrating resources and staff development on the lowest-performing schools,” says BTU president Marietta A. English.

“This plan had a focus on literacy, and that’s been a key for Baltimore,” says Linda Stelly, coordinator of the AFT’s Redesigning Schools To Raise Achievement (RSRA) network, a coalition of union-district school-improvement partnerships in major urban districts. Baltimore made literacy the key building block in its improvement efforts, Stelly explains, and that gave the district a needed foothold and starting point.

Le’Mon agrees. “We looked at baseline data and identified areas of need,” she remembers. “We knew we couldn’t focus in on everything at every time. So the feeling was, ‘Let’s focus in on the literacy part.’”

BUILDING BRIDGES

The state also charged Baltimore’s board of commissioners with choosing a new chief executive officer for the system. Carmen Russo was selected to fill the top slot in 2000. A former top administrator in New York City and Broward County, Fla., Russo understood the value and power of working in cooperation with the union in any school improvement plan. This paved the way for BTU to work with the district to create specific contract adjustments in training, work rules, transfer policies and other key areas.

This working arrangement was critical in 2000-01, when the state took over four Baltimore schools on the reconstitution watch list. There was pressure to turn these schools over to private school management, essentially removing them from district jurisdiction; three schools ultimately took that route. But BTU and Russo were successful in taking a different approach with the fourth school, Westport Elementary and Intermediate. At Westport, the district, union and private management company worked together to negotiate an extension of the district contract for school staff, balancing flexibility with the need to protect the basic rights of staff.

The extended contract proved successful and later was used at 10 other low-performing schools, including Baybrook. The contract called for educators in these schools to receive compensation for working extended school days and a longer school year, and access to additional professional development. The agreement also set out transfer of employment rights for teachers in the new 10-school cluster, which was named the CEO district, and also called for the district to hire certified teachers in these schools before filling vacancies in other buildings.

Today, results have been impressive. A private evaluation firm hired to gauge the district’s progress since implementing the state law calls BCPSS “tremendously improved” and cites, in particular, rising test scores; the adoption of a citywide curricula; and expansion of summer school, after-school programs and other expanded learning opportunities.

Particularly noteworthy were gains at Baybrook and other CEO schools. From 2000-01 through 2002-03, their median rankings rose from the 28th percentile to the 36th percentile in reading, and from the 23rd percentile to the 38th percentile in mathematics. It’s the type of environment many educators find attractive and professionally satisfying. One of them is 14-year veteran Teresa Taylor, who transferred to Baybrook from another district school that had won accolades as a federal Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. “I liked the challenge” of working with some of the lower-achieving schools in the district, explains Taylor. “I’d like this school to be a Blue Ribbon school someday. It can happen, and I think that would be awesome.”

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